A challenging feat for many businesses is tracking what is working in their marketing efforts. Knowing the importance of lead tracking and having a team that is committed to helping solve for it can be entirely two separate tasks.

When it comes to social media, the challenge of marketing tracking becomes even more daunting. Customers are most often quick to cite the Internet as their source, but could it be the Facebook ad you ran that first introduced them to your business and eventually made them call? How will you know for sure? Understanding social media ROI is an absolute necessity for any business.

Determining whether a marketing tactic is effective requires understanding if it resulted in positive or negative growth. Measuring social media ROI, or return on investment, for social media is not a measurement of popularity. It is a measure of efficacy. To be most effective, your social media posts must be doing several things. First, they should be reaching a target audience that you define. Second, the content of your post – whether visual or written – should resonate with those who see it. Third, people who see it should be taking action after viewing your post. This could mean liking, commenting on it or sharing it. Even better, perhaps they fill out a form or call the office to make an appointment.

Before attempting to quantify your social media marketing efforts, define your goals for using social media. Facebook advertising makes it relatively easy to create ads based on these goals. If you need help, consider hiring a medical marketing agency to give you a hand. Agencies that understand HIPAA and how to manage social media without putting you at risk of a violation are the best choice for any healthcare organization.

Through goal setting and targeted marketing efforts, you can streamline your social media marketing into a campaign that gets the right results. Feed your fans and followers with the content they like and your business will reap the benefits.