The wonderful thing about social media is that you can track almost any detail using social media metrics. The difficult aspect of social media is… Almost any detail can be tracked using social media metrics.
Understanding which metrics are most important to your business based on your goals is the art of effective social media measurement. The number of metrics you track will be determined by the size of your budget and team, as well as your business objectives.
What Social Media Analytics Should I Track
Reach
Reach is simply the number of people who see your content. It’s a good idea to monitor your average reach, as well as the reach of each individual post, story, or video.
A valuable subset of this metric is to look at what percentage of your reach is made up of followers vs. non-followers. If a lot of non-followers are seeing your content, that means it’s being shared or doing well in the algorithms, or both.
Impressions
Impressions indicates the number of times people saw your content. It can be higher than reach because the same person might look at your content more than once.
An especially high level of impressions compared to reach means people are looking at a post multiple times. Do some digging to see if you can understand why it’s so sticky.
Audience growth rate
Audience growth rate measures how many new followers your brand gets on social media within a certain amount of time.
It’s not a simple count of your new followers. Instead, it measures your new followers as a percentage of your total audience. So when you’re just starting out, getting 10 or 100 new followers in a month can give you a high growth rate.
But once you have a larger existing audience, you need more new followers to maintain that momentum.
To calculate your audience growth rate, track your net new followers (on each platform) over a reporting period. Then divide that number by your total audience (on each platform) and multiply by 100 to get your audience growth rate percentage.
Note: You can track your competitors’ progress the same way if you want to benchmark your performance.
Engagement rate
Social media engagement metrics show how much people interact with your content, as opposed to just seeing it.
Engagement Rate measures the number of engagements (reactions, comments and shares) your content gets as a percentage of your audience.
How you define “audience” may vary. You might want to calculate engagement relative to your number of followers. But remember that not all your followers will see each post. Plus, you might get engagement from people who don’t (yet) follow you.
So, there are multiple ways to calculate engagement. So many, in fact, that we dedicated a whole blog post to the many ways to measure engagement rate.
Engagement rate benchmarks:
- Facebook: 0.06%
- Instagram: 0.68%
Note: These benchmarks are based on engagements as a percentage of followers.
Amplification rate
Amplification Rate is the ratio of shares per post to the number of overall followers.
Coined by Avinash Kaushik, author and digital marketing evangelist at Google, amplification is “the rate at which your followers take your content and share it through their networks.”
Basically, the higher your amplification rate, the more your followers are expanding your reach for you.
To calculate amplification rate, divide a post’s total number of shares by your total number of followers. Multiply by 100 to get your amplification rate as a percentage.
Virality rate
Virality rate is similar to amplification rate in that it measures how much your content is shared. However, virality rate calculates shares as a percentage of impressions rather than as a percentage of followers.
Remember that every time someone shares your content, it achieves a fresh set of impressions via their audience. So virality rate measures how your content is spreading exponentially.
To calculate virality rate, divide a post’s number of shares by its impressions. Multiply by 100 to get your virality rate as a percentage.
Video metric
If you’re creating videos (you’re creating videos, right?), you want to know how many people are watching them. Each social network determines what counts as a “view” a little differently, but usually, even a few seconds of watch time counts as a “view.”
So, video views is a good at-a-glance indicator of how many people have seen at least the start of your video, but it’s not as important as…
How often do people actually watch your videos all the way through to the end? This is a good indicator that you’re creating quality content that connects with your audience.
Video completion rate is a key signal to many social media algorithms, so this is a good one to focus on improving!
See how all your posts are performing in one place. Grow your business faster with Hootsuite’s social media analytics.
Customer satisfaction (CSAT) score
Customer service metrics are not just about response times and response rates. CSAT (customer satisfaction score), is a metric that measures how happy people are with your product or service.
Usually, the CSAT score is based on one, straightforward question: How would you rate your overall level of satisfaction? In this case, it’s used to measure the level of satisfaction with your social customer service.
It’s the reason why so many brands ask you to rate your experience with a customer service agent after it’s over. And that’s exactly how you can measure it too.
Create a one-question survey asking your customers to rate their satisfaction with your customer service and send it via the same social channel used for the service interaction. This is a great use for bots.
Add up all the scores and divide the sum by the number of responses. Then multiply by 100 to get your CSAT score as a percentage.
Net promoter score (NPS)
Net promoter score, or NPS, is a metric that measures customer loyalty.
Unlike CSAT, NPS is good at predicting future customer relationships. It is based on one—and only one—specifically phrased question: How likely is it that you would recommend our [company/product/service] to a friend?
Customers are asked to answer on a scale of zero to 10. Based on their response, each customer is grouped into one of three categories:
- Detractors: 0–6 score range
- Passives: 7–8 score range
- Promoters: 9–10 score range
NPS is unique in that it measures customer satisfaction as well as the potential for future sales, which has made it a valuable, go-to metric for organizations of all sizes.
