By now, most people know what Twitter is, and probably how to use it. Advanced Twitter tips, who needs ’em? Well, Twitter is a much more powerful tool in the hands of people that really know how to harness that power!

Get More from Social Media with these Advanced Twitter Tips

Being a social media marketer I can whiz through Twitter and bend it to my will 😉 … and leave people wondering how I did something or found something so fast, or so easily.

Advanced Twitter Tips, Easy as 1-2-3

Today I want to share these advanced Twitter tips with my friends at RocksDigital. So without further ado, here are 3 advanced social media tips for Twitter to help you get more out of the platform!

Advanced and Saved Twitter Searches

If you’re a Twitter user, you have most likely used a Twitter search before. You may have even saved the searches for use later. But what I’m about to share with you will help you find just what you’re looking for with the click of a few buttons and a saved search.

Did you know that search engines (like Google, etc.) have what are called Boolean search commands? These strings of words and symbols help the search engine determine, in a much more refined way, what you are looking for. Let’s say you are looking for opportunities to be a podcast guest in your niche. Twitter has it’s own search engine. So fire up Twitter! People are looking to connect with others on Twitter every day, so why not use it as a tool to help yourself?

Below is an example of an advanced Twitter search where users are tweeting about looking for guests for their podcast.

Try using combinations such as “Looking for” OR “guest wanted” OR “want to be a guest” AND “podcast”

This string tells Twitter you are looking for tweets that have the phrase “looking for” or “guest wanted” or “want to be a guest” as well as the word podcast. Go to your “Latest” tab on your search to find the tweeps tweeting tweets just like that. 🙂 Fine-tune the search, then save it to use again and again later on.

A few more examples:

• “looking for guests” OR “call for” OR “accepting guest” AND “podcast”
• “looking for presenters” OR “are you a presenter” OR “looking for guests” AND “webinar”
• “speakers wanted” OR “looking for speakers” OR “call for speakers” AND “your industry”

Create Lists for Warm Leads

If you use Twitter on a regular basis, you might make some connections with businesses or other people who could potentially become customers. (That’s actually how I got started with my business!) When you begin these conversations or when someone comes to you with interest, after answering their questions, do you keep up with them? Sometimes, it takes a little warming up before a conversation can become a sale, so how can we nurture that along? The answer is Lists.

When you’ve had a conversation with another Twitter user and it’s become clear that they may be a lead, add them to a private list! It’s easy to do:

1. Go to the profile for the account you want to add to your new list, and click the three dots next to the “follow” or “following” button, as shown below.

2. Click “Add or remove from lists…” and then click the checkbox next to the list you want to add the user to, or click “Create a list” to create a new list.

3. If you’re creating a new list, be sure to give it a name and then make it a private list, so people don’t know they are on this list, and no one else (like a competitor!) can view it.

This list will allow you to keep up with those users in one place without having to go to each profile and remember which users you were talking to. This way, you can help promote them when you’re able, jump into relevant conversations, or answer questions as you see them, becoming a trusted resource for them. When you earn their trust and become a familiar face, they are going to be much more likely to buy from you or use your services.

TweetDeck for Native Scheduling

As a business owner, one of the easiest (and most dangerous) things to do is to schedule content ahead of time. (I say dangerous because if you just set it and forget it, you’re in for some wasted time and effort.) However, with many of the most popular tools for scheduling, links may get shortened, causing no preview, or images or other media may not show up. Since tweets with photos get up to 313% more interaction, it’s important!

TweetDeck is a tool that originally came out years ago, and people loved it. I loved it! But then Twitter acquired it, and effectively ruined it. However, more recently they’ve made some updates to it, and now, a big pro to using it will be that we can schedule tweets, and media will show up natively in the platform – because Twitter owns it! The best part? This includes GIFs!

So if you’re looking for a tool to help supplement your scheduled social media content without causing problems, I would go ahead and check it out, even if you only use the web version.

