Last week, I published an article revealing five key metrics you need to measure in order to ensure that you get the most of your social media marketing strategy. There are, however, other metrics you should monitor. Here are five more metrics you need to measure to ensure success on social media.
1. Followers and Fans
Although this statistic is very closely related to reach, which I wrote about in the last ‘five metrics’ article, it’s still an important statistic to keep an eye on. You should monitor not only the amount of followers and fans your social media profiles get, but also the demographics they represent.
You need to make sure that your content is reaching the right sort of people, people that are going to be interested in your company and products. When joining social media sites, users are encouraged to share personal details, such as age, gender, sexual orientation and marital status.
Of course, social media sites won’t share this personal information with companies, but you can check out what demographics your fans belong to by checking out their profiles when they like your page, follow you on Twitter or share your content. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on your audience: I’m sure you have a target audience in mind, but you might be surprised by some of the people who take a shine to your company.
2. Influence
Influence counts for a lot online. If you can prove your expertise in a certain field, other social media users will flock to your blog articles and profiles to learn hints and tips from you. If people trust your opinion, they will more often than not trust your company and products. The products of a hardware store, for example, are more trusted if the hardware store displays a keen knowledge of DIY.
It’s also a great idea to surround yourself with influential people. Detergent company Vanish created a YouTube channel, encouraging people to share their own tips on removing stains. The channel shows off Vanish’s products and makes the company appear knowledgeable.
Klout, a really handy website for every social media user, measures your influence online for your, giving you a score between 1 and 100. Klout also helps you to improve your influence online by interacting with other Klout users.
3. Return On Investment
Although social media sites are free to join, it takes time, effort and, hence, money to get the most out of your social media marketing strategy. Social media advertising, though often very successful, also costs money. You need to make sure that the time and money you spend on perfecting your social media profiles is worthwhile.
Monitor and measure the return on investment (ROI) of your social media strategy: if your profiles are not driving worthwhile traffic to your website, or encouraging people to do business with your company, then it isn’t working.
Social media has a lot of useful applications for businesses: Twitter is a great customer service tool, businesses can promote their products with pictures on Facebook and Pinterest, and they can network on Google+ and LinkedIn. However, there is no point in spending time on social media if you don’t take advantage of the great marketing potential it has by promoting your company and products to a huge, active audience.
4. Views
I’m not just talking about YouTube views, I’m talking about Page views, post views and any other measurable social media view you can think of. Keep an eye on how many people view your content and then compare it to the amount of engagement your content gets.
If your YouTube videos are getting viewed a lot, perhaps because you’ve optimised them for SEO and posted them in a number of highly visible places, but no one is sharing or engaging with them, then they are probably not being viewed by the right audience (or maybe they’re not very good).
You want your Page, page posts and videos to get as many views as possible, so you need to make sure that you promote them. However, if no one is engaging with them, then you’re probably promoting them in the wrong places.
5. Virality
Virality is closely related to both reach and views, but it takes the content itself into consideration as well as how many people have seen it. The virality of content depends heavily on its quality: whether it will interest and excite people on social media.
Content can go viral very quickly. You need to make sure that you’re prepared for such an eventuality so that you can get the most out of it as possible. Although virality is difficult to measure, there are a few things you can do to your content so that it’s more likely to go viral:
Add share buttons: if your content doesn’t have share buttons no one will share it.
Make sure your content starts a conversation: controversial content is far more likely to get shared.
Make content that elicits a strong emotional response, one that people will want to share with their friends.
For more information on how to increase your content’s chances of going viral, check out our article on viral marketing.
What metrics do you measure when your using social media?
Showing posts with label influence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label influence. Show all posts
Friday, 6 September 2013
Wednesday, 28 August 2013
Using LinkedIn Groups To Become Influential In Your Industry
Last week, LinkedIn announced that its popular Groups feature was getting a complete redesign.LinkedIn has also released statistics illustrating how popular LinkedIn Groups have become and how important it is for businesses to create a LinkedIn Group themselves. By creating a LinkedIn Group, businesses can start and join conversations about their industry and, potentially, become influential, gaining themselves a reputation for good knowledge and sound advice.
New Groups
The new LinkedIn Groups are more streamlined and easier to customise. Group managers and members with administrative privileges will be able to make their groups stand out from each other by giving them a distinct, industry-relevant look. LinkedIn has updated the feature (at least partially) due to its popularity:
There have been more than 2 million Groups created around almost every topic imaginable — from entrepreneurship, philanthropy and careers to social and digital marketing. These communities have become places where our members are exchanging and sharing their experiences, business knowledge, interests and ideas with other like-minded professionals daily.
LinkedIn also revealed that “there are more than 200 conversations happening each minute across LinkedIn Groups and more than 8,000 Groups created each week.” The new look LinkedIn Groups will be rolling out to LinkedIn’s English speaking members over the next few weeks.
Creating a Group
Creating a LinkedIn Group is very easy. Linked has released a slideshow advising its users on best practices, which you can find here. The company advises that you make your Group profile attractive, interesting and informative so that potential members know what the Group is about immediately.
