One of the great things about online marketing is the ability to breakdown results to the most “granular” level. It sounds great – but the biggest problem with all of the great measurement technology is that most marketers are still operating with a pre-online marketing set of expectations. As a result, the assumptions they make about the impact their online marketing program will have can be way off.
Gary Stein, writing for ClickZ, outlined the five biggest mistakes people make when it comes to their social media campaigns. I’ll summarize them here, but strongly recommend you read the whole article.
Gary points out that success in the world of social media requires more than just showing up. The assumptions they bring into the new media marketplace can lead to some disappointing (and sometimes non-existant) results. Gary’s list of big mistakes:
- Don’t assume your fans/followers will see a post. An occassional post from you will get lost in the wash of other tweets, status updates, notes, shared content and more.
- Be careful not to double-count people as fans or followers. Some of the folks who follow you on Twitter may also be a connected to you via LinkedIn. But they’re still just one person – don’t count them as two.
- Driving traffic to your site via Twitter, Facebook, et al requires more than just dropping in links on your updates … COUNT THE CLICKS!
- Pay attention to how your brand comes up in search on social networks. Tools like SocialSeek are very helpful when it comes to doing this.
- Don’t get caught up in how many followers or fans you have – focus on the folks who engage with your brand.
Gary sums it up this way:
The bottom line with social media measurement: we’re in some really early stages and there are plenty of bright lights to distract us. The biggest mistake of all, of course, is not to measure. With the effort you’re putting into social media, it’s like that famous bumper sticker: “If you’re not concerned, you’re not paying attention.”
Check out the entire article here.
