But I\u2019ve since learned that effective <\/em>social media marketing<\/a> needs to be so much more than that. This whimsical, \u201cspray and pray\u201d<\/a> attitude to social media is what gives it a bad rep. When marketers say they can\u2019t see the ROI of social, it\u2019s because they aren\u2019t measuring the right things, if at all. But how can you improve on something you don\u2019t measure? And see the return of it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So that\u2019s why we partnered up with Kissmetrics to do this joint webinar on how to build a data-driven social media marketing strategy<\/a>. To help out folks like me – or how I used to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I highly suggest watching the full webinar<\/a>, but here\u2019s a quick recap if you prefer to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you talk about data with non-data-driven marketers, their first instinct is usually to run away. Or come up with excuses like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s too complicated.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut I don\u2019t have time!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem is, if you aren’t tracking social media<\/a>, you end up wasting more <\/em>time. Because you spend time guessing, not knowing what\u2019s effective. That means wasting money and resources, and losing tons of opportunities to connect and engage with the audience<\/a> you really want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Worst of all, you end up hurting your brand image, since you\u2019re not giving your audience what they want, because you simply don\u2019t know what it is!<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s exactly why you need to adopt a data-driven mindset towards social media marketing. Data can tell you so much about what your audience want<\/em>. What\u2019s working, and what\u2019s not. Where you should invest more in, and where you should stop wasting time on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Basically, if you want your catchy copy and funny gifs to be seen by people you want to target, and have them do things you want them to do – whether it\u2019s to visit your site, join your mailing list, or buy – you need to be tracking and analyzing data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You get so many benefits from adopting a data-driven mindset for social media marketing, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of which help you improve and prove your social ROI<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If it sounds amazing, that\u2019s because it is. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the best part? Starting a data-driven social strategy doesn\u2019t need to be complicated. With the right strategy and some cool tools<\/a>, useful data can be collected effortlessly, and presented in an easy to understand way so that you can actually use them to make better decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So now you\u2019re probably thinking, this all sounds great. Where do we begin?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n To answer that question, you need to ask yourself another question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are your goals?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Most people feel overwhelmed by data because there are so many things you can measure. But often you actually only need a few key metrics. Especially if you\u2019re just starting out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Define your goals well, and find the KPIs that can help you measure whether you\u2019re achieving those goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are a few examples of what I mean by matching the right KPIs to different objectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Goal #1: increase brand reach<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Let\u2019s say your goal is to increase your brand reach, the first basic metric to track would be your follower count.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A lot of people say it\u2019s a vanity metric<\/a> that doesn\u2019t drive business results. That’s true to some extent – the fact that you have 20k followers doesn\u2019t generate traffic or revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it\u2019s a great indicator of how your brand is doing on social – how many people you can potentially reach and engage with. When people haven\u2019t heard of your brand before, most will judge your \u201cbrand credibility\u201d by your follower count. So it\u2019s more important than you may think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next thing you want to look at would be your top influencers<\/strong>. They could be influencers talking about your brand, your competitors, or your industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tracking influencersis super important if you want to increase your brand reach, especially if you\u2019re just starting out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may not have a big audience yet, but they do. And they can help spread your brand name much quicker than if you\u2019re on your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another important metric for measuring your brand reach is to track your share of voice against competitors<\/a>. <\/strong>This lets you know how well you\u2019re doing relative to other players in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may think you\u2019re doing pretty good with 2k mentions per week, but perhaps your competitor has 200k mentions? By comparing yourself against your competitors<\/a>, you get a reality check by putting your metrics in context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Goal #2: improve brand image<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, let\u2019s say your goal is to improve your brand image. Then you\u2019ll have to measure more than the number of your mentions. You need to look at quality – <\/em>how people feel about your brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are discussions about your brand like? Are they from fans or haters? Are people praising or bashing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brand sentiment<\/strong><\/a> helps you track your brand reputation over time. And if you see sudden spikes, you can find out why by looking back at your past campaigns or crises that happened during that time period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Goal #3: increase web traffic<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, if your goal is to drive traffic to your website, metrics like follower counts and brand sentiment would be less relevant. A more helpful metric to look at would be your traffic source<\/strong>, to see which platforms bring you the most web visits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This will help you find out where you should double down, and which platform you should stop wasting time on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, you can also track the most popular pages from social media<\/strong>. This will tell you what kind of content your social media audience engage the most with, so you can give offer more of those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Goal #4: increase conversions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And if your goal is to increase conversions, the most important metric to track is conversion sources. <\/strong>Exactly which platforms are bringing in your conversions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similar to tracking social traffic, you can see the conversions per platform, and even assign a dollar value to each conversion, to see the revenue generated from social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This post is long – watch the webinar instead!