What Metrics Should You Be Tracking On Social Media?

Social media is becoming bigger and better on a daily basis. More people are now on the platform than ever before and it’s continuing to rise, but, as a business, do you really know whether or not you’re getting the most out of it?

If you’re a business and you’re not using social media, then you’re missing out on a huge chunk of your market and the opportunity to encourage your overall growth.

If you’re on social media, great, but when you’re reaching out to your audience do you know which metrics you should be tracking? It’s tough because there’s a lot to try and grasp but fortunately, in this blog we’re going to be showing you which metrics are the best ones to track for your business on social media.

1. Content

If you start tracking your content on social media, then you’re able to see exactly how it is shared which can then present specific patterns you can then use to your advantage.

Keep track of what content is shared compared to content created by others and then you can begin to understand what content is getting the most reward for your business.

For example, videos might be generating more traffic and conversions for your business through social media but blogs generate more likes and shares. You need to decide what your plan for social media is and then create content from that.

Then, when you want to gather any information about how content is performing, you can go to your social accounts and view exactly how posts have performed.

2. Timing

What time do you usually post on social media and is it at the optimal time? What time does your audience usually engage with your content? Are your posts relevant to your target audience? You need to track this metric because ultimately it helps you understand what the best times are to post your content.

You want to have the most engagement possible on a post so you need to choose wisely when posting on social media. For example, you don’t want to be posting content on social media at 3 am in the morning, who’s going to click on it?

By studying the metrics, you can gain an understanding when the best times are for your business to post content, therefore giving yourself the best opportunity to generate interest, traffic and sales.

3. Audience

There’s no point having social media for your business if you’re not tracking any audience metrics. by analysing these metrics, you’re able to understand whether or not your audience is engaging with your content.

If your audience is predominately females between the ages of 35-45 who live in Manchester but your Instagram audience is mainly females aged between 18-30 throughout the UK, then you’re having some slight issues in regards to what your actual audience desires.

By tracking this metric, you’re able to understand who’s engaging with your posts and whether or not changes need to be made to ensure you’re aiming towards the right audience.

There’s a huge number of tools you can use to help analyse your social media audience.

• Friends + Me (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest)
• Followerwonk (Twitter)
• Tailwind (Instagram and Pinterest)
• Social media insight (gender and location data)
• Google Analytics Audience report

The reason as to why we’ve included the Google Analytics Audience report is because anyone who is part of your social media audience should match the people who visit and convert through your website.

4. Engagement

This wouldn’t be a very good metrics blog if it didn’t include a section on engagement. This is usually one of the first places a business will analyse to see whether or not their performance is equalling their social media marketing efforts.

You need to look at your engagement and break it down to fully understand how well you’re performing. Look at the DM’s you’ve received, mentions received, the engagement rate percentage and your total engagement.

If you’re not getting any engagement, or it’s on the decrease, then you need to analyse what is actually being posted on social media and make the necessary changes.

You can collect all of this data manually but that could take what feels like a week to complete and it’s much easier using the data collected by the social media scheduling tools like Sendible, Hootsuite, Sprout Social etc. to provide you with the right numbers.

5. Competitor

There’s nothing wrong with keeping an eye on your competitors, you want to be the best you possibly can and the way you can do this is by beating your competitors. You should have a look at their social media and use their statistics to your advantage.

Don’t follow the research by the letter, it’s great that you’re able to get the research in the first place, but you need to use it as a stepping stone of information to then use to improve your research, generate new ideas, strategies and tactics to try.

These metrics will help you understand your social media success a little more. You want to ensure that you’re using the platforms correctly to help improve your business performance and receive the engagement you desire from the correct audience.