Your Guide to Social Media KPIs
Published by Spinutech on September 17, 2019
Key performance indicators measure your social media vitals and establish a baseline for an ongoing social strategy.
Social media is an ever-changing landscape with enormous potential for reaching existing and prospective customers. Understanding the nature of the major social platforms, as well as the key performance indicators (KPIs) available for measurement on those platforms, will help businesses capitalize and expand on their brand power to achieve their business goals.
Social Media Metrics That Matter
The use of social media is an invaluable way to humanize a brand and connect with your audience. The brands that do this best have a loyal, engaged following that gives them a leg up on the competition. And brands that track their social performance have an additional advantage as that data is crucial to creating content that resonates with users and sells their product or service.
Monitoring social media KPIs is an essential part of a strong social media strategy. They help you understand how your social content is creating a conversation about your product or service, and these key metrics help inform content creation. Ultimately social media KPIs help you help amplify and strengthen your brand.
While vanity metrics like page likes and follower counts often receive the most attention, those numbers don’t accurately measure engagement. Sure, they can be a nice tidbit to share with upper management, but follower counts don't make you any money. Focus on KPIs that reveal whether your content is relevant and valuable to your audience.
So what should you be paying attention to? Across all platforms follower count, impressions, engagements, and comments will give you an idea of what is performing well. The number of views, likes, or clicks a social media post has are a good indicator of engagement rate.
Engagement Rate = Engagement/Impressions
KPIs by Social Media Platform
Each platform has a slightly different purpose and means of sharing content, so naturally the KPIs for each platform will be slightly different, too. Here’s what you need to know about the most popular social media platforms:
In the world of social media, Facebook is like the local newspaper. Not because it’s been around the longest, but because it’s the place where you can really tell your story and share your passions as a brand.
Key KPIs on Facebook: page likes, impressions, reach, reactions, comments, shares, video views, and clicks.
Instagram is visual platform. Think of Instagram like your brand’s lifestyle magazine. It’s the go-to platform for elevating your brand through authentic, creative, and inspiring imagery.
Key KPIs on Instagram: followers, likes, video views, and comments.
Twitter is like the cultural water cooler. Tweets are great for short, quick-hitting pieces of information — including well-placed humor. Twitter is the place to share news and updates about your business and to interact with customers.
Key KPIs on Twitter: followers, retweets, likes, comments, and clicks.
As far as social media platforms go, LinkedIn is unique because it is strictly professional. (You won’t find your Aunt Susan sharing pictures of her trip to Mexico here.) Consider LinkedIn your brand’s masterclass. This is the place to show what you know and establish your brand as a thought leader in your industry, as well as attract new employees or partners
Key KPIs on LinkedIn: followers, impressions, reach, likes, comments, and clicks.
Another very visual platform, Pinterest is overflowing with inspiring images. Think of Pinterest like an idea board—it’s the digital equivalent of users ripping out pages from magazines and filing away for later. This is a place for your brand to share the benefits of your products and services in a DIY-type format.
Key KPIs on Pinterest: followers, impressions, closeups (content views), saves, and clicks.
Snapchat
Snapchat is the storyteller of the bunch. With images and videos that disappear within 24 hours, it’s a place for your brand to be casual. Use Snapchat to give fans a behind-the-scenes look into your brand and show the human side of your business.
Key KPIs on Snapchat: story views, story completions, and screenshots.
Drive Success with Social Media KPIs
Now that you know what KPIs to measure on your social platforms, you can start to track performance month-over-month and year-over-year. The data you find can help identify trends and seasonality and what resonates with your followers. Social media KPIs can be used to craft content that makes sense for your brand and your audience on each platform where you have a presence.
Our team works with you to create data-backed strategies based on your social media KPIs that help grow your online presence and meet business goals.