The best way to determine if your business needs social media assistance is to get your hands dirty and conduct a social media self-assessment. You may not be a social media expert (yet), but taking these five steps can help you understand and optimize your online presence and business growth.
In which Social Media Channels is your company already represented?
All businesses, even B2B businesses, are required to create profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. These are the most popular social networks in the world, and having a presence on these channels is vital to your business’ reputation and credibility.

Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, and many other social media networks are useful for your business. However, create these profiles only if you are sure you can handle the care. Having 2-3 social networks running well is much better than 5-6 running mediocre.

Interested in boosting your SEO? We recommend creating a Google+ account. It’s not mandatory to post to Google+ all the time, but having one can greatly improve your discoverability.

How often does your company post?
Here at Likeable Local, we’ve found that the ideal balance between being active and being too active is:
~ 5-6 posts per week on Facebook.
~ 12 tweets per day.
~ 5 LinkedIn posts per week.

How is the Quality of your Post?
First, let’s look at the text. If you’re consistently over 140 characters (or 3 lines of text) on Facebook, you need to start thinking smaller. Remember, social media is for attention. If you still have something to say, spread your thoughts in a detailed blog post.

Don’t forget to check your spelling and use correct grammar. There is nothing more unprofessional than a misspelling.
Check out how to use hashtags. Hashtags are popular on Twitter and Instagram, but too many can cause problems. Play it safe by posting a sentence or two at the end of your post related sentences. Your social media accounts shouldn’t exist in isolation.

Are you posting compelling links? Curating content from your favorite sources is a great way to show that you’re an expert in your field.

Do you post pictures are they high quality? Social media is a visual world where text posts and low resolution images are ignored. Videos are even more visually appealing – post something relevant and funny.

A final way to make sure you’re creating a quality post is to include a call to action. Building a social media community is important, but we want to be involved in that community and actively grow our business.

How much engagement can one get?
Great content should lead to likes, favorites, shares, retweets, comments, replies, and other ways fans show their love. If you’ve followed the advice above and aren’t seeing any engagement, you may be missing a key ingredient to success on Social Media (especially Facebook).

Advertisement: To be successful on social media, you have to accept the fact that social media is becoming more and more paid. Don’t know what it is? Read this blog post to learn more about Facebook’s algorithm changes and what lower organic reach means for you. By “boosting” or promoting your posts, you can reach more people who matter to your business. Be sure to nurture these conversations once the engagement begins. Answer questions, appreciate great reviews, and enjoy social networking. Your active community turns into recommendations with a great social presence.

How are you tracking your social media ROI?
It’s not fun to be working on something and feel like your investment isn’t paying off. To ensure ROI, implement a goal-based tracking system. See who clicks and interacts with your posts. We also use tracking URLs to know when people convert from social networks to business contacts, for example by filling out forms on his website from links you post on Facebook.

This way, you can find correlations between your social media spending and the revenue that social media brings. This is key to understanding how social media is performing compared to other marketing efforts. Knowing your results helps you set goals and determine which campaigns and strategies work best.

Conclusion: There are always ways to grow your business on social media, so take a step back every few months and look at the big picture. It’s okay if your presence isn’t at eye level. Start small by improving aspects, tracking new metrics, or launching social initiatives with the goal of achieving a return on investment. Ultimately, it’s all about incremental tweaks to make your social network the best it can be.

Rome wasn’t built in a day… Neither is your social existence.