SOCIAL MEDIA@MARKWSCHAEFER

MARKETING MEASUREMENT

YOUR GUIDE TO

How do I measure my social media

efforts?

This is one of the questions I hear most often from businesses.

Your social media success might not be measured by WHAT you measure

but also WHEN you measure it.

The key is finding the right measurement for your organization’s

place in the social media journey.

To do that, let’s look at a simple graph that shows how marketing

works over time.

TIME

INTE

RACT

ION

S

copyright schaefer marketing solutions

ENGAGEMENT

MARKETING

copyright schaefer marketing solutions

Our job is to provide interactions that drive higher levels of customer

engagement over time.

TIME

INTE

RACT

ION

S

ENGAGEMENT

MARKETING

There are different milestones you achieve as engagement progresses

over time.

TIME

INTE

RACT

ION

S

copyright schaefer marketing solutions

Awareness

Reliable Reach

A MULTI-LEVEL APPROACH TO MEASUREMENT

Financial Gains

Financial Gains are the ultimate goal but that doesn’t happen right away.

TIME

INTE

RACT

ION

S

Awareness

Reliable Reach

copyright schaefer marketing solutions

Financial Gains

In fact, research shows that while most businesses get a boost in

awareness in the first year, for some businesses it may take 4-5 years of

effort before finding financial returns.

To help you find the right measurement, let’s look at each of

these phases and key metrics for each.

AWARENESSPHASE 1

As you get up and going with the first phase, you’re figuring things out.

Experimenting and failing. Aligning with platforms and partners.

But most importantly, you are building a content-creating culture.

You need to show that you’re creating that culture through metrics such as:

Increasing your organic audience

Establishing a consistent and reliable publishing schedule

Seeing a bump in your website traffic as a result of your content

Early signs of engagement like Likes and Comments

Measures that show your brand awareness is building through social media mentions

AWARENESS SUCCESS METRICS

1

2

3

4

5

By the end of the first year of your content marketing journey, you should be ready to change your

metrics.

That brings us to the next phase.

RELIABLE REACHPHASE 2

In this second phase, you are moving beyond broadcasting.

Your focus is creating a deeper audience connection.

You are building a reliable audience.

An audience that subscribes to your content, saying

“Please market to me!”

In this connection phase, it’s time to overhaul your metrics by focusing on:

The number of people subscribing to your channels

Lead generation (sales, new employees, suppliers)

Advocacy through content sharing

Authority through influencers

RELIABLE REACH SUCCESS METRICS

1

2

3

4

How long does this second phase last? This will vary a lot by industry, and specifically by the competition and

information density you are up against.

FINANCIAL GAINSPHASE 3

You’ve been consistent with your social media efforts.

You’re seen as a helpful and trusted authority with your audience.

With these building blocks in place, you’re poised to start realizing tangible

financial benefits from your efforts.

This will vary wildly by business and industry but somewhere between 1 and

3 years you should begin seeing some financial benefits.

So when you feel like you’ve outgrown the phase two metrics, it’s time to

change your measurement to reflect:

Customer loyalty and retention

Conversion rate

SEO benefits

Marketing cost savings and cost avoidance

Sales

FINANCIAL GAINS SUCCESS METRICS

1

2

3

4

5

Let’s do a quick recap.

A MULTI-LEVEL APPROACH TO SOCIAL MEDIA

MARKETING MEASUREMENT

Adjust to the appropriate metrics depending on your place on the social media journey.

I hope this guide helps you solve the social media marketing

measurement puzzle.

The great news is, you don’t have to do it alone!

I wrote my new book for YOU.

Learn how to ignite your content, your marketing, and your business with The Content Code.

GET IT NOW ON AMAZON

“This is the text book for the content marketer of the future.” — Ryan Hanley

“This book is a game-changer.” — Jay Baer

"The wisdom in this book is a gift to us." — Emeric Ernoult

Lastly, remember this:

“Social media is a tool to build awareness, connections,

relationships…and eventually action.”

-@markwschaefer

SAY HELLO ONLINE!

DESIGN @sarahsmason

CONTENT @markwschaefer