How Often Should You Post?

I am probably asked this question more than any other from brand clients? The simple answer is you should post as much as your audience is likely to want to hear from you.

Yes, this answer is somewhat ambiguous, but let’s peal it down a bit. First off, asking this question is not the place to start. Ask yourself, are we jumping to tactics before we have a strategy and plan? Far too many marketers forget marketing fundamentals when establishing a social marketing presence. Consider “Where You Start in Social Media Strategy Defines Where You End Up.”

Next you have to have a rich understanding and empathy for your audience. Social is not about pushing your agenda. It is about your audience, not your product/service. Yes there is a cross section of what your audience values and reinforcing you’re offering. This comes from having a solid message and content strategy. I cannot emphasis enough how important a well thought out content strategy is. Think about providing your audience content that adds value to your offering and reinforces your brand as the knowledge leader in your industry vertical.

So once we have the marketing fundamentals and content strategy in place as described above, we can answer the question of posting numbers, cadence, and timing. If you are producing content that continually provides valuable information and/or compelling entertaining content, you can post more often than if you are simply providing product push. Think about those brands that ask you to subscribe to an email list and then send you a product blast every day. Doesn’t that get tiresome and turn you off to the brand? The same is true for social posting. If you just post product spam, expect your audience to get disenchanted, not engaged, and potentially un-follow your brand.

If you provide valued content, start by posting once a day. See how your audience responds. Examining empirical data to evaluate true audience response is imperative. As an example, I pulled some posting data from Social Bakers for two top notch social brands – Coca-Cola and Starbucks. Starbucks has 34M fans and Coca-Cola 60.5M fans so the magnitude of responses has large variation between the two.

There are three tables for each. I think it is important to look at the number of posts, user engagement (talking about this) and heat maps depicting activity times all together. These three charts help you draw conclusions with regards to the optimal posting for your brand. Yes there are best practices, but each audience reacts differently and you must know your audience behavior and execute accordingly. Notice that responses rates increase with hiring postings. Also, if you witness peak responses as in the case of Starbucks at the end of the month, examine the type of post that produced that spike and take note that the audience responds strongly to that content. It may be worthwhile to do more postings of that particular style.

Also noteworthy – is that postings to different channels should take on different forms. Twitter should be used for quick useful factoids and points of inspiration. Twitter should include a number of curation pieces and RTs from people that reinforce what the brand stands for. FB should be used to engage and extend the conversation and stories of the topics on a brand content hub as well as “tangential” postings of conversations and pieces that the content hub speaks to.

So to answer the question directly, “How Often Should You Post,” start with once a day on Facebook, a couple of times a day on Twitter. Make sure to provide content your target audience will value – not just product promotions. Examine the results (response to types of posts, best times for responses) and modify your posting timing and cadence based on the empirical data.

It is really not rocket science. It is more like the psychology of your audience – understand what makes them tick and play to their emotions.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

2013 – The Year Social Media Will Be Measured Correctly

In 2012, just about every marketer got on board recognizing the need for social marketing. More and more brands included social implementations to their marketing programs. And now, there is no shortage of “experts” making their predictions of social trends for 2013. (Okay, I added some context here as well. )

But this post is not a prediction. Social media metrics is a MUST for 2013. And I am putting my skin in the game. In the words of the great Peter Drucker, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

Before I share my efforts defining meaningful social metrics, let’s first review “What Successful Social Media Looks Like.” As I mentioned in that article, social marketing is not a strong channel to promote sales. But social is very strong at increasing Awareness, Consideration, Loyalty, and Advocacy. All of these attributes “tee up” sales. Thus we should measure social as a function of awareness, consideration, loyalty, and advocacy … at least as a start.

At Ryan Partnership, a full service marketing agency where I head up the social practice, I have defined the Social BrandAction Index. The Social BrandAction Index is a proprietary algorithm that weights different input parameters in each category of awareness, consideration, loyalty, and advocacy.

