12 Social Media Metrics you Should Be Monitoring

You need to monitor several metrics if you use social media to sell your business and promote it.

You won’t get the most out of your social media presence if you do not. It’s possible that you aren’t getting the most out of your social media presence.

Social media can be confusing. You might not know what metrics to track or which ones you should ignore.

Here are the top social media metrics you should be paying attention to.

What are Social Media Metrics (SMM)?

Social media metrics is using data to measure the impact of social media marketing on your revenue stream.

You won’t know if your work drives business without them.

What are the Social Media Metrics?

You can reach your target market on multiple platforms thanks to social media’s increasing influence on the lives of billions. You must still know how to reach your target market to make the most of it.

You can’t know if your marketing metrics are being measured and tracked if you’re not reaching the right audience.

Metrics help you understand your customers and improve your bottom line.

How do you track social media metrics?

Before we move on to the list of most important social media metrics, it is worth taking a moment to familiarize yourself with the various platforms that you can access them.

There are many ways to measure the success of your social media efforts. The easiest way to measure your social media efforts is to look into the native analytics section on every platform.

You can view the analytics section on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin automatically on their native platforms. However, in order to see the analytics for Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok you will need a business accounts – which you probably already have.

If you have only one social account and a limited budget, it is worth tracking your most important metrics via the native platforms.

A social media manager managing multiple accounts on different platforms can make things very hectic.

SocialPilot is a great tool for analyzing social media platforms.

SocialPilot allows you to filter multiple social media accounts from one page. You also get updates on posts and engagement.

Now that you have an idea of where to begin tracking your social media analytics data it is time for you to determine what to track.

It can be difficult to choose which metric to track when you have so many information at your disposal.

To make your life easier, we’ve compiled a list with must-track metrics.

12 Social Media Metrics You Can Track

1. Average Engagement Rate (AER).

The interaction between your posts, and your audience, is what determines the average engagement rate for any social media platform.

This is one way to determine how effective your social media marketing efforts are, but it’s more complicated than counting the number interactions on your posts.

You will add the total number of interactions you have on a specific number of posts, or all posts from a period. Divide this number by your followers and multiply that number by 100.

Add up all interactions (reactions and comments) to determine your engagement rate for a particular post. Divide this number by the total impressions of your post and multiply it by 100.

2. Applause Rate

What is an applause rate?

This metric is not something you have heard of before. Your applause percentage is the number of likes, favorites or other approval actions on each of your posts.

Consider why you clicked “like” on someone’s post to Facebook.

It doesn’t matter if it made you smile, but you feel it conveys a great idea or other reason. You decide to let the poster you admire know that you value it.

This is how you determine the value of your posts to your audience. Your audience will appreciate the value you provide by approving more of your posts.

Add up the approval actions you have received on your posts over a certain date or period, then multiply that number by 100.

3. Conversion Rate

Conversion rates are a key metric that companies monitor because they tell you how much revenue social media marketing is bringing in.

Your conversion rate is the ratio of your page’s visitors to people who take an action on it.

These actions could include:

• Click on the link to your website or another link.
• Subscribe to your newsletter
• Register for an Event
• Downloading an eBook, whitepaper, or other visual presentations and assets

Conversion rate is so critical that analytics software and social media platforms tend to place them first in your metrics.

Because your conversion rate is the most clear example of how valuable you think you are. If you are getting lots of visitors, but not many conversions, it is time to change your strategy.

4. Brand Awareness

What amount of attention does your brand receive? Is your brand a household name? Are you a household name? Or do a few people only know your identity?

Brand awareness refers to the number of people who know about your brand. It is also correlated with word-of mouth marketing.

However, tracking brand awareness is a completely different thing.

How many people know and are aware of your brand over a period of time, such as a quarter. This is the true measure of brand awareness.

This can be determined by looking at the mentions, impressions and shares as well as clicked links on your social media platforms. Take all of these and you can see how much attention your posts are getting in the given time.

Still confused? You can use brand monitoring tools to track brand awareness and interpret data.

5. Cost-Per-Click (CPC)

CPC is the cost of advertising that you pay. If you run paid ads on Facebook, your cost per click is the amount you pay Facebook for each click.

Advertising and marketing accounts make up a significant portion of a business’s operating budget. You might be tempted to examine your total advertising spending since you will likely advertise on multiple platforms.

This situation makes it more difficult to determine whether the advertising dollars you spend on each platform is worth them. CPC is a better indicator than total expenditures.

To see your CPC , you only need to go to each platform’s advertising manager. It is important to keep it updated.

6. Click-Through-Rate (CTR)

CTRs (click-through rates) refer to how many people click the call-to action links in your posts and ads.

It’s directly tied to how many people click those links. Other metrics like your applause, your CPC and even your average engagement rate don’t factor into your CTR.

