Page 13 - Engage -- no.11 -- Winter 2018

potential metrics I want to measure: How many visitors are coming from social media channels? How much of my overall traffic do social media referrals account for? What is the quality of this referral traffic (as measured by bounce rate)? How well is my messaging doing (measure by shares, likes, clicks)? Google Analytics is one
of the easiest tools to use for gathering this information—don’t forget to set up conversion goals! Other analytics tools you may want to try are Kissmetrics and Mixpanel. Buffer is great for tracking engagement metrics.
Identify Your RESOURCES
After you’ve taken the time to assess your goals (driving traffic to your site, encouraging purchases, increasing brand awareness), take the time to determine the resources you’re willing to put towards your social strategy. This could be in
the form of hours (yours, your team’s, or your colleagues’), a budget for content development, or possibly a service to manage your social media platforms. Like every other part of your marketing plan, your social strategy requires a budget too.
Create a CONTENT PLAN
Developing and aligning a content plan with your company goals is the most critical step in the process, and perhaps the most difficult. When finished, you will have the completed outline for your overall social strategy. Clarity of purpose will make it much easier to determine your best type of content, post frequency, and required resources.
PRO TIP from Emily
Automating your posting schedule can be an invaluable time-saver. Systems such as Buffer, Later, and Sprinklr have emerged to help minimize the time you need to spend manually sending content to your audience. Also consider a
system such as IFTTT.com. I personally use and recommend it to my clients. This powerful online tool can automate posts, but its capabilities go
far beyond just social media. For example, you can tell IFTTT to send a Facebook post every
time a new article is published on your site. Or, if you’re collecting customer complaints via Twitter, IFTTT can compile every post you “favorite” into a Google document for easy reference.
In your early days with a new social strategy, don’t be afraid to ask your audience what kind
of content they want to see from you. Encourage
feedback and audience suggestions in determining your core content series. Appraise the social accounts run by your competitors to see where their success or struggles lie—you can’t set yourself apart without knowing the lay of the land.
Review and ANALYZE
As with any change to a business strategy, give your new social system time before reporting and iterating. Any system that isn’t built with continuous improvement in mind isn’t going to be optimal, and social media is no exception. Set up a monthly check-in to review your metrics and how they relate to your top-performing content. Discuss why certain posts may have outperformed others. Most scheduling platforms will allow you to pull reporting for all posts scheduled through their systems. This will save you time and let you avoid the bulky native analytics tools built into each individual platform. Look for trends such as days, times, better- performing types of content, and engagement that can provide insight and help you refine your strategy to replicate success.
PRO TIP from Emily
Systems aside, the most important part of your social media strategy can’t only be automated. For anyone looking to build and nurture an audience, engagement is essential. That means responding to messages, encouraging feedback, and monitoring brand mentions online. Use the time you saved automating your posting to truly nurture the feedback you get—it’s inimitable currency in brand building. n
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