Social media metrics - what to look for

Social is inherently misunderstood. It’s been talked up over the years as the key thing for media campaigns, and it still, for many, sits in that ‘the kids get it, but I don’t’ seat on the marketing bench.  It is often aligned more with the communication (blogging/PR) team, which might even sit outside the marketing reporting line and with less capability to understand and report on metrics…. “They’ve got a head for english not math, darling!”

So, here are a few things to think about when you are looking at integrating your social KPI’s.

Social media is a great tool for layering your communication, engaging with customers and keeping front of mind.

Engagement is key due to the algorithm make up of Facebook, which will define who of your followers will see your post, based on their engagement and reaction.  Engagement has now got particularly low, meaning that boosting posts (paid ads) is critical.

Facebook becomes more like another advertising medium and its metrics need to align.  True performance needs to compare ‘apple with apples’ with other paid media i.e. what is the average cost per click (CPC) each month? What is the conversion of that click?  Too often we may give top-line results that show likes and shares but what about the wider picture of both organic and promotions (boosting) and how could this be applied to help build understanding? A few areas may include:

• Using data to learn what posts work, then immediately moving to advertise those that don’t gain sufficient reach, or those that do, as clearly, they resonated.

• Consider how the cost-per-click (CPC) and click-through-rate (CTR) compare to your other medium. Put more against the posts that are within the benchmarks.

• Define the total investment i.e. consideration of the management, curation and creation.

The starting place is setting up your UTM codes within the posts that you make, so that you can understand source/medium/campaign. This could look like Facebook/blog/summer sale. This could allow comparison to Instagram/boostedpost/summer sale or a digital campaign programmatic/Remarketing/summer sale, as other paid areas with the same messaging. 

This can start to build a stronger picture within Google Analytics about what is generating traffic and what messaging works. It can also showcase a truer picture of return-on-investment (ROI) data to your website, for example, lead generation, referral traffic and conversions.

In my experience, social media is great to build reach and engagement, but it doesn’t convert easily.  But this doesn’t always mean that it shouldn’t be included in media activity. It might mean that we learn how it sits to build awareness, grow loyalty and become a known and trusted brand, so that when the time does come, you are front of mind.

The important part, is to start to measure in-line with your other marketing activity, so that you can understand or invest in the right areas - be that content, a message which resonates or how it fits into the more holistic marketing activation.

Key tip - you want to know more about UTM codes

Need help with this? Give us a shout

The content myth

Content is king, right? And a picture paints a thousand words?

Both are right, but we need to remember what their purpose is, as part of the marketing strategy. I often feel like I am in-undated with content and much of it doesn’t seem to have much purpose. Online content for a business or marketing purpose specifically should, in my mind, have all of the following things covered. Here’s my the litmus test…

1. Does it resonate with the brand? Hold the same values, tone, imagery and in short behave and build the right picture?  Does it build a story?  If I’ve read something previously, does it build from that or remain consistent?  Does it build thought leadership or provide information in the right spaces that your company or product sits?

2. Does it contain keywords, supporting your search engine optimisation (SEO)?  Using key words that you need to be found and want to be found with?

3. Does it engage and draw on trust? Bring the customer along a path that is more subtle, a ‘get to know you’ step. We have all experienced a ‘hard-sell’ and know how off-putting it is. Customers are now owning the journey, wanting to do their own research, find their own paths.  Content can be the key to over-coming this problem and giving deeper insights - from “does it fit with what I need” to “is it aligned to me” to help tip toward the sale.

So, what to do with all of this content?

• Firstly, it must be found on your website if it is going to be of any help.  This means that it is set up as a blog/news or video channel that can be linked directly to your website to make the SEO and traffic that is delivered meaningful.

• You might share via a link on social media and onto your newsletters – this is owned media.

• Perhaps you could boost it across all social channels to increase reach and target specific groups. The algorithms of Facebook especially don’t mean that all of your followers will be shown the content when it’s posted.

• It is helpful if it has a publisher ie written on behalf of the GM, for example.  Then it could be published via their LinkedIn profile.  Not always ideal for Google to have two exact copies, but you can probably get away with it.

• Then, you could look at placing it as native advertising (sponsored ads), which allows you to use an image, a headline and sub-heading within your programmatic software, with a link to the longer format content. It can be targeted by many different audience and interest groups with a desired budget, bidding rate and time-frame set up.  It will self-optimise; meaning you could set up two or more images and headings with the same link to see which captures better results.  The programmatic software will automatically show the better performing content.

The key part to this; if you are going to spend the time on creating content, ensure that it is seen as far and wide as you can get it.  It then needs to align back to your marketing goals, including generating a UTM code, so it can be tracked back into the wider Google analytics understanding. 

Key tip – Ensure there is a call to action at the bottom of every blog.  It might be as simple as sign up to the newsletter to find out more detail.

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