With over half of people talking more online than they do in “real life”, digital social media is a critical platform for marketers, but how do we measure its impact?
Most marketers use platform metrics as performance indicators, but often they cannot be linked to sales. Engagement is the easiest and often the most measured social metric in terms of followers, fans and comments. However, revenue is often the more important (and more difficult to measure) metric that can help marketers determine an ROI for their social media efforts. Google offers two solutions that can help drive social media performance: Google+ and Google Analytics social reports.
Building relationships on Google+ may improve other parts of your marketing plan. Google+ is integrating social in all the Google products marketers already use, which can help them drive deeper engagement with their target customers, be more relevant by offering social recommendations when customers need them most and remain accountable by providing transparency of how their ad dollars are performing.
With Google Analytics Social reports you can tie your social media to metrics you care about.
- Find something you can measure (micro or macro-conversions) and sprint in that direction.Focus on how separate channels can drive different types of site actions, which can be tied to a value you determine.
- Measure success criteria directionally. Benchmarks are uncommon and do not necessarily translate across products, services or industries.
- Create your social posts with a measurement goal in mind. Be sure to include a call to action to inspire your audience to act.
- Understand and connect with your audience differently across the different networks. Try not to post the same thing on each platform, customize and use what works best.
Google just did a webinar in collaboration with HootSuite. You can watch the webinar recording here.
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