Social media has always been a bit of a pain to monitor, however it’s getting increasingly more measurable as a web medium.
Most companies implement some level of web analytics, with most people using Google Analytics however many companies have yet to develop and implement a social media targeting and monitoring strategy.
There are, of course ways to measure social media, it’s just that most organizations aren’t aware of what to do.
There are various tools you can use to measure social media (that’s a blog post for the future) I’ll look at how you can take what you’ve got already and look at how you can segment social media data so that you can measure you campaigns and get marketing intelligence on those really great quality social media sites.
The problem with social media is that most of the interaction with the Internet user happens off site, so it’s hard to measure, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t be reviewing which social media sites are referring traffic to your site.
How should Social Media Referrals be segmented?
As with any analytics data it can be segmented out as your desire, however probably the best way to segment out Social Media referrals is as follows:
- Webmaster Generated Referrals – that is referrals that you can say your marketing effort can be directly attributed to.
- Organic Social Media Referrals – that is referrals you get back from content created by people outside your organization and supporting organizations.
How to target Social Media Sites
First of all you need to write a list. Speak to everyone who is involved in promoting the company online and work out which social media sites they are using.
Secondly add to the list those social media sites that are appearing in your referral traffic sources.
Thirdly speak to your colleagues again and discuss which social media sites they know which of that aren’t featured in the list you’ve already compiled and then do you research to find out if the social media site’s demographic fits your target audience. Any that do add them to your list.
This list represents a group of social media sites you should be targeting, if there are any that appear high in your referrals list that you aren’t targeting make sure you make them a focus and consolidate your successes on that platform.
Then if you are targeting other social media sites but not seeing the return ask yourself why, does the site have the right demographic; are you using the right language; are you presenting your business in the right mediums?
Why use a Social Media Monitoring Tool?
Social media monitoring is still a flawed science, however they can be a great way to get to grips with the way your brand is performing within the social media space. Have a search around there are a number of free and paid for tools out there and as with all internet marketing tools it’s best to have a few to compare and contrast the results.
It’s simple you scan for your company details and the social media tool will let you know where people are talking about your business. Make sure you’ve got one of the software packages that give you a list of the top sources – that way you can add them to your Social Media Targeting List.