When I calculate the Social BrandAction Index for clients I come up with a number, say 237. The first question is “what does 237 represent? Is that good?” The number starts with a baseline and is meaningless at first look. The index needs to be looked at as a trend. You need at least four months of data to see how this number is trending. Trending is what is important. It tells how social programs are increasing (or decreasing) awareness, consideration, loyalty, and advocacy.

Certainly, the Social BrandAction Index provides meaningful information. But it must evolve, as social continues to evolve. For example, pins from Pinterest need to be added. At this time, Pinterest does not provide analytics that can be captured other than counting manually. Another case in point is sentiment analysis … it needs to improve significantly and it is part of the social metrics.

So yes. We have a start of meaningful metrics. But I will be the first to admit that they need to mature. So in 2013, I will continue to work on social media metrics modeling that provides the most accurate and telling conclusions of brand social marketing implementations. As I quoted Drucker in the beginning, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” If you have some thoughts with regards to how we take social metrics forward, let me know. Maybe we can collaborate to improve what I have defined thus far.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

Know What Successful Social Media Looks Like

I am really astounded at much of the conversation that the Facebook IPO has ignited. It appears that most people are equating Facebook and their valuation to a barometer for all of social media marketing success. This is ludicrous. Facebook’s valuation is simply speculation on Facebook’s revenue and profitability. Facebook’s revenue (at least so far) has been a measure of their ad revenue. Let’s be clear … Facebook ad revenue is simply a “digital display” offering. Display, although an important element of a holistic digital marketing plan, is not social media. So in the face of all the Facebook misconceptions, I want to set the record straight on social media success … you need to understand what it looks like before you can make sure you have a strategy to get it!

As I have defined in the past, social media is the combination of social + media or seeking or enjoying the companionship of others by the means of digital communication. I am a marketing executive and thus I look at social media from a marketing perspective. (Yes, there are other uses of social media beyond marketing.) As a marketer, we look to change consumer behavior and drive transactions. That is what successful marketers do.

Thus, as a social media strategist and marketing executive, I look at social media as one piece on an integrated marketing plan to change behavior and drive transactions. So it is those actual social media activities we need to concentrate on to change behaviors and drive transactions.

In the past, I have used the social media marketing funnel to describe the progression of changing behaviors and driving transactions. While the funnel shows a “typical” progression of the customer journey, the emergence of the digital world has turned typical to atypical. The funnel shows a linear sequence, even with its cyclic nature where advocacy re-feeds awareness. My experience examining customer behavior for the brands I work with reveals some slight variations. Yes, the funnel states are still there, and individual consumers can traverse the funnel states in a linear fashion, but we see more and more variations away from a linear movement as shown in the diagram below.

As we examine the new construct of social media relationships to change behavior and drive transactions, notice “conversion” is not part of the social media activities. Awareness, Consideration, and Loyalty states “tee up” a conversion. Social media is not a strong channel to promote a sale. (Yes, there are some examples where companies have done this successfully, but 95% of the time, social media should not be for direct conversion.) Think of forming a social media strategy to increases Awareness, Consideration, Loyalty, and Advocacy. Social media provokes these behaviors and these behavior changes drive transactions.

Awareness promotes consideration. Awareness can also drive a transaction. Consideration yields conversions and has a higher probability of doing so than simple awareness. After a purchase is made (conversion), social media activities can help to generate loyalty. Loyalty can result in repeat purchases as pictorially shown with a double arrow in the diagram above. Loyal customers can become advocates as well. You should think about post-sale follow up content and engagement to move your customers to a loyalty and advocacy state. And once you produce advocates you have a most powerful outcome. Advocates inspire awareness, consideration and loyalty. They work as the most trusted source of marketing your brand.

