Business Success: Measuring and Improving Your Social Media Engagement

There are several ways to measure your social media progress. One of the most important measurements is to look at how many people actually did something with your message, your blog post, your Tweet, your link, or whatever else you were sharing at the time. This is called “measuring your engagement.”

When You Speak, Do People Listen?

Measuring engagement is important because it gives you some insight into how powerful your online presence really is. If you are actively connecting with others online in a positive way, you should notice an increase in those who regularly follow your Tweets, your blog posts, your Facebook status updates, etc.

How Do You Measure Engagement?

Measuring the direct action that was taken as a result of your social networking is fairly easy when you know what to look for. Here are a few simple tools and tips that will help you to quickly analyze the success or failure of your social media strategies:

Twitter:

How viral are your tweets? When tweeting posts from your WordPress blog, plugins such as Wassup will allow you to monitor how many readers are on your blog at any given time. This type of plugin makes it easy to Tweet a post and then jump back to your site to see how many individuals clicked on your link and are reading your post.

Also remember to look at how many times your message was retweeted and how many direct messages were a result of a tweet. These are important facts to keep in mind. Repeat what works and throw away what doesn’t, period. That is the quickest way to succeed in social media.

Facebook:

How many times are your links “liked,” or “shared” on Facebook? How many comments do your status updates spark? Your Facebook doesn’t have to be bland or boring just because it is industry or business driven. Don’t be afraid to mix things up a bit. Try different strategies to spark interest. Post trivia questions about your industry or even hold contests on your Facebook page. With a bit of imagination you can come up with unique ideas that will draw attention.

Blog Posts:

Evaluate the comments you receive as a result of your blog posts. Set up Google Analytics or other tracking tools that will let you know which blog posts are most popular.

Share, Retweet, and Facebook Like buttons are also important tools to set up on your blog. If one particular post has sparked attention, be sure to create follow up posts on the same topic. The more you are able to answer the questions of your readers and provide solid, valuable content, the more of a powerful presence you will have online.

Blog posts should always include a call to action. Whether it is an invitation to leave a comment, purchase a product, or download a free ebook, participation is key.

Engagement Analysis Tools:

There are new engagement analysis tools cropping up all the time. Some of them, such as Biz360, TweetEffect, and Radian 6 can provide detailed analytics involving your social media efforts. If you don’t want to do the legwork yourself, these tools can deliver the information right to your email. If this is the route you take, be sure to take the time to actually use the information to determine what works and what is worth repeating.

How is your social media engagement progressing? Do you feel that you are taking advantage of your social media options or do you feel overwhelmed? Share your thoughts with us.