How Do You Measure & Manage Social Media Metrics ?
Once you get your head around what you’re trying to accomplish – your goal for your social media activity you can start to analyse the results.
There is a wealth of business & customer insights to be found through social media. However it is tricky to understand, measure & capitalise on the data available.
Some of us savvy social marketeers are quick to read & respond but anaylsis of the social data is also equally important so we have to determine what bits we can analyse.
There are to main forms of social media metrics “The Hit ” & “Engagement” .
“The Hit” – hits is a metric we have carried over from standard web analytics . A hit only tells you that someone has visited a peice of online content. It doesnt tell you about the visitor or what they did with the content if anything was done at all.
“Engagement” – Enagagement is the holly grail of social media marketing . So how do we determine engagement. The best way I have seen is form an article from KD Paine & Partners. They divide engagement into 5 levels they are -
- Searchers – these are very passive & scan online content these can be seen in the unique visitors count.
- Lurkers – these can be tracked as repeat visitors above 5 visits a month . they listen but dont participate in the social conversation.
- Casuals – these will participate lighlty, they will comment or become your freind or follower as a result of reading your content.
- Actives – these guys retweet or like your postings & comment & interact with you socially.
- Defenders – these are your strongest social supporters, recommending your brand or business to others socially.
Measurement is about figuring out what the most effective tools are, what needs to be discontinued because
it doesn’t work, and what needs to be done more because it does work. A good analytics system will tell you where you need to focus. Maybe all that emphasis on FaceBook doesn’t really matter, because that’s not where your audience is. Maybe they’re all on Twitter, or vice versa.”
This can be measured by trying out different social media strategies & analysing what enagegment is attained.
For more information on social media marketing, its metrics or just an informal consultation feel free to contact me anytime on tim@tjelliott.co.uk
