When you’re doing all you can do to market yourself and the numbers don’t seem to correlate to your amount of effort, it’s easy to throw your hands up and ask “what’s the point?”
Recently, a client contacted us concerned that other people were getting more reactions than them on Instagram even though they had more followers. While numbers are important and we love to be able to quantify our success, we have to make sure that we’re focusing on the goal. Before you start feeling discouraged and asking, “what’s the point,” let’s refocus and remind ourselves of what the purpose really is.
Finding the Point
When we onboard new clients, we help them work through and define their goals. This is especially true when it comes to social media and marketing. Not every client has the same goals because we’re not all doing the same things.
For example, a mom blogger who is getting revenue from her website will likely want to grow her audience on whatever social platforms she’s on. This is the goal because a larger audience means more people are seeing your content and therefore more people are visiting your site. However, a missions organization might be more concerned with garnering clicks to their website’s trip application. In this case, you’re not necessarily looking for exponential growth in impressions or engagement as long as people are continuing to click on links and apply for trips.
What Do These Numbers Mean?
Remembering what your goal is helps you to block out the miscellaneous information. People love to see big numbers. They want to see hundreds of likes, shares, and comments because those are the numbers that everyone else sees and that people tend to correlate with success. However, just because you see huge numbers doesn’t mean you’re reaching your goal. Likewise, if your numbers are more modest, it doesn’t mean that you’re failing.
That being said, there are a lot of numbers out there to look at. Every social media platform has its own analytics as do your website and ad accounts. Each platform also has a different value to you and your market based on what your goals are. That’s why seeing 45 likes on Instagram might seem discouraging even though Instagram isn’t your primary platform. All of this can be incredibly overwhelming especially if you don’t know what impressions, engagements, reach, and clicks really mean.
How We Can Help
At Dogwood, we recognize the importance of data in relation to your goals. Every month, our social media clients receive a report telling them exactly how well their efforts are going. These reports tell you how many people have seen your content, interacted with it, clicked on your links, and started following you. However, we don’t just send a report and expect you to figure it out. Every month, the Digital Media Specialist that has been assigned to you will reach out and explain the report and give some next steps going forward.
Don’t allow yourself to get so frustrated that you’re asking, “what’s the point?” Give us a call and let us help you reach your goals.
