The key social media metrics to track for success

If you’re a social media marketer you need to be on top of social media metrics. Find out what they are and how they can help in our complete guide.

If you’re putting a lot of time and energy into creating social media posts, then you’ll want to know if your content is working just as hard for you in return, and that’s where social media metrics come in.

Last year, 83% of marketers in a Hootsuite survey reported having some level of confidence in the return on investment (ROI) of social media, up from 68% the year before. This confidence level no doubt stems from the ability to accurately report social media metrics and prove their campaigns are working.

With so many social media metrics to choose from, it’s best to pick the ones that align with your specific goals, and objectives. In this guide we’ll explore all the social media metrics to track for success no matter which platforms you use.

What are social media metrics?

Social media metrics track and analyse your social media performance. By using a range of measures you can assess the effectiveness of your social media strategies, campaigns, and content.

Social media metrics use a wide range of data points and provide insights into audience behaviour and preferences, so you can optimise your content, and strategy for maximum impact.

By analysing your social media metrics regularly, you can measure social media ROI, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to achieve the results you want in your business.

Simplilearn states that buyers go through five different stages of the journey on social media, from awareness to advocacy, and social media metrics can be used to track every single stage so you always know how effective your content is.

The social media metrics to track 

Awareness

• Reach
• Impressions
• Follower growth rate
• Brand mentions
• Share of voice

Engagement

• Likes, comments, and shares
• Engagement rate
• Video engagement
• CTA responses

Conversion

• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Bounce rate
• Cost per click (CPC)
• Conversion rate

ROI

• Cost per acquisition (CPA)
• Revenue generated
• Social media traffic

Customer Care

• Response time
• Response rate
• Customer satisfaction (CSAT)
• Customer retention rate
• Conversation volume

Social media metrics – awareness

Here’s are the social media metrics terms you need to know if you want to work out if your campaign is increasing brand awareness:

• Reach – reach measures the number of unique people who have seen your content on social media
• Impressions –  impressions refer to the number of times your content has been displayed on social media, including multiple views by the same user. 
• Follower growth rate – follower growth rate tracks the number of new followers you gain on social media over a specific period
• Brand mentions – brand mentions measure the number of times your brand is mentioned on social media by users, including both direct mentions, and indirect references
• Share of voice –  share of voice compares your brand’s social media mentions to those of your competitors

Social media metrics – engagement 

These are the things you need to measure in order to work out if your content is sparking engagement: 

• Likes, comments, and shares – likes, comments, and shares help you measure how many people are interacting with your content
• Engagement rate – engagement rate measures the percentage of people who engage with your content relative to the total number of people who see it
• Video engagement –  if you use video content on social media you can track metrics such as views, watch time, and completion rate
• CTA responses – this metric shows how engaged your audience is by the number of call to actions that were completed (poll responses or votes for example)

Social media metrics – conversion

The terms listed below are used to measure the effectiveness of your social media campaign when it comes to achieving your goals, i.e. newsletter sign-ups, downloads, and sales, etc:

• Click-through rate (CTR) – CTR helps you understand how effectively your social media content is driving traffic to your website
• Bounce rate – bounce rate measures the percentage of people who visited your website from social media and left without taking any action
• Cost per click (CPC) – CPC measures the cost of each click on a social media ad or post to determine if your social media campaigns are generating a good return on investment
• Conversion rate – conversion rate measures the percentage of people who took an action (making a purchase or filling out a form for example) after clicking on a link in your social media post

Social media metrics – ROI

Return on investment or ROI,  is a metric used to work out the benefits of your investment, i.e. what do you get back for all the time, money, and effort you put into your social media campaign? The following will help you work it out: 

• Cost per acquisition (CPA) – CPA measures the cost of acquiring a new customer or lead through your social media campaigns
• Revenue generated – tracking the revenue generated from your social media campaigns can help you understand the direct impact of your social media on turnover
• Social media traffic – the amount of traffic that your social media accounts are driving to your website can help you understand the value of your channels in generating leads, and sales

Social media metrics – customer care

A happy customer is a returning one, so it pays to look after them. Use the following to see how you measure up when it comes to customer care:

• Response time – response time measures how quickly your business responds to customer enquiries and complaints on social media
• Response rate – Response rate measures the percentage of customer enquiries and complaints that are responded to on social media
• Customer satisfaction (CSAT) – CSAT measures how satisfied customers are with your customer service on social media
• Customer retention rate – retention rate measures how effective your social media campaigns are at retaining existing customers, and encouraging repeat purchases
• Conversation volume – conversation volume can help you understand the level of customer engagement and likeability on your social media channels

Social media metrics tools

With so many tools available to help you measure your social media metrics it can be difficult knowing which to use. To make it a little easier for you, here’s our roundup of some of the most popular social media metrics tools around:

• Google Analytics – Google Analytics is a free analytics tool that can be used to track social media metrics including referral traffic, engagement, and conversion rates