You click on the links to learn more about you and your products.

People won’t click your calls to action if your posts aren’t compelling enough. You’re basically wasting your time and money.

To calculate your CTR, you need to add up the total number of impressions and clicks for a particular post and divide that by your social media impressions.

Add 100 to get your CTR.

Both for the same reporting period as well as across your target audience, you want to keep track of both. Many dashboards and tracking tools will allow you to break down your audience into segments. Once you have figured out your CTR, it is easy to see how much comes from your target market.

7. Virality Rate

It’s not possible for everyone to be a viral sensation. Videos and other content can go viral. Videos are more popular than other content, as people enjoy short-form and visually stimulating videos.

Your virality rate is still a valuable indicator of how successful your social media campaigns are.

The virality rate of your post is the ratio of the number unique views to the number people who share it. A post that receives a lot of likes and few shares is worth more to people than one with many likes, but less shares.

8. Cost-Per-Mile

Is that not a bit strange?

Cost-per-mile is per thousand impressions of your posts. Each time someone scrolls past your posts, it is considered an impression. Your impressions will be much greater than your engagement and applause rates.

An A/B test can be used to test your ads and posts. This involves dividing your audience into two groups, and showing each group a different version of a post or an ad.

This works only for 2 variations of a single post. If you wish to test multiple images or headlines, you will need to run multiple tests.

An A/B test, which only measures impressions, is far cheaper than a CPM. It allows you to test different options on your audience and find what resonates with them the most. Regularly check your CPM on your platform’s Ad Manager and run A/B tests.

9. Bounce Rate

Bounce rates can be one of the most challenging metrics to grasp and improve upon.

Your bounce rate on your website is the number people who visit a page and then navigate away quickly.

Your bounce rate on social media is the percentage of people that click on a link within your post, and then move away from the page where they landed. This is how you can determine the return-on-investment of your social media traffic

A low bounce rate is a sign that you are targeting the right audience. Google Analytics is the best way to track and learn your bounce rate.

10. Average Engagement Rate (Likes, Shares)

Your average engagement rate was discussed above. But what does it mean to have a high engagement rate? You’ll find that what is good on one platform may not be so great on another.

These are good and average AERs depending on the platform.

• 
  Facebook
  
  • Average: 1-3%
  • Good: 3-5%
• 
  Twitter:
  
  • Average: .5-1%
  • Good: 1.5-2%
• 
  Instagram:
  
  • Average: 1-2%
  • Excellent – More than 3%
• 
  LinkedIn:
  
  • Average: 1-2%
  • Good – More than 2%

These numbers can be attributed to both user behavior and the design of each platform. Twitter is a microblogging platform that allows users to view entire posts in one glance and scroll along.

It’s great if they interact with your posts, but it only results in a low engagement rate.

Instagram, on the other hand is a visual platform that allows people to spend time looking at individual posts. Your posts are more likely to be shared by them. Facebook is the same.

All platforms have algorithms that track how users interact with your posts. They use this information to show you more or less posts. The higher your AER, will elevate you posts.

11. Social Share of Voice (SOV).

Do you want to be better than your competitors? How you determine if you are succeeding is through social share of voice

This metric compares your direct mentions and indirect mentions to those of your competition.

Your social media efforts will be more successful if you have more followers than your competitors. It’s easy to calculate your social share. Track the mentions of your competitors and your own over a period.

Add them together and divide yours by the total. Multiply these two numbers together and you will get your social share of the voice.

12. Follower Count and Growth

It’s important to know how many people follow you. Without knowing where you are starting from at the start of each reporting period, you won’t be able to grow your audience.

Your audience growth rate is the most important metric.

How fast are you gaining new followers each quarter, year, or month? And how does that compare with the last reporting period.

How does it compare with your competition? How your followers grow depends on how much impact you make. The faster you gain new followers, the greater your impact. It’s as simple as this:

• Calculate your net new followers (total followers minus followers lost).
• Divide this number by your total audience, and multiply it by 100

Negative growth rates are not what you want. This means that you lose followers more quickly than you gain them.

Wrapping up

You should use all the metrics above when you post on social media for your business. You now have a good understanding of CTR, AER and CR. This will allow you to begin to evaluate which numbers are best for your brand.

These vital social media metrics can be tracked over time to identify baseline stats for your brand before you see the emerging trends. Next, you can use these metrics to determine what changes you need to make in order to engage your users more effectively.

You’ll see a better return on your investment if you monitor these metrics and adjust your social media strategy accordingly. This will help you grow your business.

Don’t forget to utilize a social media analytics software like SocialPilot, which can help you with your marketing efforts.

SocialPilot’s first article, 12 Social Media Metrics That You Should Track appeared on SocialPilot.

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https://onlinemarketingagencies.net/?p=4205