Measure These Social Media Metrics to Better Help Your Business!

When it comes to social media, everything is being tracked and measured. There’s tracking for who likes what when and where. But how does that information help you and your business?

The answer is simple: Social media metrics gives you valuable insight into your customers.

So, what are social media metrics? They are tools to help you understand how well your social media posts are performing. The metrics do this by measuring brand awareness, engagement, conversion, and activity.

There’s an overwhelming amount of possibilities for insight into social media. Here we break down the social media metrics that matter and why you should be tracking them.

Why You Should Track Brand Awareness

Brand awareness tells you how well your brand is being received and who knows about it. It is the attention your brand receives across all social media during a certain reporting span.

There are different ways to track brand awareness. Here are the important ones to watch out for:

Reach

One common misconception is that reach is the same as impressions. Reach and impressions are quite different.

Reach is the total number of unique people who see your content. This metric can be broken into two different areas: Post Reach and Potential Reach.

Post Reach is how many people have seen a post. You might have 500 followers, but it is not likely all of them will see a specific post. The number of viewers who look at your post is your post reach. What your post reach is depends on factors like content and timing. Is the content relevant to your audience? And have you posted it during a time when most people would see it?

Potential Reach measures people who could see a post during the reporting period. Again, say you have 500 followers. If only 100 followers see your post, how many of them are sharing it or mentioning your brand from it? And then, who sees those posts? Your potential reach is determined by who talks about your brand from your post. That number can end up being more than the number of followers you have if the post is popular enough.

Impressions

Where reach measures how many people connect with your post, impressions measure the total number of times your content is viewed, regardless of whether it is clicked on.

Impressions are the content delivered to someone’s feed. The viewer does not have to engage with the post for it to count as an impression. This means that if they are scrolling through their feed and happen upon your post, that is an impression.

Also, where reach is limited to the number of followers you have, impressions can yield you more than that. You can have multiple impressions from one follower. This happens when one person sees the original content and then later sees it again.

Social Share of Voice (SSoV)

Another social media metric that matters is your Social Share of Voice (SSoV). This metric comes from the volume of discussion for certain keywords. Using tracking tools, you can see how often certain words are used in association with your brand.

SSoV is measured by how many people are mentioning your brand on social media as compared to competitors. This comes from direct mentions, like @FrontierMarketingLLC, and indirect mentions, which would just be “Frontier Marketing LLC.”

This insight allows you to understand what people think of your brand and how they interact with it compared to your competitors.

Audience Growth Rate

This social media metric measures how quickly you’re gaining followers during a reporting period.

You should track your audience growth rate after a post campaign. See how many followers you gained and tweak the post from that standpoint. The data you gather can tell you if a certain post resonates with followers more. Use this information to adjust your approach to future posts.

Why You Should Track Engagement

Engagement refers to how well your audience interacts with content on social media. This metric is crucial because you need to connect with your audience on social media to grow your following.

You can measure your engagement through the number of likes, comments, shares, and clicks your posts receive. Look for how often your followers perform these actions, and adjust your marketing strategy from there.

Average Engagement Rate

Don’t just look at the individual actions, either. If your average engagement rate is higher than the individual likes or comments, that means your post is working. Find the average engagement rate by totaling your likes, comments, shares, and dividing it by your followers. Multiply that number by 100 for your rate.

Other Engagement Metrics

While actions such as likes, comments, and shares help you see how well your post is doing, there are other options as well. They are:

• Applause Rate: The number of approval actions such as likes, followers, and comments in relation to your followers.
• Amplification Rate: Ratio of shares each post receives in relation to the number of overall followers.
• Virality Rate: The number of people who shared your post in relation to the impressions it had during the reporting period.

Why You Should Track Conversion Rates

Conversion means that a visitor clicks on a link, goes to your page, and takes action. You’ve converted them into followers or potential customers.

A high conversion rate means that the content is compelling and valuable to your followers. They are taking time and energy to be part of your brand.

In terms of social media, this looks at the number of people who came from a social media post and took action. In terms of social media metrics, this one is important because it tells you how effective your post was.

A good way to track conversion is through the Facebook pixel tool. Facebook tracks when someone goes to your website and takes action, like buying something or signing up for your newsletter. Facebook uses this data to select who is likelier to take action on your website for ads purposes.

Other conversion rates that you should be tracking are:

Click-Through-Rate (CTR)

Your click-through-rate tells you how often people clicked on your call-to-action link. Specifically, it is tied to links that bring the audience to additional content. You want to look at the total number of clicks over total impressions. That will give you an idea of how many people are stopping by your content and engaging with that action.

Bounce Rate

The bounce rate tells you how many page visitors click on a link in your post, then quickly leave the page without action. You want to measure your social media bounce rate against that of other sources of traffic, such as search engines. It will help you see which content viewers are more likely to engage with.

You want to have a low bounce rate because that means more and more people are staying on your page from a link.

Cost-Per-Click (CPC) & Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM)

The cost-per-click is the amount you pay per individual click on a sponsored social media post. Tracking this will help you decide which platform to invest in. If more people are going to your website from Facebook, it might make sense to invest more with Facebook ads.

Likewise, Cost Per Thousand Impressions is the amount you pay every time a thousand people scroll past your sponsored social media post. What this does is creates impressions and views and can increase your likelihood of conversions.

Why You Should Track Activity

Your activity is how frequently you post across social media channels. You should be posting frequently, but not so much that it is overbearing. Posting at least once to three times a week is a best practice to follow, depending on your business’s size. Learn when your followers are most likely to be on social media and schedule your posts for roughly that same time.

Positive Activity

Activity also means how quickly you respond to comments. Casual viewers who are seeing your page for the first time will look at your responses, whether they are comments, likes, retweets, or favorites. It signals to them that you are engaging both in your posts and your interaction with followers.

Also, when you’re posting, look for variety in your post campaigns. You don’t want to be posting the same type of content repeatedly. That could lead to something you don’t want: followers thinking your pages are boring.

Negative Activity

Boring, unhelpful, useless — all things you want to avoid in your posting activity. This negative activity can turn followers off to your content, and it can result in users hiding posts or reporting it as spam. Followers might also unlike or unfollow your page completely.

Here are some of the reasons that followers might view a post as negative:

• Too self-promotional
• Boring
• Lack of personal engagement
• Overuse of automation
• Poor use of hashtags

Remember, you don’t want your followers to feel lied to or like the promise is not fulfilled. They are less likely to stay on your page or remain a follower.

Do You Need Help Tracking Social Media Metrics?

Social media is an important aspect of any business. We understand that it might be hard keeping up with social media — especially on top of running your company. Let us help you with how your social media page works.

Frontier Marketing offers a great opportunity for businesses in the Fox Lake, IL, and the rest of the Chicago area. We can track and measure your posts for the best success! If you need help or are curious about social media and its influence on business, drop us a message on Facebook or give us a call!