18 Social Media KPIs You Need to Track to Measure Success

18 Social Media KPIs You Need to Track to Measure Success

How to track it Identify a post to measure Identify how many people viewed your post (reach) Divide the reach by total number of followers Multiply by 100 Compare to other posts, for the same and other reporting periods Example: 200 people viewed your post (200 divided by 6,000 total followers) * 100 = 3.3% post reach Social share of voice (SSoV) Want to know how many people mentioned your brand versus the other guys’? How to track it Identify a reporting period Identify a post to measure Sum the total approvals for that post Divide by your total followers for that platform Multiple by 100 Compare to your target goals Example: 250 likes (250 divided by 9,100 Twitter followers) * 100 = 2.8% applause rate Average engagement rate Similar to above though for likes, shares, and comments. This KPI is the number of people who shared your post relative to the number of people who had a chance to see it (impressions, remember?). While another post shared 6,000 times may get 9.1% virality—which is far better. How to track it: Identify your target reporting period Identify the number of impressions for a post, for that time period The same for shares Divide shares by impressions Multiply by 100 Compare that rate with your goals Example: 110 shares of a post (110 shares divided by 1,980 impressions) * 100 = 5.6% virality rate Social media KPIs for conversions How effective is your social media? How to track it: Determine number of CTA clicks for a post Same for impressions Divide clicks by impressions Multiply by 100 Compare the rate with your goals for the time period Example: 95 CTA clicks of a post (95 divided by 5,900 impressions) * 100 = 1.6% click-through rate Bounce rate Remember the ideal scenario I listed above for conversion rate? How to track it: Navigate to the ‘Acquisition’ tab Look under ‘All Traffic’ Then see ‘Channels’ Click on the Bounce Rate button See each of your channels, sorted by rate Compare the rate with your goals for the time period Cost-per-click (CPC) How much are you paying, per click, on your sponsored social media post, for a specified time period? How to track it: Know your total ad spend Divide total spend by impressions (# of times ad was loaded on a page) for a given time period Multiply by 1,000 Compare this to your goals for the time period Example: $200 for a sponsored ad 9,200 impressions (200 divided by 9,200 impressions) * 1000 = $21.74 for every 1,000 impressions Social media conversion rate This rate is the total number of conversions that came from social media, expressed as a percentage. Two things you want to know: How many people downloaded the guide (total conversions) Of those, how many came from your social media post (social media conversions) The set up: Create a post with a call-to-action link to your page that… Places a “cookie” on the user’s machine, to associate the lead to a campaign How to track it: Know the total conversions Know the social media conversions Divide social by total Multiply by 100 Compare against your goals Example: 300 people downloaded the guide 180 of those came from your social media post (180 divided by 300) * 100 = 60% social media conversion rate This is the ratio of comments per post to the number of your followers. How to track it: Divide comments count by number of followers Multiply by 100 Compare to your goals for that period Example: 23 people commented for that time period (23 divided by 300 followers) * 100 = 7.67% comment conversion rate Social media KPIs for customer support Want to know how customers think and feel about your brand?

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social KPIs
Image via Andrew McElroy under CC0 1.0

If your boss asks, “How well are we doing on social media?”, do you respond with words or numbers?

Because data trumps opinion. Every time.

I’m not talking about the number of new fans, followers, likes, or shares. I’m talking about how those numbers show if you’re achieving your business goals.

Is what you’re doing on social useful? Is it contributing to more business? How can you know?

That’s what any (good) boss wants to hear from you.

I wrote this post so you can shine the next time they ask. Know how to respond by knowing how to measure your social media performance—with social media KPIs.
But first…

What are social media key performance indicators (KPIs)?

They’re similar, but different than social media metrics.

How’s that?

A business metric is a number. It measures the performance and activities of an organization. Like profit, employee turnover, calls made, calls answered, time spent, costs incurred. Stuff like that.

A KPI is also a number—a type of metric.

A KPI measures performance deemed valuable to the business. And, it’s tracked over time to measure progress (or not).

A business metric should be measured against a target. A KPI should measure the success of achieving that target.

