Save time on social media by picking the right metrics

Now that you’ve done some high level thinking about your social media strategy, and followed it up with a strategic social media campaign, it’s time to monitor your progress.

But wait! Before you hole yourself up in your analytics HQ, it’s important to set out a plan. Just as checking our phones for emails and text messages can become pathology, constant data checking can become a nervous tic that eats up precious time and energy. So, let’s continue planning for success by rounding out our social strategy cycle with some metrics.

Restate your business objective.

Once your social campaign is underway, it won’t be long before you’ll want some milemarkers to guide you on your way. Social media rookies too often get caught on the emotional roller coaster of likes and adds, leaving them worn out with very little sense of what was really accomplished. Thankfully, your ticket to a smooth ride is the business objective you already laid out at the beginning of your social media strategy.

Identify key metrics.

Your campaign objective may be more or less tangible depending on your immediate business needs and your experience with social media. And it’s important to identify exactly where you are on that spectrum. What makes the most sense for your firm today? Are you making your first forays into the social media space and looking for awareness? Are looking to connect with former and existing clients, hoping to drum up loyalty? Or are you ready to turn your social platforms into a sales engine, securing new listings and referrals? Thanks to the rapid development of analytics models and tools in recent years, even the most intagible of these goals has some key measures that you can track directly from your social account. Today there are even macro level tools for simplifying tracking across platforms—something that wasn’t true even a few years ago.

Success tip: Want to know exactly which social metrics to use with your business objective? Check out Paradym’s Social Media Strategist infographic.

Schedule time for monitoring.

After you’ve successfully paired your social objective with some key success measures, the only thing left to do is get yourself on a healthy schedule for reviewing your data and reflecting on next steps. Are you getting closer to your goal of 20% growth in leads? Are your efforts to reach out to past clients and gain referrals getting tangible results? Setting aside regular time to reflect on your goals and check them against your numbers can mean the difference between an exercise in futility and the discovery of an entirely new source of revenue for your business.

You’ve made your plan, you’ve implemented it with gusto and now you’re tracking your progress with custom metrics. Before you start the cycle over again, give yourself a pat on the back.