Take these Advanced Twitter Tips One Step at a Time

That’s all I’ve got for you today. And hey – don’t stress yourself out trying to start doing everything in this list! Being an entrepreneur and a one-woman-show myself, I totally get how easy it is to make yourself super-busy. Just start with one and make it a habit, then move forward with the next. Soon, you’ll be utilizing these social media tips to their potential. 😉

Here’s #Twitter tips you need to use says @r3SocialMedia #RocksDigital #SocialMedia
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Did these advanced Twitter tips inspire you to see Twitter with new eyes? Have questions on how to get going? Share your thoughts in the comments!

The post Save Time and Cultivate Customers with 3 Advanced Twitter Tips appeared first on Rocks Digital.

You are probably familiar with how to use LinkedIn. At some point, everyone that has to earn sales for their company, whether a team member or an owner, has probably thought to use LinkedIn in this day and age. And many have probably tried to do so, whether with ads or a Premium account using InMail. But just as there are many ways to use other platforms and sales techniques, it’s also possible to use LinkedIn in ways you may have not thought of, and I wanted to share a few with you today.

How to Use LinkedIn to Stand Out in B2B Marketing

Granted, any one person can also use these LinkedIn tips, so don’t despair if you’re a lone salesman, or a business owner putting feet on the ground alone! These are easy, actionable tips that any business-to-business marketing team should be able to implement and get some return on, and they are absolutely just as simple to use as one person, too. With all of that said, how about we get into those tips now, shall we?

Use Who You Know… Sort Of.

How often do you go to trade shows or expos and collect tons of business cards? You shake hands and chit-chat with people from all over, learning tidbits about them and what they do, only to throw those business cards in a pile to languish away on your desk or in a drawer because you’ve forgotten about them, or they end up in the trash because you realize you never did send that follow-up email? (Guilty!) But remember, that’s money! Let’s promise ourselves – and our teams – that we won’t do that ever again.

Or perhaps you’re quite diligent in reaching out after your conferences and trips, and at least you connect on LinkedIn or you’ve sent an email or had a phone call. These are all great, but do you keep up with them after that initial touch? Do you ever reach out again? Do you make it a point to pick up your phone or send another email, just to check in? That’s just what I’m proposing you do with my first tip.

After you collect business cards or names and emails/phone numbers, add those people to your LinkedIn as soon as you’re back in your hotel room, or the next morning during coffee. Connect with them by being sure to add a personal note to your connection request, and then make it a point to reach out to them in the next week – and set a reminder to reach out again next month!

Already have a ton of contacts but you don’t regularly reach out? Do it. Now! Start with small batches of 10–15 people and send a message to them asking to re-connect over coffee or a phone call. I know someone that did this very thing to just a few connections on his profile, and ended up with 3 new leads. Now think about how that adds up if your whole team is doing this as a strategy. Yeah. Boom.

Become Brand Ambassadors

Is your team excited about the brand? Do team members love their jobs? Do they talk about the company to all the people they know and love? These people could be your brand ambassadors. If they talk up your company and/or products and/or services to everyone they know, then they are the ones you want people to know when they “meet” the company. The sales and marketing teams are the face of the brand – why not try to use that a little more literally?

Schedule a LinkedIn Team Day (or two). Hire a photographer for headshots for the team, work on everyone’s titles and descriptions, the layouts of their profiles, etc., and why not have coffee and cookies or lunch for the people that love the company so much? You want everyone to have the same look and feel as everyone else representing the company on LinkedIn. Anyone that has chatted with one of these team members should be able to easily spot another team member on LinkedIn without looking too hard. Showcase these people and how much they enjoy the company, and what they do to help clients. Build them up, and show your customers and clients that your brand is more than just another logo.

I recently spoke to a colleague about a company she helped doing this very thing. They had a whole day dedicated to their small marketing team to update LinkedIn profiles, and had her help get titles and descriptions reinvented. She said it really helped everyone get excited about the new strategy!

Use Your Uniqueness

What makes your brand stand out from all the other sales pitches? What makes your customers remember your company, versus your competitors? Get the team together for a brainstorming session and come up with a special way to stand out in the minds of your customers. Can you offer something (for free) every time they meet with you (hopefully set up through LinkedIn!)? What about making a special note of children’s birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and sending them a gift card or a special, handwritten note of congratulations, or sending best wishes when no one else does?

