Image via CrunchBase
To measure your progress is a crucial component of any marketing campaign and the same applies on the social web.
There are many free and paid-for websites and programmes you can use to monitor your social activity. (Such as Social Mention and Monitter) with so many available it is easy to get lost and confused about what you should be monitoring in your campaign, and difficult to know where to stop. As with every marketing channel it is imperative to remember that you can’t have results in every variable all at once!
Your social objectives and analysis of your fans social profile should indicate what statistics you should pay attention to. One truly essential tool to have is Google Analytics. Once you have set this up, Google allows you to identify your key referral sites – aim to get your social channels in the top ten. The bounce rates, time spent on site and conversions should also be recorded. Aim for the lowest bounce rate (the rate at which people leave your website), with time spent aim for an increase per month as this is usually an indication that your content is relevant to the social channel post – aka the right people are passing through to your page. Conversions should increase with effective social channel management, these show how many friends/fans become customers.
For basic channel management, it is advised that you monitor:
Facebook (available via Insights)
- New Likes
- Post Views
- Post Feedback
- Monthly Active Users
- User Demographics
- No Following
- No Followers
- Mentions
- Retweets
- Traffic sources
- Bounce Rate
- Pages Viewed
- Time Spent on site
- Conversion to targets
The Social Media Adviser 