How’s your social media marketing working for you right now? Are you getting the social media engagement you’re looking for? Have you seen some changes recently that have you lagging behind as you attempt to move further up the marketing mountain?
You’re not alone. Social media is a constantly changing environment where marketers and businesses must change, too. You can level up your engagement by tracking the trends and measuring what matters!
Track the Trends
Remember the lessons from Who Moved My Cheese? One day, you wake up and suddenly everything has completely changed. What worked 12 months ago…heck, even 3 months ago!…may not be working now. Consumer behaviors can shift quickly, and rather than scurrying everywhere, you need to shift with them. While your goals may remain the same, your tactics will continually change. Here are a few quick tips for helping you navigate in this brave new world.
- Monitor the algorithm. What is driving the social media platform algorithm? Is it shares over comments? Is it video views over graphics? An algorithm is a mathematical set of rules specifying how a group of data behaves. In social media, algorithms help maintain order and assist in ranking search results and advertisements. Each platform has specific rules that govern how consumers see and interact with your information. Learn the platforms and stay abreast of changes.
- Know your audience. How has your target audience changed? Are they shifting to new platforms? Are they watching more video now? Keeping your finger on the pulse of your target audience can help you set the trend instead of lag behind. Note of caution: Don’t immediately immerse yourself in a new platform without a plan for success. Research the platform as much as you do your audience’s behaviors.
- Confer and collab. Who can be your support? Expert groups exist online and in person, allowing you the opportunity to collaborate with others who may already have answers to some of your questions. Additionally, having an expert in your corner can help you take the giant steps you need to reach your audacious goals. Hiring a consultant or an agency could be the piece to your missing puzzle and allow you to focus on your business.
Measure What Matters
Having 10,000 followers is great. Having 10,000 followers that never engage is not so great. Now that you built that great following, you want to expand to ensure that you are more than just noise on their digital journey. Having a large following means nothing if you’re lacking the social media engagement you need to thrive.
- What is your return on investment? Accurately measuring dollars to donuts can be challenging if you haven’t clearly identified the results you want to being with. Be clear with your goals up front and ensure you are creating pathways that can help you achieve those goals. If you are implementing paid campaigns, define your campaign focus and measure against it. For example, if you have want more people to visit your website, then measuring likes on the post is not necessarily your focus.
- Know your customer lifetime value (CLV.) Should you put $200 on this campaign? Is it worth 10 hours of your time to focus on this platform? By knowing how much a customer is worth to you, those questions can be answered easier. To measure your CLV: Customer revenue per year multiplied by Duration of relationship in years minus total costs of acquiring and serving the customer equals CLV. Why do you want to know this? Let’s say a customer is worth $5,000 to you over the course of their lifetime with you. Knowing this, you may decide that spending $20 to get a lead through social media could be highly efficient and effective.
Climbing the social media marketing mountain can seem like a daunting task. You can move like a seasoned explorer, though, if you follow these tips and continually keep your eyes on the terrain ahead.
If this sounds too daunting or time-consuming, you can always outsource your social media.