Social Media Basics, Week #1
In doing my research for the topic of social media experiments, I’ve learned an important fact – – almost no one classifies their activities or participation in social media as an experiment! That is a fact worth noting because if I can’t seem to find research on how people performed their social media experiments, I definitely won’t find any information relating to measurements of success. That is for you to figure out in today’s prompt. Your job is to determine your own level of success within your social media experiments.
Creative Idea Gal’s Thoughts
I have already provided some clues as to what I perceive to be social media experiments and why I believe every single person conducts them. Now, let me distinguish between experiments and marketing. Marketing refers to a company’s activities to sell a service or product. Companies use social media to market themselves, gain a new audience, promote their products, and increase revenue. All of those things are measured by technical terms that are more robot-friendly than reader-friendly. Terms like ROI, analytics, and performance indicators often top the list as methods of measuring social media.
I’m going to ask you to step away from the common approach to social media as a marketing activity, and simplify it by turning everything you do into an experiment. Want to try Instagram? Do it! Afraid of becoming “noise” on the ever-busy Twitter? Who cares, just jump in! Want to meet a fellow book lover? Head on over to Goodreads! Every time you try something new with social media and experiment, consider it a success. Even after you experiment and end up getting burned by Internet trolls or scolded by the moderator of a group or disagree with others in a dumb Facebook post, it is still a success! Even if you started a blog but abandoned it a few months later, it is still a success.
I consider social media experiments successful when people try them out and check fear at the door.
Helpful Resources
“While it’s a good idea to experiment with various social networks, you also need to make sure you’re following your analytics closely to assess if your efforts are aligning with your company’s goals, reaching your intended target audience, and actually moving the needle.” – Brittany Leaning, for HubSpot
“What about Twitter? How do you measure success there? If it’s the total number of mentions, how do you take into account negative sentiment?.” – Todd Wasserman, for Mashable
Writing Prompt 039
- Step 1: Reflect upon your social media activities. Think about what motivates you to do one activity over another. What are you interests in social media?
- Step 2: Jump into social media. Begin by lurking but move forward and start doing small experiments. What have you done, create a profile on a social media site? Post a question on a forum? Share pictures?
- Step 3: Determine your own level of success within your social media experiments. Any measure of success is valid, but be prepared to explain. Back up your answers with specific examples.
Please be sure to leave comments about this writing prompt. We want to hear from you!
Please be sure to leave comments about this writing prompt. We want to hear from you!
About the Author
Amanda M. Socci, J.D., is a freelance writer with 14 years of experience writing professionally. Socci currently cuts her blogging chops on her personal portfolio blog, the Creative Idea Gal blog, and on an online news site, Mount Vernon Patch. Inspired by Nina Amir’s Write Nonfiction in November writing challenge, she created a unique 10-month training program for Writenonfictionnow.com and Writenonfictioninnovember.com blog visitors.
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