Whether you’re posting organic or paid content on social media, it needs to resonate with users, otherwise you’re simply wasting time and money. Here’s how a test-and-learn approach can help.
Many small businesses run their social media channels through gut feel, creating new content based on what did well in the past without really looking at the data. It’s not hard to see why. While big businesses have entire marketing departments with social media specialists, many small business owners manage their own social media (along with everything else), and it can be difficult to find the time to implement a more strategic approach.
But if you don’t know whether your content is resonating with users – and why or why not – you could be wasting a lot of time and money. Here’s how to change that.
Test
If you’re not already doing A/B testing, this is a good time to start. It will enable you to try out different versions of organic posts and paid ads to see what works before you commit to one. Try changing different variables, such as your call to action, copywriting, visuals, format, and even target audience (age, location, etc). Just don’t change more than one variable per test, otherwise you won’t know how to interpret the results. You can indicate that you’re running an A/B test when you upload the ads to your channel. For organic posts, you’ll need to do it manually.
Measure
Measuring the performance of your social media content goes hand-in-hand with testing. It will help you decide which post or ad to boost based on data, rather than gut feel. Most social media platforms will tell you how much engagement your content is getting, but for deeper insights, you may want to use a third-party reporting tool, such as Google Analytics or Sprout Social.
Learn
Learning is all about how you use these data insights to constantly improve your social media content. Ask yourself why a certain call to action or visual worked better than the rest, and keep that answer in mind as you create new content going forward.
No business is too small to take a test-and-learn approach. Find out how hummpro can help you pay for professional analytics and reporting tools to take your social media to the next level.
