7 key social media metrics to track

Do you doubt the effectiveness of your social media campaigns? Your posts maybe receiving plenty of likes, comments and shares, but does this indicate that you're growing your online presence?  

A whopping 73% of marketers say their company has benefited greatly from social networking. What constitutes a social media strategy's success, though, is debatable. This is where social media metrics come into play. Tracking and analyzing the appropriate metrics provide valuable insights that can enhance your social media strategy and yield improved results. 

In this blog post, we’ll talk about the key social media metrics to track. From social media engagement to conversions, we'll break down the metrics that matter and show you how to use them to improve your strategy. Let’s dive in!

Social media metrics: What are they? 

 Social media metrics are data sets that quantitatively assess the effectiveness of your social media initiatives. 

One way to conceptualize social media metrics is as the global positioning system (GPS) for social media strategies. Metrics provide insights into the direction your content is heading, helping you focus your efforts and work toward achieving your goals. 

To understand this better, imagine traveling to a new location without a GPS. You might wind up getting lost or taking a longer route. The same holds true for your social media plan. Not monitoring the right metric could result in loss of valuable time and resources.

Why are social media metrics important to measure?

You should keep track of social media metrics for the following reasons: 

1. To better understand your audience: When producing focused, pertinent content, knowing your audience is half the battle. Social media metrics reveal your audience's demographics, interests and preferred modes of interaction with your material.

2. Success evaluation: If you don't monitor your social media data, you wouldn't know if your strategy is effective. Knowing which social media metrics to monitor will provide you with an understanding of your performance and allow you to modify your approach.

3. Increasing the quality of your content: Monitoring your metrics can also assist you in identifying ineffective material. This might assist you in making adjustments that will help you achieve better results.

4. Maintaining an edge over the competition: It requires being aware of your competitors' strategies and evaluating their suitability for your brand. This level of awareness can only be achieved by closely monitoring your metrics.

Social media metrics hold the key to social media success. And the first crucial step? Identifying the specific metrics that align with your business goals. It's like finding your North Star in the vast universe of social media.

7 important social media metrics to track

Here are seven important social media metrics that every business should track to effectively measure their social media success. By focusing on these key metrics, you can elevate your social media presence and achieve your marketing goals with confidence.

1. Reach

Reach is a parameter that measures exposure for your social media posts. The metric gives you an idea of how many people have discovered your content. Tracking reach can provide insights into the effectiveness of your social media strategy.  

Note: While "impressions" refers to the number of times consumers saw your content, "reach" refers to the number of distinct individuals that came across it. 

Guidelines for expanding your social media reach:

• Try posting at different times and on different days

• Use relevant hashtags to increase your exposure to new audiences

• Consider social media advertising options to boost your reach to a larger audience

• Post consistently and keep up with trends

2. Engagement

Engagement is calculated based on how well your target audience interacts with your content. Create material that people care about enough to interact with to increase engagement, which goes beyond simply making your content more visible.  

Here's how you can track your social media engagement metrics:

• Set benchmarks based on your past performance and industry averages, and aim to improve your metrics over time.

• Look beyond the numbers — engage with your audience. Be responsive by replying to your audiences' comments and messages. And use the learnings to create targeted content that resonates with your followers.

• Focus on providing valuable, entertaining or informative content that people feel like sharing with their network.

Get free access to e-book: Social Customer Care Benchmarking Report: 2022 Industry Leaders 

3. Impressions

An impression is a metric that helps you measure the overall visibility of content on social media. Tracking impressions helps you identify opportunities to increase your reach and engagement.  

Here are some tips for using impressions to improve your social media strategy:

• Use impressions as a benchmark for measuring the efficacy of your content.

• Use paid promotions to increase your impressions.

• Experiment with different content formats and styles to see what resonates best with your audience.

4. Click-through rate (CTR)

The click-through rate (CTR) is a very important social media indicator to track. This metric reflects the proportion of times a link in your article or advertisement was exposed to the audience and the number of people who clicked on it. 

