Storenvy Store Owner Inspiration & Resources

Who says you need to use social media? Practically everyone, but when you’re just getting started it can really seem like a waste of your time. Here are four key areas to keep track of that will give you a better idea of how successful your efforts are and which channels are working best for you.

• Followers
  What matters most is not how many you have, but who your followers are! Do they represent the audience you are trying to reach? Do they really care about your brand? Are they likely to buy your product or tell their friends about it?
• Conversions
  The whole reason for being on social media is to get more customers and sales, right? So it’s important to find out how many people are actually getting from your social media pages to your store and making purchases.You’ll need Google Analytics to access this kind of data. Check under ‘Referring URLs’ to see if any of your social media channels are driving you traffic. It’s also worth looking at which posts send the most traffic so you can know which types of posts you should be focusing on. Be aware, Instagram doesn’t allow URLs to be attached to photos, so it won’t be as prominent in your analytics, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable!You can also use coupon codes to get specific information about where your sales are coming from. Set up a different code for each social media platform, or even each campaign that you run, so you can get data on which channels are most beneficial for driving more sales.
• Engagement
  One super important aspect of social media that you can’t track with stats is engagement. Pay attention to how many people are commenting, or at least ‘liking.’ Consider yourself successful if people are asking questions and responding to you.
• Mentions
  Another indication of successful social media marketing is if your followers are mentioning you to their friends. Ultimately you will be able to grow your brand much faster if you can get people to talk about you, as that will grant you access to their audiences in addition to your own. Take a second to use Search.Twitter.com to see if there are any conversations already going on about your brand that you may be missing! Also be sure to check out tools like Hootsuite.com to setup search queries about your brands so that you never miss a conversation.

While looking at these figures might seem like a lot of work on top of creating the content, it’s important to analyze the data so that you know you’re being effective. Keep in mind that what you’ll be looking for on each platform might vary slightly. As you get used to keeping track of stats, you’ll gradually work out which data is most useful for you, and how you can use it to improve your social media strategy.

Get started measuring what matters!