I do a lot of social media posting.
I stick to Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.
I do a little bit with Pinterest and answer some questions on Quora.
I have to say though, I like sharing on Twitter the most.
I really like their analytics feature as well, which I didn’t stumble across until December 27.
On that day they had a sidebar link that I hadn’t seen before. It took me to this:
I stick to Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.
I do a little bit with Pinterest and answer some questions on Quora.
I have to say though, I like sharing on Twitter the most.
I really like their analytics feature as well, which I didn’t stumble across until December 27.
On that day they had a sidebar link that I hadn’t seen before. It took me to this:
So that shows I’ve had 107,000 impressions over December.
That means my tweets appeared in the scroll, or someone scrolled past them, 107,000 times.
Is that good?
Probably not.
By “engaging” I mean liking, sharing, or commenting.
Thankfully, I have some engagement, as Twitter’s analytics feature shows me:
That means my tweets appeared in the scroll, or someone scrolled past them, 107,000 times.
Is that good?
Probably not.
- First, if you were to measure yourself next to the social media experts and influencers, that number’d probably be puny.
- Next, impressions don’t really count for much. On Twitter especially, it’s like someone seeing a tree outside their car window at 65 mph.
- Finally, what does it matter how many impressions you have if no one is engaging with your tweets, or social media posts in general?
By “engaging” I mean liking, sharing, or commenting.
Thankfully, I have some engagement, as Twitter’s analytics feature shows me:
Alright, alright…a 2.4% engagement rate.
We know that the average Twitter engagement rate for top brands is a terrible .07%, according to this April Dasheroo post.
So I’m doing a little better. We know that the click-through rate on Twitter is 1.64% on average, so I’m beating that.
Actually, with 32 link clicks a day I'm doing pretty well. Still, many of those are to other sites as I like sharing good content...no matter where it comes from.
When you get to numbers as small as 1.6%, however, does it really matter?
Maybe if you’re an influencer or expert with 800,000 followers or something, then yes, 1.6% would be good.
But for someone like me, with 800 followers (many of which don’t give a damn), I’m afraid 1.6% is shit.
Despite this, some of my social posts throughout the year actually do better than 1.6%.
Sometimes they do 25%.
How the hell does that happen?
In this post I’d like to explain that. I’ll explain it by showing some of my popular social posts throughout 2015.
I wish I would have started collecting them sooner, but I didn’t. That’s a good tip for you next year – if a post takes off, screenshot the sucker.
So, here are my screenshots.
We know that the average Twitter engagement rate for top brands is a terrible .07%, according to this April Dasheroo post.
So I’m doing a little better. We know that the click-through rate on Twitter is 1.64% on average, so I’m beating that.
Actually, with 32 link clicks a day I'm doing pretty well. Still, many of those are to other sites as I like sharing good content...no matter where it comes from.
When you get to numbers as small as 1.6%, however, does it really matter?
Maybe if you’re an influencer or expert with 800,000 followers or something, then yes, 1.6% would be good.
But for someone like me, with 800 followers (many of which don’t give a damn), I’m afraid 1.6% is shit.
Despite this, some of my social posts throughout the year actually do better than 1.6%.
Sometimes they do 25%.
How the hell does that happen?
In this post I’d like to explain that. I’ll explain it by showing some of my popular social posts throughout 2015.
I wish I would have started collecting them sooner, but I didn’t. That’s a good tip for you next year – if a post takes off, screenshot the sucker.
So, here are my screenshots.
My Most Popular Social Posts of 2015
I’m going to show you the post and then give some commentary.
For the Twitter posts, I just do a screenshot of the analytics for that tweet.
Here we go.
For the Twitter posts, I just do a screenshot of the analytics for that tweet.
Here we go.
This was a tweet I sent out on December 18, one dealing with the Bernie Sanders/Hillary Clinton scuffle about voter databases.
I took this screenshot after 12 hours of the post being up. It has lots of engagements.
If we take 41 total engagements divided by 434 we get 9.4%.
There is no click-through rate on this tweet as it’s nothing more than an infographic-style image.
Lots of retweets, though.
I found the image on Facebook and brought it to Twitter. It was damn effective.
I took this screenshot after 12 hours of the post being up. It has lots of engagements.
If we take 41 total engagements divided by 434 we get 9.4%.
There is no click-through rate on this tweet as it’s nothing more than an infographic-style image.
Lots of retweets, though.
I found the image on Facebook and brought it to Twitter. It was damn effective.
Something else that was effective was this post I put up around September on Google+.
It’s a poll asking writers in a writer group, “where are you on your writing journey?”
It’s a poll and it got 48 votes.
It’s a poll asking writers in a writer group, “where are you on your writing journey?”
It’s a poll and it got 48 votes.
