5 Steps to Effective Social Media Measurement #Infographic

July 08, 2014 by Drew Beechler in social media

If you’re going to invest time in social media, you need to measure performance, but it can be difficult to identify relevant metrics. There’s no one-size-fits-all method of measuring social media success because goals vary from brand to brand. But you can certainly find ways to measure all the work you’re putting into your social presence.

Finding and mastering the key performance indicators (KPIs) for your digital marketing efforts is a top priority for marketers. Social media marketing comes under scrutiny often for its effectiveness and performance. It’s important to know how you’re measuring performance and mastering the metrics that matter.

Check out the infographic below and our latest e-book, 5 Steps to Effective Social Media Measurement, that will give you practical applications to help you:

Create strong measurement objectives from the start.
Weave social media into your customer service approach in a trackable way.
Focus on the metrics that indicate a shift in the way your audience is viewing or interacting with your brand.
Save money training employees by using social media tools.
Determine which social media channels are best suited to boost your bottom line.
Put a dollar value on social media metrics such as Facebook likes.

Developing an effective measurement strategy requires relevant data and the flexibility to tweak your tactics. There is no universal way to measure every social media initiative, but these calculations are at your disposal. Choose wisely and don’t overwhelm yourself. It’s up to you to choose what to track.

For more details on how to effectively measure you social media performance, download the full guide, 5 Steps to Effective Social Media Measurement, here.

What Instagram Sponsored Stories and Snapchat "Experiments" Mean for Marketers

October 14, 2013 by Drew Beechler in social media

In the last couple of weeks, both Instagram and Snapchat made significant strides toward the profitability and monetization of their businesses. Instagram came out publicly and announced a beta version of sponsored ads in the Instagram feed in this short blog post, but Snapchat only admits that their new "Stories" and cross-promoted ads with L.A. bands are a "little experiment." This is a major trend as more and more social networks and applications are introducing advertising. It was only May 2012 when Tumblr also launched their first "sponsored products."

This has been the trend for almost all social networks. They start out with a basic platform and once they cross a threshold of users, investors and stakeholders push the company to monetize the business and start to return a profit. What was significant from these recent announcements and trends, though, for social media marketing and social advertising?

1. Diversity in Social Platforms
If you didn’t believe it before, Instagram and Snapchat are sticking around. The shift toward monetization proves that. The number of channels brands have to connect with their customers is constantly growing and evolving. Brands have already started using corporate Instagram feeds, but now they will be able to deliver relevant, targeted posts to untapped users as well. As more and more social networks launch platforms for “sponsored” posts and partners, more and more avenues to reach your customers exist. More than ever, brands need to reach their customers where they are. The growth in the social space allows for brands to focus their efforts where they will be most effective. This ultimately leads to better segmentation, targeting, and positioning that is relevant to each individual customer.

2. Diversity in Social Ads
It is significant to note that it was only a little over three months ago when Instagram first launched videos. It is likely that since the Facebook acquisition, Instagram has been pressured to show a return on Facebook and its stockholder's $1B investment. Releasing sponsored posts after launching Instagram videos, though, will now bring ad revenue from both sponsored images and videos. The ability to advertise with video on Instagram will hopefully allow for much more creative and relevant sponsored posts in the Instagram feed. In the past couple of years, the diversity in social advertisements has grown significantly. Brands are being given more and more options to reach new markets and customers in new and creative ways.

In contrast to all of this, though, on the same day as Instagram’s announcement, Twitter noted in its SEC Form S-1 filings that they do not currently plan to place ads on Vine. Vine has 40 million users compared to Instagram's 150 million and Twitter is still a private company for the time being. It will be interesting how Vine’s resistance to ads will affect its popularity and growing adoption.

3. Acquisition Through Social Media
This continues to prove that you can sell through social media. Jason Falls presented a whole breakout session at Connections 2013 on How to Acquire New Audiences Through Social Media. Social media allows you to provide content that makes consumers smarter and gives them something of value first, before trying to sell them. Social ads have become just one more acquisition avenue through social media, but they also help to validate the importance social media has in an organization’s marketing efforts.

4. The Social Ad Market is Still Growing Tremendously
Social advertising only represents 1-10% of most advertisers’ budgets. As more and more channels open their platforms to sponsored posts and advertising, social advertising will only continue to grow and evolve.

As social networks grow up, it is inevitable that they move toward becoming a profitable business. Most freemium business models use advertisements and sponsors as that means of monetization, but a few have started to try and reinvent that business model. App.net has been one of the most popular to introduce a tiered pricing model based on the number of people you follow. What are your reactions to the recent introduction of Instagram sponsored posts and other social networks’ monetization efforts? Will this hinder the user experience on these platforms? Do you have any other ideas for monetization in these business models beyond advertisements?

Four Reasons Why #AUMeme’s Worked

April 11, 2012 by Drew Beechler in social media, marketing

First off, if you don't know what a meme is, feel free to indulge and acquaint yourself here. A late Friday afternoon before Spring Break a friend and I created a Facebook fan page for humorous Anderson University-related memes called the Anderson University Meme Page.

Within a matter of 72 hours this page exploded. We originally created it as an inside joke for a few friends. I invited solely about 20 people to the page thinking they would find the content humorous, but the effect was dramatic. The page had over 500 likes, over 150 postings on its wall, and thousands of individual likes on different postings all within a matter of 3 days. Now the page is over 700 likes. This may not seem necessarily “dramatic,” but with a student body of a little over 2000, we were looking at almost 35% of the AU student body “liking” and being involved on this page (assuming all likes were from AU students and all students have profiles on Facebook). We had essentially created the newest trend on Anderson University’s campus.

Why, though, did this explode so quickly? How did we reach 35% of our entire “target market” in a matter of 72 hours? And the question everyone is dying to know: will this trend stay popular or die out?

Here are four reasons why Anderson University Meme’s worked:

1. User-Generated Content.

Anderson University Memes is almost entirely composed of user-generated content. Students create the content and upload it to the Facebook page. They pour their own blood, sweat, and tears into their creations, so of course they’re going to come back, share, and invest time in the page itself. User-generated content gets people engaged on your site. It gives “customers” or fans a personal connection to your brand. With user-generated content, we now have over 700 different minds thinking of new content and jokes to make on our site.

2. Funny sells.

In the past decade or so, many companies and firms have been using sex to sell products. I believe recently, though, this has become less prevalent. The general public does not care so much anymore for sparsely dressed women anymore. What really does “sell,” though, is funny. People love to laugh. “What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.” Laughter is a necessity in life. It always puts people in a better mood. Why do people like the Super Bowl Commercials? They are hilarious.

3. Competition.

Everybody likes some good old-fashioned competition. In order for your meme to stay on the page it had to receive a certain amount of likes in a given time period, allowing the public to decide what was funny and what was not. Competition draws customers in. It allows them to connect with the brand and take ownership. The competition also keeps them coming back. It also gives them bragging rights on their own personal meme.

4. Common Experiences

The page quickly created a community around it. We all shared the same experiences with Anderson University and understand the inside jokes. The common experience creates a community—something marketers and branding people try their whole career to create. It keeps people engaged and entices people. That’s why they find it funny. That’s why they come back. That’s why they enjoy the page and that’s why it worked. The initial explosion has quieted down and not many people are using it still, but good, new memes still average high like percentages. It will be interesting to see if it was just a short-lived fad or if it will continue on.