Social media campaigns are very tricky things to run, much
less to evaluate once they're operational. Just take a quick look at everything
that goes into a campaign, and look at exactly what that campaign is. Creating
profiles on multiple platforms, purchasing ads, constructing posts, developing
an audience, giving your brand a voice – all of these measures, plus many more,
are taken in order to operate your campaign. And after you go through those
varied steps, the actual payoff is wholly relative, which means you may not
even measure results as pure profit but rather as increased reach.
Needless to say, campaigns via sites like Facebook are very
tricky to gauge in the first place. Throughout this article, we will speak
about reevaluating your social media campaign, as in when to do it and how you
can tweak things a bit.
When and How to
Reevaluate a Social Media Campaign
If the Buzz is dying down
A savvy marketer using Facebook for business is consistently
going to look at the impact their brand is having. It's important to see what
people are saying about your brand, or even if your brand is being talked
about. To that end, you should always be on the lookout for any potential
drop-off in how your brand is viewed by fans. For instance, if you notice the
buzz is dying down from April to May, and then again from May to June, while
you're still doing what you usually do, then it might be time to reevaluate.
You need to figure out what it is about your efforts that
aren't being received well. Perhaps think about injecting new life into your
posts by way of videos and infographics. Take a look at how many News Feeds
you're hitting; think about changing up the time of day you post, the amount of
posts you're leaving, and even reevaluate the demographics of your ad
campaigns.
If Expectations Aren't Met
Another reason you may have to reevaluate your social media
campaign is if your expectations are too high. A lot of new marketers on sites
like Facebook come into the genre thinking that it's going to be easy,
extremely cost-effective, and quick. They set lofty goals, such as 10k fans in
a few months, or X percentage boost in overall ROI in six weeks. These
marketers ultimately end up believing they've failed. Well, the problem here is
that the expectations were simply unrealistic.
If you experience any type of similar problem, step away
from what you think should happen and simply look at what is happening. Are you
making positive progress at all? If the answer is yes, then readjust your goals
and see about tweaking your campaign to improve on what's working. Create
milestones that are lower and work harder to achieve them, rather than setting
lofty goals you think will be reached automatically.
If the Audience is Immune
Though you may be catering to a relatively small sub-niche
within a larger market, you better believe that there is still a lot of
competition out there. One of the biggest problems marketers face over the
duration of their campaign is an immune audience. This is essentially an
audience that is no longer responsive to your campaigning efforts. Your posts,
contests, and other efforts are going unrewarded, so it may be time to tweak
the campaign.
Using a good ad-management app, think about creating a new
set of ads that target new demographics in the same general market, split-test
some ads and see if you can reach people with some new advertising tactics.
Carry this theme over to what you're posting. Your audience may be inundated
with the same old stuff from many different brands, and a quick change-up might
reinvigorate them.
Understanding if your campaign needs to be rebooted is all
relative to what your measure of success is. The three campaign “ifs” above are
pretty much universal and deal with a slow campaign, but there are plenty of
other things you should be looking out for when operating a campaign. Be aware
of any changes or shifts, and always monitor and track your progress, whether
it's your reach, your depth, your impact, or your bottom line. If you ever seem
to be putting a lot in for very little in return, it may be time to reevaluate.
Author’s Bio: Craig Robinson is a
professional writer for Qwaya, a Facebook
ad manager tool. If you have more social media marketing questions, feel free
to ask Craig on Twitter.
