If you’re not sure how well your social media engagement is working for you, you’ve got plenty of company. According to a Social Media Examiner survey, only 10% of marketers “strongly agree” that they can measure their social media ROI.
The problem may be trying to measure something that’s about cultivating relationships and staying in front of customers for top of mind awareness. Direct response in both digital and traditional forms will yield a lot more input in opens, clicks and calls than “building your image.” Still, you can begin improving the value of your social media by identifying objectives.
What would you like for your social media engagement to do for you? If your goal is to “build your image,” one of your objectives could be to demonstrate your commitment to your community. Accordingly, you could share images of your sponsorship of local sports teams or participation in charities and fundraisers. Also share good news that builds pride in local people or organizations, even if it’s unrelated to your company.
Another objective would be to promote your customer service. Highlight success stories, share testimonials and address complaints – quickly and respectfully, working toward a resolution and satisfied customer.
Providing content that is useful to your current customers – such as tips for system maintenance, how to prepare for an upcoming weather event or what to do in case of an emergency – also helps validate your service and expertise. Prepare content as well that will help future customers in their search for solutions.
Track performance metrics including reach, engagement and site traffic, as well as your likes, comments and shares. You can get a picture of your presence and see what content gets engagement. Also, the flexibility of social media marketing allows you to easily test different ads, formats, audiences and offers. Run experiments to check theories. For example, will photos of people get more engagement than product photos?