Optimizing on Key Metrics for Social Media Marketing

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To connect with engineers, you have to meet them where they are. Increasingly, that means in cyberspace. Of course, the rapport established through in-person conversations, such as at conferences and trade shows, will always be necessary. Yet, the internet is the most efficient means of reaching a large audience quickly.

Therefore, your marketing strategy should include a presence on social media platforms where engineers congregate. Engineers use these sites to stay abreast of industry trends and discuss successes and failures. Including electronic components that perform well and those that do not. However, to make the best use of these sites, it is essential to know the key metrics for social media marketing to track.

The Top Metrics for Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing campaigns can be structured in various ways, depending on your objectives. For example, it may be essential for you to get clicks and drive organic traffic to the content pages at your site to improve metrics like domain rating (DR) for online reputation management (ORM). Or you may be keenly interested in how users engage with your social media content. For example, how many likes and shares you get for specific posts.

These answers and more are readily available, as many social media KPIs can be followed. Below, metrics for social media marketing that are useful for monitoring engineer engagement and strategy success are listed.

Key Metrics for Social Media Marketing to Engineers

📊 Conversion rate

This metric measures how often your social media content results in a conversion (e.g. download, form fill, online phone call, etc.)

📊 Click-through rate (CTR)

Measures how often your post leads the reader to additional content.

📊 Cost-per-click (CPC)

How much each click costs.

📊 Reach

The number of people that are aware of your post.

📊 Impressions

The overall number of times your content was seen (includes multiple views by the same people).

📊 Engagement rate

The number of reactions (e.g. shares, likes, etc.) to your content.

📊 Amplification rate

The number of shares per post.

📊 Customer satisfaction score

An indicator of how well received your post is by respondents.

The above list is not exhaustive. However, these metrics for social marketing can be used to provide a wealth of data and information that can be used to optimize your social media campaign ROI.

Using Social Media to Connect With Engineers

For OEMs, ODMs, and other electronics developers, engineers singularly or significantly influence what components are used in the products their company develops. Aside from exotic or hard-to-find parts that are only used for select applications, several options typically exist, which make the electronics parts industry highly competitive. And it can be challenging to make engineers aware of your products.

When searching for parts, engineers typically rely on their own experiences. However, for new and/or alternative components, they rely on information provided by colleagues in the industry or from online sources, including social media platforms. And knowing which platforms your target audience frequents is as important as knowing how to engage engineers once you have their attention.

Engaging your audience on social media is akin to assembling a focus group around a table to discuss your company products/services.

Different types of social media interaction

As shown above, there are many ways in which your audience can interact with each other and your social media marketing presence. So, how do you know if your marketing strategy works and how your products are being received? It boils down to selecting your campaign’s most valuable metrics for social media marketing.

How to Best Use Social Media Marketing Metrics

If not the only factor, ROI is a major KPI for any social media marketing campaign. ROI and similar metrics such as Return-On-Ad-Spend (ROAS) – which is a straightforward way to gauge inorganic traffic effectiveness–are good for analyzing budget effectiveness. However, they provide little to no insight that can be used to optimize your campaign strategy, increase revenue, or improve your brand or online reputation.

To optimize your marketing to engineers over the long term, you need to employ a plan that includes leveraging the data obtained from important metrics for social media marketing, as listed below.

Steps to Maximize Metrics for Social Media Marketing

Create a well-thought-out digital marketing strategy.
Choose a media platform(s) that has a significantly large engineering audience.
Create engaging content that addresses the needs, and issues engineers seek to address.
Clearly explain what your product is and does related to the need or issue targeted.
Track metrics accurately, collect regularly, and analyze.
Use analysis results to modify and update your strategy.

Implementing the steps above will not only help increase revenue and improve ROI, but pay dividends that can be translated into a more effective social marketing campaign. The best way to achieve these results is to work with a partner that reaches the largest number of experienced and next generation engineers online seeking electronic components and design data in the world.

Discover how Ultra Librarian helps manufacturers. With services and resources tailored to streamline CAD creation and amplify part downloads, Ultra Librarian empowers manufacturers to boost productivity and drive part downloads. By leveraging these tools, manufacturers can achieve greater success in today’s competitive market landscape.