What Social Media Metrics Should You Be Measuring?

Volume Nine

• Social Media

Your company has gone through the effort to create a social media presence. Your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and even Pinterest boards are up and running, producing content. But do you know how effective your efforts are?

Using the best social media metrics ensures that your company gets the greatest possible return on investment from social media marketing. The proper metrics allow you to track how many people you are attracting and whether they are the right kind of people. Here are the best social media metrics to gauge the success of your efforts.

Different Businesses, Different Metrics

The type of content you put out will determine how people interact with it, so make sure it lines up with your company’s goals. For example, a company looking for more exposure should place a higher value on shares versus comments. If, however, it’d be more valuable to your company to strike up a conversation, you should value comments more heavily than shares.

In other words, every company has unique circumstances that change the way you should value certain metrics.

Engagement Measures: Retweets, Likes, Comments, and Shares

In the world of social media, how people engage with the material you put out is an important indicator of a successful social media strategy. Likes, comments, retweets, pins, and shares are great indicators of people’s level of interest in your material.

Track retweets and shares to see how many people spread your message, while comments and replies show you what your audience reacts to. Comments and replies also drive brand awareness, albeit to a lesser extent than shares.

When Audiences are Online

On top of measuring how people are engaging with your material, it is important to measure when. Social media metrics show at what time of day most people are talking about your brand. This data can be extremely useful in deciding the timing of your post. By posting when the most people are talking about your brand, you maximize your potential impact.

Audience Behavior

It’s great to know how many people are engaging with the content from your social media efforts, but even more important is knowing how those people interact with your actual website.

Think of it this way: part of the benefit of social media marketing is to attract people who already have an interest in your product so you have a higher chance of converting them. Using metrics to track how those people engage with your website can let you know if your content needs to be tweaked to attract, nurture, and convert the right people.

CTR + Bounce Rate

A useful measure of sheer volume is link clicks, but this can be misleading on its own. CTR, or click through rate, shows you how often those who see your social media ad click it. However, when the CTR is paired with the bounce rate from your site, the metric becomes much more powerful. If people are clicking through to your site from a social ad and immediately leaving, it may be a sign you need to target a different audience or change your ad messaging.

Cost Per Click

CPC (cost-per-click) on paid social ads is another metric you’ll want to familiarize yourself with. This metric gives you a good idea of how much you are paying for each click you receive. It’s useful for comparison against other paid channels like search engines. By comparing the two, you can judge the effectiveness of each channel, which will help you choose where to prioritize your spend.

Sound like too many metrics to handle right now? No problem. Contact the V9 Team today and get it all taken care of for you.