One of the biggest concerns we hear when it comes to social media is that clients don’t think they will have enough time to manage it. It’s true; social media can be time-consuming, overwhelming and an organizational nightmare. There are so many sites out there and it seems like a new one pops up every day. Unless you have an unlimited budget to outsource every aspect or to hire a large number of employees to manage it, you need to take a look at how your business is actually benefitting from each and every social media outlet.
Here’s how.
- Create a simple spreadsheet where you list all the sites you’re currently on.
- As you visit each social media tool note down how many fans, followers, likes or contacts you have.
- While you’re there, use the free analytics tools (if available) to get the stats on your reach, visits, views, interaction, comments etc (YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook all have analytics tools).
- Check your Google Analytics stats (it’s free) to look at your key referring sites to see how many visitors the likes of Twitter and Google Plus actually send you each month (look back over the last 3-6 months to see the trends).
- Also check which pages these sites are sending people to on your blog or website.
- If you’re using Su.Pr (Stumble Upon) or bit.ly then check the number of clicks on your shortened links.
- Look at the level of interaction on your blog if you have one, i.e. comments, social shares ect.
- Assess how many minutes or hours you spend each day on these particular sites and whether this is paying off for you.
- Set some specific goals that you want to meet over the next 3 months in terms of community, click throughs and conversion. Then start getting strategic with your time spent on social media.
If you want to take it one step further, check out the demographics of people using each of the sites you are evaluating. Compare those with the demographics of your current and potential clients to make sure you are in the same places as your customers.
PALO Creative 