To calculate NPS, subtract the number of promoters from the number of detractors.
Divide the result by the total number of respondents and multiply by 100 to get your NPS.
ROI metrics
What’s the return on your social investment? These metrics will help you figure that out.
Click-through rate, or CTR, is how often people click a link in your post to access additional content. That could be anything from a blog post to your online store.
CTR gives you a sense of how many people saw your social content and wanted to know more. It’s a good indicator of how well your social content promotes your offering.
To calculate CTR, divide the total number of clicks for a post by the total number of impressions. Multiply by 100 to get your CTR as a percentage.
Social Media Analytics Tools
1. Keyhole
Keyhole is the first item on our list of the top social media analytics tools. The platform provides a stunning, thorough, and simple dashboard that tracks all of your social media activity.
Keyhole’s user-friendly technology genuinely helps you understand the thoughts of future clients and engagements. To help you decide what and where is most effective, you will now have access to comprehensive reporting that has been streamlined.
This platform offers a huge number of functions. The quantity of impressions, reach, posts, and engagements that particular accounts or hashtags are receiving will be visible to you.
Keyhole can help you there as well if you need to figure out which key influencers have the most followers and the highest interaction rates. In conclusion, you
2. Sprout Social
Sprout Social’s expertise in tracking and reporting on cross-channel social media analytics is what really elevated it on this list. With the help of this platform, you can compare all of the outcomes from various networks at once or get in-depth into the reports and analytics of a single network.
You can track anything from Facebook impressions to Twitter link clicks with the help of Sprout Social’s numerous features and tools. Having said that, tracking data for sites like LinkedIn and Pinterest are also integrated because, as we all know, social media platforms are rapidly developing.
The platform provides both pre-built and bespoke reporting possibilities. This means that you will have a variety of options.
3. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is another of the top social media analytics tools available right now. This platform has a strong reputation in this industry and has long offered reliable social interaction services.
You can fully manage postings, collaborations, scheduling, and analytics with the aid of Hootsuite. Your social media management team will be able to automate posts with the tools it offers, schedule posts appropriately, access a ton of analytics and insights, and calculate key performance indicators from all the marketing content.
Hootsuite’s ability to swiftly and simply interface with all social media networks, such as Facebook and Instagram, is yet another noteworthy feature. This implies that viewing analytics doesn’t require switching between different platforms. rather, you can.
4. Zoho Social
We are all aware that Zoho has a ton of fantastic products, including one of the greatest CRM systems. With the inclusion of Zoho Social, they also bring a solid platform for managing and reaching on social media.
Through its user-friendly publication calendar function, the platform enables you to effortlessly plan out and produce posts. Additionally, you can quickly keep track of every campaign and make tailor-made reports that are simple to read and understand.
From the convenience of the Zoho Social dashboard, interact in real-time with your social media audience and actively engage your followers. Check out Zoho, particularly if you currently use their platform for other tasks.
5. Buffer Analyze
Buffer is a different name that you might be somewhat familiar with. Additionally, they feature strong yet incredibly easy-to-use social media analytics tools with their Buffer Analyze software. It has all the functions and resources you could possibly need for managing and monitoring your social media feeds.
You can easily schedule post timings and manage numerous social media accounts at once, just like with many other programs on this list. All of this enables you to focus on client involvement to the nth degree.
Buffer Analyze is undoubtedly a platform you should think about using because of the integrated social media analytics capabilities that enable you to increase reach, engagement, and sales.
6. Brand24
You might not be familiar with Brand24, which is unfortunate considering they offer one of the greatest social media monitoring tools available.
Our is a paid tool that offers a 2-week free trial (like all the others on this list). This implies that before making a final choice, you can dip your toes in the water and thoroughly investigate the platform.
The key aspects of social analytics monitoring include getting a ton of social analytics from various platforms, viewing engagement and influence metrics, finding trending hashtags, and viewing a variety of significant hashtag statistics.
Don’t forget to check out Brand24; it’s a platform you won’t want to miss. With their comfort
7. Cyfe
One of the greatest social media management analytics tools is Cyfe, a company dashboard tool. It can sync all of your data from all of your platforms and marketing tools in one location.
The topic of analytics extends beyond social media to include advertising, email, monitoring, sales, SEO, and website analytics.
The enormous variety of integrations that may be included in a single dashboard makes Cyfe stand out. You may sync and combine data and statistics from 19 different social media and other types of accounts using the platform.
No matter how many accounts you have open at once, this enables you to use data and make wise social media engagement decisions while relaxing in the comfort of a single panel.
8. CoSchedule
CoSchedule is likely the greatest social editorial calendar available, in addition to being a fantastic social media analytics platform. It excels in this area since it enables you to evaluate how well your social media posts are performing.
