“If content is king, then conversion is queen.” — John Munsell, CEO of Bizzuka
Appearing online after the author said it in a conference he paneled about web content management in 2008, this quote has been tweeted, shared, and used in blog posts, hundreds of thousands of times. It even ranked as one of the Top 20 social media quotes of all time.
This is an example of the power of social media. Your content, once shared either within your school community or straight out to the public, can be shared and re-shared online, giving you the reach you need in delivering what you and your school want to say.
In a previous blog, 5 Tips for Creating a Social Media Publishing Calendar for Private Schools, we discussed the different social media platforms you can use to promote your school. We also mentioned how to use each of them, as well as what kind of content you can create and post to attract school enrollment leads.
In this article, we look beyond content and go into its effectivity and how we can measure it.
Keeping The Focus On Your Main Goal

Getting your target audience’s attention is one thing, but being able to get them to respond is better. You may consider yourself a hit among your followers if one of your articles or blog posts receive a hundred likes, but did that response mean you achieved your main goal? Did your readers actually interact with you and your content or take the steps necessary to become a school enrollment lead?
Whatever the reasons behind the content your school publishes and why it was written, everyone involved should be aligned behind the same objectives. How?
Meet With Your Team

Your Metrics and KPI’s

In fulfilling your KPI’s, there are numerous metrics you can choose from and implement. It helps to narrow your choices down, especially in the areas you need to measure. In this case, social media marketing.
Here are 5 metrics I suggest you start with:
1. Share of Voice (SOV)
You want to see how conversations on social media are mentioning your school's name versus your competitor schools. This metric will help you in identifying positive, neutral, or negative feedback to your social media presence.
To calculate your SOV, you can use the following equation:
SOV = Total Number of Mentions for Your School / Total Number of Mentions of Your Competitors
2. Engagement Rate

3. Referrals
In evaluating your social media marketing campaign, it’s best to track how much traffic your social media accounts provide your website. This is called referral traffic and benefits your school’s website by adding more visitors to it from your social media sources.
This can show you how each of your social media accounts is performing so you can shift your attention to the most effective platforms.
You can use Google Analytics to view the amount of referral traffic your website receives from social networking platforms.
4. Return of Investment (ROI)

This is the ultimate measure of your social media marketing campaign’s effectiveness. Your social media manager and marketing team can measure their efforts in determining what’s working and what’s not and should be able to adjust their strategies for the long run.
You may have different goals for each social media platform and thus, your ROI may vary.
5. Conversions
When we say conversions, this is when your enrollment leads perform desired actions as a result of your Call To Actions strategies:
- Subscribing to your school's newsletter
- Downloading one of your e-books
- Signing up for a school tour
- Completing lead generation forms
Keep in mind that these conversions are driven by your successful efforts at social media marketing. This means that you have a good relationship with your social media community.
Conclusion
Although we’ve emphasized conversions as the final goal of your school’s social media marketing, there are still a host of other metrics to consider. These all work together to ensure that you succeed in not just one goal, but also in other aspects that contribute to that conversion.

One notable metric is Engagement Rate, which measures the quality of your content and its impact on your audience. Without good, endearing content, it would prove difficult to create a bond with and within your community. In slowly cultivating what your audience wants, you will eventually reap the rewards of the metrics that really count.
If you want to take the next step in making sure your campaigns are successful and worth your efforts, it’s best to learn and understand how you can measure them.
In another blog, we’ll go into detail on how to read these metrics using online tools.