Test and Measure: How To See If Your Social Media Is Performing

Social media is one of the fastest growing forms of marketing there is.

It’s soared above direct mail, advertising and even email newsletters. But many businesses still don’t understand how to really maximise the value of their social media, or even how to use it at all. And if they do, only a small percentage are actively testing and measuring their success, then using that knowledge to improve their strategies. So today, we have 3 ways you can test and measure the performance of your social media, as easy as 1,2,3!

 

Use Trackable Links

This is a really simple little trick that can really help you see where your traffic and engagement is coming from, so that you can focus more energy there. If you’re using your social media posts to link back to your website (which you definitely should be), then you will want to be able to tell them apart in your analytics report. Luckily, it’s dead easy to do. Just use the Google Analytics URL Builder to create unique, trackable links. Then use one of those links exclusively on one social media network, and create another for the next network. Then when someone clicks on a link, your website’s Google analytics will be able to tell you where that link came from. Honestly, it’s never been easier to measure which of your social networks are performing for you, and which aren’t.

 

Split Testing Posts

If you’re still trying to get the hang of what works for your audience and what doesn’t, split posts are a great way to find out. First, you need to pick your variable, for example the images used, or the copy for a post, or a mix of both. Then all you need to do is schedule your post on the same day at the same time a couple of weeks apart, and you will get a true reading and monitor which post people engage with more. Some platforms have actually embraced this fully, and will allow you to do a split campaign within their advertising section. Using this method you can work out all sorts – from when is the best time to post on what platform to what kinds of images your audience engaged with the most.

 

Create Landing Pages 

Directing people to your websites home page is a fairly common practice in social media posts, but it doesn’t really help you understand their behaviour, and it doesn’t help them convert either! For each social media campaign you run, make sure you set up a landing page on your website that specifically links to the topic you’re talking about. This way your customers are being sent to the topics they want to read about, and you can understand where your traffic is coming from and how engaged it is. Don’t be afraid to play around with different variations of landing pages and calls to action for different networks as well – this will help you work out what catches your audience’s attention and inspires them to take action.

 

And that’s only 3 ways of testing and measuring! There are many, many more approaches you can try. Of course, testing and measuring your social media only really helps if you know what you’re trying to achieve in the first place! For that, you need a strategy, some goals and a roadmap to help you get there.