There are nearly five billion social media users worldwide. Business owners are keenly aware of this, as social media has overtaken paid search as an advertising channel by $2 billion. More of this generation anticipates spending their money on products found via social media platforms.
While social media marketing is crucial for today’s businesses, staying on top of the most critical social media KPIs is essential as platform algorithms and popularity fluctuate.
What Are Social Media KPIs?
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics businesses use to measure performance over a specified period. Social media KPIs, then, are used to measure the effectiveness of your social media marketing strategy.
Before setting and tracking your KPIs, be aware of your overall business and marketing goals — you can only develop a solid strategy if you can pinpoint what you want to accomplish.
How to Set & Track Your Social Media KPIs
Before you learn how to set and track your social media KPIs, you should know there’s no one-size-fits-all process. The appropriate KPIs will differ depending on the business goal, initiative, audience demographics, and other variables.
Identify What You Want to Measure
Start by identifying what you’re trying to measure before choosing your KPIs. For example, you might track likes and shares to measure how social content resonates with your audience. You wouldn’t measure impressions for this purpose, as it wouldn’t tell you how your audience feels about the content, only how many people have seen it.
Determine Measurement Frequency
Once you’ve decided what to measure, you need to determine what frequency works best. You can calculate your progress monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
Having a specific time frame for measurement helps you better track time-bound KPIs and ensure your business continues to meet its goals.
Other Considerations
As you consider which KPIs you’ll use to track your social media performance, keep the following tips in mind:
- Make sure your social media marketing KPIs align with your business goals
- Confirm your KPIs are measurable outcomes required to reach your objectives
- Evaluate your past performance to create a baseline for future progress
- Regularly review your KPIs to ensure you’re making progress
When you select and manage your KPIs using these parameters, you’re more likely to create a meaningful strategy and progress steadily.
Top Organic Social Media KPIs to Track
The KPIs you choose to track will depend on your overall goals for your campaign and business. If you don’t know where to start, here are a few social media KPI examples to help you build your marketing strategy.
If Your Objective Is Engagement
Engagement refers to any action your audience takes to interact with your content. Some common engagement KPIs include:
- Likes: Users reacting to your post to signal their approval
- Comments: Users replying to your post
- Shares: Users reposting your content or sending it to someone else
- Engagement rate: How often your audience interacts with your content
One of the most popular methods to calculate your engagement rate is to divide your total number of engagements (likes, shares, and comments) per post by your reach per post (how many people see your content), then multiply the number you get by 100.
If Your Objective Is Awareness
If you want more people to know about your brand, you may want to start tracking the following KPIs:
- Impressions: How many times your content is displayed
- Reach: Number of unique users who see your content
Remember that the same person can display your content more than once, so it’s essential to track both indicators.
If Your Objective Is Reach
Although brand awareness is essential, it’s equally crucial that people beyond your current audience learn about what you have to offer. Use the following KPIs to track the effectiveness of your reach-oriented social media campaigns:
- Follower count: Total number of unique users following your account
- Audience growth rate: How quickly your follower count increases
- Reach: Number of unique users who see your content
- Share of voice: How many times users have mentioned your brand
One of the most widely-used formulas for calculating audience growth rate is dividing your total number of new followers in a given period by your total follower count and multiplying by 100.
Social share of voice is calculated by adding the total number of brand mentions (including direct mentions, hashtags, reach, and impressions) to your competitor’s mentions and dividing your mentions by that total.
You’ll get the most out of this KPI by comparing it to your competitors. You may need to use an additional tool (aside from your social media platform) to calculate this accurately if the platform doesn’t provide this information.
If Your Objective Is Leads or Conversions
If your specific goal is to increase your sales through social media, these KPIs will help you evaluate your progress:
- Conversion rate: How often your audience responds to your call to action
- Bounce rate: How many times someone visits your page and quickly leaves
To calculate your conversion rate, divide the number of conversions (specific desired actions) by the number of visitors coming to your page from social media. To determine your bounce rate, divide the number of one-page visits to your website by the total number of entries from social media.
Now that you know these 12 KPIs, you can implement and measure them in your social media marketing!
MARION Can Help You Accelerate Growth with Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is an essential tool for any business looking to stay competitive in their industry. For many business owners, the challenge lies in the time and effort it takes to manage campaigns, create content, and measure success. With MARION Integrated Marketing, businesses can now accelerate growth with effective campaigns more than ever before.
Contact MARION today for a free consultation!
