Social media allows for us to extend our ability to connect and form relationships with our community and customers. We’re able to more effectively talk and share about what’s going on with us, while listening to what’s going on with the people that we care about.
But… how effective has it been talking using channels like Facebook & Twitter? Are users paying attention?
Unlike an email inbox, in the world of fast paced news feeds, it’s hard to figure out if someone actually took the time to read what it is that you’re saying. There’s no notion of an open rate, like in email marketing.
Well, I find it easiest to measure the success of my Facebook & Twitter messages when those messages contain an action that I want a user to take. There needs to be some kind of link that I want to get people to click.
So… whenever I have a link that I want to post to Facebook & Twitter, I first take that link and shorten it using bitly. I then post it. From there, I can start to see in real time whether anyone is clicking on my links and engaging with my messages.
From there, I start asking questions. Why are people clicking links? Why are they not? Is it the content? Is it the time of day? Is it how I described what I posted? Is it who posted it?
Then, it’s time to experiment. Is there a time of day where you can drive the most clicks? Is there a way you can write your content which drives the most clicks?
I’ve been experimenting a lot at work. Hope to draw some conclusions and post some results soon.
Oatmeal Stout - Justin Thorp's blog 