We've said it over and over again: results rule and metrics matter! In the era of social media, it is truly an exciting time to be working with social tools. The impact of your posts is known almost instantaneously, and you can adjust the next one to provide an even greater return.
But it's so easy to get overwhelmed by numbers. It almost feels like the new binary; we used to speak to computers in 1s and 0s, and now we have thousands of numbers with which to communicate our social media successes or failures.
So how do you know which measures to pay attention to, and which ones are more vanity stats? You know, vanity stats: the numbers that you rattle off when someone asks what impact your efforts are having on their bottom line - we've all done it! But while those numbers can feel good, here's what you really need to be paying attention to.
1. The impact of your messages.
So people are talking about you. That's fantastic! But do you know if it's in a positive or negative fashion? Do you know on what platform the most conversations are taking place? And how do you compare to your competitors in these areas?
Tools like Social Mention and Hubspot's Marketing Grader are great ways to see who is talking about you, and what they're saying. By tracking the strength of your message, the pick up of your brand voice, and your social engagement through your website and blog, you'll have a much better handle on who is saying what compared to counting the number of mentions on Twitter.
Once you know where you stand, it's also much easier to compare yourself to your competition, to see what areas you can improve on.
2. Where is your traffic coming from?
Regardless of your business model or the product you're selling, the end goal of using social networks is to drive traffic to defined sources. Whether it be to your homepage, web store, or blog, there's a place that you're trying to direct your audiences to. By tracking where this traffic is coming from, you get a much clearer picture of which social networks are working for you and which need more time and attention.
Google Analytics is a great way to keep tabs on your traffic sources, keywords used, and most popular pages or posts. By installing a simple code into the back end of your website or blog, you'll soon have access to a plethora of information on all the nitty gritty statistical details you could ask for.
In the above example, it's clear that the Rare Method blog receives the most pick-up from Facebook and Twitter, but the amount of search traffic from various Googles is also a great indication that our SEO efforts are paying off as well. The more you know!
3. Know Your Audience.
This is an obvious one, but it still needs to be said. Knowing your demographic helps to you to make key decisions on which platforms to concentrate on and which ones to keep in more of a maintenance mode. Some social networks are closely balanced in age ranges and female/male splits, but some are more obviously biased.
For instance, Pinterest clearly skews more toward a female audience, with what has been estimated to be a 70-30 split. Reddit, on the other hand, has been a male-dominated social network for many years.
These networks are also constantly growing and in flux, so be sure to check your audiences on a biannual basis at minimum.