When navigating the world of social media frequently, the last question you may ask yourself is, “How am I going to track my results?” Much effort is put into social media strategy, design, copywriting, and scheduling, but the final step, tracking results, frequently falls by the wayside. Although this step is often overlooked, it plays a crucial role in optimizing your social media strategy by giving you the necessary information to adjust your campaigns to optimize future results. By tracking these 5 KPIs, or “Key Performance Indicators,” you can ensure that your social campaigns reach your target audience and meet (and exceed) your intended goals.
What is a Key Performance Indicator? (KPI)
First thing first, what is a Key Performance Indicator? Businesses and their social media team use KPIs as a benchmark to track performance over time and to analyze their campaigns to determine future changes that will help meet their goals. The KPIs you choose to use will change over time and depend on what you are trying to achieve with each campaign, platform, or strategy. When selecting KPIs for your campaign, ensure that they follow the well-known “SMART” system, which means that these goals will be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.
Social Media content KPI tracking
Top 5 KPIs Your Business Should Be Tracking
The number of KPIs you can track are endless; some may serve particular purposes, while others will provide a broader understanding of your business’ performance online. As your business begins tracking results and analyzing performance, these broader KPIs will help you gain this greater understanding and allow you to grow accustomed to the world of analytics. Over time, I’ve found that the following 5 KPIs are a great place to start and will serve as the five most helpful metrics to continue to grow your business and its online presence.
- Reach: Reach measures the number of people that have seen your post since it was posted to your audience. Reach will change based on the quality of your content and if you are posting when your audience is active and online. By tracking your post reach over time, you will understand what post style, image style, voice, and post timing will appeal to your audience. By determining your audience’s tastes, you will be able to maximize the effectiveness of your content by optimizing your posts to reach as many people as possible.
- Follower Count: Follower count isn’t everything, but often to maximize your reach, you also will need to work to maximize your Follower Count. By connecting with users outside your network, you will grow your potential reach continually, and by maintaining follower growth, you will likely maintain Reach growth. Over time, you can determine what style of content will prompt your followers to share with their networks, opening up your content to new audiences and potential followers.
- Engagement Rate: Engagement Rate is the first of these 5 KPIs requiring a little math. Engagement Rate tracks the total number of engagements a post receives and is divided by the total number of followers of your account and then multiplied by 100 to get a percentage. For example, if your post receives 100 engagements and your account has 5,000 followers, you would divide 100 by 5,000 and multiply that by 100 to get an engagement rate of 2%. What constitutes a “good” engagement rate varies by industry, so it is essential to use benchmarking to find out what type of engagement rates your competitors are seeing. You can begin using those numbers to set goals for your own engagement rate. Benchmarking allows you to understand the performance of social accounts similar to your own and will enable you to use the performance of your competitors as a metric to determine the success of your own accounts.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): A benefit of social media is that it allows you to direct your audience off of social media and toward links to places such as your website or other pieces of content around the internet. This could be a blog post on your website or the product page of an item you are selling. This makes social media a great tool to drive measurable business. Click Through Rate (CTR) monitors the total number of clicks on your Call to Action (CTA) within a given post and then is divided by the number of impressions on that post and multiplied by 100 to get a percentage. This KPI captures how your post inspires your audience to act on the CTAs you provide and is a great way to track how your posts drive traffic to your website.
- Cost Per Click: The 5th KPI you should track is the cost per click. This allows you to measure your campaigns’ financial success compared to other campaigns you have completed in the past. Cost per click is calculated by dividing the total cost of your campaign by the number of clicks it generated. Cost per click is to remain low, indicating that you generated many clicks for the least amount of spend possible. If your cost per click is high, then you will use this information to retool the content of your ad to inspire your audience to act on the CTA of the post.
Social Media follower count KPI
What’s Next?
Knowing the five best Key Performance Indicators to track on your social media campaigns is only the first step in your journey toward greater analysis and, ultimately, greater social media success. As business owners, we understand that sometimes it is difficult to add another responsibility to what already might be an overwhelming list. While monitoring KPIs is something a business can do on its own, there are experts available to take this task off of your busy plate. That is where ELMNTL comes in.
At ELMNTL, we specialize in creating inspiring content to build loyalty and help your customers identify with your brand. In addition, we refine and adjust your content so that it is maximized for increased engagement. ELMNTL has the expertise to manage your monthly social media presence, set and monitor KPIs, and make adjustments based on your monthly results. Put your online presence in the hands of the experts, and contact us today to discuss how ELMNTL can help you reach your online goals.
