Measuring your Social Media!

Social Media analytics are new for me but from what I understand, it is predicated on the idea that social media is only as useful as we make it. It is imperative that organizations embrace rigorous methods of testing their investment in their various social media channels. Measurement allows social media managers to validate the practical value of their hard work to business executives that either don’t understand or don’t care about social media. Quantitative and qualitative data are both important but leveraging the data in a meaningful way can be daunting. According to a survey by Altimeter Group in 2013, only 34% of respondents feel capable of associating social metrics with business outcomes. This begs the persistent question: what do analytics tells us?

It pays to remember the big picture. In the last decade many companies have become more customer-centric than ever before, thanks to the increasing space for consumers’ voices. Their voices go far beyond Facebook likes and retweets. The real value can be found in their sentiments. Positive, negative or neutral feelings can analyzed and use to find ways to create long-term relationships. The unique strength of social media is the ability to create communities of like-minded people. Usually you should start with surface analytics of impressions, because if you’re not getting impressions, you’re not getting engagement. If people aren’t engaged, it’s impossible to generate positive feelings about your brand, let alone expect “calls to action”. How then can we get people engaged?

Customer satisfaction is often a primary goal. But obviously you can’t get the customer engaged if you have no idea who she is or what her interests are. Where does she like to shop? Does she wander in the mall? Maybe she prefers to shop online. If your company does business both online and in brick & mortar stores, it is especially important to know which demographics are coming to the store and who is happier shopping from the couch. It’s not always easy to parse through the data but it is essential even if you’re only surprised once every few months, that one insight could swing your strategy 180 degrees. If I sell sneakers and I assume that my customers are mostly coming into my store to try on sneakers before purchasing them—I might focus my social media goals on brand awareness and site traffic. So I’ll be missing a huge opportunity to use social media to generate online purchases. The analytics might look complicated but they’re advanced enough that you just need to spend some time with them to see what works best for your organization.

As you delve deeper into analytics, you’ll want to start narrowing in on specific metrics that will help you measure engagement and sentiment. Impressions might looks sexy and straightforward but you won’t get much out of campaigns that aim only for page views and nothing deeper. They are a good place to start and then you can narrow your focus where you need improvement. But what does engagement actually look like? It depends on the organization but when consumers create memes using GIFs to make your content their own or when they share your YouTube video with their 2,000 followers, you can see the impact you’re having on them. That’s valuable information that you have to pay attention to and not be afraid to listen to when evaluating your social media strategy, even if the data seems counter intuitive. The numbers usually don’t lie! Of course, social media cannot be viewed in a vacuum and analytics is the key to bridging it with the rest of the organization from product development to distribution.

Analytics and data can find connections that you wouldn’t even think to look for! For example, a particular new product could be significantly increasing brand awareness, despite selling poorly. Perhaps it’s the hottest new thing on all the sneaker blogs but your customers generally can’t afford a $200 sneaker so they may not be buying that sneaker up but they’re referencing it in personal blogs, which is creating brand awareness. Analytics will help you find these references and you can determine the best way to appreciate the bloggers and potentially bring more attention “full circle”, to your website or your blog. It sounds really simple because it is; the tough part of social media is being constantly vigilant and reacting to customer sentiment.  Crafting original content on a daily basis for specific platforms is hard work. Analyzing data may not be the strong suit of the creative social media copywriter but it’s achievable and it is the backbone of social media strategies that are productive over the long