In my previous blog posts, I’ve been emphasized the importance of social media when blogging and promoting your content. No matter what type of niche you’re involved in, it’s important that you make use of popular social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. The amount of traffic that flows through these networks is amazing and content has gone viral in a few days by simply posting an update once you’ve published your post. However, many people are giving too much credit to social media and waste precious time on networks that provide no results.
Before continuing, it’s always important to track analytics, no matter what niche or marketing platform you’re using. For example, for optimal performance, you need to ensure you track conversions through landing pages, social media, PPC, etc. Once you’ve gathered all the data, you can tweak your campaign to perform better going forward. However, many people still don’t know what metrics to track when analyzing results.
With Twitter, you need to ensure the time, days, content, and followers all increase blog growth. If you are spending 3-4 hours daily on social networks, promoting content and marketing your blog with very little conversions, then your strategy really isn’t working too well. Imagine spending this time x 30, which equals 120 hours and none of it converts into profit. It’s a complete waste and you could have used this time testing strategies that convert better.
Twitter is a massive social network, however, how do you know your time spent on this network is really worth it? Here are a few things to keep a close eye on when weighing your options on Twitter.
When calculating value, it should be correlated with “TIMEâ€.
Time Equals Comfort
You’re spending 2-3 hours daily on Twitter, adding people relevant to your niche. This time is spent sharing content on Twitter, hoping to create a buzz. You need to decide how much time produces results because Twitter can be very consuming and if you don’t optimize your efforts from the beginning, you can end up wasting valuable time without producing any results. The first thing you need to do is figure out how much time you can devote to Twitter each day and be able to manage your businesses at the same time. If you’re new to blogging, you’ll need to manage several aspects of your business at once so devoting time to a poor Twitter marketing campaign will be devastating.
Research has shown you that Twitter is essential to your business so it’s time for you to decide how much time you can devote daily and mange your other business interests at the same time. Once you’ve figured out your “timeâ€, you can move forward to the next factor, which is “TRAFFICâ€
Time Equals Traffic
I’m currently spending 1 hour daily on Twitter because much of my social campaign is automated through plugins, etc. However, there was a time when I was dedicating 4-5 hours daily, tweaking my strategy and promoting my content with my followers. In the end, the amount of time I spent on Twitter was determined by how much traffic it generated during that time. The good thing about Twitter is it can bring relevant people to your blog as many of us only join groups and follow those who have similar interests. However, you need track traffic based on time and calculate if lowering your timing has a direct influence on your traffic. Here’s an example,
In the beginning, if you’re spending 7 hours on Twitter and this generates 500 direct visitors, you need to find out if increasing or decreasing this time will influence your traffic. If the answer is “Yesâ€, you need to find out if it was an improvement or not. In my case, I saw my traffic stayed stable regardless of whether I spent “1†hour or “3†hours on Twitter. However, much of my success has to do with automation.
Going forward, track your results and keep a close eye on your timing. Remember, once you’ve optimized, it can save you time and money later on. The point is to put the effort now and avoid problems later.
Time Equals Conversions
Now that you’ve determined your time and how well it increases overall traffic, it’s important to really pinpoint the value of your efforts. No matter what anyone tells you, the purpose of every business is to generate a profit and the only way this will be accomplished is through leads and sales conversions on your blog. You need to track and find out how many people coming directly through Twitter actually translate into a sale. This is not tough because there are a few tools you can use to track Twitter conversions.
First, Bitly.com is a tool that converts your social media links so they can be tracked. This tool provides you with a breakdown of how many visitors are coming from Twitter. It’s a great way to determine traffic flow and conversions if you have the right landing page analytical tool. However, it doesn’t have to be complicated and you don’t need to go and purchase tools to track conversions through Twitter. I’ve found it can be as simple as having them fill out a quick form before purchasing or signing up to your newsletter.
Next,
Split up your campaigns and run them at different times then go back and view data to see where conversions were most active. When sending Twitter traffic to your conversion page, make sure no other campaigns are running simultaneously. This way, you’ll easily determine how effective the traffic source is at converting into profits.