The Definitive List of Social Media Metrics That Matter Most

By Spencer Hulse Spencer Hulse has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team
Published on March 26, 2023

There are few marketing strategies with the same benefits of social media marketing. Using social platforms, you can reach billions of people around the world, target those most relevant to you, and achieve an impressive return on investment (ROI). However, to make effective use of the strategy, you have to track the right social media metrics.

“You have to know your destination before you can arrive there, and social media marketing is no different. It’s important to know your goals so you can create a social media marketing strategy that aligns with your business plan,” says Mawer Capital CEO Rudy Mawer.

Which Social Media Metrics Matter Most?

There is no such thing as bad data, and all social media metrics are useful for understanding the effectiveness of your campaigns and making data-driven decisions. But with a plethora of metrics available, it can be challenging to determine which ones are most relevant to your goals. Compiled below is a definitive list of social media metrics that matter most to help you gauge the success of your efforts and optimize your strategy.

Reach & Impressions

Reach is a measure of the unique users that have seen your content, and it is a great social media metric to track if you want to understand the potential audience size of your posts. Having a higher reach often indicates increased brand awareness and visibility.

Additionally, you will want to pay attention to the percentage of reach that belongs to followers and non-followers. If non-followers view your content, it is being shared or promoted by internal algorithms, both of which are positive for growing your social presence.

On the other hand, impressions represent the total number of times your content has been displayed, regardless of whether there was engagement, such as clicks. It is not unique, so multiple views by the same user can raise impressions.

Tracking impressions helps you gauge the overall exposure of your content and identify which posts are getting the most visibility. Moreover, if you have a higher impression count than reach, it might be worth figuring out why it is being seen multiple times by the same users.

Engagement

In many instances, engagement is the most important social media metric. It measures how much people interact with content, though the method in which they do will vary based on the platform. Key engagement metrics to track include:

  • Likes and reactions
  • Comments and replies
  • Shares and retweets
  • Clicks on links, images, and videos

High engagement rates indicate that your content resonates with your audience and encourages them to take action. That being said, not all followers see your content, and non-followers can engage with content, so figuring out engagement rate can be tricky.

Follower Growth

Growing your audience is an important goal, making follower growth a key social media metric. Follower growth tracks the change in followers on a social media account over time, and it can help you understand the effectiveness of your audience-building efforts and identify any trends or fluctuations.

Since follower growth tracks new followers in relation to your overall audience size, it typically slows as your audience grows larger. The simplified formula for measuring follower growth is taking new followers, dividing by your total audience, and multiplying it by 100.

Conversion Rate

Many marketing campaigns are meant to do more than get eyeballs on a piece of content. Instead, the goal is to convince someone to do something, which is where conversion comes into play. There are a variety of things you can be trying to get someone to do, including:

  • Making a purchase
  • Signing up for a newsletter
  • Downloading an app
  • Registering for an event
  • Completing a survey or form

Conversion rate is the percentage of users who take the desired action after interacting with your social media content. Tracking conversion rates helps you determine the return on investment (ROI) for your social media campaigns and identify which content is most effective at driving conversions.

According to Mawer, “While having a social media presence is important for brand awareness, none of that matters unless your posts are persuasive enough to convert your followers. Take note of which posts create the most ROI and are effective at convincing your followers to take actions aligned with your business goals.”

Referral Traffic

Traffic is key to growing a website, and it also affects things like credibility, search rankings, and ad revenue. Therefore, tracking referral traffic, which is the number of users who visit your website or landing pages from your social media channels, is vital.

Tracking referral traffic will allow you to understand the impact of your social media efforts on website traffic and identify which platforms are driving the most visitors. From there, you can move resources to the most effective platforms and push to drive even more traffic to your site.

Bounce Rate

The goal of any website is to keep users on the page and have them check out more of the site once they are there. Bounce rate measures just that, looking at the percentage of users who leave a site or landing page after visiting a single page.

If you see a high bounce rate from social media referrals, it could indicate that your content is not meeting the expectations of your audience or that your landing pages need optimization.

Average Time on Site

Another important metric that relates back to social media is a user’s average time on site. As you might expect, it measures the amount of time users spend on your site. When talking about social media metrics, it is the time on site after a user clicks on a link from your social media content.

By tracking the average time on site, you will have a better understanding of the quality of your content and whether it is effectively engaging users. Much like bounce rate, figuring out the cause can lead to users spending more time on your site.

Social Media ROI

Out of all of the social media metrics on the list, return on investment (ROI) is one of the most important, especially to those paying the bills. It is a direct measure of how much you are gaining in exchange for your time and money.

To calculate ROI, compare the revenue generated by your social media campaigns to the costs, which can include:

  • Advertising spend
  • Content creation
  • Management tools

Having a proper understanding of your ROI will give you an idea of how effective the campaigns are. If it is not what you are expecting, it will also allow you to make informed decisions about future marketing efforts.

However, to truly understand it, ROI must be properly tracked. In most cases, it isn’t. According to research done by Agorapulse, while 45% of brands prioritize social media as their marketing channel, 98% of social media posts that could be tied to revenue are left untracked. Therefore, when looking at social media ROI, ensure that all of your efforts contain tracking parameters, giving you the data you need.

Conclusion

Monitoring and analyzing these social media metrics is crucial for optimizing your marketing strategy and making data-driven decisions. By focusing on metrics that align with your goals and objectives, you can better understand the success of a campaign, identify areas for improvement, and ultimately boost your brand’s social presence.

Just keep in mind that these metrics can change depending on the platform. For instance, if you are primarily focusing on video content, such as on a YouTube channel, you would want to consider the view count, percentage of video viewed, and more.

“With so many KPIs to choose from for your social media marketing efforts, it’s important that you zero in on the ones that most impact your business, increase brand awareness and chances of a successful campaign,” Mawer added.

By Spencer Hulse Spencer Hulse has been verified by Muck Rack's editorial team

Spencer Hulse is the Editorial Director at Grit Daily. He is responsible for overseeing other editors and writers, day-to-day operations, and covering breaking news.

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