You’ve done all that work to define your ideal avatar, create custom and engaging content, and pick the right platform for you… whew!
I know, it’s a lot.
But here’s where you get to be a science detective and take your social media game to the next level. And before you worry this whole thing will be too “techy”…it’s not and you can do it.
We’re in this together!
In this article you’ll discover:
Testing is vital to marketing – understanding which messages resonate with which target audiences is critical to optimizing resources.
And if you don’t do everything in your power to optimize your resources, you’re selling yourself, and the followers you want to help, short.
Boom.
So stick with me here:
There’s also some seriously strong but easy to use social media analytics tools that will help you analyze the number of shares, retweets, likes, favorites, etc. on your social media posts that will fast forward this process.
I also recently talked about how to use analytics you already have to create social media messages that will resonate with the masses in this post here.
Now with those tools and your awesome content you’re ready to create the perfect laboratory for you and/or your team of mad scientists to conduct a multitude of A/B tests. Hold up Dave, you lost me again.
It’s all good. We’ll take this part slow.
*puts on nerdy reading glasses*
According to the wizards at Wikipedia: “An A/B test is a randomized experiment with a control and a variant. A represents the control, your original tweet or post, and B represents the variant, an altered version of your original content.”
While testing can be complicated, let’s see if we can simplify it for our purposes.
Now that you have an outline for carrying out your first A/B test with social media, below are some tips to take to the lab with you:
Look back to A/B testing on your website or email campaigns to see what has worked before. Things like your call to action or subject email lines
Only change one variable at a time… either the picture OR the caption. Either the call to action OR the offer. This will take time to tweek. We do this so we can isolate which changes actually produce lift.
Modern social media marketing involves stories, personal experiences and a lot of non-sales-related content. To make sure you’re able to connect with potential customers on social media, follow the 10-to-1 rule: for every 10 pieces of content that have nothing to do with sales, you can pitch your services once.
When you’re A/B testing make sure to test out different profile pictures and cover photos. This is ESPECIALLY key to the freeze frame for videos.
Create a baseline for a few weeks and then tweak things like profile picture or the bio or even your logo!
It can be very tempting to automate postings, but while testing, it’s important to do it old school. Your updates could very well come off as spammy. This needs to feel like a two way street.
Remember: people don’t buy from you because they understand you, but because you understand them. They got to feel that.
Your content may be amazing but if your audience isn’t online when you’re posting, it will all go to waste. If you’re hearing crickets when you’re posting, don’t just assume it sucks.
Try it again at a different time of the day, or night – remember the half life of most social content is less than 4 hours.
BOTTOM LINE: You’ve done all that work to define your ideal avatar, create custom and engaging content but it’s in the social testing where you’ll really start to build your tribe.
