Jeweller - June, Edition I 2020

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Sharpen your social media marketing strategy
One of the most important marketing tools during COVID-19 has been social media. MANDY EDWARDS explores
how to evaluate the success of social media campaigns through a marketing lens.
There are many jewellers who feel the
internet is the single biggest threat to
retail growth these days.
I’m going to start with a statement with
which many won’t agree: social media
success doesn’t always translate into
dollars and cents. The return on a
company’s social media investment won’t
always be financial.
Those who think they can make
thousands of dollars by using social
media to market their products are
wrong. The chances are very high that
they won’t make anything at all, when
measured in dollars and cents.
The success of any social marketing
venture is determined by that business’
end goal, as detailed in the company’s
marketing strategy.
Examples of end goals might be to
increase brand awareness, build an
online community or generate leads
or sales. The marketing strategy should
define why social media is being used to
achieve these goals.
Additionally, businesses are sorely
lacking in actually measuring their social
media marketing efforts.
Many will post on Instagram or Facebook
and never look back to analyse what
worked and what didn’t, as well as what
they can do better or differently next time.
Measuring social media is different to
measuring return on investment (ROI)
– which almost always relates to money –
on something tangible like an event or a
speaking engagement.
Measuring success in social media
requires looking at many different factors
and bringing them together like pieces
of a puzzle. Some are easy to track while
others are a bit harder.
Mark Schaefer, author of Social Media
Explained, explains why businesses have
to measure their social marketing efforts
and activities.
Schaefer made four points:
• There is an implied value to everything
• Expending effort should be justified
• If you’re not measuring, how do you
know you are making progress?
Measuring
success in social
media requires
looking at many
different factors
and bringing
them together
like pieces of a
puzzle. Some
are easy to track
while others are
a bit harder
• There is no excuse not to measure.
First of all, amen to number three! If
businesses aren’t measuring what they
are doing, how do they know it is working
at all?
As for number four, if they are giving an
excuse as to why they can’t measure what
they’re doing, that’s just a cop out.
Schaefer also points out that not all
ROI success is quantitative; some is
qualitative – there are some elements
that can be measured that don’t have a
dollar value.
Effort benchmarks
Consider the following benchmarks for
common social media activities and ways
in which these can be measured:
• Community growth – did you see an
increase in the number of people in your
online community? Was there a decline?
If so, why?
• Engagement levels – did you provide
quality content that inspired likes,
comments, shares, retweets, Pinterest
Pins? If so, you would measure that a
50 | June 2020