It is critical in teaching social media marketing to arm students with the tools that they can apply in their professional setting.  While the blog project we have described in this blog is a good start for understanding how to write for a particular audience and to develop keywords and topics that will rank well in organic search, the process of social media marketing management must take place in a broader context. Social media metrics must be linked to a broader strategic plan, but how is this to be accomplished?  A good way to start linking overall company goals to social media marketing plans is .  through understanding existing social media marketing capabilities and making changes to the organization as appropriate.  Assessments and audits can provide data and insights into the overall company direction for social media marketing and help link social media actions to organizational goals.

The Demand Metric Model:  Assessing Social Media Marketing Capabilities

In a prior blog post I discussed a social media marketing maturity model by Hamel (Zahay, 2021).  The Demand Metric model (Demand Metric, 2021)  for assessing social media capabilities (Figure 1) is similar in its goal but different in its approach.  Rather than resulting in maturity level as in Hamel’s DAMM model, the Demand Metric model uses the eight criteria listed below to create an overall assessment score.  Each criteria is evaluated from 1-5 with five being the highest and then a weighted score is produced out of a total of 100.  In this example a total score of 57 is the result, indicating many areas for improvement. Areas of greatest opportunity are marked in yellow and red, whereas green indicates a strength.

One way to use this tool in the classroom is to ask students to evaluate a company with which they are familiar and then make recommendations based on the results. A nice thing about this model that distinguishes it from the Hamel model (See link below) is that it does generate a list of specific recommendations to help improve the organization’s social media marketing capabilities.  For example, if the company does not regularly monitor competitors, the tool recommends setting up Google Alerts for the competition.

Figure 1: Demand Metric Social Media Assessment points to opportunities for organizational improvement

Demand Metric Social Media Marketing Maturity Assessment Criteria

The specific criteria used in the model are as follows:

Senior Management Commitment: Does senior management understand social media and is it committed to using these tools?

Social Media Knowledge: Does the firm understand the channels and how its employees and executives are using it currently? Is the firm continuing to increase its knowledge?

Customer Engagement: Does the firm participate in groups and forums that are necessary to understand the industry and the customer.  Are subscriber lists growing?

Competitive Insight: Does the firm track competitors on social media?

Staff & Resources: Are there defined roles and responsibilities and is someone in charge of social media?

Plan & Channel Selection: Is there a plan in place linking social media channels to company strategy?

Process Documentation:  Is there a process for integrating social media marketing into marketing practices and has the firm developed a calendar to select topics.

Governance and Measurement: Is there a social media policy in place including a privacy policy?  Have metrics been selected for success and are these reported to senior management in a dashboard or other format?

This type of assessment allows us to see how the organization is positioned to develop a social media program and report on its associated analytics.  The tool will also help the organization identify organizational weaknesses and then figure out what skills gaps are in the workforce and how to how to plan for an effective social media strategy.  The output of this type of assessment should be a strategic social media plan that fits with the organizations’ business goals.

Assessment versus the Social Media Audit

A social media audit, on the other hand, is a drill down into the specifics of an organization’s social media channels and presence on those channels. The purpose is to understand what is going on with the current situation and how to improve specific social media marketing efforts.. The social media audit can identify specific activities that are necessary for future success. For example, if the target audience  is often on Instagram but the company does not have a presence there, developing an Instagram presence presents an opportunity.

Khan (2018) suggests these following these steps in asking these ten questions in a social media audit. A sample audit is included in Figure 2.

1. Which social media accounts are currently attached to the company?
2. How are they currently being used?
3. Have they gone dormant/are they being used for spam?
4. Are the current messaging and social networks the best possible networks for the intended audience?
5. How often is content posted to these accounts? Is the content relevant to the intended audience?
6. What is the engagement like?
7. How does engagement compare to the past?
8. What happens when Googling the company name? What is the reputation of the firm online?
9. What platforms and messages is the competition using?
10. What is working well?
    

    Figure 2: Questions to ask in the social media marketing audit (Khan, 2018)

Another good resource for a social media audit template is HubSpot (2021).  The HubSpot template is more technical and relies heavily upon an the results  from Google Analytics. While valuable, it might not be the best fit for an organization that is less advanced in social media marketing and doesn’t have Analytics available.

Whichever tools the company picks, the social media audit and the assessment should work together. In the Demand Metric Model, the audit then feeds into Plan and Channel Selection section of the assessment tool. Therefore, the two types of tools (assessment and audit) work together to help focus the organization’s social media marketing efforts. As noted above, once the plan is developed, it must be tied to the organization’s goals and strategic plan. Teaching these tools prepares students to function in today’s current business environment by giving them ways to talk to upper management about social media efforts.

References

Demand Metric (2021). Social Media Maturity Assessment 

HubSpot (2021). Social Media Audit for Word & Google Docs

Khan, Gohar F, (2018), Creating Value with Social Media Analytics: Managing Aligning, and Mining Social Media, Text, Networks, Actions, Location, Apps, Hyperlinks. Multimedia & Search Engines Data. Create Space Independent Publishing Platform.

Zahay, D. (2021, February 22). How to Assess Maturity in Social Media Analytics [Using the DAMM Model]