{"id":11275,"date":"2018-09-04T21:59:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T02:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/article\/\/"},"modified":"2018-09-04T21:59:00","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T02:59:00","slug":"how-do-you-know-if-your-social-media-is-working-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinkerventures.com\/how-do-you-know-if-your-social-media-is-working-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"How do you know if social media is working for you?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The beauty of social media marketing is the cost – free, for the most part, depending upon on how professional you want it to look.<\/p>\n

Of course, this doesn’t include the time you spend coming up with ideas, working on graphics – if that’s your thing – and posting. So there’s a cost right there. Plus, as the web gets more and more crowded, various social media platforms have made it increasingly difficult for your posts to reach a large audience. That means you have to “pay to play” by boosting posts and targeting specific audiences.<\/p>\n

These little costs begin to add up over time. Still, it’s a game that the vast majority of small businesses choose to play. In 2017, business in the U.S. spent $32 billion on social media advertising, according to Statista<\/a>, and that’s expected to grow to $48 billion by 2021.<\/p>\n

What’s the return on that investment? Well, many don’t know. A survey by Social Media Examiner<\/a> found only 42 percent of marketers could measure their social media marketing activites, and eMarketer<\/a> found that six out of 10 small businesses don’t know how to track return on investment from their social media marketing experts.<\/p>\n

If you are one of the many who doesn’t really know whether your social media investment matches the return, Sysmos<\/a> has a downloadable guide, “The Ultimate Guide to a Social Media Audit.”<\/p>\n

Sysomos says a successful audit follows five key steps.<\/p>\n

Network inventory<\/h3>\n

Unless you can afford a staff dedicated only to social media, you likely have to pick and choose what social media platforms you want to concentrate on. There are a number out there and what you focus depends upon who you are selling to. There are a number of studies on social media platforms by age and gender. The following numbers are from an eMarketer study down in the second quarter of 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Social Media Platforms by Demographic<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nGender<\/strong><\/td>\nAge<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nFemale<\/strong><\/td>\nMale<\/strong><\/td>\n15-25<\/strong><\/td>\n26-35<\/strong><\/td>\n36-45<\/strong><\/td>\n46-55<\/strong><\/td>\n56+<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Facebook<\/td>\n84%<\/td>\n76%<\/td>\n77%<\/td>\n84%<\/td>\n81%<\/td>\n83%<\/td>\n75%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
YouTube<\/td>\n61%<\/td>\n67%<\/td>\n81%<\/td>\n74%<\/td>\n63%<\/td>\n61%<\/td>\n41%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pinterest<\/td>\n44%<\/td>\n18%<\/td>\n27%<\/td>\n34%<\/td>\n33%<\/td>\n34%<\/td>\n25%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Instagram<\/td>\n40%<\/td>\n39%<\/td>\n59%<\/td>\n54%<\/td>\n41%<\/td>\n32%<\/td>\n14%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Twitter<\/td>\n38%<\/td>\n45%<\/td>\n46%<\/td>\n47%<\/td>\n49%<\/td>\n42%<\/td>\n24%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Snapchat<\/td>\n26%<\/td>\n26%<\/td>\n55%<\/td>\n36%<\/td>\n21%<\/td>\n16%<\/td>\n5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LinkedIn<\/td>\n20%<\/td>\n28%<\/td>\n14%<\/td>\n25%<\/td>\n27%<\/td>\n30%<\/td>\n24%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tumblr<\/td>\n13%<\/td>\n12%<\/td>\n26%<\/td>\n13%<\/td>\n11%<\/td>\n8%<\/td>\n4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
WhatsApp<\/td>\n10%<\/td>\n22%<\/td>\n20%<\/td>\n29%<\/td>\n18%<\/td>\n10%<\/td>\n3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Reddit<\/td>\n9%<\/td>\n15%<\/td>\n17%<\/td>\n17%<\/td>\n13%<\/td>\n11%<\/td>\n2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Periscope<\/td>\n3%<\/td>\n5%<\/td>\n4%<\/td>\n8%<\/td>\n5%<\/td>\n4%<\/td>\n1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Obviously, you have to be on Facebook. It’s the new phone book. After that, you need to look at your audience. At Thinker, we focus on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram and also post to LinkedIn and a little bit on Twitter. We probably should use Twitter more.<\/p>\n

As part of your audit, decide on what are your key metrics. There are a number of things to measure, including clicks to website, audience growth, impressions, engagement and conversion rates. Marketers by far value engagement and conversion rates as the two most important metrics. Create a spreadsheet and keep track of these numbers.<\/p>\n

Policy review<\/h3>\n

It is especially important if you have more than one person posting to social media to have a social media policy.<\/p>\n