So when I say “Know What Successful Social Media Looks Like,” it means that you have a strategy and plan that consciously addresses how you are going to use social media to measurably increase awareness, consideration, loyalty, and advocacy. Not only do you need the plan, but you must measure results of your plan. Only in the rarest of rare situations does a social media plan hit perfection out of the gates. You modify your social tactics based on empirical results.

And how would you measure social media results? At MediaWhiz (the marketing agency where I head the social media practice), we have something called the Social Media BrandAction™ Index. This index is a complicated algorithm that has four sub-index variables that are measure – Awareness, Consideration, Loyalty, and Advocacy. Here are the inputs to the Social BrandAction™ Index.

Even if you have not derived a social media index equation, you should measure these parameters in the groupings as above and have a sense of your social media performance.

So hopefully now you have an idea what successful social media looks like. It is an ongoing effort that changes behavior and drives transactions. It is a continuous program that produces measurable results in awareness, consideration, loyalty, and advocacy. All of these elements contribute to the ultimate goal of conversion. But they not only contribute to conversion, they work to continue the relationship with the customers and strengthen brand reputation, loyalty, commitment and on going word of mouth marketing. Concentrate on your brand’s appropriate social activities that increase measured awareness, consideration, loyalty, and advocacy.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

Lessons Learned in Social Media

There is no shortage of trending lists, reviews, and top 10 lists looking back at 2011. I know many are cynical and think they have seen enough of them, but frankly I like them. They give me an opportunity to learn some things I missed. The problem is that anyone can produce these lists and get them out in the public … the “power” of social media. Yes, there is some good stuff out there, and there is some garbage.

When I look back on 2011 and think about the social media takeaways from my perspective, it is simple … just look at what I have written about. OK – I spared you the pain of going through all of them and did it myself. Funny enough, I pulled the best of the best together and grouped them together and what happened? You get the summary of important social media themes and learnings for 2011. Here is what you may have missed:

Understanding Social Media

The Simple Explanation of Social Media provides an easy to understand explanation of what social media is, what success might look like, and important considerations.

Integrating Owned Media, Earned Media, and Paid Media explains how the three different types of media should be planned to produce synergy and great results. (This was my most popular and top rated article)

Content

Content is the core of social media. Content must be awesome … would you ever share something that was just okay?

4 Ingredients to a Winning Content Strategy calls it like it is.

There actually is something more important than content. Find out what it is in Content is Super Important !!! (But Not King).

Social Media in Your Company

Social Media at Your Company – Policies prepares you and your company to leverage the power of your employees while putting some best practice rules and regulations in place.

It is easy to be impressed by someone that appears to know much about social media, but are they going to produce results for you? Before you get underwhelming results see 3 Helpful Tips when Hiring for Social Media.

Why Most CEOs and Top Execs Don’t Get Social Media explains some key issues from the C-Level Suite perspective.

Planning and Understanding Your Audience

Why is “empathy” The Most Important Word for Marketing. You better understand your audience through and through. How else are you going to appeal to them?

7 Things You Need to do to Turn Social Media Successful Results provides some common sense that is often forgotten when social media planning takes place.

Marketing Demographics and the Ramifications of Social Media:
Introduction to Psycho-Demographics explains marketing beyond traditional demographics.

Ever wonder Where is the WOW in Social Media? Take a look at what might be missing in your social media approach.

ROI and Measurement

Social Media ROI – Don’t Be So Short Sighted – Think Longer Term is probably the biggest mistake people make when it comes to social media. Get a reality dose here.

The Social Media ROI Conundrum is a solid examination at the challenge of forming a defined social media ROI and what to do about it.

Social Media Models

Measuring the Stages of the Cyclic Social Media Marketing Funnel takes a look at the traditional marketing model and how social media is applied complete with metrics.

Digital PR and Outreach for Important Social Media Conversations goes beyond your Facebook and Twitter implementation and explains an equal, if not more important aspect of social media strategy and implementation.

Unifying Loyalty, Rewards, and Social Media is an explanation of yet another integration point for your existing marketing and social media activities.

