Social media is a wonderful ocean of diversity and opportunities that connects brands and buyers in some of the most human-friendly manners. The multitude of platforms allows both, businesses and individual users, to express their needs and desires in a free, unhindered way (within reason).
However, social media is not as easy to understand. And when you don’t know which way to start, this beautiful, diverse online world turns into a seven-headed Hydra. Luckily, there are plenty of tools (including the analytics systems provided by each platform) to help you untangle the mess.
Now, the secret is to learn how to use the tools at your disposal and how to identify the ones that work for you. With so much personal data shared every moment, social media can give you the answer to life itself, but only if you know where to look for it and which metrics for social media to use.
But for today we’ll have to settle for social media metrics optimization and how to make sure you are receiving the insight you need to understand your target audience.
Engagement
Ask anyone who knows a bit about online marketing and they’ll tell you to get users engaged. But what does that mean and how do you get it going?
Engagement is a broad term but it defines the interactions users have with your content. Anything from likes, comments, shares, retweets, mentions, and so on creates engagement because people take the time to perform an action.
When it comes to social media metrics, each platform has a slightly different definition. For instance, Twitter is happy when people retweet your content, while YouTube is happier when people start chatting in the comments section. So, to find the right metric for you, pay close attention to the platform’s structure and engagement measurements.
Also, keep in mind that social media lives on fresh content, so if you want increased engagement, you also need to be consistent with your posts. Luckily, you can use apps to schedule social media posts, so you don’t have to waste precious time every day. However, it’s mandatory to have a solid content strategy if you want to keep your public entertained and close to the brand.
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Reach & Impressions
These two social media metrics are a bit abstract but they provide insight onto your content’s level of awareness. Impressions show you how often a post shows on people’s timelines and Reach gives you an idea about the real potential of your post.
These metrics are extremely useful during brand awareness campaigns as they let you know how visible your content and brand are on various platforms. But, if you also want to educate the audience, it’s a good idea to bring engagement into the mix.
For instance, posts with high impressions count and low engagement rate are visible but users don’t find them interesting enough to interact with. On the other hand, a high reach count and engagement rate means your post is about to go viral (if it didn’t already).
Conversion Rate
At the end of the day, all social media marketing campaigns are designed with a specific goal in mind. And when that goal is increased sales, you have to follow the conversion rate or the number of people who saw your content, clicked on it, and bought something.
For instance, if you run ads, it’s important to follow the click-through rate (CTR) to understand if it’s still worth it to invest (if the CTR is high, then your ad is effective).
Wrap Up
Engagement, Impressions, and Reach are all important metrics for social media and other online campaigns. But it’s also important to keep in mind that there are other productive tools out there, such as your email list.
Overall, as long as you follow the data and keep a close eye on how the social media metrics evolve in time, you should be able to tell how your audience changes.
