SOCIAL MEDIA
@MARKWSCHAEFER
MARKETING MEASUREMENT
YOUR GUIDE TO

How do I measure
my social media
efforts?

This is one of the questions I hear most
often from businesses.

Your social media success might not
be measured by WHAT you measure
but also WHEN you measure it.

The key is finding the right
measurement for your organization’s
place in the social media journey.

To do that, let’s look at a simple
graph that shows how marketing
works over time.

TIME
INTERACTIONS
copyright schaefer marketing solutions
ENGAGEMENT
MARKETING

copyright schaefer marketing solutions
Our job is to provide interactions that
drive higher levels of customer
engagement over time.
TIME
INTERACTIONS
ENGAGEMENT
MARKETING

There are different milestones you
achieve as engagement progresses
over time.

TIME
INTERACTIONS
copyright schaefer marketing solutions
Awareness
Reliable
Reach
A MULTI-LEVEL APPROACH TO MEASUREMENT
Financial
Gains

Financial Gains are the ultimate goal
but that doesn’t happen right away.
TIME
INTERACTIONS
Awareness
Reliable
Reach
copyright schaefer marketing solutions
Financial
Gains

In fact, research shows that while
most businesses get a boost in
awareness in the first year, for some
businesses it may take 4-5 years of
effort before finding financial returns.

To help you find the right
measurement, let’s look at each of
these phases and key metrics for each.

AWARENESS
PHASE 1

As you get up and going with the first
phase, you’re figuring things out.

Experimenting and failing. Aligning
with platforms and partners.

But most importantly, you are building a
content-creating culture.

You need to show that you’re creating
that culture through metrics such as:

Increasing your organic audience
Establishing a consistent and reliable
publishing schedule
Seeing a bump in your website traffic as a
result of your content
Early signs of engagement like Likes and Comments
Measures that show your brand awareness
is building through social media mentions
AWARENESS SUCCESS METRICS
1
2
3
4
5

By the end of the first year of your
content marketing journey, you
should be ready to change your
metrics.

That brings us to the next phase.

RELIABLE REACH
PHASE 2

In this second phase, you are moving
beyond broadcasting.

Your focus is creating a deeper
audience connection.

You are building a reliable audience.

An audience that subscribes to your content, saying
“Please market to me!”

In this connection phase, it’s time to
overhaul your metrics by focusing on:

The number of people subscribing to your channels
Lead generation (sales, new employees,
suppliers)
Advocacy through content sharing
Authority through influencers
RELIABLE REACH SUCCESS METRICS
1
2
3
4

How long does this second phase last?
This will vary a lot by industry, and
specifically by the competition and
information density you are up against.

FINANCIAL GAINS
PHASE 3

You’ve been consistent with your
social media efforts.

You’re seen as a helpful and trusted
authority with your audience.

With these building blocks in place,
you’re poised to start realizing tangible
financial benefits from your efforts.

This will vary wildly by business and
industry but somewhere between 1 and
3 years you should begin seeing some
financial benefits.

So when you feel like you’ve outgrown
the phase two metrics, it’s time to
change your measurement to reflect:

Customer loyalty and retention
Conversion rate
SEO benefits
Marketing cost savings and cost avoidance
Sales
FINANCIAL GAINS SUCCESS METRICS
1
2
3
4
5

Let’s do a quick recap.

A MULTI-LEVEL APPROACH TO SOCIAL MEDIA
MARKETING MEASUREMENT
Adjust to the appropriate metrics depending on your place on the social media journey.

I hope this guide helps you solve
the social media marketing
measurement puzzle.

The great news is, you don’t
have to do it alone!

I wrote my new book for YOU.

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content, your marketing,
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Lastly, remember this:

“Social media is a tool to build
awareness, connections,
relationships…and
eventually action.”
-@markwschaefer

SAY HELLO ONLINE!
DESIGN
@sarahsmason
CONTENT
@markwschaefer