When I worked for an industrial electronics repair facility, about 5 years ago, we had a vendor we used for parts that would send a full-sized chocolate-crunch bar with every order we made. It was a very small gesture, but boy, did our parts manager LOVE that vendor! I once worked with a client that, as a thank you gift, sent me a gift card/voucher to give money to my favorite charity. I’ve heard another story of a financial planner/CPA that would have his clients’ cars detailed in his parking lot while they met in his office for an annual review. In fact, just last year MY financial planner offered their clients a free family photo session at their very well-designed and beautifully set up offices, which included a free 8×10 print! What small but significant gestures can your team think of?

Put these Tips on How to Use LinkedIn in Your Toolkit, Starting Today!

I hope that these tips have helped you come up with some ideas, and gets your team excited about gaining new leads and earning new business through Linkedin marketing campaigns! It can be difficult to stand out in a B2B market, but using some of these tips, you should be able to not only stand out and make your brand memorable to your clients and customers, but also create new strategies to earn new business over and over again.

How to Use #LinkedIn in New Ways to Increase #Sales by @r3SocialMedia #RocksDigital #Business
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Is a “LinkedIn Team Day” in your future? Share your thoughts and LinkedIn tips in the comments!

The post How to Use LinkedIn in New Ways to Boost Your Image and Increase Sales appeared first on Rocks Digital.

Before we dive into A/B split testing, remember my last Rocks Digital article? I discussed how to get more ROI from your social media marketing through the use of UTM codes and Google Analytics.

Wow! The response to that article was amazing! Thanks for reading! But now we’re going to dig a little deeper into one part of that article that I didn’t touch a whole lot on: split testing to get even better results.

I’ve talked before about A/B split testing ads, and that’s something we should be learning how to do now – and then do it – after our campaign ends (or during, if you’re a pro like that), to gather intel on who bought from us, what they liked and didn’t, and who we should probably be marketing to more often to increase our sales even further.

Let’s Do the Splits – A/B Split Testing

Remember, from my UTM tracking article, when I mentioned in our goals process that we chose Product Page X? In this article, we’re going to talk about how to split test that product page with a totally different page, to find out what our audience not only likes more, but will buy from more often. This is called “split testing” or “AB testing,” or sometimes also “A/B split testing” – but it’s all the same thing.

Now, in that last article, I didn’t discuss testing the product pages or the ads against each other during the campaign, but you should absolutely do that. From my experience, any good campaign lasts a few months, and the amount of data that you can collect from that timeframe is golden stuff. While you are tracking your campaigns you should also be willing to make some changes as well, and create lots of test ads and a few product pages.

To that end, I’m going to tell you to get ready to create 3 different product pages for the same product. Why would you want to have the same product on 3 pages? Simple. People like different things, and you may not really be in tune with what your audience wants to see or read or experience, and that is why we are going to split test 3 landing pages!

First of all, creating a good landing page isn’t exactly super-easy, however, it’s not rocket science either. One of the first things you should do before creating anything for your product ads is to create the 3 product pages (on the flip-side, you could create just 2). So for now, check out some of your competitors’ landing pages – and landing pages that have converted YOU – and find what was most appealing. If it worked on you, it may work on your customers, too.

Designing Moments

Once you’ve narrowed down what you want to try out from different websites and landing pages, talk to your graphic designer and have him/her create a few mock-up designs based on your branding, your product or service – and, of course, your target audience – using those elements you chose from the other pages you saw. Once you have 3 distinct winners, take the mock-ups to your web designer or admin and have them create the pages, unlisted, on your site. You don’t want them showing up in the menus because we need to test them, and unwanted traffic will just mess up our data.

To give a very quick example, here are 2 versions of a web page on my website: one is the original, and the second is the improved version of that same social media marketing services page.

Before Optimization

After Optimization

Now, just based on these images, which do you think converts better? I bet you guessed it: The newer one does a lot better.

This is what we want to know when we are creating your landing pages and then, your ads. We create the 3 different pages using knowledge about our target, and research on what helps people convert on a landing page – then we use our ads to figure out what kind of ads work on our target. (Or create 2 different landing pages, making the test smaller.)

