Step One: Know Your Goals

Any good marketing plan starts with established goals. You need to know what your goals are before you can measure how successful your efforts have been to achieve them.

What do you want to accomplish through your social media efforts:

• Sell more products?
• Get more reviews?
• Establish yourself as a thought leader?
• Drive more traffic to your Website?
• Generate leads?
• Increase your fan base?
• Reach a specific demographic?

Outline very specific goals so you can measure the results of your efforts.

Step Two: Establish Your Baselines

Based on your goals from step one, establish measurable baselines you can use for comparison later.

Create a spreadsheet that includes:

• Current sales numbers
• Review counts
• Number of hits in Google
• Website stats
• Other baselines specific to your goals

Clearly, some things are easier to measure than others. Quantitative elements like sales, website stats, and Google hits can be tracked easily; however, more qualitative elements such as thought leadership, influence, or customer satisfaction can be trickier to measure.

You may be surprised at just how many things are measurable in social media. Check out this post entitled “100 Ways to Measure Social Media” posted by Marketers Studio in 2009. This lists demonstrates that there are many things that can be measured. Your job is to establish which items are true indicators of your efforts based on your established goals.

Step Three: Track Your Efforts

There are plenty of tools you can use to help measure your social media efforts. Internal features of social media tools like Facebook and WordPress, free external tools, and paid services can all give you insight into how well certain strategies are paying off.

It is important during this step to use more than one tool to track your efforts. Each individual tool can give you specific insight into one or more aspects of your social media presence. Together, a carefully selected host of tools can give you a complete picture of how your efforts are paying off.

It is also important to focus only on the data that is relevant to your goals. It is easy to get lost in the “numbers” and lose track of your goals. Some of the data may not be relevant to your goals – focus on the data that is.

Internal Tools

Start your tracking and analysis from within many of the tools you already have in place – here are a few to get you started.

Facebook Insights

Facebook’s statistics tool, Insights, can help you track and analyze demographics, engagement, referrals, click-throughs, and more for your Facebook pages. Access this tool from the main menu when you edit any Facebook page.

Facebook Insights breaks down the demographics and activities of a page’s fans. This feature also allows you to gain insight into how users engage with specific content, where your referrals are coming from, how well individual posts are doing, and more.

The latest version of Facebook Insights includes demographics and metrics for overall Facebook page activity, the reach of your Facebook content, the people who “like” your content, and insights on how your content is shared.

When viewing these metrics, keep your goals and baselines in mind.

WordPress Stats

If your website or blog is powered by WordPress, there are a number of good plugins that can help you analyze your site. I recommend WordPress.com Stats, mainly because it is developed by the WordPress.com team.

Using this plugin, you can get a very good picture of how visitors are interacting with your site: which of your posts are the most popular, where your incoming referrals are coming from, which key terms visitors are using to find your site, which outgoing links are clicked, and more. You can drill down to get more details on many of the stats, but keep in mind that only you are going to know which results are relevant to your specific goals.

FeedBurner

Burning your RSS feed or blog to FeedBurner means that your blog subscriptions (either via feed reader or email) can be managed, optimized, and analyzed using the FeedBurner service. You can see which of your posts are the most popular, drill down on your subscriber demographics, and more.

HootSuite

HootSuite is a platform to help you manage one or more Twitter accounts as well as integrate your other social media tools and blogs with Twitter.

In addition, HootSuite has some nice analysis tools you can use to analyze your Twitter accounts. Their pro version also allows you to integrate Facebook Insights and Google Analytics so you have a one stop place to get insight on your Social Web presence.

This tool can help you get a feel for which of your tweets are getting the most engagement, and even attempts to calculate the “sentiment” of your Twitter followers toward your tweets.

Free External Tools

There may still be questions you need answered that the tools above are not able to accommodate. Luckily, there are some free tools that can help even further. Here are a few to consider.

Klout

Klout uses an interesting set of criteria to determine what it refers to as a “Klout Score.” The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses variables on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google Plus to measure what they call “True Reach,” “Amplification Probability,” and “Network Influence.”

