Social Media Metrics and KPIs

Social Media Monitoring with a KPI Dashboard

What is a social media metric?

A social media metric is an analytics measure used to determine the performance of a company's or individual's social media activity. Marketers use social media monitoring software as a tool to observe activity on social platforms and gather information about how users are engaging with your brand online.

The challenge facing marketers is that the nature of social conversation is now dispersed, making it difficult to aggregate social conversation and consolidate it in a meaningful view. No single platform has a monopoly on social conversation, which is why getting data from all social is key to understanding the big picture. It's not just conversation, it's the actions that result as part of those conversations.

Tracking social analytics is bi-directional. The end goal of monitoring social media metrics is to use the data acquired in order to improve marketing efforts and pro-actively respond and engage. For example, social media and website presence should be integrated because they drive teach others traffic in addition to engaging your audience differently. Measure things that you can attach meaning to -– things that can help you make informed decisions. Learn about the 12 must-have metrics for your social media dashboard.

It’s important to track social media metrics because they are a good indication of how people are viewing your business, the quality of your content and general interest. Social media metrics illustrate a unique form of brand engagement that CMOs, VPs and managers value. Social analytics is essential to any business and needs to be monitored like any other component of marketing.

How do you measure social media ROI?

Social Media Return on Investment (ROI) is the monetary proof that your marketing efforts are working. According to Social Media Examiner, “Social media ROI is defined as a measure of the efficiency of a social media marketing campaign”.

Tracking social media ROI allows marketers, and businesses in general, know what’s working and what’s not, to improve tactics and properly allocate time and resources. Before you track ROI you need to set goals for the specific social media metrics you want to track. It is important that you have a unique and specific goal for each social media metric.

For example, Twitter ROI can be calculated a number of ways. One being through Bitly. Most marketers are familiar with bitly as a link-shortening tool, but bitly also provides an analytics platform that can help you track the success of the links you place on Twitter. Your target ROI for this metric will be entirely different than your Followers metric.

To calculate investment, look at the labor cost (time) associated with your social media tools, the monthly or weekly cost of using these tools and services, and your advertising spend. Adding all these costs together will give you your investment.Some of the most important metrics to track social media ROI is Lifetime Value, Average Sale, and Pay-per-click costs because it attaches a monetary value to your social media metrics such as Twitter Followers, Social Traffic and Conversions and Social Visits and Leads. Learn more: Marketing Return on Investment.

Tracking Social Media Metrics on a Dashboard

Dashboards are a great social monitoring tool for business because they create a central location for you to track all your social media accounts and campaigns. Tracking social media metrics allows your marketing team to analyze performance and make real-time decisions based on results. Learn more: social media dashboard.