All the Testing and Reporting

The best way to test a LANDING page is to, of course, direct traffic to this page or pages. Knowing your target, you should be able to place these links in places you know they’ll probably (most likely) click on them, such as Facebook or on LinkedIn. Since those two platforms have different audiences, it might be good to use two different landing pages, and then switch the links at a specified date to determine which platform liked which page better.

You determine this, of course, by conversions – but also by going back to our handy, dandy Google Analytics report!

By looking at our Acquisition > All Traffic > Social > Landing Pages report, you can see which networks brought you the best kind of traffic. The active, engaged kind. Not the bouncy, short-lived kind.

These are the landing pages that people have clicked through to on your website from Social networks. If you add a secondary dimension, by clicking on the “Secondary Dimension” button, type “Social network” into the text box and select the first option, you’ll see it adds a column listing which social media networking was responsible for what pieces of traffic to each landing page.

Now we just need to see how they interacted with our landing pages. Click on the URL of one of your landing pages for this campaign and it will show you another report on which social media platforms sent traffic to that page, and how well that traffic acted on your site.

While we can’t see the fun information on this report, like bounce rate, we CAN see average session duration and pages per session. These are still pretty valuable numbers, because if you have a high session average, then people are probably not bouncing away. If you have a higher pages per session, people are also probably not bouncing away. You can also double-check this by checking the All Traffic > Channels > Social report. And voila! You can see bounce rate, new users, and even conversion data.

Segmenting Your Data in A/B Split Testing

Now this won’t be directly for the traffic for your landing pages, so let’s create a segment, to make this easier.

At the top of the page, click “+Add Segment” then click “New Segment.” Now click on “conditions” on the left-hand side of the menu. Here, you’ll start adding filters for your traffic to tell Google that you want to see traffic information for just the traffic that matches the parameters you are setting.

In the first box, change “ad content” to “source.” You can type “source” into the white box at the top of the menu that opens. We’ll leave “contains” as it is. Now begin typing in a name of a social media platform. “Facebook” is my first one.

Now click “OR,” and another filter box appears, and we’ll change the settings to this one to say “source” “contains” “twitter.” And click “OR” again. Fill in more filters until you have listed all of the social media platforms you are using to promote your landing pages.

Once you have finished this, click “Add filter.” You’ll want the boxes to say something different this time, so the first box should say “Landing Page” and the second box should say “Exactly Matches.” In the text box, type in the URL to your first landing page. Click “OR” and add the second (or third) URL for the next landing page (mine are pretend landing page URLs).

When you’re finished, be sure you’ve named the Segment at the top of the page, next to the blue save button, and then click “save.”

This will take you to a report comparing the traffic we just segmented to “All traffic.” Click on the arrow next to “All traffic” at the top of the page and click “remove” to remove that segment data and clean it up, so you can read the segment we just created.

As you can see, this information gives us the data from the landing pages we included in the segment, and breaks it down for us by social media platform. Wonderful stuff.

Now just add a secondary dimension for landing pages, and you can now see which landing page goes with what social network. And since the segment is saved, you can use this report anytime that you want/need!

Master Testing and Tracking via A/B Split Testing

Of course, some of this information is similar to when you run social media ads, but I definitely recommend using the UTM tracking method I mentioned in my UTM article for simple reporting.

Now that you have information flowing in about your landing pages, you’ll be able to figure out which pages convert better, and then you can start creating similar pages to further test the copy, the images, the layout, etc. This is what A/B split testing is all about. Testing. Every. Thing. All The Things.

Give ROI a Boost! Use #Google Analytics for A/B Split Testing by @R3SocialMedia #RocksDigital
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Will you now refine your A/B split testing? Has this article clarified the process? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments!

The post Looking to Boost ROI? Here’s How to Use Google Analytics for A/B Split Testing appeared first on Rocks Digital.

While I’m well-known for my long and thorough how-to posts, I want to take a minute for a shorter, more important one on why you should always-always pay attention to your social media scheduled content and ads!

You may be thinking to yourself of course, I should be!

