If you are a marketer, social media can be an invaluable part of your strategy. In 2020, over 91% of US brands used social media for marketing. Social media can be a great way to engage with your customers directly and get a sense of how leads feel about your brand. Developing a solid social media strategy can help humanize your brand and thrill your customers.
Like any other component of your general marketing strategy, social media marketing should begin with a solid plan and clear marketing goals. Furthermore, there are different types of metrics you should consider if you want your strategy to be a success. It’s essential to track your performance and assess whether your efforts are generating the desired results. Establish clear metrics and modify your strategy continuously to meet your goals. These are some of the metrics that you could incorporate into your plan:
Reach Metrics:
Reach metrics are elementary types of measures that you can keep track of. They report the number of people who have seen your content and can measure the number of followers, impressions, mentions, and share of voice of your brand.
Although reach metrics can be interesting to measure, they are not representative of your social media strategy’s success. You cannot use reach metrics to measure the quality of engagement with clients, client perception of your brand, or likelihood to convert, so do not rely solely on reach metrics!
Engagement Metrics:
Engagement metrics go a little further in reporting user interaction with your brand on social media; nevertheless, they are still insufficient. These metrics can include the number of likes, comments, shares, and even inbound links your brand has. Although engagement requires user participation, some of these metrics can be artificially altered by bots.
Have you heard the term “vanity metrics”? Vanity metrics have little to no correlation with user likelihood to convert and do not reflect the effectiveness of your social media strategy. Many engagement metrics fall into this category. Although you may still decide to keep track of them, they should not be at the core of your strategy.
ROI Metrics
ROI metrics are much more representative of your social media strategy’s effectiveness as they directly impact business goals. Some ROI metrics include revenue, total lead conversions, lifetime value, and acquisition costs. It is a good idea to clearly define ROI metrics as they are most likely to affect the livelihood of your business.
Retention and Loyalty Metrics
Lastly, retention and loyalty metrics can be an invaluable component of your social media strategy. Although these metrics do not directly reflect revenue or conversions, they can report certain behaviors that can positively impact your organization over time. These metrics include customer ratings and reviews, speed of issue resolution, and overall customer satisfaction.
Did you know that positive reviews and radically increase the likelihood of other conversions? Keep track of this type of customer feedback and make sure to showcase it on your social media platforms. Keeping track of retention and loyalty metrics can assist you when keeping your customers engaged and happy. This is key to the long-term success of your business!
Make sure you define clear objectives and incorporate some of the previously mentioned metrics next time you develop a social media strategy. Specifically, remember to focus on ROI, retention, and loyalty metrics. Keeping track of your results will make you a stronger marketer as you’ll be able to quickly identify your weaknesses and modify your strategy accordingly.
Happy tracking!
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