Today I want to talk to you about what metrics you need to pay attention to when you’re trying to figure out how well your social media campaign is doing. Depending on your business objectives, the justification will vary, and so will the numbers and data you use to make a decision.
I just met with one of our clients and he was talking about how they’re having trouble with their Facebook posts because they’re not getting as many likes, shares or comments as they were expecting. They were thinking about shutting down their whole social media channel or scaling back on the efforts they’re putting in. My response was that it might make sense to, but let’s think about this for a second and look at more than just engagement. Let’s dig down a little deeper because there’s more to Facebook’s numbers than just likes and comments. This really caught them off guard as they weren’t aware more data was available.
We started going through their Google Analytics reports and what we found surprised them!
30% of the purchases through their website were originating from customers who found them on Facebook. This actually raised some eyebrows in the room because they had no idea this was happening. So many business owners and marketers out there rely on what I like to call “Vanity Metrics” and those are the metrics that make you feel good inside, they make you feel popular and that’s those likes, those comments and those shares.
As a business, those aren’t the be-all, end-all numbers you need to be looking at when you’re trying to figure out how well you’re doing on social media, and whether you should be on social at all. If you want to get a thorough understanding of how social is doing for you, take a step back and figure out why you’re doing it in the first place. Depending on your business and your goals, this will vary for many out there. Are you doing it to drive traffic to your website? If so, look at your Google Analytics reports to see how many visits are coming from social versus direct traffic, versus traffic from search engines. If you’re trying to drive people to make purchases of products, look at your conversion data on your website to see where the traffic that is making purchases is coming from.
You may be pleasantly surprised. These are numbers we don’t see people looking at every day when they’re trying to figure out how their social campaigns are doing. On top of that, most businesses we run into don’t set up their social media channels correctly, and aren’t keeping track of conversions. They’re flying blind. It can be complicated and a time-consuming effort. But it’s totally worth it. What business doesn’t want to be able to calculate their ROI? If this sounds like your business, it’s time to consider hiring an external agency to help with your Digital Marketing.