CoSchedule will provide suggestions for enhancements and recommendations to you across all channels using this data.
Not only that, but the calendar also provides information on the ideal time, day, and kind of content to post.
You should give CoSchedule a close look if you need social media analytics for everything from social engagement to social sharing, as well as everything in between.
9. Brandwatch
Brandwatch completes our ranking of the top social media analytics tools. Comparatively speaking to the other tools on this list, the platform operates a little differently. It gathers mentions from blogs, news websites, discussion forums, social media sites, and other publicly accessible sources from all over the internet.
After combining all of these mentions with other analytical tools that are already there, it generates comprehensive reports in either an easy-to-read HTML or PDF format.
Additionally, the site strives to offer information on a variety of topics, including influences, places, image analysis, and demographics.
If you wish to add mentions in your reporting, take a look at Brandwatch.
Why You Should Use Social Media Management Tools?
Actually, there are several justifications for employing social media management solutions.
You can use the ability to track the success of all social media posts across all channels in addition to the obvious tracking and indicator performances for marketing.
This power allows social media marketing teams and managers to more precisely identify the posts and/or paid campaigns that are creating the most discussion and engagement.
Teams can work on developing plans they are confident will succeed in the future with the help of this expertise and insight.
What Features Should You Look For?
One size probably doesn’t fit all when it comes to social media scheduling tools and software. Many of your final decisions will be influenced by both your personal preferences and the actual needs of your business.
Despite this, no matter whatever platform you ultimately choose, there are still several things you should make sure you have access to. Here are some key characteristics to consider.
Competitor Analysis
Let’s face it: you want to be able to monitor both your own social media analytics and those of rival efforts. It is crucial that the social media analytics platform you choose has this feature included for this reason.
You will learn what is and isn’t working for your competitors as a result.
Follower Analysis
Yes, it’s crucial to be able to observe how your followers respond to your content. However, you want to ensure that you can go a step further and learn more about the geography and demographics of your followers.
What works in one location and population might not in another. Improved engagement type knowledge is essential in this case.
Content Engagement Analysis
Similar to follower analysis, this is. It’s crucial to understand who is truly engaging with a post in addition to how much engagement it receives.
This enables even more precise targeting of customised articles and strategies, enabling your company to really connect with some segments.
Attribution
When followers are more precisely defined, you can reach out to them more directly to promote business material or posts with people like influencers and potential brand champions.
Remember that it will also be important to determine which followers have the most extensive networks.
Reporting
Custom reports and the ability to provide clear and concise reporting standards have always been a challenge in this arena.
Social media analytics tools will help improve the reporting process by giving you access to a dedicated reporting tool instead of just the typical spreadsheets and other notes. All of this is particularly useful when it comes to key metrics across the board.
How to Measure Social Media Effectiveness
Key Performance Indicators
Look at your key performance indicators to determine how to evaluate the results of your social media efforts (KPIs). KPIs are variables that you can quantify and give values to. A number of KPIs can be used to assess social media performance, albeit they may differ slightly based on your objectives.
Measuring New Customers and Revenue
The obvious metrics for social media marketing are followers and post engagements. These KPIs can be significant, however other experts feel that there are other, more valuable KPIs.
For instance, according to CallRail’s marketing specialists, social media’s objectives shouldn’t change even though they may be distinct from your other marketing strategies: Even with social media, “your fundamental KPIs should remain the same across your marketing channels.” In addition, they add that even though there will be “circumstances in which pure ‘brand awareness’ campaigns could be advantageous, your long-term goals (should) always remain the same no matter what kind of campaign (you’re) doing.”
With a few exceptions, revenue and new customers are always going to be a business’s two primary KPIs. In the end, these are often the most important variables for your company, and social media marketing can have a big impact on them. Gaining and keeping consumers is one of the most crucial methods for businesses to boost their revenue, which is something they virtually always strive to achieve.
You can monitor these KPIs across all of your social media channels with the use of programs like Hootsuite and Google Analytics.
A useful reference on social media ROI is available from Hootsuite, and it contains instructions on how to utilize it in conjunction with Google Analytics to monitor ROI. Additionally, they provide a helpful social media ROI calculator.
Improving Customer Service
Social media is a great way to connect with your customers. The informal setting provides a platform for your customers to feel more comfortable asking questions about your product or service. This provides a channel to provide optimal customer service.
In fact, there are many exceptional ideas for companies to give great customer service to their social media customers, including the following:
- Answering customer questions
- Responding to comments and questions in a timely manner
- Sharing frequent updates about the company
- Sharing stories regarding company/product successes
- Apologizing to customers when mistakes happen
Customer outreach experts at Help On Click advise not to neglect your networking opportunities, but instead leverage your social media accounts to their full potential, and avoid giving scripted responses to questions.
