Today everyone is using social media to boost business sales and those not in the race are missing a golden opportunity. Imagine trying to bake a cake without checking if it’s rising in the oven. That’s what running a social media campaign without monitoring metrics is like—sure, you might end up with something sweet, but you’re more likely to get a deflated mess. Monitoring key social media metrics is essential to understand if your campaign is working or not.
Social media metrics are data points that look at social media campaigns and determine the impact on a brand or company’s revenues. Social media marketers often use social media monitoring software to track metrics and stay on top of the data. Ultimately, the goal is to collect insights as to how the brand is perceived by the public and work towards improving the brand’s reputation and followers.
One can measure social media performance by tracking key metrics. These metrics include engagement, impressions and reach, shares, and conversions. One can also track response rate and time to give yourself a full view of your social media campaigns.
Let’s dive into specific metrics and see why they are important to the health of your social media campaign. Each one serves its own purpose in helping you identify key data points.
Reach
Reach is a key metric that tells how many people viewed the content. It’s an overall eye on the post metric. When taken as an average among a series of posts, one gets to see what the target audience looks like.
Impressions
Impressions, unlike reach, measure how many times a post is seen, highlighting that repeated views can drive engagement and action. Analyzing posts with high impression counts can provide valuable insights into content effectiveness, helping marketers refine their strategies for better results.
Engagement Rate
Engagement is when a viewer does something with your post. They can comment on it, like it, or share it. Engagement rate is the percentage of engagements with your posts per your audience. Defining your audience can be tricky since not all followers will see your post and even non-subscribers can engage with you. Most often, it is measured as a percentage of your followers.
Amplification Rate
Your amplification rate is an important metric. It tells you how many times the post was shared in relation to your followers. The more people share your content, the greater the audience is. That improves your reach and hopefully engagement. As such, you want the amplification rate to be higher, which means it’s getting more shares. For posts with low amplification rates, you may want to review the posts to see what could be improved.
Audience Growth Rate
This metric indicates the rate at which new followers are joining your audience, reflecting your brand’s growth and the effectiveness of your social media efforts. It’s crucial as it represents a percentage of your total audience, highlighting that growth rates can vary significantly between smaller and larger audiences.
Video Views indicate how many viewers actually watched a video post, crucial for assessing engagement, though definitions may vary across platforms where even brief views count towards this metric.
Virality rate is similar to amplification rate. It tells you how many times the content was shared. However, unlike the amplification rate that places this ratio as a percentage of followers, the virality rate measures it as a percentage of the impressions the post got. The higher the virality rate, the better your post is at getting spread virally among those who come across it.
Video completion rate is similar to video views. It tells you how many eyes were on the video in the post. Where video views count all who watched a few seconds of the video, the video completion rate tells you how many people got to the end of the video. If people are watching through to the end, that’s a good indication of content that is compelling to your audience.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)- assesses customer loyalty and advocacy by asking respondents to rate, on a scale of one to 10, their likelihood to recommend your content, distinguishing promoters, passive viewers, and detractors based on their ratings.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The click-through rate (CTR) measures how effectively a social media campaign prompts viewers to take action by clicking links in posts, indicating the level of engagement and responsiveness to the content.
The conversion rate measures the effectiveness of a social media campaign by tracking how many people take action beyond clicking a link, such as making a purchase or subscribing, essential for determining business success.
Cost-per-Click (CPC) is a crucial metric for paid ads, indicating the expense incurred for each click on your post, ensuring effective management of your marketing budget through insights provided by your ads manager.
Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM) focuses on the cost incurred per thousand views of a paid ad, crucial for effective branding campaigns where visibility matters more than immediate action.
By paying attention to these metrics, you can ensure your social media campaigns are effective and contributing positively to your business’s bottom line.
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