When Do Social Media Metrics Become Valuable?

What are social media metrics? And why are they important to rail?

As a social media professional, they're your take chances to demonstrate the value of your work, and the impact of the decisions yous've made.

If your boss asks you to talk data, take the opportunity to be a pro and go beyond the surface-level, "vanity" metrics—the likes and shares and retweets. Instead, focus on the data that matters—the numbers that evidence your endeavor has had a positive, bottom-line affect on the business.

The right data will assure executives that their investment in social is paying off. Information technology'll also assistance you go along to make smarter, more than data-driven decisions moving forward.

This article identifies the social media metrics that really thing, why they're important, and how to track them.

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Bonus: Get a gratuitous social media report template to easily and effectively present your social media performance to key stakeholders.

The most important social media metrics for marketers

Before diving into social media metrics, let's review where each one lives in the social funnel.

For the purposes of this article, nosotros'll segment the funnel into iv primal client journey stages:

• Sensation: these metrics illuminate your current and potential audition.
• Date: these metrics show how audiences are interacting with your content.
• Conversion: these metrics demonstrate the effectiveness of your social engagement.
• Consumer: these metrics reverberate how active customers think and feel about your make.

Every stage is populated with its own ready of must-mensurate metrics, KPIs that shed light on the effectiveness of your social media marketing.

Let's dive in.

Awareness metrics

These numbers illuminate your current and potential audience.

1. Brand Awareness

Make Sensation is the attending your brand gets—beyond all social media—during a reporting period, or a specific span of fourth dimension that yields statistically relevant information.

Attending can exist expressed through a variety of social media metrics, including @mentions, shares, links, and impressions. Reporting periods are too variable, usually lasting a week, a month, or a quarter.

How to track information technology:

STEP 1: Determine the attention metric(s) your organization wants tied to brand awareness.
STEP 2: Decide the reporting period your arrangement wants tied to brand awareness.
Footstep 3: Be consequent. Consistency ensures that you're benchmarking trends with authentic, dependable data.

Note: A brand monitoring tool makes it easier to runway every time someone mentions you on social media, with or without an @mention.

two. Audience Growth Rate

Audience Growth Rate measures the speed at which your brand'southward following increases on social media. Information technology's how quickly you gain followers.

As admission to the internet continues to increment around the world, brands' social media followings will besides increase.

But the question you should be asking is not, "How many internet new followers did nosotros go last calendar month?" Instead, ask, "How fast did we gain concluding month'due south net new followers—and was it faster than our competition?"

How to track it:

Footstep 1: Measure out your net new followers (on each platform) over a reporting period.
Footstep 2: Divide your net new followers by your full audience (on each platform) and multiply by 100 to get your audience growth rate pct.

Note: You can track your competitors' progress the same way.

iii. Post Accomplish

Mail Attain denotes how many people have seen a post since it went live.

This metric is piece of cake to observe and even easier to sympathize. Virtually chiefly, it's actionable, since it'due south affected past the timing (i.e., when is your audition online?) and the content (i.e., what does your audience find valuable?) of your post.

How to track it:

STEP one: Measure the achieve of any given post.
STEP two: Divide the reach by your total number of followers and multiply past 100 to get your post reach percent.

Note: On Facebook, the "When Your Fans Are Online" feature will tell yous the optimal fourth dimension to post. Utilise this data to increase your reach.

4. Potential Reach

Potential Reach measures the number of people who could, realistically, see a post during a reporting period.

In other words, if one of your followers shared your post with her network, approximately two% to 5% of her followers would factor into the mail's potential achieve.

Understanding this metric is important considering, as a social marketer, you should always be working to aggrandize your audition. Knowing your potential reach enables yous to estimate your progress.

How to track information technology:

Step 1: Use a make monitoring tool to track your total number of brand mentions.
STEP 2: Record number of followers of the account that mentioned you.
Pace 3: Multiply those two numbers together to get your Theoretical Attain, or the absolute maximum number of people who could, in theory, come across your brand mentions.

Your potential achieve is 2% to 5% of your theoretical reach.

5. Social Share of Phonation (SSoV)

Social Share of Voice measures how many people are mentioning your brand on social media compared to your competitors.

Mentions tin can be either:

1. Straight (due east.k., "@Hootsuite")
2. Indirect (due east.grand., "hootsuite")

SSoV is, substantially, competitive assay: how visible—and, therefore, relevant—is your brand in the market?

How to track information technology:

STEP one: Measure every mention your make receives—direct and indirect—across your social networks.
Footstep 2: Measure your competitors' mentions during the same reporting period.
STEP iii: Add your mentions and those of your competitors to get the total industry mentions.
STEP 4: Divide your brand mentions by the grand full and multiply by 100 to go your SSoV percentage.

Note: Using social media analytics tools volition make this process easier.

Date metrics

These numbers show how people are interacting with your content.

6. Applause Rate

Applause Rate is the number of approving deportment (east.g., likes, favorites) a post receives relative to your total number of followers.

When a follower likes or favorites ane of your posts, she'south acknowledging that information technology's valuable to her. Knowing what per centum of your audition finds value in the things yous postal service can—and should—inform your content moving forward.