• I’m not just talking about your sales and how product ads are converting.
• I’m not talking about audience numbers and click-through rates.
• I’m talking about devastating events, and how they can negatively affect your brand with amazing quickness.

When Tragedy Strikes “Business-as-Usual” on Social Media Should Stop

Just a few days ago, a lone gunman from out of the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel opened fire on a music festival across the street and below him. At the time of this writing, there are more than 500 people wounded and 58 killed. That number is staggering. It is horrifying.

And while people are trying to wrap their heads around what has happened to their friends and loved ones, and others, like me, are simply trying to understand the why’s, there are plenty of brands out there with advertising on schedule and business-as-usual posts appearing all over social media.

No one can plan for these events. No one knows when they will happen. But when they do, we need to be vigilant as marketers and advertisers and review our social media posts, ads – ­and consider hitting pause.

Taking a Step Back for the Bigger Picture

When an atrocity happens, we need to be the first ones running to our computers to shut down our ads, turn off scheduled posts, and reevaluate our content in the pipeline.

It’s moments like these that can truly break a company’s image because they are careless, or even callous, with their advertising or social media posts. We’ve seen it again and again. Gap, LiveNation, and American Apparel are just a few examples.

All of these brands either tried to use a tragedy to their advantage, or allowed a pre-scheduled post to ruin the sentiment toward their company. Something like this can mean a multitude of things, from loss of revenue (which may not recover for weeks or even months) and loss of loyalty, to worse things like going under. (If you’re a small local business, enough bad press around town can make you toast.)

Be Better – Do Better

Here’s an example of what I personally saw during my regular work on a client’s LinkedIn profile:

Literally, two posts above this promotion in my feed was this:

And worse? Two posts below it was another post from another media outlet with the same story about people being hurt and killed in Las Vegas. Luckily, that wasn’t a photo of the Mandalay Bay in the ad. As a consumer, it would have ended my interest in attending the event.

Can you imagine scrolling through your feed and seeing these two posts next to each other? Perhaps you might do what I did, and just shake your head. (And then do a screen capture and write this article.)

But even worse, you could never look at that business or brand the same again. Any purchases you were planning to make have just been moved to a competitor.

Turn On the News and Turn Social Media Scheduled Content Off

When tragedy strikes, the best way to approach it is to turn on the news and turn off your posts and advertising, just while everything is calming down and people are learning what’s happening.

Use your platforms to voice the company’s unification with efforts to help those that have been affected, especially if it’s something like a national disaster where volunteers and money are needed.

• No one wants to see your ads when something this momentous and dreadful is happening.
• No one cares about your company when something like this is going on. Wait it out, and when people have had a chance to calm down, turn things back on.
• Be sure you’ve taken a hard look at your copy and images so that nothing can be misconstrued.

Care about people. Protect your brand. Be a good human. We can do better. We can be better.

Why You Should Always Pay Attention to Your #SocialMedia by @r3SocialMedia #RocksDigital
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What steps do you take to review your social media posts when tragedy strikes? Share below.

The post Why You Should Always Pay Attention to Your Social Media (Posts and Ads Included) appeared first on Rocks Digital.

When most companies start thinking of their digital marketing, they immediately turn to social media – as opposed to Google Analytics. Many now know how much time and effort it takes, along with the amount of money it takes to make a campaign, but everyone doesn’t know how to make it all work together. However, Google Analytics can be a cohesive and powerful tool to make this happen.

In this article, I’m going to discuss how to tie all of your social media platforms into one seamless campaign using Google Analytics to track the results, so that you get the biggest “bang for your buck.”

Before Getting Started with Google Analytics You Have to Set Your Goals

First things first, you need to know the end-game. What is the purpose? What are you trying to achieve? Is it more sales? Is it a larger audience? A different audience? Plan out some time and make sure you know what you are going to be working for! Many times for a small business (or really, any business) the goal will be to increase sales, so that’s what I will focus on in this article. Just be intentional. Write down the goal.

