You’re following a posting schedule, using hashtags and keeping track of social media algorithms, but at the end of the day; how do you know you are making the right marketing impact? The answer is data.
Determining your social media performance can be tracked by looking at your metrics. KPIs, short for Key Performance Indicators, are the critical indicators of progress towards an intended result.
Besides your like counts and followers, the only way to determine your success and where some attention might be needed is by tracking the essential social media KPIs. Let’s dive into the areas you should focus on!
Reach
Reaching your business’s demographics (key audience) will always remain important. Tracking the reach on your platforms will show you who potentially saw your posts. Although this is just an estimate of how many eyes your content was put in front of, it is a key part of indicating just how far your voice is traveling on social media.
The following KPIs will help measure your reach:
- Impressions (Defined as the number of times your content is displayed.)
- Followers
- Traffic (Defined as users coming to your website, mobile site or mobile app from social networks and social media platforms.)
Engagement
Engagement measures the number of likes, comments, and shares that your platforms receive. This plays a major role in certain platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter. The more engagement your content and posts bring in, the more the newsfeeds will filter it out.
The following KPIs are essential in tracking your engagement:
- Likes
- Shares
- Comments
- Mentions
- Followers
- Profile Visits
- Clicks
Overall, reaching a large audience doesn’t give your business any value if you aren’t engaging with your audience. In order to build success organically, you must build your engagement and customer relationships. In the end, this helps guide your business into the next step and goal, which is generating more leads.
Leads
Building up your number of followers and engagement feels good, and you might be feeling the high’s of social media success, but how many of these fans are going to make a purchase? This is where measuring lead generations will come into play.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- How many of my fans are actually interested?
- Is my content hitting the right demographics?
- Reevaluate: Am I currently on the right platforms for my buyer persona?
Tracking your KPIs for lead generations will help answer all of the questions above. Google Analytics has a number of reports that help determine whether your social media is leading to conversions. If you’d like to learn more about how to measure your leads by each channel, take a look at this article by Salesforce. Tracking your last touches on social media will give you valuable insight into who you are reaching, who is engaging, and who is clicking to purchase.
While looking at your reporting, focus on the following:
- Sales Revenue
- Conversion Rates – a purchase
- Non-Revenue Conversions – a non-purchase, such as a newsletter sign up
Customers
The overall impact you make on your audience and customer base is key. If you understand who your loyal customers are, you then have the ability to provide something they may return for. Not only will this will set you apart from the countless other competitive brands, but you can turn one time purchases into regular customers.
The following KPI’s are essential in tracking your loyal customers:
- Cost per lead – how much is each lead/customer costing you. Your relationships should help this decrease over time.
- Issues Resolved – keep track of your own responses and customer service
- Measure Your Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) – this helps determine how powerful your social media strategies are.
Tracking the essential social media KPIs should never be underestimated. You need to understand the most valuable and successful ways to communicate with your audience. By diving into your data, you can begin to make crucial decisions in enhancing your campaigns. If you need assistance with your online success and tracking these powerful social media KPIs, contact us at TargetMarket today!
