A small business owner knows that making sure your time and energy is spent the right way is critical to your success. There are so many things that we are responsible for that sometimes it's hard to get everything done.
While you can outsource a lot of work, the fact of the matter is you also need to make sure that you are being effective in terms of marketing and business development. This is especially true in your social media marketing and management arena.
Social media has become a critical portion of our marketing efforts. Especially with our website usage and conversions. But how do you know how effective you’re being with the development methods?
Do you go by views? Maybe you look at click–through’s to your website. Perhaps you look at likes or follows.
Personally, I would think a critical test is going to be your click through to your website landing page rate. From there, the ultimate conversion into a sale, or whatever follow through you were asking someone to do.
How do you track all of that technical stuff? The easiest way is through analytics that are offered through various social media sites and websites. If you're on a budget, here are some free analytics that you can be using on a weekly or monthly basis to get you going.
Free Forms of Analytics to Use for Marketing
Twitter Analytics - Easy to use to see impressions and retweets, likes, etc.
Facebook Analytics – You need to make sure do you have set up a Business Page along with at least 25 followers to access highly in-depth detail about your followers, their interests, and interactions.
Facebook Ad Analytics – When you run ads on your Facebook pages you get in-depth detail about the interactions that occurred with that ad.
Instagram Analytics - Set your business page up and link it to Facebook and you will receive interaction and post insights right from your business page.
Pinterest Analytics – If you use Pinterest as a business owner, they have been developing wonderful analytics to show you interaction, views, click-through's, and so much more pin by pin and your business page overall.
Google Analytics – The perfect tool for your website. You can track click-through's from your social media to your website. You can also track key word usage, landing pages, location of user, and so much more. There is a ton of in-depth information that you can be utilizing to target your perfect market, track conversions, learn exit data, and so on.
HootSuite Analytics – if you are a Hootsuite user, which is a scheduling tool for posting to different social media sites, then you will have access to in-depth analytics that you can use for scheduling and sharing of posts. The paid version offers even more detail and reports.
For more paid web analytics, look for Kissmetrics and Clicky. These are great for ecommerce sites and can help you track data in real time. If you want to learn how well visitors interact while on your site, check out Crazy Egg.
Developing your tracking methods will help you track and target your effectiveness online. This can make a big difference in your business. Start with free versions and then upgrade into paid versions as you need it.