Tomorrow morning I board a plane for the Info*Flex trade show. Time for a social media test of the strategies I have utilized over the past six months.
My social media test parameters
will be to keep track of the number of comments I get about blog posts, Facebook and Twitter activity. My intention is to count and categorize the comments. The idea for this test came from a conversation last night with my new friend @dwilde about quantifying B2B results of all my social media activities.
As a small business owner I follow my gut and know these strategies are working. As a blogger I never stop looking for the why and the how. It’s time to pick my head up look around and understand the results of all the hard work. Make no mistake about it social media is hard work when done correctly for business purposes as @imlucid pointed out in this post about advertising during difficult times.
I’m still working out how to track the results but I have a little over 24 hours left to figure that out. My thoughts are to track comments in three basic categories.
- Comments about blog posts (or the newsletter I send subscribers)
- Comments about Tweets
- Comments about Facebook
Also, for those who initiate a conversation I am considering asking them about the value of LinkedIn status updates and the new blog that is part of the ColorMetrix web-site as compared to this standalone product.
The KISS(Keep It Simple Stupid) principle will rule my decisions on a tracking methodology. The social media test must be easy to tally on the fly while working a trade show floor. If I make the measurement too complex I will either not do it, forget answers or incorrectly categorize results. I want results. I want good solid results of the social media test to come back and share with you guys.
If you have done something like this or just have good ideas please jump in the comments and share. I promise to do a blog post as soon after the show as I can to report what I learn.
You almost have to qualify each Social Media network as it's own lead type. Facebook, in my opinion, is very laid back and the chance of additional revenue coming in from that is slim.
LinkedIn is a great professional network, as you know, that you can become an 'expert' in your field by answering questions for people on the site. Potential clients may review your profile / online resume to qualify you as a legit professional by reading your experience and testimonials. The conversion rate on this is higher than Facebook but also pretty low when compared to day-to-day sales. However, a conversion on LinkedIn has the highest worth in my opinion.
Twitter is the wildfire of Social Media. You say a few things, or write a few great articles, and soon your name is tossed around in meetings. Interaction and continued communication on this is priority as it can send endless leads to your company. But, that being said, the quality fluctuates. Most leads probably result in smaller projects. But a handful of small projects equals one large project from a financial standpoint right?
So you really have to have a sliding scale in my opinion. In short:
Facebook is nice to have but serves no true purpose for a company in my opinion (unless you devote a great deal of time in separating the benefits to your clients that sign up for this against your other networks or sites).
LinkedIn is key to future growth. Conversion is lower but project size and quality is by far the greatest.
Twitter is essential. It is rapid fire. A few well placed comments or mentions can bring in a lot of traffic to your company website and generate leads. But the leads are, typically, on the lower end of the project scale.
As always, thanks for the mention and link! The Twitter link doesn't work 😉 Make sure to include the http:// in all links or your domain thinks it is an internal page.
Good luck with your trade show. Regarding your comment tracking exercise would a forth categoryof “comments from other sources” be valid?
Joshua, next time you feel like writing that much we'll just call it a guest post 😉 – Thanks buddy! Great thoughts to expand upon what I began. I like the “wildfire” and “rapid fire” descriptions of Twitter.
Hey Kim, Always cool when family shows up! Show went well. What would “comments from other sources” include? – Are we talking about for example a piece of direct mail we might have sent or perhaps a referral from another customer?
Thanks! 🙂 Would be happy to guest post anytime. Writing a more detailed version of my response on my blog to publish this evening. Keep an eye out!