With only 7% of marketers not using social media for business, you could feel pressured to jump on the bandwagon and get your company out there. And, indeed, that is just what many, many businesses have done – recognised that they should or need to be on social media, like yesterday, and plunged in without really assessing why they should be on there.

This then leads to an outpouring of content that hasn’t been designed to achieve a purpose, but rather written in haste so that “at least something is out there.” And it is, essentially, just noise that isn’t having an impact on anyone, let alone potential clients.

So how can you tell if it’s making a difference? Well, first thing’s first, let’s establish ‘difference. This measurable will be different for each company because we are each trying to do a different thing. What did you think social media would do for your business when you began? Were you hoping for increased web traffic, or band awareness, or enquiries? Perhaps all of them. And are you getting them? If the answer is no, then you aren’t making a difference, and would really benefit from taking a look at what is currently going out on your social media channels.

So if social media hasn’t done what you expected then there are a few simple steps you can take to start things moving in the right direction.

Firstly, as we mentioned, you need to get a clear idea of what you want from social media. Once you know what you want, you can ask the question, can social media do that for me? This involves thinking about the types of target markets that use social media channels and what they use them for. Will that fit in with your plan?

If you’ve answered the above questions, you’ve got a foundation for your strategy. Now think about the type of content that would fit in with that. Try things out, your audience will let you know what they like!

Finally, you’ll only ever truly know if it’s making a difference by measuring and evaluating what you do. Use the insights on Facebook to see how posts have performed. Use the reporting on Google Analytics to see where traffic is coming to your website from. As you collect this data you’ll start to build up a picture of what is effective and what isn’t.

So stop just making noise and start to getting social media working for you!

What do you think? Let us know in the comment box below.

By Harriet Thacker

Harriet is a marketing expert, social media enthusiast and Shake Social’s champion blogger. Struggling to maintain your own blog? We can help!