Five More Metrics You Need To Measure On Social Media
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.
What metrics do you measure when your using social media?
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Will Sigsworth
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Five More Metrics You Need To Measure On Social Media
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Wednesday, September 04, 2013
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Reviewed by Anonymous
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Wednesday, September 04, 2013
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