Measure the Value of Your Social Media Press Release
One of the key components to a press release marketing strategy is goals. Before you sit down to write a press release, you need to identify what it is you want that press release to accomplish. Beyond aspiring to grab media attention, companies may choose to use a release to drive traffic to a web page, to build awareness, to build a social media following and so on.
Often, issuing a social media press release can help businesses achieve their goals. Yet it can be tricky to know how effective or valuable your social media press release actually is. It’s important to not only create measureable press release marketing goals but to also have the tools and resources available to track the data and evaluate success.
Google Analytics – Google Analytics offers a social insights feature that provides key information on a number of social media interactions. You can assess which social sites are sending you the most traffic. This is useful if you post your press release on more than one site.
It also tells you what action visitors take once they’ve arrived at your landing page. In addition to a “Landing page drop off” percentage, which tells you how many people left your site after visiting your landing page, there’s also a flow report that shows you what pages your social media traffic visited. You can then learn how your press release impacts your audience and what they’re looking for when they arrive at your site.
There are also ways to track the social value of your press release. You can track conversions, how long someone stays on your site and the number of pages they visit. The key to success when tracking conversions is to create a unique URL for your press release campaign. It can be easier to track results if you send readers to a unique web page. Then you can tweak the page to generate the best results and achieve your goals.
Press Release Distribution – In addition to Google Analytics and other analytics programs that can help you track the effectiveness of specific campaigns, look for a press release distribution service that offers reporting functionality. In addition to the basic analytics that a company should provide like views, distribution sites, and Google results, look for social media analytics like Shares, Likes, Tweets and G+1.
Social media is part of how we distribute and consume information. The more data you can gather about your press release and its impact on your social media pages, the better control you’ll have over your results. It’s just another piece of the puzzle in your press release marketing strategy and plan.
