As part of our series on social media we previously told you all about harnessing the power of social media and the buzz around business blogging. So now that we’ve clearly identified the benefits of using both we wanted to take the next step on the road to success with you by discussing the social media metrics your business should be using and how they will help add up to more profit for your business.
Here is what we know for sure: When it comes to social media metrics matter.
Choosing the right social media metric to track is a daunting task for anyone let alone someone new to the social media world. With so many social media metrics available, it can be difficult to choose which ones best suit your business goals.
As with anything in business, the first step is to outline your business objectives or goals. These goals can be: increase brand awareness, increase customer engagement or increase sales. Your goal setting is of paramount importance when it comes to deciding on metrics because you will use them to identify your Key Performance Indicators or KPIs. A KPI needs to be identified as a way to measure if the goals were achieved. KPI’s can be social media metrics such as: likes on your Facebook page or follower growth.
Social media metrics to measure in Twitter:
” Retweets are your Tweets forwarded by people who follow you to their own network of followers and they are social media gold when it comes to spreading the word about your business. This gives you the opportunity to reach more people who may think your content is valuable. That new network of Twitter users who are exposed to your Tweets have the potential to become a part of your primary network. They come back and follow you.
“ Mentions refers to any time Tweets in which your Twitter handle, or any keyword you are tracking, is used. Paying attention to mentions is important because it provides you with a barometer of how your audience feels about the value of your content. No mentions means it’s time to look at your content and make some adjustments.
” Favorites mean that someone has marked your post as one of their favorite Tweets. That post then gets added to the user’s list of favorite Tweets, and becomes see by anyone following them.
Social media metrics to measure in Facebook:
” Likes are a way for people to show that they find what you posted interesting.
” Comments are important because they are a direct form of communication between you and those you are trying to reach. Monitor these metrics closely as they are your invitation to a conversation.
” Shares spread your content to other users and networks that you are not currently connected to. This helps with spreading the word about your brand and also helps to drive traffic to your site and build leads. Follower Growth Rate reflects the increase of followers and is one of the most popular metrics. Businesses can easily see if they are making a splash on social if they have a significant increase in follower growth.
“ % Change in Followers Over Time is important because it provides the ability to take a specific time or event your business had and quantify it into social media presence by allowing you to evaluate the effect it had on your presence.
” Reach by Region allows you to see the number of people who saw your Facebook posts or any content about your Facebook page, broken down by city.
How to do it?
Traffic from Social Media can be reflected through tools like Google Analytics. However, businesses have to set up their website with Google Analytics in order for this to work. This data provides businesses with a sense of which social networks and social posts are driving people to your website. From this analysis, businesses can evaluate which social networks to focus on and which posts drove the sale. This will also allow your business to assess your social media ROI and how it is furthering your business goals and increasing customer acquisition.
These social media metrics are just some ways to track brand awareness. You can also include metrics found under social media engagement, like shares and retweets, to track brand awareness. Tracking these metrics are important for businesses to know how well they are reaching their audience, and where they are reaching their audience. For more on social media metrics visit SFBW and stay tuned for out next piece in the series where we will look into how to create content your customers are interested in.
