In case you missed our recent posts, you can start to build a strong base with your social media by completing a social media check up, polishing up your LinkedIn profile and getting ideas for what to post on social media. But to truly get value from your efforts, you must realize the importance of the daily management of your social presence and proper tracking and reporting of your data.
Imagine this: You log into Facebook to do a post on your Page, then log out and get back to work. As a result, three things take place: You get a message from someone interested in an insurance quote, a client posts a public complaint about your agency, and a community partner tags you in a post. If you don’t check your Facebook Page the rest of the week, you’ve just missed out on opportunities to nurture a lead, regain trust with a customer and connect with your community. These small social actions may not seem like much, but you might be surprised how much social media can be part of your sales funnel.
Step 1: Daily Management
Your first step is setting up easy daily management. Think about it: are you checking all of your social media channels daily? Use this checklist to check your social media accounts.
Social Media Management Tools
Is it easier for you to schedule posts in advance? Do you want to see all of your social feeds on one screen? A social media management tool can help. Depending on your budget and needs, there are a few different options to check out. Here are a few of our favorites:
- Hootsuite - You can connect up to three social accounts for free, with one user. Plans range from $19-$499 a month.
- Buffer - You can connect one account per platform for free, with one user. Plans range from $10-$399 a month.
These are only a handful of management platforms out there. Depending on what bells and whistles you want, there are plenty of options that will integrate with sales platforms and more. (Note - we’re not endorsing any of these vendors, but we’re providing this list as an easy reference for you.)
Step 2: Reporting
How do you know if your social media is performing well? Each social media channel has some form of analytics built into the platform. For guides on each, see below:
We recommend that you pull quarterly or monthly reports to stay on top of your accounts. How are you supposed to know you’re doing well if you aren’t tracking the right numbers? Here are a few numbers on each platform you’ll want to look at.
Followers - How much has your social media audience grown this month? Use a spreadsheet or our social media scorecard to keep track of your follower growth.
Reach - Reach is the number of people who have seen a post about your page. With many platforms having algorithms that limit how many people see your posts, you may see this number fluctuated from post to post and month to month.
Impressions - Impressions are the number of people who saw one of your posts and the frequency the post was shown. For example, if I see your Facebook post, I am a reach of one. But if I see your post three times, that’s three impressions on that one post.
Engagements - Engagements are your likes, comments, shares, and retweets. You want to see high engagement because it means your posts will be seen by more people. When you look over your monthly report, see which posts have the highest engagement. Do they have a common theme? Use similar posts in the future to continue your momentum.
Clicks - Whether you have a link or a photo to view, clicks are a form of engagement that can drive a lot of traffic back to your site. For posts where you are promoting your website content or blogs, you want to see a high number of clicks so you know people are making it to your website to learn more about your agency.
Now what?
Once you have all of your numbers pulled, take a look. Were there certain days that did better on Twitter? Does your audience like video over photo posts? Do your more conversational posts get more comments than your news posts? Reviewing your social media activity on a regular basis will help to fine tune your strategy and help build up a great online community to nurture new leads.
Have questions about social media reporting and management? Email us at social@stateauto.com
Comments
Post a Comment