Most businesses of any size are at least experimenting with social media marketing these days, though most remain unsure if that notable time investment is really paying off.
How do you know if you should continue down the social media path, invest more time and money, or shift your investment to another marketing channel entirely?
Arriving at that decision begins by assessing your performance against these 12 crucial social media metrics, which are extracted from a larger list published by Rishabh Dev on iamwire.com.
Look at each of these metrics individually by social media channel, as well as in aggregate across all channels.
Audience growth rate is the rate at which your followers expand or detract.
Share of audience is the percentage of targeted customers your brand reaches compared to your competitors.
Share of engagement allows you to see how your engagement metrics compare to your competitors.
Amplification rate is the number of shares on average per post.
Applause rate is the number of positive actions – comments or replies – generated by your audience on average per post.
Average engagement rate is the percentage of your audience that engages with your content in any way during a particular reporting period.
Your click-through rate is the number of clicks on your posts divided by the number of impressions.
The cost per click is simply the average cost of each click purchased through social media advertising.
Leads generated is just what you would expect – the number of consumers interested in your products/services generated as a result of your social media efforts.
Your conversion rate is the number of conversions – where the referral source is a social media channel – divided by your total website traffic (from your social platforms).
Conversions are defined as a desired consumer action, which could be signing up for your email newsletter, downloading a white paper, registering for a webinar, installing software, requesting a consultation, etc.
The cost per conversion is what your brand paid on average for each conversion.
ROI, or return on investment, is the revenue your brand earned as a result of all social media efforts divided by your social media expense.
Notice that number of likes or followers is nowhere on this list. While you certainly want to see those numbers increase, growth among qualified users – or your target market – is what matters most.
How do you know if you’re attracting the right followers?
Assuming your content is on point and you’re truly engaged in two-way communication versus one-way self-promotion, they should be liking, commenting on, replying to and clicking your posts.
Leverage these 12 crucial metrics to ensure that’s the case.
Lori Turner-Wilson, CEO and founder of RedRover Sales & Marketing Strategy, can be reached at redrovercompany.com.