Your strategic social media goals will determine which metrics you should be keeping an eye on. All of your metrics are worth watching, but it’s helpful to know exactly which area to measure each time you post content. 

“Where to start?” you might be asking. We have an in-depth explanation with all you’ll need to know, but let’s look at a few main metrics to help narrow down which path to take and when.

Engagement

The Engagement Rate is the metric of choice if you’re trying to track what type of audience you’re reaching and their reactions to your content. Engagement is a comprehensive metric and is often described as an umbrella for social media metrics. 

There’s a lot to consider regarding what type of engagement you’re looking to achieve. Are you looking for more likes, shares, retweets, or comments?

• Shares: The highest touch engagement is almost always a share. This is probably the most valuable as it expands your reach beyond your current audience.
• Comments are great for interacting and building rapport with your audience. Make sure you’re responding and encouraging conversation! Comments help you create a tighter-knit community and gauge sentiment among your followers.
• Likes are the lowest value and the hardest to decipher. Most platforms offer varied reactions, which can help you understand some sentiment. Be careful, though, because sometimes it’s hard to know if they’re reacting to you or the content.

Your engagement metrics are one of the best ways to tell if your content is doing well with your audience and should be one of your top social media goals. 

While it’s nice to know how many have reacted to your posts, it helps to understand how many people have seen your content. If people have seen your content but have not responded, something about it didn’t catch their interest enough to engage. The engagement rate is an important metric to consider. If your content reaches 1,000 people and only 4 people engage, you probably need to take some time and consider why. Why are they not clicking on your content? On the flip side, what grabbed them if something has a high engagement rate? Was it positive sentiment? Knowing is better than guessing, so this is a handy metric to keep on your radar!

Reach 

While impressions are the number of times your content is seen, if the same person has seen your content a dozen times, that’s a dozen impressions with only one reach. The goal is to reach as many as possible, so knowing when to take measures to maximize your reach makes this a critical metric to keep in mind. It’s easy to get caught up in focusing your energy on the quality of your content, but simply making sure that you’re reaching as many as possible makes all the difference. 

CTR

The Click-through rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click on a link. You ultimately want to make sure your content is compelling enough for viewers to click on it, react to it, and even comment or share it. 

Tracking your social media goals

Each platform has its analytics or ways to track its data. Facebook has an ‘insights’ tab. Twitter has its own Twitter Analytics. Other platforms, like Instagram and Pinterest, require business accounts before you can retrieve your data. It’s hard to keep it all straight sometimes. Fortunately, True Anthem streamlines all you need to analyze any metrics to choose to meet your social media goals. 

True Anthem Solution helps you work smarter, not harder! Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to get the most up-to-date news and tips on social media.