Tracking Social Media Success

Let’s face it. Getting things posted on social media is a big enough challenge for the average practice. Determining post success is even tougher, which is why many small businesses, not just those in optical, simply post and move onto the day’s next challenge.

If you are lucky enough to have hired a social media pro, you’re in the minority. For the rest of you, how is success measured?

Tip: Check resource dates. What appears to be great information isn’t really so terrific if it was posted in 2013.

49%…of users choose Google to discover or find a new item or product.

MEASURING

To get started measuring social media success, here are some basics:

• Check your likes and shares on a regular basis. Then see if there’s a pattern in what sort of posts seem to generate the most activity.

• What about followers? Are they increasing/decreasing/staying stagnant? And, make sure you’re not following more “people” than are following you. When that ratio is too out of balance, it can make your business look less professional.  

• Count clicks when you have shared content from another source.

• People who engage frequently are called advocates. Talk to them!

• Use analytics tools. Under “Audiences” on Twitter, for example, you can easily find demographics information like gender and age.

And, don’t disregard tried-and-true “friends.” According to Hubspot, for example, 49% of users use Google “to discover or find a new item or product.”

RESOURCES

There’s a lot of great information online. If you’re like many of your peers and are managing posting internally, here are a few of the many good resources that are outside of the optical arena, along with specific areas of information that are worth viewing on those sites.

When asking “Dr. Google” for his expert help, however, always be sure to check the date of content. What appears to be great information isn’t really so terrific if it was posted in 2013.

• Dreamgrow.com (their content about KPIs, key performance indicators).

• Singlegrain.com (the section about monitoring social media accounts).

• NeilPatel.com (his posts on metrics, and just about anything else…a great resource).

• Hootsuite.com (this marketing company’s blog, www.blog.hootsuite.com, frequently posts very hands-on help).

• Influencermarketinghub.com (check out its new benchmark report on the importance of and trends re. influencers).

What resources have you found most helpful? Tell us about them and share in the conversation on Facebook here.

Erinn Morgan

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