Social Media Model that Defines the End of the World as We Know It brings it all together and provides the balanced formula and approach for the winning social media program.

Wrap-Up
So we actually covered a ton this year and made some great advancements in social media. Social media is no longer that thing people are thinking about doing. It is part of just about every company’s, every brand’s plans. 2012 will show greater success and more defined best practices. And I plan to be there with you every stride of the way. I am looking forward to providing greater help and guidance and connecting with more of you. Thanks for being an extremely important part of my little social world. Let’s make an effort to engage more in 2012 and help each other out.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

Make Sure You’re Not Data Rich and Knowledge Poor with Your Social Media

I had an interesting scenario this past week where a sharp EVP from a known marketing research firm called me out on some social implementation I was executing. He questioned why and how I was using a particular social channel for execution. He went on to tell me that his company had data that revealed I was making a huge mistake.

Let me state from the start, I respect this person and his company and I use their information to help set some of the social strategies and implementations I work on. I am data driven and I actively seek studies and reports on social media from many sources on a daily bases. (You already know that … you see my tweets. ) But I think every social media study, report, and survey should have an asterisk on it that states “proceed with caution.” At the end of the day, the most important data is the data you collect from your own social implementations. Industry reports and surveys are a good starting place, but they lack the relevancy of your own empirical results.

Let me give you an analogy …. If I asked the question, how do you make people happy, the correct answer would vary greatly based on who you are, who they (the other people) are, and the relationship that you have with them. And the same is true with social media and the effectiveness of your interactions to accomplish the set, and objectives you have defined … it depends on the brand you represent, the audience you talk to, and the relationship between brand and consumer.

So how does one ensure that they are knowledge rich with the data they collect on their social activities? It starts by knowing what you seek to achieve. So with total transparency, let’s use me as an example. I maintain a social media blog and a presence in various channels as “Social Steve” to share social media strategies and best practices. I do this to gain the reputation as a social media thought leader. No hidden agenda. Based on that objective, I have selected certain social media channels to participate in, and I look at metrics in each of these channels such as views of my content, comments, followings, mentions, referrals, sign ups, reposts, and retweets. I look at this data as it relates to the categories of measurement that I have previously mentioned – awareness, consideration, loyalty, and advocacy. The way I measure awareness versus advocacy is going to be considerably different. As I look to build relationships with a target market, there will be different tactics implemented based on different psycho-demographics within the audience.

This approach and resulting data gives me knowledge with regards to what social channels, what type, style, and tone of content, and timing of distribution work best. My plan (personally and with the clients I work with) starts with my experiences over the years coupled with the guidance I gain from numerous reports, studies, and lessons learned from others in the social space. But that does not produce ultimate success. The ultimate success comes from having a good plan to start, running with it, looking at results as they relate to your objectives, and then making modifications to drive better results. This is a continuous cycle because constantly looking at your data and understanding the cause-effect of what you are executing produces a richness of knowledge. THIS IS THE FORMULA FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS.

The knowledge I have acquired comes from many years of experience in a broad array of marketing disciplines and a handful of years producing, implementing and measuring social media strategies. I have stated this many times … social media is a long term commitment that produces great long term results. In order to be knowledge rich, you must consistently evaluate data. If you want to realize social media success, you must use the appropriate data and take calculated risks. There are no “give-mes” here.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

Social Media Model that Defines the End of the World as We Know It

If I offered you $0.01 to work for a week, but promised to double your pay each week, would you take the job? If you work the math through you will find that by week 28, you would be making over $1 million a week. Started off slow, but the pay-off and long term result is big. You know, social media works the same way, but too many people are looking for the quick sale and looking for an immediate ROI. The wise marketing executives are in it for the long haul and are investing in social media to produce sustainable growth over time. If we look at the economy in the past four years, isn’t long term sustainable growth OK? Heck it is better than OK. Relatively speaking it is great.

