About

Welcome to the Euro Digital Partners Marketing Insights podcast. I am Sean Patterson.  This is the fourth in a series of podcasts about social media management. First, an announcement about Euro Digital Partners. We are looking for a few good business developers. People who have a little extra time in their schedule who can arrange introductory calls. We will take care of the rest and enroll the clients, for which you will be handsomely compensated. Phone and social media skills will serve you well. We will even show you how to use the techniques and tools needed for success. So, if you or someone you know would be good for this role, head over to eurodigitalpartners.com/jobs So, with that in mind, let us begin with the Euro Digital Partners series on social media management and in this fourth part, we will discuss reporting to stakeholders. If you are new to this series, you might be interested to know why we created it. First, we wanted to acquaint potential customers with our way of thinking about social media and how we approach campaigns.  Second, we wanted to promote a forthcoming video series that we are doing on social media. Additionally, there is another benefit to those looking for great tools for marketing. Euro Digital Partners is working with the marketing intelligence tool, SEMrush, to develop a course on social media management. The course and this series will go a long way to prepare you for the SEMrush certification exam. It is a great way to prove to your employer or future employer that you are the digital marketing expert they need. On that note, we arranged, for you, a free 14-day trial with SEMrush. Point your browser toward http://beatyourcompetition.onlineto sign up. Just be aware that you will need to clear your cookies or open a private browsing window before you go there. Also, you will have to register with an email address, which cannot be the same as an account you have registered with them before. But again, that URL is http://beatyourcompetition.online. In this series, we already discussed how to create a social media strategy utilizing SMART Goals, and based on an assessment of your competitors’ strategies; then secondly, develop a posting schedules with effective, diverse content for your social media channels; then third, we made an analysis of whether we beat our competition! Clients and stakeholders want to results, but the thing is, they will not know about them if we do not show them. That is why this final installment of the Euro Digital Partners’ Social Media Management series is about reporting. Before we move to the final section of this course, we should circle back and re-emphasize the importance of scheduling in social media. Social Media Pros know that success in your social media campaigns is all attributable to planning and effective time use. For this reason, Euro Digital Partners’ uses the SEMrush Marketing Calendar tool. The Calendar helps us group marketing activities by goals within Campaigns. If you want to use the tool, there are three steps we suggest you take when creating your first social media campaign with SEMrush. Remember, the bigger your team, the more important the planning becomes. In fact, it can mean the difference between a smashing success or an abysmal failure.  We recommend you Set your goals, budget, target audience and other campaign-related information; Then add all the marketing assets you need to run your campaign; And finally, discuss your campaign’s progress with your team To get started, head to the Management section in the SEMrush sidebar Begin by clicking the Marketing Calendar, and then click the Create your first Campaign button, if you have not already set up a campaign. If you have, you can add another calendar if you have a Business-level plan. At this point, enter the campaign title, set the dates of the campaign, and assign it a color. Click the Campaignstab where you can give an overview of multiple campaigns, then try clicking the New Activity button. Entering the activity name, you can then edit details like due date, description, add tags, attachments, and comments, and as a plan subscriber, you can share the calendar with others.  Importantly, you can set in-app and email notifications as well as import ICS files from existing calendars in other applications. ICS is a common extension for iCalendar files, which are used to send calendar data. The extension is supported by several tools, such as Google Calendar and Apple Calendar. If you need to export the calendar, click the Export CSV button from the Calendar tab. The calendar will download in a spreadsheet compatible-file.  Now we have explored all the relevant tools we use in our toolkit to beat your competition in social media. Still, we would not be professionals if we did not report the results of our efforts to our clients and stakeholders. Fortunately, our SEMrush tool offers a flexible tool for reporting the information you may feel is most relevant to those stakeholders. Heading back to the Semrush site, return to the sidebar menu and under Management, you fill see the menu for My Reports. Click the Plus symbol and you will be prompted to create a new PDF report. Click Blank,at which point you will be taken to theReport Builder. Then click the Social Media tooloption, where you will be presented with the report widgets that you may find the most useful to present. Dragging and dropping the widgets from the sidebar into your report window will present you with some parameters for creating a completely customizable report.  