Getting more and more excited about marketing your school via social networking? That’s great, says interactive marketer Heidi Cohen, but first you need to check your social media marketing IQ.

“Here are 30 questions,” she writes in a recent ClickZ article, “that will help you assess where your organization is in terms of social media marketing maturity and where you may need to improve effectiveness.”

Cohen divides her questions into such categories as goals, strategies, content, metrics, budget — and the all-important “listening” factor. Included among the 30 are:

- Do you have brand monitoring and/or other analytics in place? These can range from professional social media monitoring to free options such as Google Alerts and Twitter Search.

- If you are listening as you should, are you taking action where appropriate? Remember, she says, about 2 percent of comments typically require some interaction.

- Do you have social networking guidelines for how employees should represent themselves and what they can say?

- Do you have goals for your social media marketing and, if so, are they related to your overall institutional objectives?

- Are you creating tailored content? Since social media marketing thrives on content, make sure your efforts have the fuel they need.

- Are you promoting your marketing efforts? To drive prospects to your social media marketing, you must continually promote it.

- Do you have a dedicated budget? Social media marketing isn’t free; you need financial and headcount resources.

Social media marketing is a growing part of every marketer’s plans and budget, says Cohen. But it must be done strategically and intelligently — so take the time to assess the effectiveness of what you’re doing and take steps to enhance your results.

Read “What’s Your Social Media Marketing IQ?”

Read more about our authors.  Ray Ulmer, public relations director at TargetX, has been involved in higher education marketing for more than 25 years, including serving as executive director of communications at La Salle University and director of public relations at Drexel University. He has also worked in corporate marketing and advertising.