Managing a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram page is a more simplistic piece of implementing a marketing strategy – right? Wrong. Although sending out tweets and posting on Instagram might be as straightforward as hitting a button and waiting for the likes to roll in, what many companies struggle with is creating content that aligns with the brand’s overall marketing objectives.

And, even if your likes are reaching the 1,000s, are you really reaching your target market?

The truth is, branding efforts can go awry somewhere along the line if no one is paying attention, or if a social media strategy isn’t being utilized. Sure, you know what followers and page likes are (obviously), but when it comes down to analyzing your social success, it can be hard to tell heads from tails, especially when you might have to adopt a new vocabulary to understand the elements at play.

So, if social media marketing always ends up on the backburner of your brand’s marketing strategy, it’s time to re-work the plan (and implement one)!

Know Your Audience

Check out your analytics and determine the demographics of your followers. Do they align with the target of your brand? Upon taking a closer look, you may find out that you’ve been reaching the wrong people socially, which might make the accomplishment of 100K Facebook followers a little less exciting.

The number of likes and shares you receive are only beneficial if you are, in-fact, reaching the right people.

Make It Measurable

A good social media manager will always create a plan that allows for the measurement of success. Don’t get blinded by the sheer number of followers, it may end up limiting the capabilities of your brand on social media. While likes and shares can be beneficial in determining the successful resonation of your messages, it’s not the only variable at play.

Also Read: Social Media Marketing Moves from Megaphone to Targeted Conversations

Know Your Metrics

These days, social media may as well come with its own personalized dictionary –we’re talking about the words you might come across on your business account — reach, views, and impressions. Get to know these terms and start to leverage them into an effective strategy. Here are some tips to de-coding your analytics.

Find Your Reach 

If you’re managing a social media account, you’ve seen the term “reach” before. Your numbers even look impressive – but what are the numbers really telling you and how can you leverage that for social success?

Followers and non-followers can be exposed to a post in a few different ways. Whether it is on their personal feed, on your page or seen as a result of a share from a friend, the term “reach,” groups all these variables together into one number. Got it?

Keep in mind that reach is often confused with the term “impressions,” although they are admittedly very similar. Social Sprout uses the explanation, “if 5 Facebook fans each saw your post twice, the result would be a total of 10 impressions, but only a reach of 5.” That’s because impressions are essentially the number of times a post is seen.

Keep It Simple

Outline your strategy in a way that makes sense to you.

You should clearly state what you want to accomplish and then give yourself a set of standards. That way, when you go to measure your success a month or so later, it’s clear whether or not you’re on the right path. Most social platforms have analytics built in, so get familiar with them. Have more followers than reach?

Find a better time to post. Page views down? Maybe you’re not posting enough. Now that you’re familiar with the terms, it’s time to listen to what your analytics are telling you, and adapt accordingly.

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