By John Pick
Guest writer, Profiles Asia Pacific
Social media has taken the world by storm and has quickly become an essential networking and recruiting tool. For job and internship seekers, it’s important to keep up with the latest technology by learning how to use social media sites to your advantage. For entrepreneurs and recruiters it’s important to determine which social media platform aligns with your objectives. For example, if you’re a business-to-business brand marketing an upcoming conference, you’ll want to consider LinkedIn.
#1: Engage in Social Media Listening
In this case, “listening” refers to the act of actually listening to your follower’s post rather than just shooting off posts of your own throughout all your social media networks. Listening is one of the most often overlooked uses of social media, yet it’s probably the most important. If you’re not listening to your customers, you’re missing the point of social media.
For example, Twitter provides powerful search tools that allows you filter through tweets about your company. These tweets come from people who are already customers or potential customers. Monitor their tweets on a daily basis. Engage with them, answering their questions, adding value and helping them whenever possible.
Twitter is an amazing tool for providing real-time customer service. You can learn things like:
- Exactly how many people you’re helping
- If you’re growing that number of people
- The issues customers are experiencing with your business
- What’s broken in your business
#2: Create a Rating System for Your Social Engagements
This is a simple yet effective strategy to use when you’re trying to generate awareness and buzz. It’s a smart way to measure the response to your efforts on Facebook, Twitter or any other social channel you’re using.
The technique is a simple one. Using Facebook as an example, whenever you post an update on your page; whether it’s a photo of an upcoming product, or a status promoting an upcoming event, keep track of how many likes, comments and shares and assign a point value for each one.
Likes show support and comments indicate a deeper interest but shares are most valuable because they move the update beyond your page.
During a campaign, a quick sum of values will help you determine if your efforts on Facebook are moving you closer towards your goal or not.
#3: Use Your Social Media to Add Value, Then Sell and Measure
The strategy comes from providing great content that influences your client’s values before asking for the sale. Social Media provides great opportunities for you to accomplish this.
For example, say your restaurant is rolling out a new healthy menu. You develop various social media pages under systems such as Facebook and Twitter for posting pictures of your visually appealing dishes. However, these systems allow you to create content around the importance of healthy eating and curate information on your Facebook Page about farmers’ markets in your area. You can even reference blogs by other people outlining the importance of healthy food.
You offer this content to build trust with people.
Then offer a coupon for your restaurant on your Facebook Page. The number of people who claim and redeem your coupon is a result you can quantify.
For more information check out Rick Mulready’s article at http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-strategies-to-measure-your-social-media/
About the Author: John Pick
