Have you ever heard the saying, “you can’t expect to do the same thing and get different results”? Well, it’s true. If you want results, you need a measurable strategy that you can define, track, and alter. At Missing Link Social Media, we follow our five-stage blueprint called the “social media profit system” for measuring success.

1. Discover

Firstly, we start by discovering what the brand is all about: the why, the what, the causes and beliefs. This creates a clear idea of what you stand for and therefore your ideal target customer.

In this process, think about what makes you different, and how you reflect those differences in the work you produce. This could mean awards, accolades, recommendations and the business structure and values that all contribute to your unique selling proposition.

Following this, incorporate research by looking at competitors and how they do what they do, whether it’s successful or unsuccessful.

Tip: You can check a competitor’s active ads here.

Next, we look at the conversations that are happening in the industry through reviews, case studies, blogs and forums, and consider how you may weave this into your own content.

It might be helpful to look into Audience Insights to understand what pages your audience demographics and the pages your audience is already following.

Finally, we look into the lifetime customer value and target customer acquisition to understand what an average customer is worth. It’s from here that you can decide how much you are willing to pay for the customer.

2. Define

The next stage in the five-stage system is Define. This process looks at defining the campaign and audience funnels such ascold, warm and hot< audiences.

We look at which campaigns to use for which buyer stage your audience is in, for example, early stages such as brand awareness and engagement, or final stages such as conversions.

The next step in this stage is looking at marketing messages and what type of voice we’ll use when creating content, and understanding if it’s the right tone to use. This also means creating compelling content that speaks directly to your target audience, and how your product or service will help them.

Finally, defining measures of success using the Missing Link Social Media acronym CLEAR: Conversions, Link clicks, Engagement, Audience growth, and Reach. Using these five metrics means you can understand how things are performing through the awareness, consideration and purchase phases of the buyer journey.

3. Design

The third stage of the system is the design stage. We’ll develop the creative for the campaign, and assess whether or not it reflects the brand both functionally and aesthetically through all mediums including images, videos, and downloadable content.

Tip: Consider thinking about how together we can nurture audiences that aren’t yet ready to make a buying decision. Check out my series with Jorge Gasca from Three Step Business on successful automation, how to implement automation, andwelcoming sequences, for more information.

4. Deliver

The fourth stage in the five-stage system is deliver. This means looking at proof that what we are doing is working as we implement the strategy.

5. Develop

The final stage is Develop. In this stage, we’re looking at the results to measure, recommend, report and evolve the strategy. This stage generally works in two components: qualitative data, and non-quantifiable data.

With qualitative data, we’re looking to evaluate how your audience is feeling, and how they’re expressing that. We’ll usually analyse this from positive or negative sentiments. The quantitative data includes social engagement metrics, website analytics and sales/leads.

Lastly, we’ll evolve the strategy based on your results from the entire five-stage system. To be successful, we must constantly look over what works and what doesn’t each month.

Using the five-stage system for success

If you have any questions on the system, as always, you can leave a comment in the section below, or get in touch.