I do a lot of ESL (English as a Second Language) stuff because I used to be an ESL teacher.
On November 20 I put up this worksheet-style image in an ESL teachers group on Facebook.
After just 12 hours or so it got 79 likes and 73 shares. It also got 3 comments.
Wow, those reshares though – shit!
Nearly everyone that liked it shared it. That’s an effective post, especially considering I’d found the image through a simple Google image search.
On November 20 I put up this worksheet-style image in an ESL teachers group on Facebook.
After just 12 hours or so it got 79 likes and 73 shares. It also got 3 comments.
Wow, those reshares though – shit!
Nearly everyone that liked it shared it. That’s an effective post, especially considering I’d found the image through a simple Google image search.
Brock Lowrance is someone that worked in the George W. Bush White House. He’s also involved in Montana politics.
I sent out the tweet about the post on him once. It got a 20% click-through rate in one day.
That’s effective Twitter marketing. I knew what my target audience wanted and I gave it to ‘em.
I sent out the tweet about the post on him once. It got a 20% click-through rate in one day.
That’s effective Twitter marketing. I knew what my target audience wanted and I gave it to ‘em.
One post from November 12 did really well in a Google+ group.
It’s a psychology marketing post from Marketing Land.
I usually share about 4 to 5 “other sites’ posts” each day on Google+. This one took 5 days to get 31 likes and 5 reshares.
Not too shabby.
It’s a psychology marketing post from Marketing Land.
I usually share about 4 to 5 “other sites’ posts” each day on Google+. This one took 5 days to get 31 likes and 5 reshares.
Not too shabby.
One of my best posts of the year was a simple poll in a sci-fi group on Google+.
The group has about 120,000 members but you know that a fraction of that are active.
In this case my question was, “what should Ridley Scott direct next: the new Blade Runner or Prometheus 2?”
It got 479 votes in 1 day, as well as 35 comments.
Wow, I could not believe that level of engagement!
Despite those votes, it was a nearly dead-even split on the films. Clearly, I should not have allowed that “other” choice.
The group has about 120,000 members but you know that a fraction of that are active.
In this case my question was, “what should Ridley Scott direct next: the new Blade Runner or Prometheus 2?”
It got 479 votes in 1 day, as well as 35 comments.
Wow, I could not believe that level of engagement!
Despite those votes, it was a nearly dead-even split on the films. Clearly, I should not have allowed that “other” choice.
One great thing about Year-End Top 10 posts is that they are useful all year.
On September 19 I shared my 2014 Top 10 SEO post, which had originally gone up December 30, 2014.
It got 22 likes and 37 reshares over the course of about 5 days.
I’ll take that any day of the week.
On September 19 I shared my 2014 Top 10 SEO post, which had originally gone up December 30, 2014.
It got 22 likes and 37 reshares over the course of about 5 days.
I’ll take that any day of the week.
On October 29 I went and saw the Shining at the Roxy Theatre here in Missoula.
That night I put up a post on Facebook talking about the mom smoking at the table with the kid.
It was in a Stephen King group on Facebook and got 49 likes in 11 hours.
Not a whole lot, but since I’m not very active in that group I was rather impressed.
Besides that, it got a lot of fun comments. Comments are often considered the gold standard of social media engagement.
That night I put up a post on Facebook talking about the mom smoking at the table with the kid.
It was in a Stephen King group on Facebook and got 49 likes in 11 hours.
Not a whole lot, but since I’m not very active in that group I was rather impressed.
Besides that, it got a lot of fun comments. Comments are often considered the gold standard of social media engagement.
Here’s a post from early-December about UM administrator salaries. It got a 3.4% click-through rate in 5 hours.
Not the most impressive, but it’s effective. Also, it’s twice the average.
Not the most impressive, but it’s effective. Also, it’s twice the average.
One post that got a 10.8% click-through rate was one in early-December (the same day as that UM post, actually) on the Montana Lt. Gov speculation.
I got that level of engagement after 5 hours.
I got that level of engagement after 5 hours.
On December 7 I put up another Montana Lt. Gov speculation post.
It got a 15% click-through rate in 12 hours.
What I did here was build on the same topic. My target audience liked that and my social media engagement went up.
It got a 15% click-through rate in 12 hours.
What I did here was build on the same topic. My target audience liked that and my social media engagement went up.
Conclusion
Those are my numbers.
Like I said, I wish I would have taken screenshots earlier.
Maybe a quarterly post would be a good idea. Anyways, that’s something you might want to think about as you head into 2016.
I hope my experiences have given you some insight.
Good luck going ahead!
Like I said, I wish I would have taken screenshots earlier.
Maybe a quarterly post would be a good idea. Anyways, that’s something you might want to think about as you head into 2016.
I hope my experiences have given you some insight.
Good luck going ahead!
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