True Reach is the size of your engaged audience and is based on those of your followers and friends who actively listen and react to your messages. Amplification Probability is the likelihood that your messages will generate actions (retweets, @messages, likes, and comments). Network Influence indicates how influential your engaged audience is. An overall score over 30 is considered good.

This scoring method can help you pinpoint specific areas where you may need improvement. For instance, the results depicted below demonstrate to me that I should take a close look at why my posts do not get as many “actions” as they should, especially since one of my goals is to increase virality.

There is a fair amount of controversy as to how accurate Klout scores are at measuring influence. But this controversy simply reinforces why the best approach to a successful measuring framework is to use a variety of tools, avoiding the temptation to rely on one “magic” number to measure social media success.

Google

Google still has about the best host of analytics tools at your disposal. Google Analytics can help you track and analyze website and social media visitors. Google Webmaster Tools can help you gain insight into how Google indexes your site, which search terms are used to find your site, errors on your site that may be keeping it from placing properly, and more. You can get advanced metrics on specific search terms with Google Trends, and Google Alerts can keep you informed when certain terms (like your name, your business name, your website name, or your book title) land high in search results.

socialmention

Real time search engines and analytics tools like socialmention can give you good insight into the kind of attention your posts and updates are getting. In addition, socialmention shows the reach, sentiment, and passion followers have for your name or brand. These search engines can also give you insight into the key terms that are typically associated with your brand.

PostRank

PostRank is one of the few paid services that still has a free option. Using PostRank, you can track not only your social media efforts, but engagement on specific pages of your website. It also allows you to track documents like PDFs, videos, or presentations. You can even use the service to analyze your RSS feeds.

You can get a lot of information on individuals updates or blog posts as shown below. Scrolling down this page reveals individual engagement activity, like tweets mentioning the post and more.

Paid Services

There are a lot of social media metrics services popping up now-a-days, but with all of the free tools at your disposal, you won’t likely need them. Large companies, major brands, and PR firms running regular campaigns are typically the target market for such services.

If you do find yourself in need of a paid service, though, here are a few that have earned good reputations in PR and marketing circles:

• PostRank
• Radian 6
• JittterJam

When choosing a paid service, here are some questions to ask:

• Does it integrate your social accounts like Facebook, Google Plus, and Twitter?
• Does it measure all of your social accounts?
• Does it measure your RSS feeds, Website, and other documents?
• Does it measure interactions across other social sites?
• Does it show specific interactions?
• Does it measure engagement within your social accounts and on your website?
• Does it show “tags” or key terms used to find your content?
• Does it interface with Google analytics or other analytics tools like Facebook Insights?

Step Four: Stay Informed, but Trust Your Instincts

Don’t get overwhelmed by all the “advice” out there. You know your business better than anyone, so don’t fall into the trap of following advice that does not apply to your goals. I am not suggesting you ignore what others are saying, but I do suggest choosing only a few good sources that can help you stay informed on the latest trends in social media.

Here are some resources to consider:

• Mashable
• ReadWriteWeb
• SocialMedia.biz
• SocialMediaToday

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

I also recommend a slow and methodical approach. If you are building a consistent and optimized online presence that you periodically analyze and adjust to meet your goals, then you are on the right track. Trust your instincts: keep doing the things that are working, and ditch the things that aren’t.

Deltina Hay is the author of The Social Media Survival Guide and The Bootstrapper’s Guide to the Mobile Web. She also teaches the online version of Drury University’s Social Media Certificate program. Learn more about Deltina and her availability for speaking engagements at Deltina.com. You may also enjoy listening to her video tutorial series on YouTube.

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I am excited to announce that my next book, The Bootstrapper’s Guide to the Mobile Web: Practical Plans to Get Your Business Mobile in Just a Few Days for Just a Few Bucks, will be released by Quill Driver Books in April 2012.

The Bootstrapper’s Guide to the Mobile Web is a complete guide to getting you and your business ready for the mobile web. The mobile web is upon us whether we like it or not, and you need to be ready. This book can help you choose the best mobile website solution, whether or not you need a mobile app, and what other mobile trends you should be implementing.

