Are Your Social Media Marketing Efforts Fruitful? If you have found it in yourself to overcome your cynicism of social media and embrace it as a tool to propel your business forward then congrats to you!

Rather than taking a hit or miss attitude to social marketing you should have a way to measure the success of your campaigns. Ideally you should have a strategy to gauge the success of individual campaigns but sometimes it is more worthwhile to measure from a more holistic point of view.

I say this because in my consultations with small business owners I often hear them lament the fact that they have no fans or they feel that the fans are tuning them out or that they are seeing no real results from social media marketing. After an in depth review of their efforts I am able to point out that in spite of their halfhearted efforts and limited time commitment there have been small returns in their investments.

Your social marketing strategies need time to show results. The performance of your efforts can be measured by increased sales, customer retention, feedback and satisfaction. Although a few companies can report almost instantaneous results the majority must be measured over a longer period of time.

Before You Begin Your Campaigns

Perhaps you already started your efforts, that is ok, you can still use this information but if you have not already started you need to benchmark where you are. Here are some things to take note of:

1. Document the numbers. Write down the number of fans, followers, links, bookmarks etc that you have in the beginning so you measure growth in these areas.
2. The SEO rank of your website, volume of traffic, level of customer satisfaction should also be noted.
3. Be aware of your ROI benchmarks. For instance how much do you spend on other forms of advertising? Do you have a way to measure their success? What returns are you getting? If you take from that budget to funnel into social media marketing would you be able to measure any loss of benefits?
4. Finally before you start, have you done the research and know what you need to know in order to make it a success? Are you working with the right people who understands your objectives, have realistic goals and can bring them to fruition? You will only reap results from social media if you do it the right way.

7 Ways to Measure Your Social Media Success

Now that you have a clear picture of where you are before you begin and understand that social media needs time for results to show here are 7 metrics you can use to measure success.

Traffic. The first thing that marketers look for is an increase in traffic albeit it should be an increase in more relevant traffic. If the quality of your leads improves then that is surely something to smile about.

Sales. Big businesses are reporting millions in sales from platforms like Facebook and Twitter but as a small business owner I must caution you that social media must be used in conjunction with other methods if you want to report record breaking sales.

Interaction. If you are only able to realize increased interaction for your campaigns then I would call it a huge success. Interactive customers and prospects are money in the bank so if they are leaving comments, revisiting your pages, rating your products etc you need to keep them engaged and treat them well.

Quality leads. Are you getting more foot traffic to your offline business, more requests for brochures or more calls? Find out if they are a result of your social media campaigns.

Search Engine Optimization. Never underestimate the value of social media for SEO. One good story added to the right network can become viral resulting in hundreds of backlinks and traffic to your site.

PR. The face of public relations will never be the same. With social media there is no “bad press is still good press.” Customers have a voice and they can use it for the good or detriment of your business so use social media to measure what is being said about your brand.

Customer retention. Using social media to engage, interact with and learn what your customers need is important and if you are going about it the right way you will improve your retention and have repeat customers for a lifetime.

About the Author

crystal

Crystal is the CEO and founder of Five Star Executives. She loves blogging, spending her free time with family and friends and she loves the Lord. She dedicates much of her time to Youth Ministry and writing inspirational posts on her devotional site Give Us Today. Join Crystal On Google+