Is Your Social Media Effort Worth It?

Many of our clients are diving into social media much more intensely than they ever have before. Some are surprised that it’s not as simple as they thought it would be. A State Park client was concerned that individual parks might not understand the brand identity they have established and didn’t want random things posted. Another client didn’t realize that getting good video clips might not be as simple as pulling out your phone. They had to learn how to deal with sound issues because of wind interference when they were outside, or the video appearing ‘bumpy’ because they were walking. Many don’t understand the analytics and measurements that tell you whether your efforts are effective or not. This is a whole new learning curve for most.

There is a plethora of information out there on how to do social media. Since you may be new to the game, here are some big picture questions to contemplate before jumping in:

·     Why are you doing it? What do you plan to achieve?

·     Does your content match your organization’s mission?

·     Does it match your brand identity and design aesthetics used elsewhere?

·     Do you have a social media plan?

·     What would success look like?

·     How will you measure success?

·     How often will you review your measurements?

·     Do you have the resources to do an effective job?

·     How do you plan to use it in the future?

What is the primary goal (reason) you are doing social media?

We talk to you often about setting goals and objectives. Here are three past blogs to check out:

Achieve more by setting goals.

Example of Business Development Goals

Measuring Interpretive Goals.

And this blog gives another perspective: Is Social Media Changing the Purpose of Parks and Museums?

A vision without a plan is delusional. It’s important that you plan and measure your social media activities. Progress is not possible without measurement.

Our number one goal for all our social media efforts, including blogging, is to get leads. There are secondary reasons we do it, like being a resource for our clients and industry. What is your primary goal for your social media efforts? Decision making should center around that.

Example of Social Media Measurements and How They Inform Decisions

We review our Facebook and LinkedIn metrics at the end of every month. Here is some of what we look at:

This tells us that ‘behind the scenes’ posts do very well on Facebook, and we should do more of those. On LinkedIn, recruiting efforts and more serious content do well. We know Facebook is more of our fan club than potential clients, but job seekers might check us out on this platform as well. LinkedIn is where more potential clients can be found, and we’ve decided to up our game on that platform.

Quarterly we take a look at things like:

·     The number of visitors to our website, bounce rate (number of visitors who leave after only viewing one page), and how visitors are finding us (traffic sources)

·     Which blogs were most successful

·     Newsletter and email campaign statistics

·     The number of followers on our social media channels 

Much of this data we’ve tracked for years, which has allowed us to chart our progress. We recently refreshed our website, and that tends to cause a drop in traffic. We found that it’s dropped more than expected, so we’re taking a look at the backend of our website design to make sure there isn’t a problem. Sometimes the blogs that are most read are surprising. This helps inform us on what our audience likes so we can do more of it. All of this data is priceless, and helps us make informed decisions.

One of the most important reports we look at is called our ‘lead source report’. Where do our leads come from? It’s not perfect, but it tells us that our past clients and referrals are very important. It tells us if a tradeshow was effective, and whether all this social media effort is worth it. Last year one of our best lead sources was our website. All our social media efforts drive traffic towards this one data point. If it wasn’t working, we would not invest so much into it.

Your most important reason for your social media presence will probably be different. You need to figure that out, and make sure your actions (investments) are giving you a return. Otherwise, you are not being effective.

“Random social media tactics lead to random results. You need a strategy.” ~Stephanie Sammons, Influencer MarketingHub

“’Build it, and they will come,’ only works in the movies. Social Media is ‘build it, nurture it, engage them, and they may come and stay.’” ~Seth Godin