Like my last book, The Social Media Survival Guide, this book offers real-world, step-by-step examples, tons of resources, and worksheets to help you with your overall mobile web strategy and plan.

Some of the topics covered in the book include:

• How people use the mobile web, why it is different from the traditional Internet, and why you need to be prepared.
• How to decide the best solution for your mobile website.
• Step-by-step examples of methods and tools used for creating mobile websites.
• Issues like mobile traffic redirection and search optimization as they apply to mobile websites.
• A worksheet for creating your mobile website strategy.
• Reasons you might—or might not—want a mobile app, and options for preparing one.
• Real-world examples of methods and tools for creating mobile apps.
• A worksheet for creating your mobile app strategy.
• Other mobile tactics like QR codes, location-based marketing, mobile ad campaigns, and SMS marketing.
• The future of the mobile web such as augmented reality, near field communication, new search optimization techniques, and more.

This is the only book you need to plan your entire mobile web presence. I hope you pre-order The Bootstrapper’s Guide to the Mobile Web today!

And, if you are a tech book reviewer, email me for an advance copy to review.

Thank you for your support,

Deltina Hay

by Paul Gillin

250 pages, Hardcover

The first book devoted entirely to B2B social marketing. B2B markets are fundamentally different from consumer markets. Decisions are made on value, not impulse. Buying cycles are complex, often with many stakeholders involved. Relationships and support are critical. Bet-the-business decisions demand discipline, knowledge, and lots of information. This hands-on guide covers topics unique to this segment, including cost justification, prospecting and lead generation, matching tools to the sales funnel, building, B2B search engine optimization, social media monitoring, social media policy development, long-term client relationships, gaining stakeholder support, building a more transparent organization, and what’s coming next.

Buy it from Amazon as a hardcover with CD

Download to your Amazon Kindle

by Dave Evans

408 pages

Written by the author of the bestselling Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day in collaboration with Jake McKee,  Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement takes marketers, product managers, small business owners, senior executives and organizational leaders on to the next step in social technology and its application in business. In particular, this book explains how to successfully implement a variety tools, how to ensure higher levels of customer engagement, and how to build on the lessons learned and information gleaned from first-generation social media marketing efforts and to carry this across your organization.

Buy it from Amazon as a paperback with CD

Download to your Amazon Kindle

by Deltina Hay

454 pages, illustrated, indexed, CD with resources and fillable forms

A completely revised and updated version of Hay’s earlier 5-star rated “A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization,” this new edition, retitled “The Social Media Survival Guide,” incorporates the latest developments in social media. This no-nonsense guide details the nuts and bolts of the open-source internet by using real-world examples with dozens of screen shots for each subject. The companion CD provides links to resources, and directories of social websites in addition to forms and worksheets designed to map social media strategies. This practical, hands-on introduction to social media tools such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter helps grow brand recognition, improve and expand sales, and increase profits for business owners, professionals, musicians, and artists alike.

Buy it from Amazon as a paperback with CD

Download to your Amazon Kindle

by Deltina Hay

Social Media Monotony: It was bound to happen.

Like all good things we do for our business every day – balance the books, pay the help, return emails, follow up with clients, floss – we know that networking and marketing are necessary to our business’ success.

My mantra is: If I am not working, I am marketing. If I am marketing, I will be working. And, like it or not, social media is now a necessary part of both networking and marketing.

Lately I have noticed a change in my enthusiasm for social media, and I have a feeling I am not alone. It isn’t that I believe it is less effective or that it is losing its appeal, it is just that I have been doing it long enough to have fallen into a rut.

While trying to think of tips this week, it occurred to me that this may be the best one to offer. Following are some time-honored cliches applied to social media marketing that may help relieve the monotony.

Cure #1: You can’t keep what you have without giving it away.

That is one of my favorite anonymous quotes. I believe that the most successful bloggers write from that place – where it is not about promotion or plugging a product, rather about the sharing of knowledge and expertise – freely, without any expectations.