How to rail information technology:

STEP 1: Add up the total blessing deportment a mail service received over the course of a reporting period.
STEP 2: Divide that number past your total followers and multiply by 100 to get your applause rate pct.

Notation: Use a social media bear on tool to help track approval actions and simplify the process.

7. Average Engagement Charge per unit

Average Engagement Rate is the number of appointment actions (e.g., likes, shares, comments) a post receives relative to your total number of followers.

It's an important metric because higher engagement ways your content is resonating with the audition. To show that, track the date rate of every mail service. If y'all have a loftier engagement rate, the actual number of likes and shares and comments is irrelevant.

How to track it:

Step 1: Add up a post'southward total likes, comments, and shares.
Step 2: Split up by your total number of followers and multiply by 100 to get your boilerplate engagement rate percentage.

Note: The benchmark for this metric is different on every platform.

Facebook and Twitter, for instance, typically have lower engagement rates (e.grand., 0.5% to ane%). Instagram, on the other hand, is known for its relatively loftier engagement rates (e.m., 3% to 6%).

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8. Amplification Charge per unit

Distension Rate is the ratio of shares per mail service to the number of overall followers.

Coined past Avinash Kaushik, author and digital marketing evangelist at Google, amplification is "the rate at which your followers take your content and share information technology through their networks."

Basically, the higher your amplification rate, the more than willing your followers are to associate themselves with your brand.

How to rails information technology:

STEP 1: Add upwardly the number of times a post was shared (e.g., retweeted, repinned, regrammed) during a reporting menses.
STEP 2: Split up that number by your total number of followers and multiply by 100 to get your distension charge per unit per centum.

9. Virality Rate

Virality Charge per unit is the number of people who shared your mail service relative to the number of unique views (i.e., impressions) it had during a reporting menstruum.

Like the other metrics on this list, virality rate goes beneath the surface. Information technology's about more than just likes.

"A post that gets 17,000 likes may only go 0.1% virality," writes Nicolas Gremion, "while another post that receives ten,000 likes gets nine.97% virality—and that's a far better post."

How to runway it:

STEP i: Mensurate a mail's impressions.
STEP 2: Measure a post'due south shares.
STEP iii: Divide the number of shares by the number of impressions and multiply by 100 to go your virality rate percentage.

Conversion metrics

These numbers demonstrate the effectiveness of your social engagement.

ten. Conversion rate

Conversion Rate is the number of visitors who, after clicking on a link in your post, have action on a page (e.g., subscribe to your newsletter, download a gated content asset, register for a webinar) against that page's total visitors.

A high conversion rate means your content is valuable and compelling to the target audience. From a social media standpoint, it's a sign that your post was relevant to the offering. In other words, information technology kept its hope.

How to track information technology:

Step 1: Create a post with a call-to-activeness link. Use a URL shortener to make it trackable.
Footstep two: Place a "cookie" on the user'southward machine. Doing so attaches the pb to a campaign.
STEP 3: Use the campaign reporting to rails the total number of clicks and conversions generated by the mail service.
Pace 4: Split conversions by total clicks and multiply by 100 to get your conversion rate per centum.

Note: A post'southward conversion rate can be loftier fifty-fifty if traffic is low. The two metrics are mutually sectional.

eleven. Click-Through Charge per unit (CTR)

Click-Through Charge per unit , or CTR, is how often people click on the telephone call-to-activeness link in your mail service.

Non to be dislocated with other appointment actions (eastward.k., shares, likes, comments), your CTR is specifically tied to a link that brings the audience to additional content.

Tracking CTR, ofttimes and accurately, will requite you invaluable insight into how compelling your offer is to the target audience.

How to rails information technology:

STEP 1: Measure the total clicks on a post's link.
STEP 2: Measure out the total impressions on that post.
Pace iii: Divide the number of clicks by the number of impressions and multiply by 100 to get your CTR percentage.

Notation: Don't forget to measure clicks and impressions within the same reporting period.

12. Bounce Charge per unit

Bounce Rate , is the percentage of page visitors who click on a link in your postal service, only to speedily leave the folio they land on without taking an action.

Bounce charge per unit lets you mensurate your social media traffic—and, in plow, ROI—against other sources of traffic (e.g., traffic from a Facebook post vs. traffic from an organic Google search).

If your social media bounciness charge per unit is lower than that of other sources, it'south proof that your social media campaigns are targeting the correct audience—and, in turn, driving loftier-value traffic.

How to rail information technology:

STEP i: Ready Google Analytics.
STEP 2: Open the "Acquisition" tab, and look nether "All Traffic" for the "Channels" segment.

Stride 3: Click on the "Bounce Rate" push, which will rank all of the channels from lowest bounce rate to highest.

Note: Demonstrating the relative effectiveness of your social media efforts will go a long way in proving its value to the business organisation.

13. Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

Cost-Per-Click , or CPC, is the amount you pay per private click on your sponsored social media post.

Whether yous choose to advertise on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Linkedin, don't focus on your total spend. Instead, look to your CPC. Information technology'll help y'all weigh if your investment in attending is efficient, or wasteful.

