Question Mark: How to measure social marketing

Mark Shipley answers your healthcare marketing queries

Q: What are the most valuable metrics for social media marketing?

A: Today’s most valuable social media metrics relate to engagement

• Interaction and sharing of content

• Quality of conversations, mentions


Shares are top metrics

They increase the visibility of your social messages, and help broaden your network.

Likes and followers aren’t important anymore

Just because someone likes you, doesn’t mean they’re engaged. Think about your personal life, you’re much more engaged with the people you love and care for than the people you like. The same goes for social networks. And now that social networks are monetizing views, people who like you don’t necessary see your posts, you have to pay for them to be seen.

Other metrics to track engagement and interaction:

• Retweets and @ replies or mentions on the Twitter

• Likes and comments on social media posts

• Views and embeds of videos

• Content reposts on social bookmarking sites

• Downloads of content

• Quality of conversation surrounding the brand

Measurement Tools for Social Media:

• Radian 6, Social Mention, Sysomos, UberVU, and Google Alerts listen to conversations about the hospital brand and its competitors
• Twitalyzer and Klout track Twitter impact, engagement, and influence
• Google Analytics measure website traffic from social media efforts

Learn more about social media metrics in our white paper, “Healthcare Marketing Analytics.”

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