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social networking
Social Media Analytics
Social Media Analytics
Are you a social marketer? One thing that is hard to do sometimes is to interpret what actions mean on social media. The fact is, not all actions even matter. It’s important to know what matters and what doesn’t and this may vary between the various social media platforms.
It’s also important to know what everything means or potentially means based on other factors and the goals you set. Below are some important questions to consider when social media marketing.
* Leads – How many new leads did you get from the action you performed? If you set up a freebie guide and marketed that, how many people signed up and downloaded it? If people downloaded a freebie, how many who did that took further action?
* Engagement – When you make a post, how many people respond in some way to the engagement? What was the point of the engagement? Did the audience do what you thought they’d do?
* Reach – How many people shared your post? How far did the post reach, meaning how many people laid eyes on it and shared it? If a lot of people shared it, you might consider adding more content like that.
* Impressions – When you boost a post on Facebook, how many impressions did it make versus how many people saw it, shared it, and engaged with it? What did they do afterwards?
* Funnels – With your analytics software you can set up a means to testing out your funnels to find out which type of funnel works best. This can help you identify holes in your plans to reach your goals.
* Unique Visits – It’s important to know how many unique visits you get each day, where they came from, and what they did after they got there. Did they convert? Did they sign up for anything? Did they download something? Did they search your site?
* Repeat Visits – Having a lot of repeat visitors is a sign of a healthy site with a lot of content for the audience to read and look at. What is the percentage of repeat visitors versus new traffic? If it’s low, what can you change? Are you targeting your audience correctly?
* Bounces – Are people coming to your website and then leaving before doing anything? If this rate is high, then that means something is wrong. Find out where the links are coming from and try to determine if the content is badly targeted or not.
* Exits – How and what page are people using to exit your website, and if they came from social media where did they come from? Can you pinpoint what is making them leave? What you can do to encourage them to stay or to convert them in some way, for example by using an exit pop-under?
* Time on Site – How long are your visitors staying on your page and what exactly are they doing while they are there? What do they read the most? What do they watch the most? What exactly are they doing that keeps them on the social media site? If they’re only there a short time, what did they do?
* Growth – How fast are the visitors to your social media page/platform improving each month? Is it going up or down? What actions affect growth? How can you do more of those things to keep growing your website and your influence?
* Response – When you create a post, how long does it take your audience to respond and what type of responses do you get? Are they commenting, liking, sharing, retweeting and so forth?
* Inbound Links – How many others are sharing your social networks and causing people to link to your social media networks? Who is sharing your platform more and why?
Finally, the only thing that really matters in the scheme of things is conversions. If you’re not meeting your conversion goals, then you need to readjust. Remember that conversions are what you determine that they are.
You may be tracking email sign-ups, clicks or sales. It’s up to you what a conversion means and if your social networking is deemed successful or not.
Using Analytics To Understand Your Competition
The more you can understand your competition, the better business you’re going to have. You can learn so much from them – especially if they’ve been around longer than you have.
If you know for a fact the competition is profitable and that they are good at what they do, it’s even more important to learn all you can from them. You can do that by using analytics.
* Google Alerts – This is an excellent, free service. Sign in and choose keywords, names, and more to search for. Then, set up how often you want to receive the alerts in your email inbox. You can scan each email to find information about your competition that you can use in your own business.
Link – https://www.google.com/alerts
* Social Mention – Use this cloud-based search engine to search websites, blogs and more for mentions about your competition. Then you can go take a look at what they’re doing. Identify the gaps in their offerings and you can outshine your competition in no time.
Link – http://socialmention.com/
* Website Grader – While it does ask for your website and not your competition’s (and your email address), you can still use it to check the health of someone else’s website. The information you will receive is page size, page speed, redirects and more, including how many requests for the site have been made. It also tells you how they’re doing on SEO and more.
Link – https://website.grader.com/
* Link-Assistant.com – Using this downloadable software you can study keywords of your competitor’s site so that you will know what keywords they’re using. You can then use them on your own website to nab their traffic.
Link – http://www.link-assistant.com/
* SocialAdNinja – You can use this software to copy and make your competitor’s ads your own. Of course, you don’t copy them exactly, as you are selling your own products, but this will help you duplicate the most successful ads online.
Link – http://www.socialadninja.com/
* KeywordSpy – This software is an amazing way to profit from your competition’s hard work and research. You can find out what keywords they’re using, what they’re spending for AdWords, their ROI estimate, and much more.
Link – http://www.keywordspy.com/
* Open Site Explorer by MOZ – You can get a lot of information about your competition from this cloud-based option. You can get information about the links that come into the site and the anchor text used, and you can even compare five sites. What’s more, it’s free when you sign up.