And for the reasons above (as well as some great conversations with social media thought leaders), I am abandoning the social media marketing funnel that I have been trumpeting for a good while. It came down to one fundamental reason. The issue of sales. Here is the question – how does social media relate to sales? This is what so many are after when they bring up the question of social media ROI. Well here is the answer … social media increases the probability of sales. It is part of a marketing mix.

It is possible to define social media as a function of sales with extensive evaluation and regression analysis looking at all the marketing mix components and capturing cross media measurement. There are companies like MarketShare, ThinkVine, and SymphonyIRI Group that can do this for you. But in many cases, that is cost prohibitive. For many, they can intuitively accept that social media increases the success of SEO, SEM, paid media ads, as well as the non-digital traditional marketing endeavors. Social media contributions to sales is not immediate and is long term. Therefore it is difficult to measure. So why not simply look at the things that are easier to measure that lead to sales as well as looking at post sales metrics that contribute to customer life cycle value as well as word of mouth marketing.

If we concentrate on the things that lead up to a sale and the things after sale that are easily tracked, is this not an acceptable way to measure success? Is there not a value in looking at ROE (return on engagement) and recognizing that there is a definite value in engaging with your target audience; making them feel like your brand is a part of their life; building a relationships and trust? Does anyone debate that measured success here will lead to an increase in sales. So let’s measure and report on things that can be done quickly, won’t cost a ton to do so, AND ARE RELEVANT.

Take sales out of the equation. I am not saying that there is no sales attribute of/to social media. I am saying it is difficult to measure, if not cost prohibitive. If we take that stance, you should ask how then does social media relate to sales? Answer – it increases the probability of sales. It does this by generating awareness and influencing buying decisions (consideration) before a sale. Social media also increases loyalty and breeds advocates after a sale. So what we are left with is the social media marketing funnel I have previously defined without a sales stage. And if there is no sales stage in the measurement model, we certainly cannot use the funnel. What we are left with is “measuring social media success” as shown in the circular diagram below:

Yes, there can be other things that are measured, but this gives you some concrete examples of how we measure social media success. These four attributes increase the probability of sales and allow us to start measuring social media success.

A couple weeks ago, I recommended “How Social Media Helps Brand Building and Driving Profitable Business.” I suggested it was the intersection of “how customers engage with brands” (called Social Business) and “the way companies conduct profitable business” (called Relationship Enterprise). Relationship Enterprise is the diagram above and for review, Social Business is the way organizations should execute social media and looks like this:

This is also called the “A-Path.”

Now if we bring these two together, we have now defined “Social BrandAction” …

So, yes – it is the end of the social media marketing funnel. This new model represents the true business world of how customers engage with brands, and how brands build value. It also includes a scheme to measure profitable transactions that is easy to execute, not cost prohibitive, and unveils a true degree of success. It is based on return-of-engagement (ROE). ROE has long term ramifications. There are no short term scenarios to make a quick buck. Invest in long term sustainable profitable endeavors. Invest in social media and have realistic expectations and a method to measure your success.

I’ll leave you with a tribute to a great band that called it quits after five decades of awesome music. In the words of R.E.M. – “It is the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.” Do you feel fine?

Make It Happen!
Social Ste

When to ask for a “Call to Action” in Social Media?

If you are a returning reader to the SocialSteve Blog, you know I usually provide some guidance, best practices, or strong opinions on marketing and social media. But in this post, I pose a question and look for your input. A question that I really do not have an exact answer to – in fact I do not think there is a correct answer. It falls into the category of “it depends.”

When is it appropriate for a brand/company to ask for something from their social followers?

So let’s face it. Social media is not a toy. We have business responsibilities and need to the answer the tough business question. While social media is an important approach in developing strong relationships with your target market, you are going to have to answer why and what is it doing for your business – performance metrics.

