Look at What You Did: Creating a social media measurement habit
To know where you are going in your social media program, you have to measure it.
As we move into the last part of 2024, we’ll be looking at social media measurement - specifically, by tracking & measuring your social media program. Some people love it - and it can drive stress or panic into the hearts of others.
If you are like, "Tracking YAY! I love tracking!" - you, my friend, can close this blog post and nap or read a book.
This post is for my friends who saw that second sentence and went:
Measurement can be fraught. With a small team (or heck, when you ARE the team), it can feel like ONE EXTRA TASK that only shows you what you AREN'T doing.
Not enough followers, not enough engagement, not enough link clicks. It may never feel like enough.
So you avoid it because it makes you feel crappy or defeated. Until your boss does a desk drive-by on January 10th and says, "Hey, I'm doing a presentation for the board meeting next week. Can you draft me up some marketing highlights?"
And then you spend the next week in your own personal hell of report creation. You may also enjoy a little light self-recrimination while you're at it, muttering that you NEED to set time aside to do this more regularly.
Then another year passes by, and there's another desk drive-by.
But what if, instead, you created a small habit of tracking that led to more significant habits of learning?
Let's look at how you can start tracking your social program - starting with a small weekly check-in and then growing to look at additional data throughout the year.
Quick note: Remember, this is general information and a starting point. When I work with individual clients, we track based on their goals and the general items below. As you start tracking, you may find OTHER things to track that align with your needs! This is one of those things that will make you feel like a GENIUS, and it's super fun, I promise.
If you don't regularly track, or if you feel like your tracking is a haphazard dip into an Excel spreadsheet every 6 months, I will challenge you to:
START TRACKING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA WEEKLY
Why? Starting small is more sustainable. It is much easier to compile data each week than try to look backward for an entire year. Once you get used to this, it can take you less than 15 minutes each week. Here are the basics you can start with:
Social channel follower growth for each channel you use
Engagement levels (views, likes, shares, comments & link clicks) by channel*
The one thing that resonated most with your communities (was it a puppy picture? It was probably a puppy picture.)
Anything of note that may have impacted your social (i.e., a news story, a customer comment, a partner shoutout, a good or bad review)
Have trouble making it happen? Do it first thing Monday morning, and send it to someone on your team. Don't have a team? Send it to me at corrie@corrieoberdin.net and I'll send you a celebration gif with the animal of your choice every week, free of charge.
THEN, TRACK YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA MONTHLY
If you are already tracking the stuff above, AND you've been doing it for a few months, you can dig a bit to learn more. Here are the two things I add in when it is time for my clients to layer in monthly tracking:
Review follower growth and engagement across channels. This is when you'll see patterns in your data and maybe some growth or changes!
Look at your website metrics and see what channels drive visits and what those visitors do once they get there (are they staying and doing what you want, or bouncing?). Note: YOU may not be personally responsible for the website, but knowing can get you moving in the right direction.
As you start tracking more deeply, you may feel the need to try to FIX EVERYTHING YOU SEE - as soon as possible. Just remember, tracking is not meant to send you off into a spiral and get you to change everything immediately. It's data. Over time, it'll help you change things, but resist the urge to FIX IT NOW. It's just numbers, not something you need to change immediately.
FINALLY, TRACK YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA QUARTERLY
Once you are set in weekly and monthly tracking, a quarterly check-in can be an excellent tool for looking at your program holistically. Getting caught up in the day-to-day messaging and engagement grind can be INCREDIBLY EASY. That makes it easy to fall into the trap of "Oh, X & Y get more likes and views, so let's do those more."
Which is great for quick hits of executive dopamine but rarely, if ever, sustains our social media mission. Instead, take a few hours each quarter to:
Look at your analytics in groups. For many of my clients, we categorize our posts into topic buckets or action items and look at the analytics of those categories across channels. Looking at your messaging in batches or categories can help you decide what to post in the future, identify how close you are to your strategy, and whether or not your audience is receptive to your mission & message.
Review your demographic data for each channel. Each social media channel had audience data; my friend, there is GOLD there. Age, gender, location, and more (depending on the social channel) can help determine if you are reaching the right people. It doesn't change often enough to look at monthly or weekly, but quarterly seems right!
Also - if you don't have the time to do one or the other, you can smoosh your monthly and quarterly tracking together once a quarter to get a look at your program as a whole. The big secret is that once you've done 4 quarterly looks, you have a look back at a full year of your social program.
TO REPORT OUT OR NOT?
If you work in an organization, not as a soloist, ask yourself: Is this for me, or should I compile it and send it up the chain?
It depends. Start tracking for yourself because the more you know, the better your social will be. But once you get comfortable monitoring the information, absolutely DO consider sharing it. GET THAT CREDIT YOU DESERVE FOR DOING THE THING.
But as always, make sure if you commit to a regular reporting out (in whatever form), it's something you can do sustainably. A fancy monthly deck will NOT BE KIND TO YOU in the long run if you are already overworked.
You can structure your tracking in many different ways, and there are tracking opportunities (especially on the engagement front) - that I didn't cover here, but hit reply if you'd like to learn more!
This blog post has been adapted from my monthly newsletter, Sustainable Social. If you’d like monthly advice tailored especially for small teams and focusing on how to work with the resources, time and people power that you have - you can subscribe here: https://www.oberdinconsulting.com/sustainable-social
