We Track Everything Else, Why Not Social Media?

By: Joe Kiefer

Social Media continues to emerge as a legitimate marketing technique, but companies will struggle with how to best blend social media with their current marketing for well into the foreseeable future.  Unfortunately, there is not a one size fits all approach to social media.  What you are selling, who you are selling to and how you are selling are just some of the questions that need to be asked to determine which social media sites you should have a presence on, who should be managing that presence and what message you are trying to convey.

Regardless of what social media strategy your company moves forward with, make sure you develop a method for tracking your efforts before you get too far along.  There are just too many social media options out there to try them all at once, and if you aren't tracking your efforts you will never know which ones can be cut and which ones to double the effort on.  Not only will you end with a lot of wasted time, money and effort, but you could potentially cut a strategy all together that was producing great results.

There are off the shelf options out there for tracking, but make sure you do your homework.  Free tracking programs are available, but will often have bugs, not work consistently and may not improve as the social media landscape changes.  The paid versions are typically more structured, more reliable and better suited for major efforts.  This is not always the case, however, and if you are just getting into the social media world you may want to start with some free software first to figure out what you like and what you don't like.  Don't make an expensive decision without knowing exactly what you are looking for.

A third option is developing the tools in-house.  This will probably be the most costly, but will ensure you are getting what you want out of the tracking.  An off the shelf program will not always track what your company views as the most important statistics.  This method always comes with the most commitment as a company.  Eating up IT time is always a hard decision to make and there is the possibility that your tracking needs may change by the time the tools are developed.  Keep in mind how rapidly the social media world is changing.

The most important thing to remember is, no matter which solution you choose, you will be one step ahead of the game by putting some sort of tracking in place.  Would you send out direct mail or e-mail without being able to track the results?