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously most of the above data you\u2019ll need to use tools to dig up. Luckily, lots of data tools are designed for data noobs like us (me.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not all of these tools are free, but they all offer free trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first one is a staple for any data marketer (wannabe): Google Analytics<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Google Analytics<\/strong><\/a> lets you create specific conversion points<\/a> on your site (i.e. a user signed up for your newsletter, requested a demo, or made a purchase), then track those by source. So you\u2019ll know whether more conversions come from social media, search engines, or other sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’re just starting out and Google Analytics seems a bit daunting and overwhelming, try The Brand Grader<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Brand Grader<\/a><\/strong> is a completely free online reputation assessment tool that gives you a quick snapshot of how any brand performs online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just type in the brand you want to monitor – could be your brand, your competitor, or any company – and put in your email to get a report of the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next cool tool – if not the coolest – for social media marketers is Mention<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mention<\/strong><\/a> lets you track social media mentions of your brand and your competitors, and see important metrics like brand reach and sentiment in easy to understand graphs. You can also find influencers talking about you or your industry, and analyze the top platforms and sources, best time to engage, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Want to learn how Mention helps you increase social media engagement? Check out this essential guide.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Then of course, we have Kissmetrics<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Kissmetrics <\/strong><\/a>shows you the journey your website visitors take, including where they came from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll see from which social media platform they came, what steps they took on your website, and whether they converted or left without doing so. That makes it easy to put a dollar figure on your social performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If a user discovers you first on Twitter, visits your website, then returns three days later to make a purchase, you\u2019ll know that they first came from social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then we have Bitly. <\/strong><\/a>You may know it as a link shortening tool, but it actually does much more than that. Bitly OneView<\/a>, a feature of Bitly Enterprise, gives you a holistic view of how your content is performing across how each channel, platform, or device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just use a Bitlink in each of your social posts and you\u2019ll be able to track incoming traffic in real-time back in your Bitly dashboard. You can even compare organic content to paid efforts to see how social is affecting your bottom line. Being \u201cdata-driven\u201d didn\u2019t come naturally to me, but it\u2019s a lot less scary and complicated than I\u2019d thought. The key is really just figuring out what matter to you most, find metrics that will help you measure them, and make better decisions based on those results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want more specific strategies and ideas on data-driven marketing, watch the full webinar<\/a>. I also answered some very interesting questions that you might be having as well – so go check it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s the full webinar.<\/a> And here\u2019s the slide deck.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why you need data-driven social media marketing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Benefits of data-driven social media marketing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Building a data-driven social media marketing strategy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Match your metrics to your goals<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"data-driven](\"https:\/\/mention.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/pasted-image-0-4.png\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"influencers-social-media-strategy\"](\"https:\/\/mention.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/pasted-image-0-12.png\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"monitor-competitors-data-driven-social-media-marketing\"](\"https:\/\/mention.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/pasted-image-0-7.png\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"sentiment](\"https:\/\/mention.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/sentiment-analysis-tools-mention-1024x640.png\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"google](\"https:\/\/mention.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Screen-Shot-2017-05-11-at-10.12.16-PM.png\")
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nChoose some cool tools<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"google](\"https:\/\/mention.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/pasted-image-0-8.png\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/mention.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Screen-Shot-2017-07-18-at-12.32.08.png\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"visitors](\"https:\/\/mention.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/pasted-image-0-6.png\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"bitly](\"https:\/\/mention.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/pasted-image-0-9.png\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nTrack. Measure. Improve<\/h2>\n\n\n\n