8 Social Media Metrics That Matter Most - Social Media Explorer
8 Social Media Metrics That Matter Most
8 Social Media Metrics That Matter Most
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About 77% of businesses use social media as part of their marketing efforts.

If you’re one of them, how can you tell if your social media is working for your business and driving sales?

You have to look at the metrics that matter. It’s easy to get lost in the weeds when you’re tracking likes and followers online. Those numbers usually don’t translate into sales.  

Are you ready to learn which metrics you need to keep track of in your social media campaigns?

Keep reading to find out what they are.

1. Start with Your Goals

There are countless data points that you can track. Instead of looking at all of them, you want to look at the ones that are most relevant to your goals.

Do you want to increase your Twitter following organically, in a way that complies with Twitter’s terms of service?

Do you want to increase your brand awareness? Then you’ll want to track mentions and engagement.

Do you want more sales from social media? Then look at things like website traffic and conversions.

Before you set out on any social media campaign, you need to define your goals so you can determine the metrics that matter the most.

2. Website Traffic

Website traffic measures the number of clicks you get from social media. You can get this metric from Google Analytics and from various social media analytics.

This is important because you’ll be able to learn which social media channels are driving more interest in your company.

You may find that Instagram is driving a lot of traffic to your site and Facebook isn’t doing much to drive traffic.

3. Conversions

Website traffic is great, but you also want to track the percentage of traffic that takes action on your site. Your website should be set up to drive a specific action, whether that’s to make a purchase, book a call, or sign up for your email list.

You can do that by setting up goals in Google Analytics. Read more here to find out more about website metrics to measure.

4. Customer Service Inquiries

Companies are turning to social media more often to solve customer service problems. People tend to voice their frustrations online (see any airline or cable TV carrier) and it’s up to your company to respond.

The number of customer service queries your brand gets is a sign that people trust that you will respond. You want to track the number of queries that come in and the time it takes to respond and resolve those queries.

Why do these metrics matter? When people get a response from social media right away, about 80% of them feel more loyal to the brand.

Brand loyalty turns into more purchases from existing customers and loyal customers spend more per purchase. That’s a huge impact on your bottom line.

5. Mentions

Are people talking about your brand? If they are, what are they saying about it? Those are the reasons why you want to track the mentions of your brand.

This metric matters because it is an indication of the overall brand awareness of your company. You also want to gauge how people are talking about your brand, whether that’s positive or negative.

6. Bounce Rate

Let’s say that you’re running a campaign on Pinterest to drive traffic to your site. It’s working because you’re getting a lot of traffic.

However, when you look deeper, you find that people aren’t staying on your site. There could be dozens of reasons why that’s the case. You do know one thing, though. If people aren’t staying on your site, it’s related to the user experience.

You’ll want to look at things like your site’s load time. People won’t stick around on-site if it takes too long to load. On average, people will abandon your site if it takes longer than three seconds.

You also want to make sure that your site’s content matches the customer’s expectations. For example, if the pin is for 10 things you can make in an Instant Pot, but the article is about a Crock-Pot, then people will leave. The content isn’t related to the pin.

7. Device Used to Access Site

In Google Analytics, you want to know what devices people are using to access your site. This will help you create a stronger user experience that encourages people to stay.

You may find that most of your visitors are on mobile devices when they’re on your site. You then have to make sure that your site is ready for that traffic by having a responsive website.

You also want to make sure that the content is easy to read on these devices, too. The text should be large enough to be easy to read and the paragraphs should be short.

Those adjustments will keep people on your site longer.

8. Emerging Trends

Social media channels like Twitter are all about getting in on the conversation at the right time. You want to keep track of the trending hashtags that are relevant to your industry so you can join the conversation.

You do need to be careful here because a tweet could turn into a spectacular fail for your brand.

Before you tweet something out that you think is cute and clever, take a moment to ask yourself how your audience is likely to respond to it.

The Social Media Metrics That Matter

In the world of social media, you can get caught up in the number of likes and followers your accounts get. The problem with that is that likes and followers don’t always translate into results.

The metrics that matter the most are the ones that are aligned with your business goals. Once you have your goals laid out, you can then pick the metrics that need the most attention. These metrics will help you pinpoint issues within your campaign and make adjustments.

Keep scrolling this site for more great social media content.  

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About the Author

Adam
Adam is an owner at Nanohydr8. He really loves comedy and satire, and the written word in general.

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