Answering Your Boss’s Questions about Your Social Campaigns

Answering Your Boss’s Questions about Your Social Campaigns

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Answering Your Boss’s Questions about Your Social CampaignsAs you work hard to sort through tactics for your next campaign, you begin thinking about audiences, content types, networks, metrics to track your progress...WHAM! You get pinged by your boss with a question like:

“No problem,” you think. Why? Because you’re prepared for pop-quiz questions from your company’s leadership. As social media becomes an essential marketing channel, you must be able to explain not only what you’re doing but why you’re doing it, and how your team strategy is being executed.

In this guide to answering your boss’s questions, we’ll walk through six common questions you’re likely to hear, and how to address them quickly and thoroughly. We’ll also share some advice from Simply Measured’s best and brightest on reporting efficiently.

#1 How’s the Social Media Campaign Going?“The” social media campaign? You likely have about five going on with different strategies for different channels, but okay. Let’s summarize the answer in a way that’s helpful.

At Simply Measured, we think of social campaigns as having six phases from start to finish:

Definition

Research

Planning

Execution

Measurement and optimization

Insight and reporting

Find out more by checking out our Social Media Campaign Checklist.

Your boss is likely looking for a high level review of all this information. Why not organize your reply accordingly? Provide a summary statement at the top, an overview of your plan and timeline, any current stats you have, and what you’ve learned so far. Keep this summary under a page.

ANSWERING YOUR BOSS’S QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR SOCIAL CAMPAIGNS

“Hey, how is our Facebook audience growth doing this month? That campaign working?”

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” - Albert Einstein

http://get.simplymeasured.com/2015-07-campaign-checklist.html#i.11wwdqe11h4djq

Create a template that looks something like this brief example.

Summary - Why and What

“The campaign is designed to increase engagement and web conversions on Twitter and Facebook. Based upon our research, we’re focusing on discounts with limited time frames to create a sense of urgency.”

Timeline - When and How

7/10: Launch Facebook Ads

7/17: Promote contest on Twitter

Results - What Happened

10% growth in web conversions between 7/10 and 7/30

125 new page Likes on Facebook between 7/10 and 7/30

Insights - What We’ve Learned

Tighter time frames produce better results, such as “must act in next couple of hours or today” rather than “act by next week.”



In addition, you could use a simple chart, something like a Simply Measured’s Scorecard, to quickly compare stats from the start date of your campaign to the current date, such as your engagement rate or audience growth.

Another summary visual to consider is Simply Measured’s campaign “megaphone,” which shows the initial number of Tweets or ad dollars spent all the way to new Likes or web conversions.

This Scorecard from the Simply Measured Twitter Account Report compares engagement stats month over month.

The Simply Measured Facebook Insights with Ads report gives a panoramic view of how dollars are spent and the impact of that spending.



#2 Is Our Audience Growing? The answer to this question should involve more than just a simple audience growth number. You want to show growth over time and tie any increases to tactics you’ve tried. You can highlight media pickup, product launches, promotions, live events, and more. We also suggest that you include a trend line from one date to another to show overall growth despite any slowdowns along the way.

The Simply Measured Twitter Account Report shows the number of followers over time and whether the follower count has trended up or down.



“This is the most common question that social marketers get, and one of the toughest. The most important thing you can remember when fielding the How’s that campaign going? question is that your boss may not speak social. You need to translate your answer into terms and context that he or she will understand.

Before you give your response, ask yourself how your campaign impacted the things your boss cares about. This could be revenue, overall share of voice, or website traffic. This could just mean educating your leadership team about what success on social media actually means. 347 Retweets might be a good thing, but why? Level up your reporting to address what the receiver understands and cares about.”

- Kevin Shively, Manager of Content Marketing

In addition to sharing total growth numbers, you can point out that the quality of followers you’re gaining is improving, as well. Show that you’re attracting new followers and fans who engage with your brand, share your content, and purchase your products. You can do this by analyzing the new audience and tracking the percent of web conversions, Retweets, or purchases among followers over time.

A simple table of audience growth numbers for each of your major networks is smart to have on hand and ready to share with senior leadership.



“This is a common question, and one that has multiple parts to it. If you gained 2,000 followers last month, you can show exactly how that happened with charts.