Plan Out the Attack

Next, we need to plan out the attack. Part of this will include figuring out what happens on what platform, and even what platforms you’ll be using. It’s not much different than planning a 5-year business plan; small bites. Work backwards here. If our goal is more sales, what do we need in order to do that? What has to happen before we reach that goal? People have to pay for our service/product. Look at it this way:

Item 1 > Item 2 > Item 3 > Item 4 > GOAL: Increase sales.

In this line, we are looking for Item 4. So let’s say Item 4 is “People are buying our product.” Let’s make that note.

Item 1 > Item 2 > Item 3 > People Buy Product > GOAL: Increase sales.

Alright. Now, again, working backwards, let’s figure out what we need to do for people to be buying our product. It’s probably already listed on the website and the website is already configured for sales. Great. So we need to be sending people to the website. But what page? What product are you selling or attempting to get more sales on? Some of this may seem like a lot of kindergarten stuff, but I promise, getting a good outline and plan of attack will help in the long run, especially if you have people like me helping make it happen for you. One document or photo will help keep everyone on the same page and moving along.

So, Item 3 should be “Send more traffic to product page X.” Easy enough.

Item 1 > Item 2 > Send More Traffic to Product Page X > People Buy Product > GOAL: Increase sales.

Now how do we move people to that page? This is where a simple answer that we’ll break down later will get us going. The answer in our example will be “Push product X page on social media.” Now, we’re not going to worry about the How right now, just the plan. We’ll get into the How later.

Item 1 > Push Product X Page on Social Media > Send More Traffic to Product Page X > People Buy Product > GOAL: Increase sales.

And finally, Item 1: What needs to happen before pushing the page on social? What do we need? Answer: A manager or point-person for our social media! As the owner, you may do this yourself, or you may choose a salesperson, since they know the product intimately. Just make sure this person has the time available to do what needs to be done, and knows how to do it.

Delegate Social Media to Person A > Push Product X Page on Social Media > Send More Traffic to Product Page X > People Buy Product > GOAL: Increase sales.

Add the Details

Now that we have a plan, we need to go back and detail each item so we know who does what, and what exactly that each item entails. This is where the How comes in.

Delegate Delegate Social Media to Person A > Push Product X Page on Social Media > Send More Traffic to Product Page X > People Buy Product > GOAL: Increase sales.

Delegating the social media or taking it on yourself also means figuring out who has the usernames and passwords. Who has the access you need? Which pages or accounts are you going to be using? Based on the most recent research, the largest chunk of each daily audience is as follows:

Image credit: Pew Research Center

Knowing this helps when you plan out where to spend your time and money. Please visit the research link provided above for the additional data, you’ll need to plan out your campaign. You also need to take into account what age groups are using each, to determine if that is indeed where your target audience lies. It’s nearly a year old so we are all eagerly awaiting the new research, but until then, this report does help us.

Each Item Has Its Own Tasks

So, you see how Item one (where we delegated platforms) worked. Item 2, Push Traffic to Product X Page, will also have its own tasks. Now we know what platforms, but how are we going to push our link to those pages properly? What etiquette is appropriate for each platform and each audience on that platform? We can’t come off as spammy or else people will simply ignore our messages.

So now you have a little homework to do, unless you know your audience so well that you can answer these questions already:

1. Does my audience like daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly reminders?
2. Do they prefer links, photos, videos, or text posts – or a combo?
3. How often is too often to post on this platform?
4. Do my customers leave frequent reviews I can use to push the product?
5. Can I use a contest or some other creative motivation to get people to buy the product?

Answering these questions can get you started. Be sure to keep each platform’s general etiquette in mind. This is easier if you’ve been a user, so delve in and use the platform yourself on a personal account so you can be more in-tune with your audience and the platform. Once you’re able to post your link on the platform without being a spambot, people will start to listen and click your link.

Note: I’m not discussing ads in this post, but that’s another possibility to push out your product on the different platforms. You can refer to my other posts for more information about Facebook ads.

Google Analytics – Analytics Everywhere!

Item 3, Send More Traffic to Product Page X, is easy enough. We’ll need to set up UTM links for our campaign, and then we just need to be able to peek through our analytics for our website.

