Like many other marketing strategies, social media KPI / social media KPI’s strategies need to also have flawless execution and controlled measurements. Ironically, majority of organizations and companies all across the world that use social media to boost their economical presence reference social media as an alternative to awareness. Working with the social media market segments, we realized that successful business people also are not aware of the benefits of the social media KPI or indicators. Simply posting on websites is not the best marketing strategy.
Over the last decade, the Internet has changed exponentially. And the same thing can be said about social media. Social media is no longer a nice to have concept. In fact it is one of the most important factors for any organization and company that wants to thrive. Implementing social media is one thing. And enabling proper key performance indicators is another ball game. Additionally, the measurement yardstick requires a comprehensive mindset and delivery mechanism.
During our social media consultancy, we realized that organizations that even have successful social media strategies cannot provide the right tools and outputs to gauge their social media activity. Not all outcomes of social media is typically revenue streams. This might come to you as a surprise, however, social media has a variety of different outputs. And that really depends upon what you really want to achieve. Let us share with you some of the most important keep indicators that organizations should be using. However, in the practical world, majority of main companies engage a social media marketing consultancy firm to evaluate, monitor and execute the below stated performance measurements.
Number of social connections
Yes this tops our list. Social connection is a very critical component of social media. Social media revolves around successful connections to the right people. We refer to those connections that have interactions and reciprocation as social connections. People who only connect to you for only connectivity is not a social connection. Social connection is people and communities which gather together to share ideas and concepts. A very simple example is of a Facebook page of 1962 high school year of any particular high school. You would be surprised at how many people would actually connect and find out old class fellows for that particular year. Those number of people would be social connections. The objective of this particular campaign was never to actually have revenue streams. The objective was to simply gauge and get more and more connections for a particular objective.
Social page views
Many of times organizations only want to count the total number of social page views. When would this happen? Well there are many different scenarios. Let us discuss with you a very recent example. One of our organizations that we were consulting with wanted to actually get maximum number of social page views for their non-profit organization site. They simply wanted to have people all across the world to comprehend the understanding of a particular disease and a particular method to prevent it. The objective was no money or any kind of income. It was only two create awareness. Hence the most important key performance indicator that social media campaign social page fields.
Engagement Rate
This is one of my favorite key performance indicators for any social media campaign. Engagement rate is defined total number of views divided by the total fan count. They gives you a very good perspective of how many people actually engage with your content and updates. In the services sector and electronics sector, engagement rate is very important. In fact even in the beverage industry, engagement rate really should be measured accordingly. And if you have a large organization that spans multiple continents, then engagement rate is dependent upon the cultural and demographics of the product as well.
Facebook Reach
Yes I know that this is one key performance indicator that would be specific to a social media platform. Nonetheless we do anticipate that you would be using a variety of different social media avenues. And Facebook can never be left out. You need to be very aware of the Facebook reach as a very important indicator of successful social media campaigns.
Re-tweet Rate
This is another favorite of mine. As more and more people start connecting to you, they will start believing in you. And the outcome would also be the retreats. So suppose if you actually tweet 100 times a day. Then you would divide the total number of retreats with the total number of treats that you did in a particular time zone. You realize that when people retreat, they’re actually retreating to their own world. So majority of people would actually get to see it your message from another perspective. And the best part is endorsements. So the retreat methodology really works well in fact many of our social media strategies revolve around retreats.
Successful signings / Lead Management Closure
This is another important and critical component. Again this depends upon a particular industry. Irrespective of the industry you’re in we highly recommend that you have signings or leads as an indicator. Think of it. If you run a cookbook site, and you have an additional information to be sent out. But how do you reach them? Would you want to only wait for the same people to come back or do you want them to ensure that you can reach them proactively?The moment you actually email or information about a customer, you have an opportunity to further sell and get to know your customer. Many of the organizations that we work with underestimate the value proposition associated with successful signings.
Added Bonus – What our Top Rated Social Media Experts Recommend as the Ultimate Social Media Metric after Successful Conversions
These are the important key performance indicators that we recommend based upon our experience. We have gone far beyond our own perspective and requested the gurus of social media industry that to provide us with their particular stands. The question that was posed to our list of social gurus is what is the most important key performance indicators to be evaluated for any social media campaign after successful conversions. But before we actually show you the answers of are gurus below we would also contain a small paragraph about who these people are and why do we believe that they are experts in the field.
Nika Stewart – CEO of Ghost Tweeting, SocialMedia strategist, National speaker, HuffPost blogger. Amazing social media strategist. One of the top professionals I follow.
“Completely depends on YOUR goals. Everyone’s intentions r different & we all need to measure what is important to us personally.”
Jen Delitz – Gender Balancer, Blogger at http://www.TheSheEOBlog.com , Chairman@PeerSupportAust, mentor, mum, farmer & Beagle lover who believes in a fair go for all. I love her approach and reality zone to change. Her blog is a must read.
“Personally I’m looking to create engagement & brand recognition not just “followers” but people who seek me out”
Maria Poveromo – Amazing social media expert. Talented individual who has the passion and dependence to change the dynamics of online marketing.
“Depends on your business objectives.”
Scalable Social – Online marketing for small business, focusing on a personalized approach for lead generation and results you can see. I have been following the tweets and really enjoy the focus and insight. Recommended!
” I guess I’d say sales – though that probably is number one!”
TribalCafe – Helping business harness technology to grow innovation, growth, and technology.
“Depends on product. engagement but remember only a small % of communities members active so engagement metrics need defining”
Kimberley Hollis – Remarkable expert in social media strategy. She also owns a very sophisticated business management blog.
“I think reach is the core one. People need to see the content and effort from Social Media Marketing for it to work.”
Mohsin Kamal of http://www.pakhealthcare.com | HealthCare Services
“Email and Data Details of Customers”
Purple Rose Digital Company – These guys are amazing SEO experts in the Sussex, UK area. I personally love their affinity, relationship building and company team.
“Success is based on setting clear and SMART objectives with KPIs”
Fadi Alsadi – Smart, young and aspiring social media expert. Like his ideas.
“Objective: is to reach a good place on search sites eg Google of the Website customer’s”
Conclusion
These are inputs we were able to garner from the world of social media. All social media KPI or KPI’s will help you build more revenue and market share. If you have other inputs, please do share.
