Growing your social media following can feel like a very, very … very slow game, especially for business accounts. The average Instagram business account sees an average of 1.46% follower growth each month.
With a minuscule number like that, it’s no wonder businesses are trying to buy 1,000 followers for $10. But when those followers are inactive accounts, it’s pretty pointless. Followers aren’t the end all be all. Track metrics that matter for your business so you can measure social media growth in a way that makes sense.
You wouldn’t write a book before mapping out the plot, right? The same can be said for setting social media goals.
Not all metrics are created equal, and while you could track everything, you’d be wasting a world of time. Determine your company’s goals and then figure out which metrics you can track by clicking the “Insights” or “Analytics” tab on your page or profile. Then, you can ensure you’re hitting your most valuable Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
And don’t forget every social site brings something different to the table.
Work These Top 3 Channels
- Facebook: Uses an informal, playful and engaging tone. It offers multiple forms of engagement and various ad formats
- Instagram: Uses quality pictures, videos and an inviting tone. Good aesthetics are a plus. Also offers visual marketing resources and advanced targeting options
- Twitter: Uses a human and bold tone. Great platform for traffic generation, social listening and branded hashtags
Engagement
What it means: The number of times someone took action on your posts whether it’s clicking a link, sharing, commenting or leaving a reaction.
Value: This metric shows whether or not your audience finds the content you’re posting valuable. This also affects Facebook’s algorithm. A post that receives high engagement is more likely to be pushed to your followers and is sometimes higher on the scroll.
Reach
What it means: The number of people your content is seen by on Facebook through either paid or organic marketing efforts.
Value: This metric allows you to see what percentage of people overall sees your post. While organic reach has dropped Facebook Ads can assist in reaching a larger portion of your audience.
Impressions
What it means: How many times your posts were seen, including if a post was seen multiple times by the same user.
Value: This metric can help you discover the viral level of a post. Having content in front of the same user multiple times is a great way to get them to actually make an action. Think the rule of seven.
Facebook is the leading social platform, reaching 59% of social media users.
Referral Traffic
What it means: The number of visitors your site gets from Facebook.
Value: The metric is a great way to see if the content you have on Facebook is compelling enough to get people to head to your website for a little more digging.
Page Likes
What it means: The number of people that follow your brand.
Value: While this is often called a vanity metric as it doesn’t measure the true success of your marketing efforts, it does show the size of a business’s audience.
Video Retention
What it means: How long people watch your Facebook video.
Value: Great for determining what percentage of your videos people are staying to watch. You can see where viewers drop off to make adjustments for your next video.
Engagement per Followers
What it means: The engagement your content receives relative to the number of followers you have.
Value: This allows you to evaluate your posting efforts fairly as opposed to your competitors who may have more followers.
Follower Growth
What it means: The number of followers you are gaining (or losing).
Value: Helps you understand what your audience is on Instagram. Don’t let this “vanity” metric get to you. Context matters. You may experience spikes or drops randomly due to a promo or paid ad.
Comments
What it means: Determines how engaging your content is.
Value: Because likes are easy to give, comments are a great way to show how many people are going out of their way to engage with your content.
Instagram helps 80% of users decide whether to buy a product.
Story Replies
What it means: How many people replied to your story.
Value: This engagement metric provides another way for your audience to interact with you and share their interests, knowledge or reactions.
Story Tap Back and Forward
What it means: When and how often your audience replays or skips your story content.
Value: This metric helps you to gauge what story content matters (or not) to those watching. It helps you discover how your marketing efforts on IG Stories should be better tailored.
Story Exits
What it means: Measures when users close out your story.
Value: This allows you to identify which Stories have a higher than normal exit rate so you can avoid or adjust your approach to that topic or style.
Top Tweet
What it means: Identifies the tweet with the highest number of impressions or engagements over a period.
Value: This metric allows you to see discover your high-performing tweets and uncover any trends.
New Followers
What it means: The net number of new followers by the month.
Value: This is a useful metric for brand awareness and audience growth.
Top Follower
What it means: Shows the Twitter users with the highest number of followers that followed you that month.
Value: This allows you to see which new follower could have an impact on your following, especially if you consider using them as an influencer.
Top Mentions
What it means: Tweets that mention you and gained high engagements.
Value: Engaging with these tweets increases your brand’s visibility. If it’s negative, it’s an opportunity to do damage control on a bad review or comment.
Engagement rate
What it means: Average number of engagements per impression.
Value: This shows you how well (or not) a tweet or your account is performing as a whole rather than looking at impressions and engagements separately.
40% of Twitter users reported purchasing something after seeing it on Twitter.
Link Click
What it means: Number of times someone clicked this link inside your tweet.
Value: Determines whether your audience finds interest in your links. Try testing headline choices to see if they are helping or hurting.
Profile Click
What it means: Numbers of times someone clicked on your account’s name, username or photo.
Value: Indicates interest in knowing more about the page. Sometimes these curious users become new followers.
Social media has become a large part of daily activity with 69% of smartphone users working their scrolling thumbs within the first five minutes of waking up in the morning.
Make sure your business is making the most of these platforms by keeping an eye on the proper metrics and making changes where you can.
