As I am wrapping up my 2010 I am reminded of the different parts of my business to review, reflect, and consider changing. My personal and business Social Media strategy definitely makes it on the list. For me my personal and business strategy are very much in line with each other varying slightly. I recommend reviewing both social media revieweven if you only use your personal Social Media profiles for staying in touch with family and friends.
Below are 5 areas to help you measure your Social Media success and consider making changes for 2011:
Honest Benchmark – It starts with an honest review of where you are at in Social Media. I am assuming if you are reading this post you are one of the many businesses which implemented Social Media this year. If I was meeting with you in person I would ask if you followed through with your Social Media strategy and goals this year. So many businesses jump into Social Media with great plans and a minimal strategy only to decide to abandon Social Media because they realize it takes more than just setting up a few profiles. Even some of our clients at Square Martini Media after creating a detailed Social Media strategy discovered in the process that Social Media is a big of a commitment and had to reconsider moving forward. Social Media takes someone within a company or a firm like ours actual hours, time, and money to make successful.
Review Analytics – Use Google Analytics or something similar to review your site traffic for the year. If you are using Social Media as a marketing tool to bring traffic to your hub (website or blog) you should clearly see what areas within Social Media are working and which one are not. This is a great way to discover opportunities while having some reality checks at the same time. What worked and what can be improved on? Are there areas within Social Media that you are spending a lot of time yet not getting the desired results? Make the decision to change or abandoned what is not working and focus your resources on new strategies or expanding what is working.
Blogging and Facebook Business Pages – Are you creating new content? Did you commit to a certain amount of posts this year and did you follow through? Have you adjusted your posting calendar for both your blog and Facebook business page this year and have your reviewed the results? Are there certain topics, themes, or discussions that seem to be more successful than others? For many businesses their blog can be the majority of the traffic for their site. Take some time and discover the posts that are still driving traffic to your website and how you might expand on them for 2011.
Social Media Profiles – When is the last time you updated your Linkedin Profile? And speaking of profiles have you seen your Facebook profile lately? Many business owners set up a profile and never look back. Business goals and messages change, make sure your message is congruent with both your personal and business brands. Block out time to review and make needed adjustments to your main Social Media profiles.
Show me the money! – Let’s talk about sales! If you are using Social Media to create sales make sure to review your sales and see where they are coming from. Is the time, effort, and money you are spending on Social Media bringing new sales to your business? I have to make it clear that I am assuming you are tracking your sales. Not kind of tracking or broadly tracking, but really making sure that you and every employee is making every possible effort to identify where each and every sale is coming from. I have talked to many business owners this year who swear they are tracking their sales. Typically when I dig deeper and ask more questions about their sales they realize they are not tracking as well as they thought. This is one of the biggest mistakes made in business today. You must have great sales tracking to know if Social Media or any marketing strategy is working. If you cannot clearly identify sales from Social Media it is time to adjust your tracking methods.
This is just a starting point for your Social Media marketing review and I would welcome any additional suggestions via comments below. Make a commitment right now to not close 2010 without insuring your Social Media success for 2011!