When creating a UTM, or Urchin Tracking Module, we want to probably use the same link, but attach different platforms to it, so we will be able to differentiate the traffic later, which we’ll discuss. But they are easy to create, and Google gives us a tool to make it super-easy.

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

You’ll add the URL to the product page, since that’s where we are sending people in the first box, asking for the Website URL. Campaign Source will be the platform, such as Facebook (or you can use an abbreviation like FB, just make sure you’ll know what it stands for). Though it doesn’t require it, you’ll also need a Campaign Medium. This is to represent the traffic, such as is it coming from an email? From a banner ad? In the image below I’ve put in social. The last bit that Google wants (or perhaps needs) is going to be the Campaign Name.

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

I named it fall sale. It can be whatever you want, but in order to present our information correctly, it needs these three pieces filled out. Once you are done, you’ll see the URL in the bottom box and you can click “Copy URL” from there to paste it into your social media! Create a different UTM for each platform, and you’ll be able to find out which platform is making you the most money when we look at the data.

Diving into the Google Analytics Data

To find the data we’ll be collecting on our website, most people do this through Google Analytics. Setting up a goal to find out that our traffic from social media is sending traffic to the right page AS WELL AS converting them into customers is pretty simple. We’re going to focus on someone going from our social media to the product page then buying something.

The easiest way to do this is build a URL we can track, set up the goal for a destination page (because we know what page our customers will end up on after going through a purchase), then go into a report to see what platforms they came from.

In your Google Analytics, go to the “Admin” tab on the left-hand side of the page. Select the correct Account, Property, and View for your website. Under the “View” column, click on “Goals.” Click the red “+ New Goal” button to get started.

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

You’ll see the various templates, but just select “Custom.”

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

Then select “Continue.” The next “page” will let you name your goal. Be sure it’s easy. Then we will select “Destination.”

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

Google states: “Use destination goals to treat a pageview or screenview as a conversion. Enter the screen name or page URL in the Destination field. Specify the match type as Equals to, Begins with, or Regular expression.” For our purposes, use “Equals to” and type the URL for your confirmation or Thank you page after a purchase has been completed. In the image below you’ll see “/thanks.html” representing the confirmation page URL.

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

Also in this image, you’ll see that I’ve added a pretend Value of $20.00 because I’m imagining we’re selling a $20.00 item. Add the correct value for your item in this box, and Google can help you track how much money in sales you’ve racked up based on this goal, per platform.

Track the Attack with Google Analytics

Using Google Analytics and by looking at the campaigns report, we can also find out if we’re reaching Items 3, 4, and 5.

Delegate Social Media to Person A > Push Product X Page on Social Media > Send More Traffic to Product Page X > People Buy Product > GOAL: Increase sales.

Now since I haven’t actually created this goal, I won’t have any photos of this. But this article does have some good advice about this topic and also shows you what it will look like. I’ll show you how to get there.

In your Google Analytics, you’ll click on “Acquisition” on the left-hand side, then “Campaigns,” and next “All Campaigns.”

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

Here you’ll see your campaign tracking! But breaking it down further, we can get the information by platform by doing one of two things: clicking the “Secondary dimension” and choosing “Social > Social Network,” or by simply clicking the “Source” primary dimension on the top of the columns.

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

Now you’ll see the campaign broken down by platform. But I would use “Source” rather than the “Secondary dimension” until you’ve created multiple campaigns (with different names).

But either way, in this report, you’ll be able to see the goal conversion rate (how well the traffic converted) and the goal value, which is the total value of the goals accomplished via traffic from that particular platform (i.e., how much money those platforms earned based on your efforts).

Screen capture: Roxanne Roark

Testing All the Things

Finally, after you’ve run a few of these types of campaigns, you’ll be able to look at all of the data and figure out if you’re reaching your goals, since Google Analytics makes it pretty easy for us to check that out! Testing other products or services, pages, images, etc. and platforms will help you find out if this kind of marketing is helping you. And if you plan ahead, you’ll be able to move seamlessly through your campaign and make sure that all of your social media marketing is well thought-out, which is crucial for any campaign.