Got it?

Good. Let’s look at the KPIs worth tracking for your social media.

Social media KPIs for reach

How many people might see your posts across all of social media?

Say you have a Facebook profile 300 people like. Now add your 500 Twitter followers. Same for you other social accounts. Sum it all up- that’s your potential reach.

Ready, set, measure.

Impressions

How many times did your post show up in someone’s feed or timeline? I’m not talking about the ones looked at, noticed, or read. Just the number of chances people had, by the screens they appeared on.

How to track it

  • Identify the number of impressions for a given post, on a given platform
  • Identify the reporting period to measure, like a week, month, or quarter
  • Compare to previous periods to see a trend

Audience growth rate

What’s the rate of growth for your social media followers?

This is less about how many, more about how quickly.

And, was it faster than the previous months?

How to track it

  • Identify the number of new followers for the month on a given platform
  • Divide that number by your total audience to get your growth rate
  • Multiple by 100
  • Compare to previous months to see a trend

Example:

  • 100 new followers on Twitter in January
  • (100 divided by 5,000 total followers) * 100 = 2% growth rate

Post reach

How many people have seen your post since it went live? That’s post reach.

For this KPI, experiment with when you post and what you post.

Because timing and content affects performance. Note the effects as you change these two variables (related: the best time to post on social media).

How to track it

  • Identify a post to measure
  • Identify how many people viewed your post (reach)
  • Divide the reach by total number of followers
  • Multiply by 100
  • Compare to other posts, for the same and other reporting periods

Example:

  • 200 people viewed your post
  • (200 divided by 6,000 total followers) * 100 = 3.3% post reach

Social share of voice (SSoV)

Want to know how many people mentioned your brand versus the other guys’?

Sure you do.

Whether it be for direct mentions (like ‘@hootsuite’) or indirect mentions (like “hootsuite”).

SSoV lets you know how relevant your brand is in the market.

How to track it

  • Identify a reporting period
  • Measure every mention of your brand, direct and indirect, for that period
  • Do the same for your competitors’ mentions
  • Add the two together to get total mentions
  • Divide your mentions by the total mentions
  • Multiply by 100
  • See who’s winning

Example:

  • 300 of your mentions
  • (300 divided by 2,100 mentions from everyone else) * 100 = 14.2% SSoV. Nice one.

Social media KPIs for engagement

Let’s find out how people are interacting (or not) with your posts.

Applause rate

Know how many people are clapping, liking, or favoriting your posts, relative to your total followers.

They just approved what you shared, and consider it valuable.

How nice.

Knowing this rate will help you share the right content for your audience.

Dig deep on this. Try to understand why people applauded. Was it because of that 50 percent discount. Or because of how it ended with such a heartwarming message?

How to track it

  • Identify a reporting period
  • Identify a post to measure
  • Sum the total approvals for that post
  • Divide by your total followers for that platform
  • Multiple by 100
  • Compare to your target goals

Example:

  • 250 likes
  • (250 divided by 9,100 Twitter followers) * 100 = 2.8% applause rate

Average engagement rate

Similar to above though for likes, shares, and comments. It’s also relative to your total number of followers.

The higher the rate, the better.

Just know, rate matters more than absolute number of likes, shares, and comments. Use this as your guide for what you post.

How to track it:

  • Identify a reporting period
  • Add up a post’s total likes, comments, and shares.
  • Divide by your total number of followers
  • Multiply by 100
  • See the trend over time, compare with your goals

Example:

  • 120 likes + 230 comments + 165 shares of a post
  • (515 divided by 23,200 followers) * 100 = 2.2% average engagement rate

Amplification rate

Why be limited to just your network?

An awesome thing about social is benefitting from other people’s’ networks, too.

Amplification rate shows how your followers care and share your content with their people. By their shares, retweets, repins and regrams.

The higher the rate, the more interest your followers show in associating with your brand.

How to track it:

  • Identify a reporting period, say for a week, month or quarter
  • Count the shares for a post, for that period
  • Divide by your total number of followers
  • Multiply by 100
  • Compare that rate with…

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