Social Media campaigns don’t always turn out the way you expect them. Sometimes you get a lot more of X and virtually none of Y. Usually you can spot it early on, and if you really have an all-start cast, they’ll figure out how to drive your ROI, even if it isn’t exactly the way you planned it.
It can be tempting to measure a team’s aptitude by their ability to hit preset targets. But I’d argue, real challenge is recognizing when you’re wrong and improvising. So, how do you switch from plan A to plan “i dunno yet?” and how do you know when to switch?
First you need to be measuring and collecting a lot of data. It’ll help give you early indicators and let you investigate inconsistencies. Second, it’ll show you what might be working unexpectedly.
It’s also helpful to set up an umbrella metric. Some sort of broader defined goal that can be attained through several dimensions.
For example, you can run a campaign for brand engagement. Instead of just counting views, you can count page views you can count tweets, video plays, comments etc. By defining the value of these before hand, it’ll be easier to be agile later on. If you were planning on driving tweets, but instead find a comment crazy audience, don’t be afraid of encouraging it.
Be flexible, and give your social media time the leeway to improvise.