Tracking #DigitalMarketing ROI w/ #Google Analytics and UTM Codes by @r3socialmedia #RocksDigital
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Did you learn something new about Google Analytics and tracking ROI? What’s your next step? Jump in and share your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Getting Started: How to Track Social Media ROI with Google Analytics and UTM Tracking Codes appeared first on Rocks Digital.

Social media management while on vacation seems a timely topic, as around Tulsa, kids are getting out of school and summer vacation is beginning! Personally, my family will be out and about most of the month of June, so I thought this would be a perfect piece for all of you other marketers out there wondering how to manage the chores of marketing – plus keep it seamless like you never left. Shall we begin?

How to Keep Your Social Media Marketing Going During Vacation

Choose Your Social Media Marketing Methods

So, first things first, you need to decide how you are going to handle this being-out-of-town business. There are a few methods. If you work inside a smaller agency there may be someone there who doesn’t have a family or just chooses to keep working through the holiday vacation season, or perhaps you have an intern to delegate to. Or … maybe you work from home because you are the owner and operator, and when you go on a vacation the world comes to an almost complete stop! I know some of you are thinking “Vacation? WHAT vacation!” I get it – but think about that work-life balance, OK?

So, whatever position you are in, let’s figure out what method you’ll be using to take care of business while you’re AFK (away from keyboard).

Managing Social Media in an Agency

So, you work in an agency. Ask someone to step in to double-check everything for you while you’re away. Set it up like this: You’re going to get everything scheduled for them. You’re going to write the blog and set the posts to go out using your favorite method (native scheduling, Buffer, HootSuite, TweetDeck, etc.), but you’re going to ask your new best friend to check on any questions or comments that may come in while you’re gone, so there’s no hitch in your giddy-up.

Be sure this person knows the parties to contact in case of an emergency, such as a question they can’t answer or a very displeased customer. If it’s you, then it’s you. If it’s someone else, be sure both parties are aware that you will be unavailable and resolution is in their hands.

Interns

If you have interns or an intern at your disposal, use them for these tasks. Same as above: you control the content by scheduling ahead of time, and make sure your intern is very aware that they must check on any notifications that come in. Also as above, be sure you have spelled out “in case of emergency” contacts. Make sure they understand that an emergency does not mean any question that comes through if it’s one they can answer themselves!

Social Media Management for the Single Business Owner

If you’re a business owner that either 1) has employees that are also going on vacation or 2) has no employees, then this is a question that only you can answer.

What is right for your brand? If no one can be the man behind the scenes while you’re away, then the question becomes do you 1) post something letting everyone know that your business will be closing for a short time while you are taking an awesome vacation, or 2) take the hit during your vacation and be sure to check in even while you’re away,  or 3) partner up with another marketer that does what you do, that you trust, and ask them to manage the work (if they can) while you’re away? And always, always let your client(s) know, as transparency is an important part of trust.

What this Social Media Marketer Does

Personally, I am a one-man shop, single business owner, and I have decided that for my brand, if I don’t have someone inside of the client’s team that can take over while I’m away (like in the scenarios above), I send a nice message to the client and let them know I will be away, and that I can schedule some content, but will be unable to stay abreast of any questions or communications that come from that content – or I can simply abstain from posting for a short time, and it is their choice.

Most of the time clients understand – it’s great that we are all human, right? Most have no problem having me schedule things, and addressing or answering anything that comes through until my return. Others tell me to simply hold off and have a nice trip!

How to Choose What to Do

The trickiest part about this choice is that 1) it’s definitely about your brand and 2) it’s definitely about your customers.

See, if you choose your customers poorly, or if your customers are simply in no mood for this vacation nonsense, then you may have to make those sacrifices. I choose to make sure that my customers understand I have a family, and my family will always come first. Before their business, before their money, before my business. My family is more important, and I’ve never had a client disagree with me or have an issue with me taking time away.

The choice is yours and depends on the options you have available, but just remember, time away is important to everyone’s health, and you should never feel bad for taking a! Cheers!

How to keep #SocialMedia Going While You’re on #Vacation by @RoxanneRoark #RocksDigital
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How do you handle it when you have work to do, but you need time away? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

The post Managing Social Media While You’re on Vacation appeared first on Rocks Digital.