Knowing what metrics to track is critical.
Constantly monitoring or tracking your metrics has helped many businesses learn what to improve or how to pivot to address the customers’ wants.
But, you can’t track everything.
This article will go over what social media metrics are, their importance in social media, and highlight 11 social media metrics that you should be tracking today.
Recap on Sales Funnels
It’s the process that your customers have from becoming aware of you to potentially buying your offer.
Studying what goes on through the sales funnels enlightens business owners to understand what works and what doesn’t.
The journey of a sales funnel is usually put into four different categories.
- Awareness. Customers know that they have a problem. They were online, searching for a solution, and came upon your business through a marketing strategy. Awareness is also considered even a foundational piece of your strategy.
- Interaction. This is also called engagement by others. Here you are looking at the number of customers who have continued to show interest. This can be seen through their attempts to gain more information. They still have the problem with no viable solution and are looking into whether you can meet their need or want.
- Interest. Customers are now looking at different offers on your site and going over the pros and cons of each. They will also take into consideration the price tag.
- Action. Now the customer has found themselves towards the end of the sales funnel. At this point, there will be an option for them to think about whether they want to follow through with buying the product or not.
The Importance of Social Media Metrics
Bringing your presence online is so crucial in this day and age of globalization and the rise of technology.
Your social media presence is a channel wherein you can show up to serve others. You can share your understanding of your customer’s pain points, a testimony of how you overcame it, and a viable solution they can get when they sign up with you or buy your products.
Social media goes across an array of different platforms.
A visitor to your website could share your post on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. With so many other platforms and thousands of customer-related concerns that you are also tracking, it can get quite overwhelming to identify which should be your priority and focus.
The world just got bigger by being online, and metrics can help keep you organized to see how your business is doing through these platforms.
Think of metrics as indicators that give feedback on what is going well and where your business is struggling. Take metrics as a performance review of your strategies.
Here are metrics that you should be focusing on.
On Awareness
We should all be concerned about this category. Through awareness, you will be able to build a relationship with customers and earn their trust. This trust will then open doors for you to give insights and lead them on their decision-making journey.
When customers recognize you and know your voice, they will be able to tell you apart from others, and it builds customer loyalty.
1. Brand Awareness
Who doesn’t want their name to be known in the whole world?
You will learn how your brand awareness is doing by how many people have visited, tagged you, shared your content, etc.
It is essential to track how many people have come across your platforms. This gives insight into how many people have heard of you or could potentially get to know you.
2. Audience growth rate
So customers have come across you on social media on various platforms. Since we are in a competitive online world, you need to think of how many have chosen to follow you in a certain amount of time.
You have a total number of existing followers.
Divide the new ones by the existing ones, then multiply by 100. This could be several followers from last month or however you have set it. You will be able to see if you are gaining followers or actually losing them.
3. Post reach
Some metrics study the number of times your post was seen even after the visitor left it. Perhaps you created a reel. If at least a hundred viewers saw this reel and because they enjoyed watching it so much, they continued to press “replay,” it will show that 100 people visited the reel.
Take note that when you want to reach viewers, you have to consider when they are most active. Perhaps during their lunch break or late in the evening during their downtime, they can look at your content.
Looking at the post reach could also let you know if you are connecting with your prospects through your content.
4. Social share of voice (SSoV)
Customers have a significant platform for sharing their voices or thoughts with people on social media. Imagine that customers can easily tag you to give a review about the product they have used. This is an example of a direct tag.
On the other hand, perhaps a customer would just write your brand without tagging you on their appreciation post. This latter is an example of an indirect way of sharing their voice.
SSoV metrics can let you know how many mentions your company has versus your competitors. This speaks volumes of brand exposure against that of your competitor.
Here are newsletter metrics you should be tracking!
On Interaction
The post about your essential oil has received likes, shares, and comments. This is an example of interaction or engagement from your customers. To encourage this, review your target audience. Get a pulse of their wants and needs. In this way, you can come up with content and strategy that appeal to them.
When interacting with customers, don’t forget to be authentic and genuine. In addition, you also ought to remember that keeping a line open or a timely response is vital.
5. Average engagement rate
This metric looks at the total number of people you have an audience with that interacted with your content. The study of this depends on the time period that you set.
This study could be so helpful when you think about content creation. If viewers are engaged with you, it means that your content has touched them personally. To double-check how you are doing and metrics on the average engagement rate, get the total sum of the engagement through likes, shares, and comments. Once that is done, divide that number by followers and multiply by 100.
6. Applause rate
And a round of applause goes to your post.
The applause is shown through the number of likes or thumbs-ups, or other actions done by the customer to convey their approval of it.
You will soon develop an eye for what type of posts your customers appreciate when it comes to content. This will help you determine what kind of value they are looking for. In addition, your applause rate will matter because it will contribute to your visibility when someone does a search.
On Interest
You will want to be able to keep people coming back or taking action.
7. Click-through rate
On your site, you have several instructions or encouragement. You ask customers to take a specific action.
For example, you may want to encourage them to sign up for the newsletter, register their email, or take a survey. When people click on the button to do any of that, they will be taken to another page. This number of people who click or follow the CTA is the click-through rate, which is vital to track. In this way, you will be able to know how many people are really interested in what it is you have to offer.
When writing a Call to Action, consider the following:
- Use Active Sentences
- Use Action Word
- Explain why they should take this action
- Focus on a feeling or emotion they may have
8. Conversion rate
Several people have cited your site. How can you study what kind of impact you had on them? The conversation rate speaks about those who followed through on the Call To Action. For example, out of 100 visitors that day, 50% of them clicked on the button to register for your webinar.
The people who registered feel that you can meet your need, and so this number is valuable to be looking at
9. Cost Per Click (CPC)
Advertising online is not free. If you want to expand your reach to your target audience, you might have to pay a fee. Cost Per Click is a metric that lets you know how much money you will need to pay for your paid advertisement.
Looking into this metric will give you an overview if you are doing well or not. For example, take the total costs of your spending. Gather also the conversions you made. Divide the total by the number of conversions. Looking at the outcome with let you know if you are doing well on your ROI.
On Action
Your prospects took a chance on your offer. They took action when they decided to buy it. After using the product, they now have something they want to say about it. They could also give feedback on how their journey was with you and how they feel about your engagement together.
10. Customer testimonials
Testimonials could be customer feedback that is either positive or negative. Customers might leave a comment, conduct their own review on the product, or share with their family and the public their assessment and recommendation on the product.
Satisfied customers will share about your business or product happily. Consider it a free advertisement. Someone on your site trusts you and wants other people to know the good news. The effects of this could be life-changing such as increased leads, more vital brand awareness, and legitimacy.
One of the ways you can get customer testimonials is to ask your customers to share their thoughts on your service. This could be through a survey or writing it. Some also do a social media campaign.
11. Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)
We have all seen this question all over social media.
“How would you rate your overall satisfaction with this product or service?”
We see it as a pop-up or at the bottom of the site. You can follow a scale to express your satisfaction from Poor, Fair, Good, Great, and Excellent.
To calculate this metric, you will need to ask customers to fill in the survey. Take the scores and add them all up. Then, divide the sum by those who took the survey. Multiply this number by ten, and you will get your score. This metric indeed gives honest feedback from your customers.
Key Takeaways on Why Social Media Metrics Should be Used
Remember that putting down metrics helps you keep an objective approach to enhancing your business.
Organic feedback is crucial, primarily when you use it to drive optimal engagement, improvement, and strategic decisions in moving your business forward.
Finding what you value most with the support of metrics is key to being successful in social media and in business.
And, it’s the only way to grow.
