Why is it so important to brands to: “Like Us on Facebook”?
Is it building relationships that lead to sales? Or is it a way to proclaim: We’re in social media; we have a Facebook page?
Ivory Madison in the Harvard Business Review, and Eric Ries, in his book, The Lean Startup, says social media metrics such as: Like, Follow Us and Re-Tweet are, by themselves, “vanity metrics.”
Is it a waste of time to measure them? Or do they offer insights into business growth? Is it even possible to know if tweeting a link leads to revenue?
Here’s a guide to tell you what to consider and how to spend your time. Or 25 reasons to know if you’re wasting time with social media metrics.
WHAT ARE THE DESIRED BUSINESS RESULTS?
- Do you have business goals for your social media activities?
- How long do you expect it’s going to take until you achieve the results you want?
- Do you take into account the time and resources required to reach your goals?
WHAT ARE REVENUE METRICS? ARE SOCIAL MEDIA METRICS TIED TO THEM?
- What are the business actions (sales, subscriptions, registrations,, leads or downloads) that matter most?
- Are your Likes, Followers, Views, etc. tied to these actions that lead to revenue?
- Do you measure conversion from these actions?
DOES IT BUILD VALUABLE RELATIONSHIPS?
- Do you know the real customer prospects among your Likes, Followers and Connections?
- Do you know which social networks are most likely to be your customers?
- Do you know the quality of your Likes, Followers and Connections?
- Are there advocates among the people who Like and Follow you or Share your content?
- Do you know which social networks share your content most often?
- Are there traceable patterns where the actions of your existing customers create new customers.
- Are the relationships impacting the sales actions that matter most?
ARE SOCIAL MEDIA METRICS TIED TO WEBSITE ANALYTICS?
- Do increases in Likes, Followers, Connections, Views, Comments and Shares translate to increased visits to your website?
- Do they visit the pages you most want them to visits?
- Do the social network generating the most traffic in your Google Analytics translate to where you are spending your time?
IS SOCIAL MEDIA CREATING A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE?
- Are your making connections (e.g. Like, Followers, Subcribers) faster or slower than your competition?
- Are “people talking about” your brand as measured by Comments, Likes, Re-Tweets, Shares and Views more or less than your competitors
- Are you seeing an increase in search rank from your social activities?
ARE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA METRICS ACTIONABLE?
- Do you take actions from the results of your social media metrics?
- Do you review Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) on a regular basis?
- Has your business grown for the review and actions you take from social media metrics?
Social media metrics don’t have to be vanity metrics. Combined with the metrics that are most important with your business, they can provide insights into relationship that build revenue and build real value.
In our case studies, we’ve seen brands grow and money saved. While every business is different, there is a KPI scorecard that can developed for specific characteristics.
Did these reasons help guide you on how you should be spending your time? Are you ready to stop wasting time with social media metrics?
