Whether your jumped into social media marketing because you developed a strong passion and drive for connecting with your audience, or because you wanted to get in on what everyone else was doing, you’ve likely seen an upswing in the visibility and overall footprint of your brand.
You’ve allotted resources, you’ve mapped out time and put together a strategy, but you may be missing one key element. Are you tracking your progress? Whether you’ve outsourced your social media efforts, whether you have interns or whether you’ve got your management in on the process, you want to be sure you’re capturing your successes and areas for improvement, month over month. Social media is ever changing and without regular metrics, you may never clue into what areas you need to adjust with time and with the trends.
Don’t be intimidated! Create a simple spreadsheet and include the following tracking tactics:
Measure your reach increase each month:
- The number of fans you gain each week on Facebook.
- The increase in Twitter following.
- Your views, likes, and subscribers on YouTube.
- Your unique monthly blog views (or UVMs).
- The number of connections you have on LinkedIn.
- The number of people that have circled you on Google+.
- The number of new fans on Instagram.
- How many pinners started following your boards on Pinterest?
Track your social engagement in each platform, every month:
- How many comments are you getting each month?
- How many “Likes” are you averaging?
- How many “Shares” is your content getting on Facebook?
- How many @mentions are you getting on Twitter?
- How many retweets?
- How many direct messages?
- What are your YouTube comments looking like?
- How many +1s and engagements are you getting on Google+?
- What are your Pinterest impressions?
- How many repins did you receive?
- How many ‘likes’ and comments did you see on Instagram?
It may take a bit of time to work through each of your platforms to ensure you’re able to capture all of the information you need, but ultimately you should see improvement month over month. Collecting this data can ensure you’re staying on trend and that you’re aware of where your audience is the most engaged, making it easier to target your content and create the most cohesive communities!
