How to Know if Social Media is Working for You

The surge in popularity of social media has made it almost a formality for every business to have at least one account (the most popular being Twitter and Facebook but with Instagram and now Tumblr not too far behind). Paradoxically, not much time is spent thinking about the ROI of participating in social media because it has become so commonplace rendering it an afterthought – just another cog in the marketing machine that needs to be turned.

But there is a real, tangible benefit to engaging in social media that has changed the marketing landscape and it’s clearly visible. Here’s how to see it.

Content Before Clicks

You can’t start taking up tweeting one day and expect people will automatically pay attention to you. First of all, the Twitter user base is massive and secondly, Twitter, like most social media, is about building connections and participation – you can’t toss your tweets into the wind in the hopes of getting noticed. The metrics you should be looking at to gauge the efficacy of your tweets are mentions, replies, and retweets which all comprise Advocacy Activity.

In the images below, you can see our florist friends over at Raging Daisies actively use Twitter, Google+, and Instagram as part of their social media triumvirate. Looking at the graphs, you can see a clear correlation between the number of times content is posted to any one of their networks and the audience response to the content.

By comparing the content posted against the advocacy it generated, you can clearly see what resonated within the community and, more importantly, what didn’t.  

Advocacy Activity for Twitter aggregates mentions, replies, and retweets.

Advocacy Activity for Google+ aggregates +1s, comments, and shares. 
Advocacy Activity for Instagram aggregates likes and comments.

Where All Your Content Is Headed

Now, to take it a step further, let’s see how the total sum of the content you have created translates into visits to your website. Select Smart Guides from the library and click All My Content to pull up a single line on the chart that displays the total number of items you’ve posted across all your social media networks. Next, select Visits from Google Analytics which will then provide you the full story on how your social media presence triggers traffic to your website.   

To see if your content is king, check out your SumAll account now.