Your Group can be either open or closed to search. If open, anyone can see the content and it’s more likely that people will join; if closed, only members can see the content. You also need to create a unique voice, one that your members will understand and appreciate – this is now easier thanks to the new Group streamlining options.
Of course, you need to promote your Group across all possible social media channels, as well as promoting all your own content in the Group. Perhaps LinkedIn’s best piece of advice is that you should be able to adapt your Group depending on what members you attract and what conversations they have.
LinkedIn also advises that you use the Group to find and promote influencers and brand advocates but, as I’m focusing on using Groups to become influential yourself, I won’t go into detail on this point.
Becoming Influential
Creating a Group is actually a very important step in the process of becoming influential in your industry on LinkedIn. As the data above shows, LinkedIn Groups are very popular and, if you create the right one, you’ll probably be inundated with members, all starting their own interesting conversations.
Most importantly, and rather obviously, you need to chose a niche for your Group that you are a complete expert about. Work out what your particular niche is and design a Group around it. As soon as you’ve set up your Group start sending invitations. Make sure that your Group appears interesting and attracting in your invitation emails.
You should also organise your Group so that members and potential members receive regular, insightful emails. By sending out regular emails, not only will you build up your Groups membership, you will also show yourself to be informed and interesting. A large and active Group means an influential Group creator and, by actively contacting members directly by email, you can be at the forefront of the conversation.
You also need to make sure that you post on the Group regularly yourself, as well as contributing to other conversations. Ask your Group members questions and answer the ones they have asked. Even if a question posted on the Group has been answered already, see if you have anything to add. Keep your content diverse, both in subject and style, in order to maintain an entertained audience.
LinkedIn Groups are extremely popular and, thanks to the new updates, they will become more popular still. As the conversation on LinkedIn Groups is focused on business and industry, a proactive company can take advantage of the readymade and intelligent audience on LinkedIn by driving conversation about their own industry and, potentially, their brand.
Have you created a LinkedIn Group? How is it going?
New Groups
The new LinkedIn Groups are more streamlined and easier to customise. Group managers and members with administrative privileges will be able to make their groups stand out from each other by giving them a distinct, industry-relevant look. LinkedIn has updated the feature (at least partially) due to its popularity:
There have been more than 2 million Groups created around almost every topic imaginable — from entrepreneurship, philanthropy and careers to social and digital marketing. These communities have become places where our members are exchanging and sharing their experiences, business knowledge, interests and ideas with other like-minded professionals daily.
LinkedIn also revealed that “there are more than 200 conversations happening each minute across LinkedIn Groups and more than 8,000 Groups created each week.” The new look LinkedIn Groups will be rolling out to LinkedIn’s English speaking members over the next few weeks.
Creating a Group
Creating a LinkedIn Group is very easy. Linked has released a slideshow advising its users on best practices, which you can find here. The company advises that you make your Group profile attractive, interesting and informative so that potential members know what the Group is about immediately.
Your Group can be either open or closed to search. If open, anyone can see the content and it’s more likely that people will join; if closed, only members can see the content. You also need to create a unique voice, one that your members will understand and appreciate – this is now easier thanks to the new Group streamlining options.
Of course, you need to promote your Group across all possible social media channels, as well as promoting all your own content in the Group. Perhaps LinkedIn’s best piece of advice is that you should be able to adapt your Group depending on what members you attract and what conversations they have.
LinkedIn also advises that you use the Group to find and promote influencers and brand advocates but, as I’m focusing on using Groups to become influential yourself, I won’t go into detail on this point.
Becoming Influential
Creating a Group is actually a very important step in the process of becoming influential in your industry on LinkedIn. As the data above shows, LinkedIn Groups are very popular and, if you create the right one, you’ll probably be inundated with members, all starting their own interesting conversations.
Most importantly, and rather obviously, you need to chose a niche for your Group that you are a complete expert about. Work out what your particular niche is and design a Group around it. As soon as you’ve set up your Group start sending invitations. Make sure that your Group appears interesting and attracting in your invitation emails.
You should also organise your Group so that members and potential members receive regular, insightful emails. By sending out regular emails, not only will you build up your Groups membership, you will also show yourself to be informed and interesting. A large and active Group means an influential Group creator and, by actively contacting members directly by email, you can be at the forefront of the conversation.
You also need to make sure that you post on the Group regularly yourself, as well as contributing to other conversations. Ask your Group members questions and answer the ones they have asked. Even if a question posted on the Group has been answered already, see if you have anything to add. Keep your content diverse, both in subject and style, in order to maintain an entertained audience.
LinkedIn Groups are extremely popular and, thanks to the new updates, they will become more popular still. As the conversation on LinkedIn Groups is focused on business and industry, a proactive company can take advantage of the readymade and intelligent audience on LinkedIn by driving conversation about their own industry and, potentially, their brand.
Have you created a LinkedIn Group? How is it going?
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