Social is hard and it takes time and patience in order to begin to see success. It’s essential that your business has a social presence; if it does not you are simply missing opportunities. More importantly, you need to have a strategy and specific tactics in place in order to achieve set goals. Goals should be modest at first and then dialed up to become more aggressive as you begin to find your social groove.
How to Measure
A good place to start is by establishing baselines early and focusing on the social metrics that can really move the needle for your business. You are going to need a few tools for this one. If you are serious about your social, then it’s going to take some budget. I prefer to use a combination of the Marketing Cloud, Google Analytics, and a marketing automation platform (such as from my employer, Marketo).
The Marketing Cloud is in my opinion the most comprehensive tool for measuring mentions, identifying influences, and staying on top of trends. Google Analytics is essential for measuring traffic and conversions from social. Marketing automation platforms round out your tool set by capturing leads from social, scoring these leads, and placing them into an appropriate nurture track. In addition you can track social as a lead source and tie your efforts directly to pipeline.
