Perfection comes with drawbacks. That means, we’re never quite finished with any of our own projects including our own website where we get to tell, nay shout, to the world all the weird and wonderful things that we get to do.

N3RD's an ideas factory. Most of these ideas get used on projects for our clients, however now and again we like to keep a few for ourselves. Problem is, we never have time to execute them, so more than likely they are left on the cutting room floor (or in our case the creatives noodly brains and various Skype messages). When we do get some time, or are avoiding heading home for whatever reason, we tend to spend it working on our own brand, which is of course, quite digital. 

Since N3RD was started on Nic's kitchen table back in 2009 we've had 4 different sites with varying degrees of content and imagery. Some great, some not so good. It seems that as soon as we've finished one we decide it could be better, or new techniques and technologies come along that we like, so we get cracking (like the tortoise, not the hare) on the next. And this was the case not long after our rebrand and new site launch around a year ago.

Let’s be fair, the project management on this new build has been atrocious (Dave, we’re looking at you). We didn't bother with a budget, our clients kept changing their minds, we’ve been through hundreds of amends and variations but it's safe to say we will be launching on time, mainly because the deadline keeps moving. Developers have been sitting at designer computers. Creatives think they can code. Lithuanians are teaching New Zealanders English, and the Spanish seem to have slept through most of it. But like any of our projects, what you see here truly has been a collaborative project amongst the whole team. We think it's a reflection of our values and personalities. Clean; straightforward; warm (tip, hit refresh); and focused on delivery. 

So have a browse around, digest some content and let us know what you think, we hope you like it. And if not, don't worry, we're pretty likely to start a new one in a few weeks time.

The finale to our series on social media marketing for small businesses concentrates on what metrics to analyse to measure the impact of your social media efforts on your business. Online marketing allows for tracking and measuring results in real time, which gives you the ability to improve your content strategy straightaway. Thus it is necessary to keep track of key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure you are progressing towards your goals. Below are some key metrics you should be tracking and benchmarking throughout your journey. Depending upon your goals, different KPIs will be more significant and relevant than others.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

Vanity Metrics:

Network size
The number of fans (Likes), followers, subscribers, etc. on a given network. The growth of your network size should also be tracked.

Brand mentions
The number of times your brand has been mentioned on social networks. This number can be compared to the brand mentions of your competitors, which is known as share of voice.

Website Traffic
The number of visitors to your website, including new visitors versus returning.

Actionable Metrics:

Engagement
The number of times users interact with your content which includes likes, comments, shares, retweets, replies, repins, etc. Consumers that are engaged with a brand online are more emotionally connected, which can indicate a base of loyal customers who are more likely to purchase your products over your competitors and become influencers. Engagement can also indicate which types of content are more appealing to your audience as well.

Sources of Traffic/Leads
The percentage of your website traffic and/or leads that is coming from social networks. This can be compared to visitors from direct traffic and organic/search traffic. This indicates the number of people that found your website through social networks, and can reflect which networks you may want to invest more time creating content for.

Social Click Through Rate (CTR)
The number of times people have clicked on a link that directed them to through to your website. Growth in the CTR to your website can indicate engaging content as well as an increase in awareness.

Conversion Rates
The percentage of people who complete a desired action. For example, if you are looking to increase email subscriptions, the conversion rate would reflect the number of people who visited your website that actually signed up to to the email subscription list. You can also track conversions of sales, downloads, installing an application, etc. A low conversion rate may be a sign of poor content or marketing efforts, and should be evaluated to improve the strategy immediately.

It is crucial to not get bogged down in vanity metrics such as number of fans and followers. While these metrics are good benchmarks to establish progress, they are not necessarily the numbers that matter. They are good indicators of how well a specific campaign is progressing, and if the content being served needs to be reassessed if numbers are remaining stagnant and not increasing. We feel good when they increase, but they do not tell us anything substantial about how our social media marketing efforts have affected our business and sales.

Actionable metrics tie specific and repeatable actions to observed results. Focus on metrics such as engagement, conversions, and sales/profits, which indicate actions and will truly aid business decisions in the future. Creating SMART goals that are measurable and time orientated will allow you to benchmark and compare your progression throughout the process.

This marks the end of our series on social media marketing for small businesses. Hopefully, you feel ready enough to take on the social sphere with confidence in a basic strategy that you can implement well, given your time resources, to expand your business. Happy social networking!