Designing a Social Media Test

In our Social Media assignment this week, we are supposed to design a test that examines a particular component of a company’s social media campaign. For the purpose of this exercise I have chosen to design a test for Kumon Canada’s website. I would want to test particularly if it is necessary to share to 10 different sites listed on their share file. The purpose for testing is to see if the time and energy spent to monitor all these sites is actually resulting in a better understanding of how potential customers will interact with our site. There is likely a strategic reason why these sites were added originally, but to maintain monitoring for extended periods of time would involve costs that eventually require statistics to validate their necessity.

At the moment, this feature is offered only on the home page of the site. My assumption is that they hope to engage first-time visitors, or customers who return to the site for updates and enjoy the interaction. In targeting returning customers, the best way to elicit some action, say to get a “like” on Face book, is to offer something for free, say a set of books, tapes or DVDs, worth up to $40 retail.  By posting this promotion for one week on our Face book page, and following the likes and comments on the admin network, we would have proof and a count of interaction through that media.

The next week, we change the items being offered, and run the same promotion through the MySpace page, keeping track of the results again on the admin network. Week three, we would tweet from the admin account and record traffic driven to the MySpace page offer, recording any changes. The following week, in targeting the first-time visitors, a different offering but run the promo on the homepage near the share links, for people who post it on their Reddit account, Delicious account, Google Buzz, Stumbleupon, or Digg. Customers will submit their entry ballot by email with a link to the post they made.

Tracking the results each week would define which social media account is the most effective. This should also give accurate stats as to which share sites are most popular with Kumon visitors and clients. Decisions can then be made with these stats as to which media requires the most monitoring.