First, you’ll absolutely want to show fan growth for the reporting period, but you’ll also want to share the growth rate compared to the previous reporting period. Are you growing at a steady rate? Is your growth percentage growing month over month, or are you starting to level out? A trend line of your follower trajectory shows overall performance despite any minor dips in follower gain. This is a great thing to add to your fan growth chart.

You will also want to call out how you gained those fans. For example, perhaps you launched a contest, put out a press release, had a new product launch, or worked with influencers to promote content on a specific day and that helped drive your traffic for the remainder of the month. If you had a large jump in fans because you started or updated your advertising, that is another thing to highlight, as well.”

- Alyson Andrews, Account Manager

#3 How Much Engagement Did We Get? When talking with your boss about engagement, be sure to offer context. Either compare your current engagement to a previous time period or a competitor’s. Set some benchmarks for the types of engagements that matter to your brand on each network over a set period. If, for example, you’re getting a lot of comments on Facebook but what you really want are shares, you let your boss know exactly what you’re focused on and the progress you’re making.

In addition to total engagement, calculate engagement as a percent of audience on every network. Seeing this number improve over time is a strong sign that you’re producing the types of content and offers that suit your followers.

The Simply Measured Facebook Fan Page Report shows engagement breakdown by type - Likes, shares, and comments - over time.



”When your boss asks what your engagement looks like, there’s likely more to the question. Does she want to know how you’re doing in comparison to your past performance? How it stacks up to your competition? Is there a brand that she admires that is getting attention and bringing your engagement under a microscope?

The quick answer is to look at your overall engagement metrics and see how they compare to those of last week/month/quarter. But does that really tell the whole story?

Take a look at engagement as a percentage of audience for you and for your competitors.



“This levels the playing field so you can see how your engagement as compared to audience size stacks up across networks -- even those that don’t have exact engagement rate metrics. You can use this metric to see how healthy your audience is. As your audience grows, is your engagement growing along with it?

Dig in deeper with your boss. What type of engagement are you getting? Are you seeing lots of amplifications (shares, Retweets) or just interactions (Likes, favorites)? How deep is the engagement -- are you getting a lot of comments? This might be a great opportunity to talk about content types -- if photos or videos get more engagement than text, bring that up! Use this as an opening to discuss which resources you need to create the types of content that perform well.

Finally, ask your boss about how your social strategy stacks up to your company’s or team’s overall business objectives. Is there data showing that more engagement equals more conversions? If not, you’ve got a wealth of information at your fingertips that can help in creating those analyses.”

- Katy Whitney, Account Manager

#4 How Are People Talking About Us? Your boss wants to know the whole truth and nothing but the truth here. So, share the happy and harsh chatter to give an honest picture of your reputation on social.

You can focus on certain keywords in the user-generated posts and responses you’re getting, such as “thank you” and “don’t like” to get a sense of sentiment. This can be more of an art than a science, but do your best to pay attention to what is typical positive or negative feedback from your followers. Then, tie those responses to content types or copy you’ve produced.

The Simply Measured Facebook Insights with Ads Report shows post impressions and highlights specific instances of negative feedback.



“You want to look both at what people are saying and the temperature of their comments. What is causing the buzz around our brand? What about you are people people drawn to and what are you really getting right, both on social and off? What can we learn by observing the direction of the conversation - can our audience give us fresh ideas for our next campaign or ways to improve our offerings and strengthen our image? Ultimate crowdsourcing.

I really love the Simply Measured Conversation Driver report because it’s a goldmine for gauging the “what, why, and how,” and often serves up surprises that can take your marketing to the next level.”

- Christian Brown, Onboarding and Education Specialist

#5 Why Aren’t We Seeing More Sales from Social Media? Answering this question requires reviewing your campaign all the way from post to purchase. Lay out your metrics and results from initial activity, such as organic posts or ads, through to web conversions, and any resulting sales. The Simply Measured Twitter Ads Report provides an example of how to organize your data for this purpose.

The real key here is to look at the points where your strategy is weakest. For example, are users clicking through from social but not sticking around for a download or purchase? Check out your bounce rate or average page views and sort out where the web experience isn’t working.

