How ‘healthy’ is your social media?
Aishwarya Krishnamurthy
November 14, 2014 • 2 min read
Updated on May 2, 2017
Social media is now an important aspect of every brand’s marketing mix. With paid media taking center stage, there is a definite shift from engagement to accountability, or in its more popular form – ROI. When your boss asks you about the ‘health’ of your social media, you better have an answer.
While I’m sure everyone is aware of the advantages of monitoring social media performance, the truth is no one has the time to really dig deep. Between juggling multiple social networks (most brands are on a minimum of three social networks), multiple business objectives (brand updates, customer service,etc.) and multiple metrics, it isn’t easy to keep an eye on everything, all the time. Thankfully, you don’t have to.
‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’ is a rule we’re all familiar with. Simply put, by monitoring your health on a regular basis you can avoid the nasty surprise of finding out about a health issue only when it gets critical. In the interactive medium of social media as well, it’s important to have a regular system of checks in place to make sure that any anomalies are addressed right away.
In our new report ‘Social Media Analytics in 5 Minutes’, we’ve compiled key metrics across social networks, that if checked regularly can give you a good idea of how your brand is performing on social media. By looking at indicators like @mentions, views or fan growth you can check if everything is going smoothly or if there is a need to be concerned. For example if there is a sudden spike in @mentions, you should probably check out the cause – have you released a new product, or are you in the midst of a PR crisis?
In keeping with the ‘health check up’ analogy, I think it’s also true that we look to others to compare notes. If somone says that they’ve seen great results by incorporating kale into their diets, I think it’s human nature to try it for ourselves to see if we get the same results. Similarly, in social media marketing, comparative analysis could be the secret to keeping your content strategy on its toes. By tracking the content of your competitors, you can see what content is working for a similar audience, and you can see how well it is doing.
In our eBook we’ve compiled the metrics that you should definitely be paying attention to, advice from industry experts, suggestions of actionable items and we’ve also got some pro tips to help you take your social media to the next level.
Your social media audit shouldn’t take up your entire day, but a daily 5 minute check up of your vitals should be mandatory.