How to runway it:

STEP 1: Check your platform'south Ad Manager.
STEP 2: Check it often.

Note: Never let your CPC campaigns go unattended for an extended period of time.

14. Cost Per One thousand Impressions (CPM)

Toll Per Thousands Impressions , or CPM, is the amount y'all pay every time a thousand people scroll past your sponsored social media mail.

Unlike in a CPC entrada, a CPM post won't necessarily bulldoze activity. It'll only create impressions, views. Therefore, CPM is a faster and less expensive mode to split test content.

How to runway it:

Footstep 1: Check your platform's Ad Director.
Stride 2: Check information technology often.

Note: Never let your CPM campaigns become unattended for an extended menstruum of time.

xv. Social Media Conversion Rate

Social Media Conversion Rate is the full number of conversions that came from social media, expressed as a percentage.

Understanding this metric will give y'all clear insight into the effectiveness of each post in a entrada. In other words, it answers this question: how well does this offer resonate with our target audience?

How to track it:

Pace 1: Create a link in the post using a shortened URL that places a "cookie" on the user's machine.
STEP ii: Measure out your total number of conversions.
STEP 3: Split the social media conversions by the total number of conversions and multiply past 100 to get your social media conversion rate pct.

16. Conversation Rate

Conversation Rate is the ratio of comments per mail to the number of overall followers yous have.

Information technology'southward some other metric coined by Avinash Kaushik—and information technology's better than tracking comments without whatever context. Afterwards all, getting an average of twenty comments per post is a lot more impressive if you only have 200 followers.

Tracking your conversation rate will assistance you lot understand how much of your audience is compelled to add together their vocalism to the content you postal service on social. Or as Kaushik puts it, "Is what you are saying interesting plenty to spark the most social of all things: a conversation?"

How to track it:

Stride one: Employ a tool like Hootsuite Analytics to pull the number of comments you lot received during a reporting period.
Pace 2: Split that number past your total number of followers and multiply by 100 to get you conversation rate percentage.

Customer metrics

These numbers reflect how your agile customers think and experience virtually your make.

17. Customer Testimonials

Customer Testimonials are whatsoever customer review, assessment, annotate, endorsement, or interview relating to a brand.

Ultimately, great testimonials are the product of customer delight. If your brand makes people happy, they'll be more likely to share their good experience with others.

The benefits are articulate: a consistent stream of sincere testimonials on social media volition garner trust and credibility while boosting your brand's presence.

Want more than client testimonials?

• Inquire your best customers to go out a review. Never offer to compensate them for their attempt, of course, as that would undermine your credibility.
• Run a social media campaign that encourages people to create written, video, or online testimonials most your product, service, or mission.
• Link to your Google My Business review form to make leaving testimonials a uncomplicated, seamless process for your brand evangelists.

Bonus: Become a complimentary social media study template to hands and effectively present your social media performance to key stakeholders.

xviii. Customer Satisfaction (CSat) Score

Customer Satisfaction , or CSAT, is a metric that measures how happy people are with your product or service.

Usually, the CSAT score is the product of one, straightforward question: How would you draw your overall satisfaction with this product?

Customers are then asked to rate their satisfaction on a linear scale, either numerically (e.g., one to 10) or sentimentally (e.1000., Poor, Fair, Good, Peachy, First-class).

CSAT has become a nearly ubiquitous way to understand how customers feel most your brand, mainly because it'south articulate, curtailed, and easy to administrate, especially on social media.

How to rails information technology:

STEP 1: Create a CSAT survey on social media.
Stride ii: Add upwards the sum of all the scores.
Stride 3: Divide the sum by the number of respondents and multiply by 10 to get your CSAT score.

19. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score , or NPS, is a metric that measures customer loyalty.

Unlike CSAT, NPS is good at predicting hereafter customer appointment considering it is the product of ane—and just 1—specifically phrased question: How probable is it that you would recommend our [company/product/service] to a friend?

Customers are so asked to respond on a calibration of zero to 10. Based on their response, each customer is grouped into one of three categories:

• Detractors: 0 – half dozen score range
• Passives: seven – 8 score range
• Promoters: ix – 10 score range

NPS is unique in that it measures customer satisfaction likewise as hereafter sales, which has fabricated it a valuable, go-to metric for organizations of all sizes.

How to rails it:

STEP 1: Create a NPS survey on social media.
STEP two: Decrease the number of promoters from the number of detractors.
STEP 3: Split up that number by the total number of respondents and multiply by 100 to get your NPS.

"Yes, absolutely," you say. "I'd love to talk data."

Whether you run across with your boss once a month or once a day, your conversations about data volition exist more noun—and impactful—if you highlight social media metrics that demonstrate the bottom-line impact of your effort.

So dig deeper, and go across the readily attainable vanity metrics that literally anyone can report. Showcase your skills by presenting social media analytics that tell a story, a narrative that's inherently valuable to your organization.

You'll piece of work more than, but you'll also come away with more than your effort was worth.

Social media metric reporting tools

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