Managing Content and Tracking Effectiveness

Just as with building community, engaging your community is an on-going effort that will require continuous attention and fresh content. Depending on the geographical reach of your audience, you’ll want to test content by using geo-targeting mechanisms to better understand how individuals living in different areas of the world are engaging with your content. Everyone has different online habits and understanding these habits will greatly help you in this process. Some may only surf their social networks early in the morning, late at night or, perhaps, at other times of the day. Scheduling content using Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or other social media management tool will allow you to determine when your audience is engaging with your content. A monthly editorial calendar will help you to keep your posts organized and allow you to measure the effectiveness of your social media program by tracking comments, likes, shares, re-tweets and +1’s. Once you’ve figured out where your audience is living and how to engage them, take your newly formed social community for a test drive. Monitor engagement for the first three months and adapt where necessary. Because individual online habits are always changing, the content your audience is engaged with today may be history tomorrow. Allowing your brand to evolve with your community is an important necessity to ensuring your long-term success. And, of course, aligning your overall marketing initiatives such as digital and email marketing is an integral part of building awareness of your social presence.   Image Credit: Heiko Klingele