Anyone can throw out several social media updates daily. You may get some interaction, you may hear crickets on your social channels, but is any of it actually working? Are your social media efforts doing anything to help your business? You could be spending thousands of dollars on social media management, or using internal resources to get it done.
One way to find out if it\’s working is through tracking and reporting on interactions through your social channels. This can be a long and tedious process, and it can be hard to tell when there are successes. There are a few metrics you can use that can give you an idea of what is working for your business, and what is not.
Numbers Are Increasing
If your social following is steadily increasing, it can be a great indication that your efforts are working. However, be aware of spam followers. If your following is increasing, but the accounts that are following your brand are illegitimate, your engagement will still continue to suffer.
Your updates may be seen by more people, but those people won\’t engage, and they won\’t buy your products or services. You will want to see organic growth on your social channels that increase your numbers as well as engagement with your updates.
Website Traffic is Up
Tracking where hits to your website are coming from are also a great indication of whether or not your social media efforts are successful. You want a good mix of traffic coming from social channels and directly from search results. Make sure you don\’t put all of your traffic goals on one social channel, since those can be fickle, and one change to the algorithm on the social channel could destroy your website traffic.
Sales Are Up
The last surefire way to tell if your social media efforts are paying off is if they are literally paying off. As your social efforts increase, there might be a correlation with an increase in sales or clients. Although social media campaigns don\’t often display direct success this way, some campaigns can really drive sales.
Using a reporting tool can help you understand if these metrics are on the rise, or declining, which can help you see if what you are doing is working. You can contact us to help you understand these reports or even help you set them up! Let us know how we can help make your business, and social media campaigns successful!
