How does one know that their advertising and marketing done online has been successful? Is there a way to measure the actual return on investments when doing business in an online fashion?
The above are some key questions when looking to gain all information required to accurately and effectively use Social Media as a marketing tool.
Social Media KPIs and Tools for Measurement
KPI’s, what are they? Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) are what you are going to be measuring. So, when you apply that to an everyday scenario, these are the targets you need to meet at your job, the goals you have personally, the objectives of a lesson in school, etc.
On Social Media, your KPI’s must be measurable in some way (Gil, 2019). They need to be specific to the platform that the company is using and they need to be more than just, ‘obtain 1,000 likes on this post’. Setting effective, measurable and reliable KPI’s allows Social Media marketing to be strategic and closely aligned with business goals.
Effective KPI’s revolve around the 4 C’s (as Gil refers to them); content, community, consistency and conversion (2019). If companies are critical of their marketing and focus on one of those ‘C’s’, the company is narrowing their marketing to become more effective on Social Media platforms. This approach, done correctly, leads to successful Social Media marketing and an effective return on investment (ROI).
Decoding Social Media Analytics: What Does It Mean?
Analytics, what are they? How do you manage them? Is each Social Media site different? All of these familiar questions will pop up indefinitely while using Social Media for marketing purposes. With most of the analytics that come with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc, there are ways to keep in mind the KPI’s that you are measuring to find the analytics on the platform that will be suitable for you.
It is also essential that the platform used will produce the most accurate information. If this is unavoidable, then it is key to know which interactions; likes, re-tweets, shares, etc. are acceptable to use in metrics and analysis and why.
An example that Gil dives into is when companies measure ROI on Instagram then the ‘likes’ should not be measured in any type of analytic (2019). He mentions this because said ‘likes’ are not a Call To Action, rather than a simple – and often mindless – interaction between users on Social Media.
Driving Measurable ROI on Each Channel
Naturally, for each Social Media platform, there will certainly be different measurable ROI’s for each. In 2019, Gil explains that some platforms have large pools of analytics, such as Facebook and Instagram. Whereas others have more limited data, such as LinkedIn (Gil, 2019).
One commonality amongst all of the platforms however is that they all have analytics that can be personalized and optimized. Most platforms will provide you with your ‘top-performing’ post, video or story. By doing so, this allows you to understand what works best for your audience (Gil, 2019).
YouTube incentivizes users to create content by providing monetary funds for YouTuber’s who have more than 1000 subscribers. Simple math in this situation is the more videos you produce the more ads you will generate leading to the more money you will make (Gil, 2019).
By better understanding the ins and outs of each platform, companies are able to tailor their marketing, promotions and ultimately, their ROI, to each network. By doing this, they are optimizing their efforts for the most successful campaign and return.
Bonus Strategies for Maximizing ROI
Maximizing your ROI should be a fairly simple method and it truly is. Gil helps explain this simply; post often, use engaging visuals and have a Call To Action (2019). By doing those three tasks a company’s ROI would be a natural progression.
Another key to maximizing return on investment is to continue to ‘think like a customer’ (Gil, 2019). How much do you like a pushy car salesman when you are walking through a lot? How about those kiosks in malls that give you samples as a way to lure you into a sale? The more you try to sell something, the more the consumer usually backs away.
By simplifying the marketing strategy and thinking how a customer would like to be approached, companies are really getting into the Social Media Marketing mindset!
Conclusion
When thinking about ROI’s and how that would relate to Social Media Marketing, I was excited at learning new content and delving into other areas. However, when watching the LinkedIn Learning videos by Carlos Gil, I found myself disengaged the entire time. Whether it was the drastic pace that he took, or the repetitive nature (both in his own videos and with previous ones), I struggled to find new, relating and engaging material.
In this situation, I am struggling to find an example to relate to or to apply, so instead I will relate the information to my everyday Social Media activity. My biggest take-away in this entire series was the YouTube information. I think I enjoyed this the most because it was something new that was not covered. I did some investigating into my favourite YouTube videos and they all fell into the pattern that Gil related; they were from popular influencers; they had a catchy title that was usually a ‘tips’ or ‘how-to’ and each video had a purpose – usually stated by the YouTuber.
Additionally, when Gil touched on Instagram and related the Instagram Stories to being the “star of your own reality series” a light bulb moment happened for me (2019). I have never thought of the stories in this perspective, and it is totally correct. I found myself reflecting on the regular Instagram stories that I view and indeed, it is a story of someone’s life. This is a huge drive in sales, engagement and potential Calls to Action. If I were to be more involved in Social Media Marketing personally, I would definitely struggle with this aspect of Instagram, which could lead to using a different social media platform all together.
Thanks again for reading!
References
Gil, C. (2019, October). Social media marketing: ROI, video recording, LinkedIn Learning.
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