With so many social media platforms to manage and publish on, it’s important to have a solid social media marketing plan. However, this plan does not need to (and should not) be all about content.
Your social media marketing plan should also include the process of tracking and measuring your social media KPIs (key performance indicators) to see if your marketing strategy is working.
In this blog, we’ll cover 12 of the most important social media KPIs and how to track them.
1. Conversion rate
It’s one thing to get people to engage with your brand on social media, but it’s another to get them to take the next step. That’s where conversion rates come in.
A conversion is when someone takes the action you want them to take. For example, if you want people to buy your product, then a conversion would be when someone makes a purchase. If you want people to sign up for your email list, then a conversion would be when someone submits their email address.
To calculate your conversion rate, take the number of conversions and divide it by the total number of people who saw your post. Then, multiply that number by 100 to get a percentage.
2. Click-through rate
Your click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of your audience that clicks on a link you share on social media. This is a great KPI to track if you’re sharing content from your blog or website on social media. To optimize CTR tracking and reduce costs, marketers often explore Hootsuite alternatives for small business that allow easy link tracking without bloated features.
A high CTR means your audience finds your content valuable and engaging. A low CTR, on the other hand, could indicate that you’re not sharing the right type of content with your audience.
To calculate your CTR, divide the total number of clicks on your link by the total number of impressions (or views) your post received. Then, multiply that number by 100 to get your CTR as a percentage.
3. Time spent on website
If you’re trying to drive traffic to your website through social media, you’ll want to measure how many people are clicking through and how much time they spend on your site once they get there.
You can track time spent on your website using Google Analytics. This will tell you how much time people spend on your site on average, as well as how much time people who come from social media spend.
4. Reach
This KPI tracks the number of unique users who have seen your content. It’s a great way to gauge how well your content is resonating with your audience.
If your reach is consistently low, this may indicate that you need to adjust your targeting settings so that your content is shown to the right people. You may also want to experiment with different types of content to see if that helps you reach a larger audience.
5. Engagement per post
Engagement per post is a great way to measure how well your posts are performing without getting too granular.
To measure engagement per post, add up the total number of comments, likes, shares, etc. and divide that by the total number of posts.
Then, you can compare your engagement per post across each social media channel you’re active on.
6. Followers
Followers are the total number of people who have chosen to follow your social media profiles. This number is important as it increases the potential reach of your posts. When your followers engage with your content, their followers may see it, too.
As you grow your number of followers, it’s important to also consider the quality of followers you’re attracting. If you’re a SaaS company, for example, and you’re attracting a lot of followers who are students, that’s not a good fit. Sure, it will make your follower count go up, but it won’t help you attract and acquire customers.
7. Mentions
Mentions are a way for users to tag your business in their social media posts. This is a great way to get your business in front of a new audience and to show that you are active on social media.
Mentions are a great way to track the number of people who are talking about your business on social media. If you have a high number of mentions, it’s a good sign that people are interested in what you have to say and are likely to follow you.
8. Share of voice
Share of voice is a measure of how much of the conversation around your industry or company is being generated by your brand.
To calculate your share of voice, you’ll need to decide on the time period you want to analyze, and then gather all the social media posts, mentions, and conversations about your industry, your company, and your competitors.
Then, figure out what percentage of these mentions are about your company, and divide that number by the total number of mentions of your industry and competitors.
This will give you a percentage that you can use to compare your share of voice to your competitors.
9. Customer feedback
In addition to tracking social media engagement, you should also monitor customer feedback. This can include comments on your posts, reviews on your Facebook page, and more.
By tracking customer feedback, you can get a sense of how your audience feels about your brand. This can help you identify any issues that need to be addressed and improve your social media marketing strategy. You can also amplify positive feedback by turning it into a growth channel through referral tools like ReferralCandy, which reward customers for sharing their experiences. This not only builds stronger trust but also gives you measurable data on how referrals contribute to your social media-driven conversions, especially when promoting seasonal campaigns such as top selling Christmas items.
10. Sentiment
Sentiment is the measurement of how people feel about your brand. This can be broken down into three categories: positive, negative, and neutral.
Sentiment can be difficult to measure, but there are some tools available to help you track how people feel about your brand on social media. If you don’t have access to a sentiment analysis tool, you can also manually track sentiment by monitoring comments and reviews on your social media profiles.
Sentiment is an important metric to track because it can give you an idea of how your brand is being perceived on social media. If you notice a lot of negative sentiment around your brand, it might be time to make some changes to your social media strategy.
11. Inbound links
An inbound link is a link from someone else’s website to your website. Inbound links are important for a few reasons.
First, they’re a major ranking factor for search engines. If you want your website to appear higher in search engine results, you need to have a lot of high-quality inbound links.
Second, inbound links are a great way to drive traffic to your website. If someone sees a link to your website on a different website, they might click on it and visit your site.
Inbound links are a great way to measure the success of your social media marketing. If you’re creating high-quality content and sharing it on social media, you should be able to generate a lot of inbound links to your website.
You can track the number of inbound links to your website using a tool like Moz.
12. Social media traffic to your site
You’re creating content on your website to attract your target audience and it’s important to know how your social media marketing is driving traffic to those pages.
In your website analytics tool, like HubSpot’s Traffic Analytics, you can see how much traffic is coming to your site from social media. This is a great way to track the overall success of your social media marketing.
You can also track how much traffic is coming to specific pages on your site from social media. This is a great way to see what type of content your social media audience is interested in and use that to inform your content strategy.
In addition to tracking social media traffic, it’s equally important to measure influencer marketing performance. Analytics tools can show you which influencers are driving the most clicks, conversions, or engagement. By setting clear KPIs like sales, sign-ups, or brand mentions you can evaluate campaign ROI and refine future partnerships based on real results.
Ready to track more than just likes?
Now that you know which metrics are worth tracking, it’s time to start tracking. To do that, you’ll need a social media management tool.
If you don’t already have one, you can start by signing up for a free trial of HubSpot’s social media software. Once you’re set up, you’ll be able to track all of the metrics we discussed in this article, and more.
Conclusion
When you know what you want to accomplish on social media, you can create a strategy and measure your efforts. If you focus on the right KPIs, you can adjust your strategy and make informed decisions to grow your brand, engage your audience, and achieve your goals.
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