In search engine marketing, practitioners tracked metrics such the number of keywords triggering search results for a site, the number of links to it and created action plans around keywords & link building.  What are the key metrics in social media marketing?  If you are using social media to attract new prospects, here’re 3 actionable metrics to watch.  One – social reach. Two – social media activity level.  Three –  response rate to that activity.   These metrics can be used to build an action plan which maximizes your pipeline of prospects.

Social Media Metrics for Prospecting

Social Media Prospecting Math

Let’s suppose you have 100 friends across all your online social networks (“your social reach”).  If you share 10 posts a month (“your social activity level”), you are generating 1000 potential friend contacts (100 friends X 10 posts).  Let’s further suppose 10% of these contacts generate a reply, “like” or re-tweet from a friend (“the response rate to your activity”).  When a friend replies to, “likes” or shares your post, these responses are in turn published to his/her network of friends.  Assuming each friend has a network of 100 friends, you would have generated 10,000 potential friend-of-friend contacts.  (1000 friend contacts X 10% response rate X 100 friend-of-friends)  This represents the potential volume of contacts with prospects at the top of your social media sales funnel.

Formula relating Social Media Metrics

Here’s a simple formula that relates these metrics to your prospect pipeline

Number of potential friend-of-friend contacts per month

=

Number of friends

X

Number of posts shared each month

X

Response rate

X

Size of each friend’s network

Apart from the size of each friend’s network, all 3 other metrics are actionable.  To maximize your prospect pool, it is important to develop an action plan that impacts all 3 metrics.

Social Media Marketing Plan

Here’s a simple framework that can be used to develop an action plan that is suited for you.

One – Increase number of friends

• Get on all the major social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+ , Pinterest
• Create a Facebook Page, Linkedin Company Page, and a Google + Page
• Invite your contacts in Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Hotmail & Outlook

Two – Increase number of posts shared

• Set aside time for social media as you do for emails, phone calls & meetings
• Curate content – find and share quality and relevant content
• Distribute content your create or curate across all your social networks

Three – Increase response rate

• Post quality content to earn “Likes”.   What type of content does your network value?
• Start discussions and Q&A’s.  What topics and questions are top of mind?
• Share viral content.  What would your network share with their friends?

The social mechanics of online prospecting are not very different from that offline. To get referrals offline, you have to network, communicate often & deliver quality service.  To win prospects online via social media, you have to expand your online networks, share regularly & with content that is engaging.

What metrics are you currently tracking for your social media prospecting activities?  What actions are you taking to impact those metrics?

– InvestmentPal