Are conversions from social to web low? In that case, it’s time to break down your content types, images, copy, or other factors to figure out what gets your followers and fans to take action. (We suggest more pictures of puppies.) Be clear about any successes you’re having, such as a high response to the “one hour or less to purchase” approach, so that your report to your boss has some positive insights included.

The Twitter Ads Report organizes information about the spend on a campaign all the way through to clicks, leads, and video views.



#6 How’s Customer Service Going? Depending on your business, the answer to this question requires addressing a few different strategies. The three most common among businesses are: (1) percentage of customer posts replied to, (2) response time, and (3) length of conversation with the customer.

Percent Replies to Customer Posts

How often do you reply to a comment from a grumpy customer or cheerful fan on social media? It’s well known that responsiveness can lead to a more engaged, loyal, and faster growing audience. Keep track of your percentage of replies to customer posts on every network so you can report on this number weekly and see if you notice a connection to audience growth or other KPIs you’re tracking.

How often do you respond to engagement from your audience? You can measure the percentage of fan wall posts you’ve responded to with a Facebook Customer Analysis from Simply Measured.



“Social Media is an integral part of any company’s sales strategy. With 81% of consumers doing online research before buying, according to a recent AdWeek story, your focus should be around growing your social presence and increasing engagement.

You want to be top-of-mind for consumers. You want them to already have a positive sentiment associated with your brand. While you can always track some of the sales attributed to social, the better question is: How are you using social to broaden your purchasing funnel and move consumers through it? That’s very quantifiable.”

- Cameron Voetmann, Account Manager

Response Time

When a customer reaches out in the lightning-speed world of social media, he or she expects a lightning- speed response. In our study of customer service among the Interbrand 100 brands, the number of dedicated customer service handles increased 19% between Q1 2014 and Q2 2015 to meet this growing need.

A great way to track your response time is to break your responses into categories by time period, such as “Less than 30 minutes,” Less than one hour,” etc.

Length of Conversation

How long do you correspond with your followers once a conversation has begun? In our study of Twitter customer service, @AmazonHelp had one of the fastest response times and also directs 80% of users to online resources. That brand quickly moves the conversation elsewhere, which is a very efficient tactic.

Depending on your business, a little more chatter might be appropriate, but it also requires time and effort from your social team. Keeping track of your response times will help you set your own benchmarks. We also suggest reviewing your competitors’ habits with customers to make sure your meeting, if not exceeding, their customer service performance.

What’s your typical response time? Simply Measured Customer Service Analysis reports show metrics for response time.



Do your customers need a short response or an in-depth conversation? Many brands find the majority of customer mentions only require one or two replies. Analyze these conversations using Simply Measured Customer Service reports.

ConclusionLet’s acknowledge that you just read this guide, you’re awesome, and your boss is lucky to have you around. And, now you’ll have reports and results ready to prove your awesomeness at any time.

This month, try to set some goals around creating better reports that are more automated or include new insights that you didn’t include last month, such as web conversions for a particular content type on Facebook versus Twitter.

Get creative with your research and you may uncover a new strategy for your brand.

Bridget Quigg is a content marketer who loves how-to guides filled with practical advice. A 10+ year digital marketing veteran, she most enjoys coming up with titles and email subject lines. She can be found on Twitter at @BridgetQuigg.



“Start with the basic metrics, then focus on percentage change to show how you’re doing what you do better than ever, or to explain how other factors have affected your work. How many customer queries are you getting daily or weekly, and what’s your average response time this month vs. last month? If you’ve set goals around increasing the number of queries or speeding up response time, show how you’re measuring up to those goals.

If your goals are centered around response time, look at the percentage of days each month that you surpassed your goal and communicate that.”

- Linda Schwaber-Cohen, Onboarding and Education Lead

Simply Measured is the most complete social analytics solution, empowering marketers to more clearly define their social strategy and to optimize their tactics for maximum impact.

Our goal is to put the tools to understand business data in the hands of business users. We think reporting should be simple, attractive, and accessible for everyone – not just data scientists. Our software streamlines the process from data to deliverables and eliminates the countless hours spent on everyday reporting tasks. We do this by putting cloud data sources at your fingertips, providing a marketplace of best practice reports, and allowing you to generate beautiful solutions on the web, in Excel, and in PowerPoint with a couple of clicks.

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Answering Your Boss’s Questions about Your Social Campaigns