When it comes to social media, just using it is not enough. Without the proper metrics, it is impossible to measure the success of your social media campaigns -- and to figure out what may or may not be working. In fact, determining your success metric can help you to better allocate your marketing budget, choose the best marketing channel for your initiatives, increase productivity, and gain valuable information about your customers.
Many people tend to associate Web analytics with page views, but the truth is that there are a number of other (and more important) ways to measure the success of your social media. According to SoDA’s “2010 Digital Marketing Outlook,” getting users to engage on your site is becoming a much bigger priority.
Why is important to measure the level of engagement of your users? Keeping track of what visitors do on your site can help you figure out what your customers really want. And if you’re just looking at the number of page views for your site, you’re doing a lot of guesswork.
Another important kind of analysis is called funnel analysis. Funnel analysis allows you to measure conversion rates, or the number of visitors who came to your site versus the number of visitors who took some sort of specified action (like creating an account, for instance). By noting drop-off rates at a particular step of the process, you can fix problem areas on your Web site and increase your conversion rates. Maybe the sign-up process is too complicated, or visitors are unwilling to provide certain required information -- with just a few tweaks, problem solved.
It is also important to measure visitor retention: Who is coming back again and again? Especially in social media communities, visitor retention is pivotal. If you are trying to attract new visitors, you need to have an active, stimulating community. Increasing retention rates is the key to getting more users in the long run.
What metrics do you use to measure your social media? How do these metrics aid you in your marketing decisions? Give us your feedback below.
I think it's imperative to analyze how and why/why not users interact with your site. How else would you know what is working? Its encouraging that there are these metrics out there.
ReplyDelete@Anon, Metrics are big part of social media right now. Everyone is trying to figure out what to measure, how to measure it, and what those measurements actually mean.
ReplyDeleteWhat's more important? More users? More engagement? Those are decisions businesses have to make, and the answers may not be simple ones.