Metrics that Matter: A Guide to Social Media Metrics
Are you looking for a way to track your engagement on social media? Have you tried reading analytics by yourself only to realize that you’re not a social media expert?
Well, you’ve come to the right place. We’re here to tell you everything you need to know about social media metrics and how you can use them to your advantage.
Digital marketing metrics matter. They aren’t just a few numbers that you can wave in the air and compare with other social profiles. They are important statistics that you should pay attention to as you’re posting on social media.
To learn more about social media metrics, just keep reading. You’ll be an expert in no time.
Why Do Social Media Metrics Matter?
We find that many people are at one of two extremes when it comes to social media metrics. They either think that they are unnecessary or that they define their entire rate of success on social media.
The key is to have a healthy relationship somewhere in between those two extremes.
Digital marketing metrics are a guide for those who post Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and/or other kinds of content. All of these numbers give the poster an idea of how their posts are performing.
Based on this information, the poster can determine whether or not the post was popular, well-received, shared, and more. The kinds of details that you get depend on the kinds of metrics that you’re looking at.
Overall, paying attention to these data points can give you an idea of how past posts performed. So, you can post better content in the future.
The Important Social Media Metrics
The key when looking at all of these analytics is to focus on the most important numbers. You don’t have to look at all of them to get a good idea of where your profile lies.
In fact, trying to look at and understand all of these data points at once can be more confusing. So, you need to stay focused on the few numbers that matter.
That’s why we’ve pulled together the ones you should be paying attention to.
Reach and Impressions
We’re combining these two numbers together. Both reach and impressions tell you how many people are seeing your posts.
Reach tells you how many users saw the content that you posts. Impressions tell you the number of times that someone in your target audience saw the content.
By looking at both of these metrics, you can determine whether or not you’re posting at the right time of day. It also gives you insight into whether you’re using the right hashtags and keywords.
If you’re running paid ads, these metrics can let you know if you should be paying for ads. If you’re getting more organic impressions than paid reach and impressions, you shouldn’t be paying for paid ads. However, if you’re getting your money’s worth from your ads, you should continue with paid ads.
Engagement Counts
Measuring engagement tells you how many people are interacting with your posts. These interactions include the following:
- Liking
- Reacting
- Favoriting
- Retweeting
- Sharing
- Commenting
- Replying
- Reposting
Anything that someone does to your post is a kind of engagement. And, the more engagements your posts have, the better.
Engagements tell you that you got someone’s attention enough to make them stop and react to your post in some way. In today’s constantly moving society, that’s a great accomplishment. It means that your post was eye-catching enough to make someone pause for even a second.
The more engagement your posts are getting, the more your content will be boosted by the social media platform that you’re posting on. So, you’ll get even more impressions while bringing in a larger audience.
Brand Mentions
Brand mentions tell you if other users are talking about you. This helps you understand your level of brand awareness among your audience.
When people are talking about your business, you’re growing a positive reputation as well as earning more content from users. When someone tags you in a post or talks about your business through a post, you’re getting a free advertisement from that individual.
It’s like a personal recommendation to all of their followers.
The easiest way to measure your brand mentions is to keep track of the tags that your business has on social media. You could also look at the hashtags that your customers are using on social media.
As long as they’re positive, brand mentions are good. And, the more you have of them, the more you can bring in new customers.
Reply Time
Reply time tells you how long it took you or your team to answer a customer who asked a question. Whether it’s through a post, in a comment, or through direct messages, customers’ questions are important. And, you should answer them as quickly as possible.
The quicker and better your answer, the more likely that customer is to tell people about their experience. And, they’re more likely to buy more from your company.
In fact, 52% of consumers pay more at companies that gave positive customer service experiences. So, quick and helpful customer service is an investment.
Ideally, you should be replying to customers in under an hour. But, you should create a goal for your team based on your current reply time. Every minute counts, especially if you’re dealing with an unsatisfied customer.
Paid Social Media Marketing
If you are paying for social media ads, you need to make sure that you’re getting the most out of them. Poor social media metrics may be deterring you from spending any more money on paid advertisements.
But, it’s likely that you’re handling paid posts the wrong way. And, that’s where we come in to help.
Our team is made up of experts who know how to make the most of your money when it comes to advertising on social media. We can gear your posts to your target audience and send your social media metrics soaring.
Book a meeting with us today to get started.