You have decided to make the leap into the social media pond. You’ve made sure there are posts going out on Facebook, Twitter, and even on LinkedIn. You can be proud. You’ve been consistently posting for close to four months now.
I have to ask – How’s it going? Are you getting the traction you want? What has changed in your business?
If you don’t know, you aren’t alone. It’s not just social media where this happens. It happens a lot in marketing and advertising. Some business owners go at it with a trial and error approach or a shotgun approach, hoping that something sticks and works.
But how do they know?
There are a lot of things that can be measured in a social media marketing campaign. It doesn’t all boil down to how many times the phone rings. Social media and online marketing is much like traditional marketing in that it takes time and touches. The best results come from a long-term, consistent effort. Some of the areas that provide evidence of a productive campaign are:
- Reach and engagement
- Traffic
- Audience profile
- Audience size
- Competitive benchmarking
- Sentiment analysis
- Content analysis
That’s a lot to look at, which means you could spend your entire life drilling down into details of a single campaign, and we all know small business owners don’t have the time for that.
Strategic planning pays off
Here at NuMedia Marketing we know that no single marketing campaign can do it all! That’s why a marketing strategy starts with identified purpose and goals, then the campaign is built to achieve those goals. Measurements and benchmarks are established to determine the success of the strategy.
We all know that technology, and everything about it, changes constantly. That includes social media marketing. What might work at one point in time may be less effective at a later time. That’s why measurement is so important. As the results zig-zag across the online field, it’s important to tweak and modify different elements to achieve the best results possible.
Of course traffic, reach, and engagement must be monitored. However, the types of posts – or content – has an impact on the results, as well. The message, after all, is at the center of the purpose of the campaign. Are you as a business owner trying to educate and nurture prospects, or are you offering discounts or sales to entice current customers to purchase more or again?
Through it all, consistent branding is required along with the consistent messaging. It’s a plan. Measure the plan results and then tweak and modify for greater effectiveness, or make a change in the purpose and set new goals.
We have all heard variations of “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” or “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Whichever version you have heard, the basic message is true. You must have a way to measure what you’re doing to determine if you are getting the return on your dollars, time, and effort.
NuMedia Marketing has systems in place to help you development a strategy and plan to project consistent, on-brand messages through social media and then to measure it to keep on track. Call us at 317. 563. 7235 to put our team to work for you and your business.
