Just because you think that the public perception of your brand’s social media is good, doesn’t mean it actually is. But how do you know? We all know that measuring helps track the progress and success of our efforts. With something as new as social media though, it can be difficult to figure out what exactly should be measured, and what those measurements mean. Well go no further. I’m going to walk through 7 important metrics that will help you understand your company’s social media health.
We all know how tempting it is to look at Twitter followers or Facebook fan page likes and use them as the primary means to grade our social media performance. To the uninitiated these may seem like great metrics, however dig a little deeper and you’ll quickly discover that there is a lot more out there. I’ve outlined some metrics that will help you better understand your company’s social media health.
1. Share or Voice
The number of mentions your brand receives versus the number of mentions your competitors receive on the social web.
Why it’s important: Share of Voice can be a good indicator of the consumer awareness you brand has versus that of your competitors. It shows how much of the social conversation that your brand has earned. Look at period trending (like month-over-month), it can help show whether that marketing campaign is paying off.
2. Brand Volume
The number of brand mentions your brand receives over a given point of time.
Why it’s important: To quote my father, “if you’re not growing, then you’re shrinking and you just don’t know it yet.” Tracking week-over-week or month-over-month is a good way the overall health of your social presence. Additionally, it’s a good way to measure that campaign you’re running. If the volume of chatter isn’t growing, then it’s safe to assume that your campaign may not be working and it’s time to return to the drawing board.
3. Engagement
The overall number of times an individual interacts with your brand on social sites.
Why it’s important: You can craft and publish all the content in the world, but if no one cares to reply or talk about it then it’s a wasted effort. Social media is all about the conversation and the more engaged your followers are the more likely they’ll become brand influencers or evangelists on their own personal networks.
4. Post Interaction
The number of comments or replies you receive on a given post, tweet or status update.
Why it’s important: It’s important to understand what subjects energize your audience. It goes back to the idea of becoming a good listener. Social media isn’t only about pushing content out to your audience. It’s also about listening. What better way to learn what motivates and ignites your community than by looking at which posts create the most interaction.
5. Sentiment Analysis
How do people feel about your brand? Are they supportive or do they feel annoyed? Sentiment analysis is the process of determining how your audience actually feels about you and your brand.
Why it’s important: While it’s easy to believe that “all publicity is good publicity”, if your brand is constantly being trashed on social media it’s going to be a big problem. Additionally, if most of your sentiment is neutral, it could be a sign that your marketing is not having enough of an impact to energize your audience to have an opinion either positive or negative.
6. CTR
The number of times someone clicks on a link to one of your owned web properties shared via social media.
Why it’s important: Typically one of the goals of any social media campaign is to drive traffic back to a brand’s website, microsite or other owned media thereby helping to create awareness and hopefully subsequently sales or conversions. This metric can be an interesting indicator of the success or engagement of a campaign.
7. Key Influencer Mentions
The number of brand mentions you’ve received by individuals you’ve designated as “influential” due to their substantial and loyal social media following.
Why it’s important: Having key influencers become your brand ambassador is an excellent way to organically grow your reach within key communities. While having any mention of your brand on social media can be proof that your tactics are working, mentions by key influencers are considered more valuable as they have a large reach and are viewed as credible influential resources within your target audience.
Even with all these metrics it’s important to keep in mind that there’s no magic formula to turn social media into dollars. However, but being able to measure your progress allowing you to constantly optimize your strategy and tactics will greatly help.