Measuring success in social media - YouTube

Tracking the impact of a social media campaign is really important

but it can get complicated.

That's when analytics and tools can help.

But first, let's hear from business owner Mike

about how he uses analytics

to know which of his social media efforts are working best.

Being able to analyze and knowing how effective

my social media strategies have been to the business overall

has been obviously very important.

It's so tied in with the need to stay and to maintain

that strategic plan, you know, and make sure everything stays online

and on course with your plan to achieve your goals.

And using social media to help achieve that, you know

it's been very important, being able to measure it.

Equally important.

Because of the fairly low or smaller level which I sort of operate at

I'm able to just use the individual tools

which Facebook, Twitter and Google provide.

So I can use the analytical tools that Facebook provide

to see when a post is being very effective

and I'll put a bit of budget to it or I'm able to see the times a day

and also the demographic that it did target and who appeals to.

In this video we'll cover how analytics and different tools can help you track

the impact of your social media efforts

and understand your customers a bit better.

Let's assume our vintage clothing busines has established accounts

on a few social networks: Facebook, Twitter

and maybe some other smaller fashion related social networks.

First, it's important to take a look at the social networks themselves.

When you log in, many provide data about what's happening on those networks.

For example, you might be able to get reports about how many people

you're connected with and how that's been trending over time.

Which of your posts are getting shared or interacted with the most

or even who your biggest fans might be.

By looking at the data and reports available

in many social networks you can learn a lot about who your connections are

how they behave and how they consume

or interact with the content you're providing.

But logging into every single network and looking at the data and reports

and each one separately can be time-consuming and tricky.

Remember those tools that can help you schedule your posts

and consolidate all of your logging in to just one place?

Well, many of those tools can also track and provide data that can compare

the different networks against each other and give you all that reporting in one place.

Tools like these are really helpful and you can investigate them by searching

for social media management tools.

There's also another kind of tool that might help you: social media monitoring.

There are lots of them out there and a wide range of features and pricing

but basically, these tools will scour all the social networks out there

looking for mentions of you, your competitors

or even certain themes being talked about.

These can help you identify new social networks

you might want to participate in and let you join conversations

about your business or your industry.

But these reports and tools typically only measure

what's happening on social networks themselves.

So, if you want to know what's happening

after someone decides to click on a link you shared

or a piece of content you post on your website

you'll need a separate tool dedicated to tracking what's happening on websites

like Google Analytics.

Web analytics tools will generally pick up the trail

as soon as someone hits your website

and many of them will automatically track

when visitors are coming from social media sites.

This means, that if you're tracking what people are doing on your website

you can see how many visitors from Facebook or Twitter

are not just arriving on your website but also submitting your contact form

or buying items from your online store

or downloading your monthly PDF newsletter.

Now, you'll really be able to see how your social media efforts are paying off.

Lots of web analytics tools also let you track not just where network visitors

are coming from, but even the specific posts or pieces of content

that got them to visit your website.

Each web analytic tool does this differently.

The end result is pretty cool.

You'll be able to look at different reports

and see things like which kinds of content from which networks

tend to get people to visit your website, engage further with your pages

and eventually convert on your business goals.

So, that covers how to measure the success of your social media efforts.

Using the data and tools available from the social networks themselves

using social media management and monitoring tools

and using web analytics

to see what social visitors are doing on your website.

This will help you understand exactly how and where your efforts are paying off.

That way you can keep improving your social media strategy.