You’ve set up your channels, you’ve designed a posting schedule, you have a bank of images to post, so now it’s time to sit back and relax…
We’re afraid not — your social media presence will only be of value to your business if you figure out what’s working (and what isn’t). In terms of which metrics matter, the short answer is all of them. The metrics that are important to your business will be the ones that directly relate to your targets and what you want to achieve.
Firstly, you will need to set your goals. These will give you an idea of which metrics you need to track. For example, if you want to increase conversions, you will need to run a suitable campaign (including influencers and ads), and then check your website analytics to determine your conversion rate.
If engagement is the most important metric for your business, you need to track the number of comments, likes, shares and reactions on each post, determining which post types are scoring the highest in terms of popularity. Post engagement rate is a simple equation: the number of engagements divided by impressions or reach. The higher the rate, the more interesting your post has been deemed. Good brand awareness is determined by organic responses. For example, a tag in story without prompting, or a reaction to a post without first mentioning the account indicates that your campaigns are working and brand awareness is spreading.
Impressions and reach are both equally as important — impressions being how many times a post shows up in a timeline and reach being the potential unique viewers a particular post could ‘reach’. Looking at the metrics for impressions plus engagement will give you an idea of both brand awareness and education surrounding your brand. High impressions and low engagement indicates poor content, whereas high reach and high engagement is something to celebrate as it indicates your content has been shared multiple times.
Check your website regularly to ascertain how your customers are landing — you’ll need to be checking ‘referrals’, keeping an eye on the number of people referred by ‘social’. The next step would be to see how many of those referrals turned into conversions. If the number is disparate, it could mean that your social is not in-line with the products or services on your site as people are happily landing, then taking off when they see what is on offer.
There are many tools available to track analytics and metrics on all social media platforms. Speak to us if you need any guidance!