Anything worth doing is worth doing well. With all of the social media “experts” these days, it’s no surprise that many of our clients wonder:

• What metrics to use
• Why measure it
• How to measure social media

Knowing we’re as much data geeks as creatives, we love this question and have happily answered it below.

What Metrics Do We Measure for Social  Media

When it comes to defining social media metrics, the more sources you consult, the more answers you’ll get. That said, in reviewing more than ten (10) top industry leading experts, platforms and agencies, they all align on the below seven (7) metrics:

1. Social Engagement/Brand Mentions
2. Follower Growth
3. Reach
4. Social Volume/Impressions
5. Social Share of Voice (SSoV)
6. Engagement Rate
7. Site (traffic to site, clicks and CPC)

*Sources: HootSuite, Sprout Social, Buffer, Neil Patel, Buffer, HubSpot, Mention

Why Measure Social Media

Now that you know what to measure, the question becomes why measure it? Outside of the fact that any good marketing program needs measurement to prove its efficacy, social media can be ambiguous, confusing and a perceived waste of resources (time, money) unless measured appropriately.

1. Social Engagement/Brand Mentions

This metric refers to the overall number of mentions of your brand online per a specific period. The more engaged your audience is, and the more they mention your brand (via hashtags, tagging, or commenting), the more likely they are to purchase and invest in your brand/products. 

2. Follower Growth

This is the quantity v. quality conundrum. While it’s nice to have more followers, it’s essential they’re the right ones. If you sell roses and most of your followers don’t like flowers, having more followers isn’t helpful. Depending on the network, you can lean into the right audience demographics including age, income, interests, social habits, profession, and more.

At Dekaf Digital, we rely on a competitive audience intelligence report which gathers this information over a period of 4-6 weeks and analyzes the right content to deliver to your target audience on the right platforms. 

3. Reach

This is one of the most common social media metrics and is highly actionable as it’s directly influenced by timing (when is your audience most active?) and content (what does your audience find valuable in your post?). It refers to the total number of unique users who have seen your post.

4. Social Volume/Impressions

Social volume, or impressions, refer to the number of times your content has been displayed, whether it was clicked or not. This metric confirms that  your content has been shown in someone’s feed. A viewer doesn’t have to engage with the post for it to count as an impression. 

5. Social Share of Voice (SSoV)

SSoV measures how many people mentioned your brand compared to your competitors. The greater your SSoV, specifically positive SSoV, the more loyal your followers are likely to be to your brand. This metric can be confusing as SSoV includes all mentions of your brand, including negative sentiment.

6. Engagement Rate

Total engagement represents the sum of interactions, shares, and comments for the posts published in a specific time period. According to Green Book, new research indicates that consumers engaged through social media, specifically Facebook and Twitter, are over 50% more likely to buy and recommend a brand than before they were engaged.

7. Site

In 2022, social media is forecasted to be responsible for 4-7% of eCommerce site traffic with Facebook accounting for over 80% of referral traffic to e-Commerce sites from social media.

*Source. 

How Social Media Impacts Your Business

Regardless of metrics, understanding how it impacts your business is essential and will help determine which metrics to use for your social media programs.

1. Brand Mentions

Brand Mentions offer better comprehension of how your existing and potential customers are interacting with your brand. Advantages of brand mentions include:

• Increase in the efficiency of digital marketing campaigns
• Brand Mentions have been associated with a boost in sales
• Offer sustainable social proof (Note: 80% of shoppers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations)

2. Follower Growth

Similar to how athletes and performers thrive in the company of fans, your social media presence needs that same energy to succeed. As with most things, it’s important to prioritize the quality of your fans over quantity. A loyal social media audience will engage with your content to propel its reach, boost awareness, and eventually, convert to customers. 

3. Reach

Because social media reach measures unique visitors, rather than counting the same viewer multiple times, it can give you a more accurate idea of how many individual potential customers you have than similar metrics like impressions. As you track reach over time, you can measure how your brand awareness is growing.

4. Impressions

Impressions measure your ability to get your content in front of your intended audience. When your impressions rise, it’s attributed to your content surfacing more frequently into users’ feeds. This usually means your posts are optimized for the social network you’re posting on.

5. Social Share of Voice (SSoV)

Social Share of Voice measures brand exposure based on social media conversation. It’s usually measured as a percentage of total mentions within an industry or among a defined group of competitors. It’s what’s determined when social listening meets competitive analysis.

When it comes to legacy media, share of voice measures the level of visibility advertisers own compared to their competitors. In other words, traditional share of voice tracks what brands say, and social share of voice tracks what people say about brands.

6. Engagement Rate

The Engagement Rate is a metric used to track how actively involved with your content your audience is and how effective your brand campaigns are. Engaged consumers interact with brands through interactions such as likes, comments and social sharing.

Engagement Rate can help you discern which posts are performing well, what content is resonating with your audience, and how to effectively communicate your success, no matter how many followers your account has. It provides a way to determine growth without vanity metrics, such as follower count.

7. Site

Site is a combination of traffic to the site generated from social media, clicks on the site and the CPC (cost per click) of these clicks. The more traffic you generate, ideally you’d get more clicks and, with optimization, your CPC will decrease over time.