Measurement is an important part of any marketing campaign, but it’s especially important with social media campaigns. You should be measuring three things, in particular: the buzz building around your company and industry; the ROI on the special promotions you’re running; and trends in the development of your contact list.
Let’s talk today about trends in the development of your contact list, and what to do about them. Here are three areas to pay particular attention to:
Contact Growth. Obviously, the picture we want to see painted in any graph of contact growth is a steady incline. Spikes, sharp declines, and stagnancy are things to watch out for. When it comes to spikes and sharp declines, determine if these increases and decreases in numbers correlate with your actions. If not, figure out why you are seeing these dramatic changes, and what you can do to correct the trend (or further it, in the case of an upswing). Conduct searches of the social networks and the blogosphere on a regular basis to see what customers, competitors, and industry commentators are saying about you. Find an answer!
When it comes to stagnancy, the key question is whether maintaining the list’s size is part of your plan or whether efforts to increase your list are proving ineffective. If your efforts are proving ineffective, are there competitors whose social media efforts you can look to gauge what’s working and not working? Are there other places to look?
Reciprocity. Reciprocity is a crucial unit of measurement on Twitter. Are you being followed back by the users you’re following? If not, why not? And, if they aren’t following you right away but are eventually following you, why are they reciprocating when they do? Look at the campaigns you were running during any spikes in reciprocation and ask yourself what you might have been doing then that you aren’t doing on a regular basis. Use the information you uncover to refocus your day-to-day efforts until following you back is a no-brainer for customers and prospects.
Number of Contact Points. How many different places can you contact a customer? It’s an important question to ask. After all, what happens if the contact quits Twitter or Facebook? And what happens when they change email addresses without telling you? You should constantly be measuring the number of contact points you have for your customers, and you should always be looking for new ways to capture secondary and tertiary contact information.
Those are just a couple of the strategies that come immediately to mind when thinking about trend management. Have anything to add? Drop a note in the comments below.