Link – https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/
Using these tools to discover important data to analyze about your competition is a great way to grow your business and please your audience. By keeping an eye on your competition you can learn about what your audience really wants and what they really respond to.
While social media marketing is powerful, it is important to try to get them off these platforms and onto an email list that you own. If you want to know more about growing and nurturing an email list the right way, check out the featured resource below for a free Simple List Building report; download, read it and take action 😊
The Best Way To Network At An Online Event
The recent pandemic has put a dent in your ability to network successfully. While most of you attend trade shows and similar events to add a few additional contacts to your Rolodex, online events are the latest, hottest trend.
Online events have replaced face-to-face meetings in recent years. As such, it’s time to up your online game when networking.
But how do you do that? In this guide, I’ll walk you through the best ways to network at online events. So with all that said, let’s start.
Have A Great Profile
The digital age requires us to sign up for services by creating an account. Most online events are services, and organizers will require you to create a profile to attend the event. For this specific reason, having a great online profile becomes a necessity.
Through this profile, you will tell everyone who you are and what you’re good at. Creating a profile makes it seamless to showcase your abilities and experiences. But a great profile will encourage others to go directly to you.
Since you need a profile to attend these events, this will likely be the starting point for many of you. I’ve had to tinker with my online profiles to network better at online events. Most of these events will also allow you to connect your social profiles.
After all, what better way for people to contact you than social media? Since we live in an age of social media, it’s natural to assume you’ll also need to work on that.
Start Introducing Yourself
There isn’t a better way to network at an online event than to make an exceptional introduction. By introducing yourself first, you’re breaking the ice and jumpstarting a conversation.
Much like any other event, you will need to introduce yourself to others if you want to network at online events. By doing it first, you’re telling others how confident you are.
Leverage Social Media
You should not underestimate the power of social media. Out of all the social media platforms, Facebook is still one of the best ways to connect with people.
While most of you shrug off Facebook, don’t forget that there are nearly 2.9 billion registered users on it. One of the benefits of social media is that it’s free. You don’t need to pay for anything – a fact that you’re certainly familiar with.
But there are also valid reasons why you need to work on your social media game if you want to network online. By leveraging social media, you can promote the event and get even more people to join.
If you’re using the relevant channels and tools, other participants will discover your profile through your posts. To do that, simply share the event and add the event hashtags (if you’re using Twitter or Instagram.)
You can also join Facebook groups and discover other participants, key speakers, and organizers. You can then directly contact these individuals and discuss topics relevant to your industry. Don’t underestimate the power of social media when networking online.
One thing that online networking and social media have in common is that you can do it all the time. Online events pop up all the time. You can join as many events as you like.
To successfully leverage social media, you will need to learn how to use social media for networking, besides Facebook, LinkedIn is one of the best social media platforms where you can find professionals in any field.
Participate As Much As You Can
Not all online events are about listening to what the panel of speakers has to say. Some events actively engage with participants.
These are the types of events where you need to participate as much as you can. One reason why networking online is important is that it keeps you connected. The more you speak and share your thoughts, the more people notice you.
Since online events are organized by professionals within your industry, these people will notice you as well. In addition to the many eager participants that want to connect with you, maybe the organizers and speakers will want that as well.
They will notice you, and thus take an interest in you. Who knows, you’ll even find a mentor who’s willing to guide you.
Join Hangouts
Online events try to mimic physical events as much as possible. Everyone knows that you can hang out with participants before an event starts. That’s why online event organizers make it convenient to allow hangout breaks before, during, and after the event finishes.
These hangout breaks are excellent for connecting with individuals. Most call them “virtual coffee breaks”, as they’re not that dissimilar. You can socialize during these coffee breaks and discuss topics regarding your industry and the event itself.
Virtual hangouts are great for getting to know your fellow attendees more. The event organizers might use a myriad of tools for hangouts. From Google’s Meetup to Zoom, and even specific tools like Whova. What’s important is to join a virtual hangout and let others get to know who you are.
If you’re likable enough, participants will ask for your contact information. Give them your email address, Instagram account, or LinkedIn profile. Sooner or later, you’ll add a few additional contacts to your virtual Rolodex.
About The Author
Erik Bergman co-founded Catena Media and helped grow it to over 300 employees and a $200 million valuation before stepping away to start Great.com, an iGaming organization that donates 100% of its profits to environmental charities. In addition to running a successful online affiliate business, Erik also hosts the Becoming Great podcast, shares entrepreneurship tips with his more than 1 million social media followers, and contributes to sites like Entrepreneuer.com, Business Insider, Foundr, and Forbes.