As Ryan wrote in a previous article, small businesses often fail to see the importance of social media for their activity. But even those who create a social media presence often follow a wrong path, focusing on metrics that are not quite as important as they seem.
Depending on your operation, the translation of metrics into valuable data can be either easy or difficult.
In case of a real money online gaming website, measuring performance is easy: just take a look at how many of the customers claim the great promotions offers through its social accounts, and you have the number of conversions at hand. These gaming sites have a series of advantages to build on, like their game library, their fresh games, their mobile platforms and their daily and weekly specials, all of which are measurable easily. Its downloadable casino suite offers its players access to over 700 titles to choose from, with hundreds of games running in a browser window, and over 100 of them also available for mobile play. Its weekly specials are ready to fill its players’ pockets with free cash, while its monthly promotions offer mouthwatering prizes that are truly worth playing for. All this in a secure and high class environment that offers not just quality entertainment, but also peace of mind.
But no matter which business you are in, the true measure of social media performance is always the number of followers who turn into customers. That’s where best press release distribution service can come in quite handy. Choosing the best service to increase traffic and customers is essential for any business to grow and thrive.
Let us take a quick look on what metrics a social network – such as Facebook – provides us with, and see how we should look at them to provide important market data that we can turn into profits.
Instead of follower count…
One of the most clearly visible number when you visit a company’s Facebook page is the number of followers (likes). While this is not entirely irrelevant – a higher number of followers can mean better engagement – it should not be the confused with actual results. Growing your follower count is not a goal, but a tool.
… focus on targeted leads.
A much more important metric to focus on is the number (or percentage) of your followers who respond to your social media campaigns, providing feedback and actually buying your products.
Instead of being content with the growing number of likes your page receives, take a good look on how many of your followers return, how many of those returning followers move on to your website (product page, webshop and so on), and finally how many of these visits are translated into sales.
Instead of mere mentions of your brand…
There is a saying attributed to Phineas T. Barnum, 19th century American showman and circus owner: “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”. Barnum might have been right in his own time frame and business, but for the rest of the world, this is simply not true. Being mentioned on social networks might seem good at first, as it has the potential to raise awareness for your brand, but depending on the context it can harm your business in ways you wouldn’t have imagined.
… focus on brand sentiment
There will always be customers who are not satisfied with your products, services, or the attitude of marketers. Unfortunate as it may be, it is not a tragedy – while not handling negative responses in the right way can be one. You must keep an eye on the context in which your brand is mentioned on social networks, and handle the complaints without losing temper, and in due time. Backlash against your brand can destroy it faster than you might imagine.
