Page 101 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

You can measure an SMM campaign in a lot of different ways. The best method
depends on the objectives, the targeted audience, and the social platform on which
the campaign is running. But you must determine what you’re going to measure
and how before you run the campaign. Otherwise, you’re never going to know
whether it’s a success. SMM campaigns often spiral out of control, and the law of
unintended consequences starts applying.

That’s not a bad thing, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that the campaign
you’re running is being run for a purpose — and you’ll know whether you’ve
achieved that purpose only if you’re measuring the results. It’s also important to
measure a baseline of online activity before you begin the SMM engagement and
decide what to measure. The baseline helps you determine how successful your
campaign is relative to the level of conversations and online activity before run-
ning it.

We get into measurement later in the book (see Chapter 25), but for now it’s suf-
ficient to say that you must measure not just how many people you reach or who
is aware of your campaign but also the following: the influence generated; the
brand lifts (increased awareness of the brand across key brand attributes); and,
most important, whether any of this effort led to purchases. With the measure-
ment tools in the marketplace (many of which are free or close to free), you can
easily track your SMM campaign to the point of sale on the website or potentially
even in a physical store. The measurement tools that exist on the social platforms
are getting stronger and stronger by the day, too. Don’t hesitate in trying to mea-
sure this.

Participating — Four Rules of the Game

Many different factors can make or break an SMM campaign, and sometimes it’s
even just a matter of luck. But four rules matter above all else when it comes to
SMM campaigns.

These rules don’t always apply to other forms of marketing. Pay attention to
them, and make sure that your SMM campaign abides by these.

Be authentic

Authenticity is a tricky word. It’s tricky because it’s overused in the context of social
media. Everybody talks about being authentic when marketing in the social media
realm, but what that means is rarely explained. To spell it out, authenticity is being
honest, transparent, and true to the values of the brand: It’s as simple as that.

CHAPTER 4 Launching SMM Campaigns 85