It’s hard to believe I am just days away from finishing up a grad level social media and mass communication certificate with the University of Florida. The past six months have been jam packed with high level instruction directly responsible for escalating my social media marketing abilities to an elite level of execution.
A recent article by the Huffingon Post, originally left me wondering “Do you really need a masters in social media marketing?” Dubbed “a lost cause” by Katie Butler; as an upcoming certificate recipient it’s clear her hasty judgment doesn’t give credit to the intense marketing mix this level of training offers someone looking to perfect their capabilities.
I am now confident my choice to complete this program was one of the best steps I could of made to gain the technical skills leveraging me as a leading mass communication specialists.
One of the above articles suggestions was to follow industry leaders. As an intense Gary Vaynerchuk fan, I would’ve had to follow him for a decade to even get close to obtaining the structured knowledge I’ve gained from this program, in a mere 182 days.
The following evaluation is but a glimpse of the skills I’ve cultivated.
For our last assignment we were tasked to complete an analysis of a functioning companies Facebook insight report. I was able to extract the following action steps, revealing the true importance of monitoring your Facebook insights; far beyond vanity metrics.
1. Overall Synopsis.
The Facebook insight home page reveals much more than simple vanity metrics. It’s important not to get distracted by large numbers, high five yourself and move on. Sometimes even a well performing synopsis can reveal leaks in your campaign; with a technical analysis.
- Their page like ad is certainly giving them a boost in metrics; up 137% in new page likes this week. Which is disproportionate to their engagement rate of 65% with most of their “engagement” accredited to paid likes. When the majority of likes come from paid ads these #’s do little to reveal the overall health of a thriving community or the results of conversions from the campaign.
- With 3.5k reach on their best performing article, showcasing their “March madness mini split” deal, this certainly is an incredible reach. But the real question is how many sales came from that ad? Without knowing the conversion rate of the paid ad it’s hard to determine if the ad performed any significant results, or if it accomplished any goals the owners intended to complete by placing the ad. Goals must be made prior to any campaign, and steps to measure conversions must be in place prior to the ad to determine overall performance.
- The majority of likes came from ads, and it seems a few organic likes came from those who shared the ad. Without having a long term content marketing plan, most likely their ad will leave a void in their web marketing efforts.
- The report also revealed Saturdays and Mondays are the best days for this brand to post their most engaging content.
2. Key Findings.
- The fact that customers are just visiting their timeline and not interacting in depth with their posts, reveals users are not going further into the sales funnel. This also reveals there is no further conversion plan past the rogue Facebook ad.
- It’s very interesting that one person found them through Google search on February 6th. A top priority of mine would be to track back what it was that brought that user to their Facebook page, as it appears to be the only visit that month that didn’t come from a Facebook ad. This is interesting because it means there was an organic search that took place that led the user to their page. Finding the keywords that user typed in could be a key that further unlocks what their target markets needs/wants. Google and Facebook offer tools to track this sort of function.
- This report reveals that 73% of those seeing the ads are men, who are engaging with the content, but not choosing to become fans. That tells me there are targeted Facebook features that are not being used to capacity or the message is not converting those who have an actual interest for what you are offering. Facebook offers a few neat ad test options that would help get to the bottom of this.
3. Engagement Improvements.
- It seems the majority of their fans are woman between the age of 25-34. I would use that information to conduct a target market analysis determining how to best word content to further engage that group of people.
- Since we know the exact cities their fans live, I would create content that is distinct to each town. Keep in mind that users on Facebook like to be entertained. I would find creative ways to incorporate user generated content to build a more robust and organic engagement.
4. Incorporate other channels to boost results.
Engagement results on Facebook actually offer insight into how people will react to your content across the web. It’s the ultimate focus group. The above report reveals how well content is being received and how to adjust to creating content in the future.
Without looking at how all channels are performing, it can be tough to address this issue. Assuming though, that all channels have the same visual branding I would advise this company to use each channel natively to how the users operate within each platform.
Twitter is used for news related content.
Facebook is used to entertain and connect local communities.
Instagram is to illustrate raw, behind the scenes, footage that bring your brand life; in real time.
LinkedIn is used to connect with other professionals.
5. Effective future campaigns.
Running a rogue Facebook ad to boost a sale is never an effective marketing plan. An effective social media marketing campaign doesn’t start and stop based on your sales seasons. But, is an ongoing perpetual organism continuously working towards creating a community around your brand.
To integrate a masterful mix of marketing that actually results in completing a goal, requires a plan.
If this was my client.
- I would conduct an in-depth target market assessment.
- I would create a soft launch built around the newly defined target market.
- I would create a monthly content calendar following the 70/20/10 rule.
- I would advise them to create an offline event that we could spend 3 months marketing to bring new customers online; using face to face and proximity marketing strategies.
- I would create a blog title “HVAC University” by partnering with local technical schools as I way to build the company as a industry leader.
- I would set up a lead conversion tracking system on their website that integrates with their social media efforts to determine ROI.
- I would find creative ways to incorporate user generated content.
- I would work tirelessly to build and foster a community that will one day market for them.
Start with your FREE Web Analysis now; to see how your Social Media efforts stack up against your competition.
