Hard to believe the year is already half over (gasp!). Now is a golden opportunity to go beyond the periodic checklist and audit your social network performance to discover where you’re hitting the mark and potential areas for improvement. We’ve come up with some questions to ask yourself when conducting a mid-year social media check for your business.

1. WHAT MATTERS MOST WHEN LOOKING AT SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS?

What’s important for your business really depends on the goal of your campaign strategy.

Are you looking to drive sales? Checking the engagement rate will help pinpoint what’s connecting with your audience. Also consider audience growth rate, which is a measure of your brand’s effectiveness and helps to gauge marketing strategies over time.

Is your goal to increase awareness? Impressions, reach, and engagement numbers will show you how often your message is seen, the number of unique people viewing your message, and how the audience is responding or interacting.

Do you want more leads? The percentage of new visits shows if your information is reaching new eyes. Additionally, click-through-rate is crucial because it will help determine how interesting the content is for your audience.

Want to increase customer satisfaction? Look at the number of questions, compliments, and criticisms as well as your responses to them. Pay attention to your response rate and response time. Acknowledge every comment in a timely manner.

2. CAN I FIND SUCCESS ON SOCIAL MEDIA?

Setting SMART goals for your business is a recipe for… well, you know:

Be Specific with what you want to accomplish and the plan for implementation. Make sure your data can be Measured to determine strengths and areas of improvement. Be realistic and make your goal Achievable so that you don’t become discouraged. Create useful content that proves the Relevance of your business. Set a Time deadline so there’s a checkpoint for analyzing progress and success.

3. AM I ON THE CORRECT PLATFORM?

The goal you set for your business should help determine the platform(s) you use. Here’s the skinny on how to best utilize the four biggies:

Facebook: Best for businesses wanting to build relationships and generate leads.

LinkedIn: Best for business networking. This platform is used by both business-to-business and business-to-consumer to engage audiences, develop authority, and build trust.

Twitter: Best for the sharing of time-sensitive announcements, trends, and breaking news.

Instagram: Best for sharing photos and videos. And visual content is engaging, so becoming Instagram savvy can help increase sales, boost your brand, and promote products and services.

4. HOW OFTEN SHOULD I POST?

Don’t post content for the sake of posting content. Choose quality over quantity, and share posts on a consistent basis. But be sure you’re posting at a rate with which you can keep up. General rules of thumb per platform are:

Facebook: Posting once per day is optimal, with a maximum of two posts per day. At the very least, post three times a week.

LinkedIn: One post per business day is suggested, with a minimum of two per week. Post during the morning hours, when members are most active.

Twitter: Remember that tweets have a short shelf life. If you tweet often, sprinkle your posts throughout the day. The “tweet” spot is between 5-10 daily posts.

Instagram: Post once or twice per day. Cut yourself off after three.

Pinterest: The recommended minimum is three pins per day and no more than 30. Aim for the 10-12 range and see how your followers respond. Then adjust if necessary.

5. HOW CAN I INCREASE MY SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE?

Once you’ve evaluated which platforms are best for your business plan as well as your goal, determine a strategy to target your audience and deliver content that will educate, entertain, and engage. Then do that: Engage your audience. Address their complaints and questions, show appreciation, comment on posts, and participate in or start conversations.

Be relevant and consistent with the content you post. The information you provide should benefit your audience and elicit an action or reaction. Use online tools to help coordinate and schedule posts so that you maintain a regular presence. Remember to keep an eye on performance data.

6. AM I HAVING FUN?

If your answer is “no,” perhaps you should reassess.

Your business is a personal and passionate investment. Be yourself, and on occasion use emotion to reach your audience on a human level. Be creative and willing to show some personality in what you share or how you share it. Your audience will reciprocate. As a result, you’ll likely find yourself having fun on social media.

If you would like additional guidance with the review of your business’s mid-year social media report card, contact Prime Advertising. Our fingers are consistently on the pulse of social media marketing, and we’re ready to assist with your business needs.