You wouldn\’t blindly throw money at a channel and hope it increases your sales, would you?
Of course not, we all have budgets.
But even if you\’re not spending any cash on social media, you\’re spending time. So do you know if your social media efforts are working?
Do you receive a high click-through rate?
Which channel is the most profitable for you?
What are you doing to increase engagement with your followers?
If you had trouble answering any of those questions, you\’re not alone. But you do have some work ahead. Not tracking your social media efforts is a wasted opportunity. Fortunately, today you can access massive amounts of data, and by picking the right metrics, you\’ll be able to report a clear ROI on your social media marketing.
There are some of the key metrics you should be tracking:
- Reach
- Volume
- Engagement
- Leads
Reach
Reach is, as you might have guessed, how many people your content can reach. How many people can actually see your posts? Several social media sites let you see your estimated reach if you sign up for marketing campaigns, like a boosted post on Facebook. After all, you should be able to see what you\’re paying for.
Your reach is the first and arguably most important number because you can use this number with other metrics as a denominator.
It\’s great to know how many likes a post received, but when you compare that to your overall number of people reached, you have a percentage. If only 5 percent of your followers are liking your posts, a change in your Facebook strategy might be in order.
On many sites, you can measure also measure reach as the number of followers your accounts have.
Volume
Volume is the amount of activity happening on your accounts. It includes activity on your page as well as the number of times people mention your brand in public conversations. Examples are likes, comments, replies, retweets, and shares.
Volume might be the most obvious metric, but only tracking volume won\’t tell you much.
Compare the volume of different posts or types of posts to learn what\’s most effective with your following. Better yet, compare volume and reach to see what percentage of your followers are interacting with your brand.
Engagement
Engagement is similar to volume but deals with quality over quantity. The length of time people spend on your page, comments left on your posts, and click-through rates to your website are just a few examples of engagement metrics.
Gaining an accurate measure of engagement is difficult, but a combination of factors can help you connect the pieces.
Your company might track comments and shares on social media, then gather website data such as how far users scroll down a page or how much time they spend there.
Conversion
Finally, the metric your boss will be the most interested in knowing about is conversion rates.
Out of your total followers or audience, conversion refers to how many users took further action. This action might be signing up for a newsletter, joining a webinar, or making a purchase.
You should aim to bring people to your website and after that, take the next step in their buyer\’s journey.
Tracking your social media efforts can give you a clear picture of what works and what needs improvement. Get started the easy way with Creative Bytes website and social media tracking reports. Contact our team today for more information.