Note that clicking the star next to the report in the sidebar will prioritize it as a favorite, while clicking the info circle will show you a preview of how that widget might look in your report. There are a couple of ways to organize these widgets. One way is to think about them in terms of data type, for example, table, bar, chart, trend, or line graph, etc. Another way to think about the organization of your custom report is to think in terms of internal versus external.  Some of the charts, like the Engagement trend by type chart will report data only about one of your own channels. Other charts like the Competitors comparison trend (Engagement)chart will show your client how you are competing against certain competitors. You can set your competitors using other tools as found in Domain Analytics, and then choose which competitors you want to include in the chart. Our favorites include the Social Media Activity, Facebook Reactions Distribution, Social Media Audience Trend, and Social Media Competitors widgets. One of the powerful aspects of the Report builder is that you can create reports that juxtapose data visualizations side-by-side while organizing the page layout using elements like headers, text boxes, images, columns, and page breaks.  You will want to be sure to upgrade your SEMrush account so that you can use your own logos on the cover page – a nice touch that your clients will appreciate. Once done with setting up your report, be sure to edit your cover page, but remember that you can edit it later by clicking Quick Modify. Now let us finish the report by clicking the Generate PDF Reportbutton. You will be given the option to email this report, schedule this report if you want it to recur on a regular basis, and you can also enable a table of contents.  Finally, click Save Settings then click Generate. The report is generated, and automatically downloads to your designated Downloads folder on your device. Also, remember that you can automatically generate PDF report from Social Media Tracker by clicking PDF button on the needed page. Let me end this course by suggesting a couple of tricks and tips for reporting. -    First, let me remind you that clients like to see data in different ways, so when you send a monthly report to your client, send several that paint clear, but diverse views. For example, try sending the social media activity report, the Facebook reactions distribution report, the social media audience trends report, and the social media competitors report. -   Second, if you get lost or need some inspiration, head to the Tutorialsbutton. Tutorial buttons are found throughout SEMrush’s tools to assist you in creating an effective workflow. -   Finally, and perhaps most importantly, get a native speaker to proof your reports – nothing turns customers off faster than a report full of misspellings, poor grammar, or out of context content. If you do not know a native, contact Euro Digital Partners’ and we will be happy to sort you out! As with all new tools, practice makes perfect, so try the tools we mentioned today. So that is the final installment of the Euro Digital Partners series on social media management. If you enjoyed this section about reporting your social media strategies, be sure to take our advice and share this great content.  Do you have other great techniques you use for social media management? Let us know, and we will add it to a future follow-up. If you are looking to learn more and are interested in some live instruction over facetime or in person, we will be holding some events later this Summer for those interested in exploring the world of digital marketing. Those already in marketing will find our instruction helpful, but we are always looking to work with middle managers and entrepreneurs who are looking to take their skills and business to the next level. Stay tuned for that!! Euro Digital Partners is always trying to find new and exciting ways to connect with fellow marketers, promote programs, find new clients, and inform the public about the latest topics of interest. That is why we created an insights page at https://eurodigitalpartners.com/insights – but then we got to thinking… What if we started a podcast to reach people who did not have time to read our posts, or needed something interesting to listen to on the morning commute? That is when we decided to start the podcast. Each month we bring you a new series of podcasts ranging from Instagram to PR to Facebook advertising. We really cover the gamut! If you have suggestions for future insights articles, or if you would like to contribute to the Euro Digital Partners Marketing Insights page or to the podcast, reach out to us at info@eurodigitalpartners.com Please, Tweet about us on Twitter (we are at EUDigitalP), Like us on Facebook, and follow us on LinkedIn. Subscribe to the podcast on Podomatic, or your preferred purveyor of fine podcasts, and mind our YouTube channelfor some interesting video demonstrations.  You can also find the podcast on iTunes, Sticher, Spotify, Amazon, Google Play, and countless others. Be sure to leave a five-star review and leave a comment. It helps other great people like you find Euro Digital Partners on the web! Finally, do not forget to checkout SEMrush. If you have not before, head to http://beatyourcompetition.onlineand get a free and exclusive 14-day trial. This podcast is sponsored by the Beat Your Competition Online course. Learn more at https://semrush.beatyourcompetitiononline.com.