Why Measure Your Social Progress?
One important concept to identify with social media is why you are doing it. “Because we are supposed to” is not a valid reason, and here’s why: As with anything you do in any business, you should look at ROI (return on investment).
For social media at a very basic level, there is a time investment. What is your goal with this effort? Brand recognition? Increased followers? Increased engagement (likes, shares, comments)? Converting people to customers that spend money with your organization? What your goal is will determine what you should measure (it’s not necessarily the same for every organization). Someone once told me, “You cannot improve what you do not measure.”
Tracking Your Social Success
A very basic way to keep track is with a spreadsheet. Then, depending on your goals you can list your key metrics for each social media platform, such as number of likes or followers each month, engagement on certain posts etc. After a few months, you should be able to start drawing some conclusions. Is what you are doing moving you toward your goal? Which types of content is drawing engagement? Find what works for your audience and your goals to invest your time wisely!
Originally Published in DHI’s Growing Social Newsletter