I know the pessimists in the crowd are thinking that there is no such thing as true altruism, that everybody gets something (if only a way to feel better about themselves) from any seemingly selfless act. And, well, so be it. I get something, the readers get something – sounds like a win-win to me!

Cure #2: Change the circles you run in.

I like to think that my LinkedIn connections, Facebook fans, and Twitter followers are different groups of people. Accordingly, I am hoping that the “circles” I run in on Google Plus also come from a different group.

My strategy is to invite people outside of my usual circles, though, with the intention of widening my network. I try to apply this strategy to all my new profiles.

Cure #3: A change of scenery.

It is amazing how something as simple as rearranging the furniture can improve one’s outlook. Try changing up how you post or where you post from as a cure for your social media rut.

Some of my favorite tools are HootSuite, Ping.fm, and Posterous. Here is a recent post about social media apps that may help, too.

Cure #4: Do something out of character.

My Facebook page posts are pretty predictable. I write about the importance of staying on topic, and try to practice what I preach. However, now and again it may not hurt to mix things up.

Today, I placed a post on my social media book Facebook page that links to a Flickr set with photos from Bastrop State Park in Texas – before the fires – just to break the predictability.

Cure #5: Try something new.

If you have the time and resources, you might consider adding another tool to your social media strategy. I recently started some HubPages and a Winksite to this end. Since I don’t have a lot of time to maintain new profiles, my goal is to recycle my existing efforts into different platforms in hopes of widening my network.

Some other tools presently on my “to do” list include:

• Tumblr
• Diaspora
• awsomize.me
• Netvibes

Hope you find a cure in this post if you are suffering. And we would love to hear what has worked for you!

Deltina Hay is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Social Media Survival Guide, already in its second edition. She also teaches the online version of Drury University’s Social Media Certificate program. Learn more about Deltina and her availability for speaking engagements at Deltina.com. You may also enjoy listening to her video tutorial series on YouTube.

Subscribe to the Social Media Tip O’ the Day Feed

Paul Gillin is a writer, speaker and business adviser who specializes in the strategic use of social media. Since 2005, he has written four books and published more than 130 articles about the changes in markets and society being driven by media democratization. His books include , The New Influencers, Secrets of Social Media Marketing and Social Marketing to the Business Customer. Paul writes the monthly New Channels column for BtoB Magazine. He is a research fellow at the Society for New Communications Research and serves on the Procter & Gamble Digital Advisory Board.

Dave Evans is the VP of Social Strategy at Social Dynamx, an Austin, TX-based firm involved in the processes that link customer service and the social web. Dave is also the author of best-selling “Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day,” as well as “Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement.” Dave is a regular columnist for ClickZ, a frequent keynoter and leads social technology and measurement workshops with the American Marketing Association as well as Social Media Executive Seminars, a C-level business training provider.

Look for valuable social media and general marketing tips from Paul and Dave this week and in weeks to come.

Thank you Paul and Dave and welcome aboard!

The Social Media Power Team

There are still ways to create a YouTube video gallery for your website or blog, however.

The latest entry in the Internet Empowerment Series of video tutorials, this video walks you through how to create a YouTube gallery using playlists:

The latest entry in the WordPress segment of the Internet Empowerment Series of video tutorials, this video walks you through how to generate and implement a Facebook Like Box for your Website or blog:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3PEII13HpQ

Released by “new influencer” Paul Gillin’s publisher, Quill Driver Books, the previously named “A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization” is now in its second edition and renamed The Social Media Survival Guide.

The new edition of The Social Media Survival Guide has been thoroughly revised to document the latest versions of the most effective social media tools.

The second edition includes new information about creating social media marketing strategies; new social media technologies and capabilities; new analytic tools for measuring success; and new tactics for integrating social media sites.

Also included are completely updated how-to information, with supporting graphics and screenshots, on the new evolutions of WordPress, Facebook, microblogging, creating and customizing website widgets and badges, and more.

You can purchase the book directly from the publisher, or from Amazon.

Please let us know if you would like to review the book.

Thank you for your support!