What are the best practices for interpreting social media metrics?

1 Know your objectives

Before you dive into the numbers, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with your social media presence. Your objectives should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, you might want to increase your followers by 10% in three months, or generate 20 leads from your LinkedIn posts in a week. Your objectives will guide your choice of metrics and help you evaluate your progress.

2 Choose relevant metrics

Depending on your objectives, you will need to focus on different types of metrics. Generally, there are four categories of social media metrics: awareness, engagement, conversion, and loyalty. Awareness metrics measure how many people see your content, such as impressions, reach, and followers. Engagement metrics measure how many people interact with your content, such as likes, comments, shares, and clicks. Conversion metrics measure how many people take a desired action, such as signing up for your newsletter, downloading your ebook, or buying your product. Loyalty metrics measure how many people stay connected with you, such as retention, churn, and advocacy. You should select the metrics that align with your objectives and reflect your personal brand value proposition.

3 Use tools and platforms

You don't have to manually track and analyze your social media metrics. There are many tools and platforms that can help you collect, visualize, and report your data. For example, you can use native analytics features on each social media platform, such as Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, and LinkedIn Analytics. You can also use third-party tools, such as Google Analytics, Hootsuite, or Buffer, to integrate and compare data from different sources. You can also use dashboards, charts, and tables to display your data in a clear and concise way.

4 Benchmark and compare

To interpret your social media metrics, you need to have some points of reference. You can benchmark your performance against your past results, your industry standards, or your competitors. For example, you can compare your current metrics with your previous ones to see if you have improved or declined. You can also compare your metrics with the average or best practices of your industry to see how you stack up. You can also compare your metrics with those of your competitors to see where you have an edge or a gap.

5 Test and optimize

Finally, you need to use your social media metrics to inform your decisions and actions. You should constantly test and optimize your content, strategy, and tactics based on your data. For example, you can use A/B testing to experiment with different headlines, images, or formats to see what works best. You can also use your metrics to identify your strengths and weaknesses, and adjust your focus and resources accordingly. You can also use your metrics to set new goals and plan your next steps.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?