From conversions to click-through rates, there are dozens of social media metrics that you can track.
But as a busy business owner, you probably don’t have time to keep tabs on all of those different metrics — you need to hone in on the ones that are really important.
Today, we’re going to take you beyond follower counts and likes and tell you which metrics you really need to measure to evaluate the success of your social media campaigns.
Define the goals for your campaign
Before you can start measuring the success of your social media campaigns, you need to define what success means to you.
Do you want to increase sales, brand awareness, or something else?
There’s no right or wrong answer. But how you answer this question will help you figure out which metrics you need to pay close attention to, and which ones aren’t as important for your current business goals.
The 7 most important social media metrics
Website traffic
When you measure website traffic through Google Analytics, you can see which social media channels are driving traffic to your website. This metric is important to track if you want to drive traffic and leads to your website.
If one of your social media channels isn’t performing well in this area, try to adjust your posting strategy. Keep a close eye on your traffic as you experiment to learn which types of posts resonate with your audience and get them to visit your site.
Conversions
If you want to increase sales, then keeping track of conversions in Google Analytics is especially important.
Tracking conversions will help you see how many of your visitors are taking the specific action that you want them to, such as downloading your lead magnet or making a purchase.
If you have a lot of traffic coming in but your conversions are low, then you know your social media strategy is solid, but your website and content still needs work.
Mentions
If you’re trying to grow brand awareness, then you should keep a close eye on your mentions.
Mentions are exactly what they sound like — someone talking about your brand online, either positively or negatively. You can use listening tools like Agorapulse to track all of your brand mentions and respond to any feedback or questions you see.
When your number of mentions increases, you know that your social media campaign is working and drawing greater awareness to your brand.
Customer service inquiries and response time
In addition to tracking your general mentions, you also want to track the number of inquiries you get on social media and your response time.
Response time is particularly important for building brand loyalty. About 80% of customers who get a quick response from a company on social media feel more loyal to that brand.
Loyal customers equal more sales for your business, so if you want to increase your revenue, don’t forget to track this important metric.
Trends
If you want to increase brand awareness, you should also be keeping your eye on trending hashtags that are relevant to your industry.
Responding to current events and staying in the conversation can help put your brand on the map.
Bounce rate
If you’re getting lots of traffic from social media, but not many conversions, then you need to check your bounce rate. People may be leaving your site because of issues with user experience, such as load speed.
According to Social Media Explorer, visitors will leave your website if it takes more than three seconds to load. So if you want to convert visitors into paying customers, you need to make sure you have a top-notch website that they’ll want to stay on.
Devices
Figuring out how many customers are accessing your website from desktop, tablet, and mobile is also important for improving user experience.
If you get a lot of traffic from mobile, for example, then you need to make sure you have a responsive website that looks good and performs well on smartphones, or else visitors might leave your site.
You don’t have to track every social media metric to determine whether or not your campaigns are successful. If you pay close attention to the ones above, you’ll get the data you need to be able to refine your marketing strategy and meet your business goals.