What is the difference between reach and impressions in social media analytics?

Reach: This is like how many different people have seen your stuff. Imagine you're telling a story in a room – reach is how many people heard you at least once. Impressions: Think of this as how many times your story has been told, no matter if it's to the same person or different ones. If you tell the same story five times and it’s heard by the same person each time, that's five impressions. Here’s why you should care: Making a Plan: If you've got something new to say, you want reach – get that story to fresh ears. But if you want to make sure the story sticks, you go for impressions – tell it over and over.

When impressions are significantly higher than searches, it is likely that the content is interesting, has been saved and viewed again.

On LinkedIn reach is the number of unique users that have seen your content. this is the number of times your post was shown on a user’s screen. So the same person can "see" your post several times. Impressions serve as a barometer of your content’s effectiveness. Higher impression counts indicate that your content is reaching a broader audience. You'll want more impressions than reach to increase brand awareness, havin' more than one impression for each user: but you don’t want to impact the same audience over and over. Impressions are not limited to your content alone btw; they also apply to your LinkedIn profile and company page.

Reach and Impressions are overrated when it comes to metrics. These numbers can and are manipulated by some content creators who use pods to inform, like or comment on them.

Reach: Simply put, it's the count of individual users. If 500 people see your post once, your reach is 500. Impressions: It's the total views, including repeats. If your post is viewed 1,000 times, including multiple views by the same people, your impressions are 1,000.

Do they really matter? Of course, your posts need to get visibility to be read but the true measurement of the effectiveness of your content is the actual engagement rate (Impressions/engagements).

1. Create content that resonates with your audience, encouraging more shares and expanding your reach. 2. Regularly share content to keep your audience engaged and maintain a steady presence. 3. Use targeted ads to reach specific demographics, increasing the likelihood of engagement. 4. Partner with influencers or other brands to tap into their audience, expanding your reach. 5. Regularly analyze performance metrics to understand what works and adjust your strategy accordingly.

By analysing which content is most liked, we can balance the more technical or sales-related content with those that are more likely to be liked to keep your audience engaged and maintain their attention.

Reach vs impressions: which is most important? The answer is dependent on your goal. If you’re looking to attract a new audience, reach is a better measurement. If you’re looking to nurture those who are already familiar with your brand while also reaching new audiences, set a goal to increase your impressions. And of course, these two measurements are best analyzed together. Focusing blindly on these vanity metrics is a pitfall for measuring "success" though. Do you get people moving? Where do they come from? Where are they going? Where does the traffic mainly come from? Also through your brand ambassadors on LinkedIn?

Reach and impressions are vanity metrics never to be chased. If you really want result s for your social selling efforts focus on engagement (ratio) and conversions/conversation that result from you content posting. You reach does not only come from posting but also from commenting and messaging. Focus on the results and the means would be my advice to you all