Website Traffic and Post Engagement
Even though KPIs like the number of new customers, growth in revenue, and enhanced customer service are significant, they don’t diminish the importance of more conventional metrics for social media success. The value of followers, post engagements, and traffic conversions to websites must still be taken into account.
Brand recognition is one of the most advantageous things that can be enhanced by social media marketing. Your profile will be more visible the more followers you have and the more people will view it. Brand awareness is directly correlated with this visibility. Although it is beneficial to all organizations, brand recognition is particularly significant for startups and expanding enterprises.
Finally, post engagement demonstrates the effectiveness of your content. You can find out what your audience responds to the most by experimenting with various posts. This is a special insight that is not offered by other marketing channels, like emails. For instance, Facebook allows users to respond to postings with a range of emotions, whereas you may be able to track how many clients open emails and click on your links. In addition, submitting comments, queries, and concerns on each post is simple to do.
By giving businesses access to valuable information that they previously lacked and would not have otherwise, social media features and KPIs provide them a distinctive return on investment. Knowing what customers think and feel can help businesses establish better customer relationships, better goods, and perhaps even new products or services to address customer demands.
For the best marketing outcomes, you should make the most of social media platforms to communicate with customers.
How to Measure Social Media Engagement
One of the reasons marketers like social media so much is because it’s an easy tool to work with. Nearly all social media platforms come with helpful dashboards that lay out all the information you need in one place.
All you have to do is know how to read the data:
Likes & Shares
The most basic metric you’ll need to monitor is the number of likes and shares your posts receive. Most social media platforms, including Twitter and YouTube, have copied Facebook’s original “Like” feature, in addition to allowing users to share content they like or find relevant to their own friends or fans.
Both of these options allow you to immediately see how your post is performing and to exponentially broaden your reach as people share your posts with their circles of followers.
Audience Growth/Rate of Followers
Another obvious metric to monitor is the number of followers you’ve gained in the previous month, week, or even day. It’s critical to keep track of how quickly you’re gaining followers.
If you notice a slow and unreliable trickle of people following your accounts, you should speed up your posting. If you’re losing followers, look at what’s been shared or posted recently and consider whether you need to change your strategy.
Followers vs. Following Ratio
Following other accounts that share interests related to your business or industry is highly recommended in social media marketing. However, keep an eye on the ratio of your number of followers to the number of people you follow.
If you have 88 followers but follow 300 people, it may appear desperate and may discourage users from engaging with you. Keeping the numbers in the same ballpark is always a good idea.
Active Fans
While it’s exciting to see your fan base grow, not all of them are created equal. Keep track of how many fans interact with your company, whether they comment on your Facebook posts, like your Facebook page, retweet your tweets, or otherwise talk to or about it.
These advocates are far more important than fans, who may only visit your business page once. Continue to interact with them and watch the percentage of active fans grow.
Organic vs. Paid Results
Organic traffic refers to the customers that you get through posting free content and the social community that you build.
Paid social, on the other hand, refers to the advertisements or sponsored messages you’re using to try and reach target demographics. When running a pay-per-click campaign, it’s important to keep track of the return on investment to see whether you should re-invest in new keywords.
Clicks Per Post
When sharing blog posts or third-party content, it is important to measure the number of times that users have clicked on the links you’ve included. This helps you determine how much traffic your social media efforts are bringing in and whether you need to post even more.
It also shows you whether your content is aligned with your brand message and the target audience you’re trying to reach.
Lead Generation
Though posting and sharing content is an important part of social media marketing, your audience should not just look at your posts and never engage with your business. You should keep track of how many people visit your website from your social media accounts, as well as which social media accounts generate the most leads.
Audience Demographics
Assume your company has 1,000 Twitter followers. You can now collect important data about those 1,000 followers, such as their age, gender, geographic location, and even their likes and interests, thanks to advancements in analytics tools.
This data is important because it can help you paint a picture of your target market, understand what they are interested in, and, most importantly, what they want (which you will provide).
Audience Mentions
Users of social media can mention your company on other websites, such as blogs or their personal social media accounts. Paying attention to what is being said about your company may cause you to overlook a serious complaint, resulting in a ruined customer relationship.
When your reputation is tarnished in the eyes of potential customers, it’s never fun. Respond to comments, questions, or criticisms as soon as possible to maintain the image of a company that values what its customers have to say.
Count the Money
It’s nearly impossible to attribute specific sales to social media in some industries (especially if the product can’t be purchased online). However, you can keep track of leads and define them as you see fit.
Perhaps someone inquires about your services after you provide helpful answers on LinkedIn or Twitter, or a fan expresses loyalty to your brand and says they intend to purchase another as a gift. Both are sales-ready leads, so add them together.
Conclusion
Social Media Analytics can help your business track its progress, evaluate its effectiveness, and improve its bottom line. By using social media analytics tools to measure your success, you can make sure that your business is moving in the right direction.