To determine your CTR, divide the number of clicks by the number of impressions, and multiply the result by 100. For instance, your CTR would be 100/1000 x 100, or 10%, if you had 100 clicks and 1000 impressions. 

Pointers to improve your CTR:

• Keep your CTA compelling and clear

• Use high-quality images or videos in your posts to attract more attention and make your posts more engaging

• Avoid using long paragraphs or complicated words that can confuse your audience

• Experiment with different CTAs and visuals to determine which ones resonate best with your audience

5. Conversion rate

As a social media manager, it is crucial to recognize that the conversion rate of your content is directly linked to the success of your social media strategy. In other words, if your content fails to generate conversions, it does not fulfill the ultimate goal of your strategy. That is why measuring social media conversion rates is of utmost importance. 

The conversion rate represents the percentage of people who take an expected action after reading your social media content. This might help you understand whether your social media strategy is driving results. 

Calculating your conversion rate: First, define what you think counts as a conversion. For example, someone signing up for your newsletter or someone purchasing a product through your website. Once you have defined the term, track the number of people who convert. This will help you determine your conversion rate. 

Improving your conversion rates can have the following cascading effects:

• Increases leads: Optimized posts generate more leads, boosting conversions

• Drives sales: Effective posts directly increase sales and revenue

• Amplifies brand awareness: Engaging posts encourage sharing and expand the customer base

• Enhances cost efficiency: Improved conversions reduce spending per conversion

• Builds long-term customer value: Converting followers into loyal customers boosts ROI over time and regular measurement and testing refine strategies for maximum social media ROI

Learn More: 6 Mistakes We Make When Trying To Convert Our Social Followers Into Sales

6. Audience growth rate

The audience growth rate shows how quickly a brand can get more followers and impact social media. This doesn't just refer to the number of new followers; it also indicates how much the audience has increased in comparison to the entire audience at the moment. 

The ability of the target audience to relate to the content and share it with friends and followers is indicated by a strong audience growth rate. This could help the content piece to become more visible, which would attract more buyers. 

You can calculate your audience growth rate by tracking your net new followers (on each platform) over a reporting period of say a week or a month. Net new followers are the number of new followers subtracted from the number of followers who unfollowed you during the stipulated period. 

Once you have your net new follower count, divide it by your total audience and multiply the result by 100 to get your audience growth rate percentage. 

Formula: (Audience Growth Rate) = [(Net New Followers/Total Audience) x 100] 

Pro tip: To increase your audience growth rate, try:

• Collaborating with other brands or influencers in your industry

• Running social media campaigns

• Offering exclusive promotions and discounts to your social media followers

7. Response time to customer complaints

By measuring your response time to customer complaints, you can reflect on how quickly your brand addresses and resolves customer issues on social media platforms. A good response time equates to higher customer satisfaction and trust, leading to a positive brand reputation. 

Here's how you can improve your response time to customer complaints:

• Monitor your social media channels regularly to identify customer complaints

• Establish guidelines and processes to address and resolve customer complaints

• Utilize automation tools or customer service platforms to streamline and prioritize customer inquiries

• Continuously assess your response time metrics and aim to reduce the time taken to address customer complaints

Learn More: What’s the Difference Between Social Monitoring and Social Listening?

In a nutshell

Monitoring the effect of your social media activities on your business objectives is now an important part of social media marketing, in addition to vanity metrics like likes, comments and follows.  

You can obtain insight into methods that are working and those that are not by evaluating social media metrics like engagement, reach and conversion rates. You can then make the right decisions to promote growth and meet your company's objectives. 

However, remember that tracking social media metrics is only the first step in creating a successful digital marketing strategy. To truly optimize your efforts, you need a comprehensive social media management solution. 

Sprinklr Social offers everything you need to streamline your social media operations, from analytics and engagement to publishing and listening. If you are serious about taking your social media marketing efforts to the next level, head over to Sprinklr's website right away to find out more about how we can support your objectives.