At the same time, I am the first (well maybe not the first) to say social media is not good for sales. So how do we deal with performance metrics when I am saying social media is not good for sales? Well, you know I love the social media marketing funnel. I’ve written a number of articles on it. (“Social Media Conversion and the Social Media Marketing Funnel”, “Measuring the Stages of the Cyclic Social Media Marketing Funnel”, and “Social Media – How is Your Performance?” just to name a few.) You measure performance at each stage of the social media marketing funnel.

Now comes the question – do you let your prospect move through the funnel stages on their own accord or do you help them along? If you have business responsibility, the answer is you help them along. If you are looking to build relationships you might not see this as the answer. So if you have business responsibility and are looking to build relationships the answer is that you softly help them along. Yeah, this might sound like a cop-out, but it really isn’t.

A couple weeks ago I introduced the relevance of “psycho-demographics.” I contended that we must understand our target market’s individual state (as listed in the funnel above) and be contextually relevant. If you group your audience based upon funnel states (and other attributes) you can be contextually relevant and work on the relationships for that specific group. And if you do so, you can ask individuals to move to the next step (not literally).

In marketing, we call this request to move to the next step the “call to action.” But a call to action need not always be “buy one of these” and certainly not in a social setting. Throughout my career, I have run many marketing campaigns and I have generally followed one methodology. While social media is not a campaign and needs to be a continuous effort, the foundation of this marketing campaign is definitely applicable and provides excellent guidance. Here it is in five steps …

Communication/Campaign Goal
Defining the desired result –
a) What are you attempting to accomplish through this initiative? (Generate leads, build awareness, shift an attitude, build a client database, etc.)
b) What results are you seeking? (Generate __ hits on a website; capture __ new subscribers, __ “friend/connect” or “fans”, generate __ leads; generate __ requests of info, etc.)?
c) How do you intend to measure the results?
d) How will responses be captured?

Target Audience
Define the person who the communication must speak to. Identify them by their position/job description, industry, country-specific profiles, psychographic profiles, values and behavior.

Target Audience Perceptions
Describe the current perception of the target audience as it relates to your brand and what they think (positively or negatively). Describe the perceptions that need to be reinforced and those that need to be changed.

Offer and Value Proposition
Crisply and concisely describe the Solution/Service/Product/Program. This may simply be an initiative to gain awareness of your brand. Describe the functional role of the brand. Differentiation is also addressed here. Define the key message(s).

The Call to Action
Define what action you want the target audience to take as a result of the communication? (Subscribe, connect, attend seminar, visit a blog/website, answer a short questionnaire, tell a friend) How will you motivate the target audience to act in the desired manner and timeframe?

You see the call to action is well scripted in a marketing plan. But once again, a social program is not a marketing plan. We should take lessons from the marketing plan methodology and apply it to our social media efforts. For each stage of the funnel, see if you can define the five stages I have listed. They will vary in each stage because each group has different psycho-demographics. This becomes the bases for communication and socialization. It guides you to make sure you support and reinforce the brand position.

Now, back to the question raised in the beginning. When is it appropriate for a brand/company to ask for something from their social followers? When is it appropriate to have a call to action?

Here is my take …

Focus on socializing – delivering entertaining, useful, and/or valuable content. Make sure this is your real driver and that you are committed to engagement with people. If you really make content and engagement your key driver for social media, then, from time to time, you can and should have a call to action. But remember, the call to action must be contextually relevant to the psycho-demographics of the recipients. Your call to action should not be asking for too much, but rather the next logical step to be taken in deepening your relationships. Yes, the devil is in the detail and the detail changes for each brand and each funnel stage for the brand. Can you visualize and define the detail for your brand?

What is your take?

Make It Happen!
Social Steve

Social Media – How is Your Performance?

Why are you doing social media? For a good part of four years, I have been evangelizing social media – trumpeting the importance and value. Now I am asking, why are you doing it?

