KPI, ROI, CPC, LOL?

Depending on the social media marketer, performance metrics can either be your favorite part of the all-encompassing social media strategy, or their worst nightmare. No social media marketer will tell you that they’re content looking at the same results month-over-month or quarter-over-quarter on their brand pages without putting in effort to look at what factors in on the back-end…but those numbers could also be detrimental, a ‘make or break’ for some.

From new followers to algorithm changes to post engagement percentages, the list of things to track can seem daunting. And are they all really important? That’s something you have to asses with your own brands unique identity and audience. Let’s break down some of the key, core metrics that universally should be looked at. Consider these as the basic metrics to build your approach to social media analytics around.

• Engagement

  • Likes, Comments, Retweets

    • Individual engagement metrics like a Share or a Retweet add up.

  • Post engagement rate

    • The number of engagements divided by impressions or reach (no math required on your end). A high rate means the people who see the post find it interesting.

  • Account mentions

    • Organic mentions (@mention) that are not part of a reply, tag or brand and do not include prompting. Organic account mentions indicate good brand awareness.

• Awareness

  • Impressions

    • How many times a post shows up in someone’s timeline(s).

  • Reach

    • The potential unique viewers a post could have. This is usually your follower count, plus accounts that shared the post to their core audience.

• ROI

  • Referrals

    • How a user lands to your website. These are often referred to as “sources”, with social media being the medium is which drives them. During your monitoring, you’ll see these broken down by network of which social platform they came from.

  • Conversion

    • When someone completes a purchase on your website, requests a demo, fills in the lead capture form, etc. A social conversion means they visited your site via a social media channel and then purchased something in that same visit.

  • Click-through rate (CTR)

    • CTRs compare the number of times someone clicks on your content, to the number of impressions you get (i.e., how many times the ad was viewed). A high CTR means an effective ad. Examples of this include:

      • Email links and call-to-action buttons

      • PPC ads

      • Links on landing pages

      • Social media advertising!!!

      • On-site elements

• Customer care

  • Response rate and time

    • By handling customer complaints and concerns on social media, you’ll show other customers how dedicated you are to keeping them satisfied. Having a strategy in place from launch on how to handle social media inboxes, response times, automated replies, weekend management, etc., all should be factored in before you launch your next big campaign.

    • Because so many customers already communicate through social media, businesses of all sorts should invest in building out their social customer care efforts. Social media can improve the way you address customer service issues. If you resolve customer concerns over social media quickly enough, this positive exchange can help you create a loyal customer base.

Ultimately, your social media goals is what’s going to help you define what metrics to track. For every goal you set for your brand, you need a related metric to help determine if your strategy is hitting the mark (or not). If not, reassess what is not sticking to your audience in each platforms analytics dashboard. Take advantage of the measurements and key finds each platform offers (for free!!) to really get a gauge on your strategy and execution.