No, this is not a turnabout in stance. I really want you to know why? What are you looking to accomplish? You need to be able to articulate what success looks like in order to achieve it.

Every company and brand that gets involved with social media must know what they are looking to (measurably) gain and not be lured by the hype. I have defined and offered two models that help organizations define THEIR own objectives.

Social Media Marketing Funnel

The first one is the social media marketing funnel. I originally mentioned this model in an article “Social Media Conversion and the Social Media Marketing Funnel” and then later added measurement parameters to this model in “Measuring the Stages of the Cyclic Social Media Marketing Funnel.”

It starts with a traditional sales funnel …

You identify a target market and perform endeavors that first increase their awareness for your brand, then their interest, and a subset of those interested purchase your offering.

The Social Media Marketing Funnel expands the traditional model …

It adds two additional states, loyalty and advocacy, plus it segments target groups for each funnel state and identifies their “psycho-demographic” (their state of mind) for each of the funnel states. This approach is dramatically different than marketing to “standard demographics” like age, sex, geography, etc. Thus your marketing efforts vary for the different psycho-demographics. Check out the two reference articles if you what to dive into the social media marketing funnel more.

The A-Path

The other model I introduced was the A-Path. This approach was first introduced over two years ago in the post “Using the Social Media ‘A-path’ to Capture Ultimate Customers” and I later provided an example of an A-Path game plan implementation in “How You Can Execute Social Media Successfully.”

The A-Path takes the perspective that brands must focus on relationship building, and similar to personal relationships, they take on different stages over time. Think about your relationship with a significant-other and how it has involved. From a brand-target-market relationship point of view, this means taking sequential steps: Attention > Attraction > Affinity > Audience > Advocate. Once again, from a marketing angle, you implement different strategies for each of these states of a relationship. Check out the referenced articles for more information.

Models Lead to Objectives

The reason why I bring up these models again, is that I want you to have a bases of why you are doing social media. What are you looking to accomplish? This must be a conscious decision – don’t just do it. Write it down; be prepared to tweak as you travel and learn; but always have a vision of what success looks like.

Social Media Performance

If one of the models I defined resonates with you, you should measure your performance at each stage. For example, are you increasing your awareness, consideration, sales, loyalty, and/or advocacy? (Yes, everyone wants to ultimately increase sales, but it is really activities in the four other stages of the funnel that leads to increasing sales . If your social media objective and actions are simply to sell – you will fail.) You might elect to focus on one stage of the funnel … that’s okay. But know what you are setting out to do. Same is true if you use the A-Path. If your performance is good, you should be increasing the number of people that give you attention, attraction, build affinity for you, become your audience and/or advocate. Each of these areas in both models have distinct parameters to measure and some of these parameters to quantify are mentioned in the referenced articles.

Measure objectives weekly, monthly. Look at variations. Determine rational attributes to performance. Modify initiatives to optimize. This is what social media performance is about. I always recommend looking at performance on a 12-month, month to month sliding scale. Look at the normalized curve of these statistics. Do you see sustainable measurable growth? 10% month to month on the normalized curve? What is your social media performance.

Much of what I described here has been my approach for the last four years. There needs to be a methodology that sets objectives and measures results in relationship to established overarching business objectives. I have done this with a number of big name and small name brands. I’ve shared my approach and experiences with many of you via this blog and twitter (and will continue to do so).

For me, it is time for my next chapter, to, as I always say, “Make It Happen” with greater impact. This week I accepted an offer from a “performance marketing agency” to head up their social practice. Performance Marketing recognizes that the world and customer behavior are constantly evolving. Practices need to change while capturing and integrating traditional winning models. This is why I got involved in social media in the first place.

In the coming weeks, I will fill you in on more details about my new gig, but for now, start to think more seriously about why you are doing social media and what you look to accomplish. And if you truly focus and execute in this manner, I guarantee you your social media performance will be successful, impactful, and recognized.

Make It Happen!
Social Steve