Measuring Social Media Marketing Success

Social media is all fun and games — until you want to see organic audience growth for your brand online. Then, it’s a race to grow your following, produce relevant content and create loyalty among your target audience. While there’s no perfect formula for finding social media success, it’s important to proactively and consistently reach people using platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.

But, how do you know your efforts are actually working? That’s what we’re here to help you find out. Continue reading for savvy social platform tips to help manage your efforts and ensure a positive impact. 

Metrics That Matter: Measuring Social Media Like a Pro

Using social media for your business is like walking on a balance beam: you can’t lean too far on the creative or analytical side, or you’ll lose your footing. You must hold both simultaneously, creating harmony like the yin and yang of social media strategy. 

Unfortunately, there’s no hex you can put on your social media to get the perfect responses online. You can, however, wield metrics like a magic wand, using KPIs to measure effectiveness. The issue is, not all metrics are on equal footing; some are more critical than others. Here are the main metrics that you must track for the most success:

Reach 

Social media reach is the number of unique people who are exposed to your social media content. It’s a helpful top-of-funnel metric because it shows how many people your posts get in front of. Reach also represents how many unique individuals have the chance to learn about your brand. A larger reach means more users are exposed to your company, even those outside your immediate follower base. This is especially effective when content goes viral or is shared widely. 

Expanding social media reach requires both organic and paid strategies. For example, using a mix of popular and branded hashtags to reach different audiences. #TacoTuesday is a widely used hashtag that can get your post in front of millions, while #LifeatBrafton, for example, is more niche but can strategically narrow your target audience.

Engagement

Social media engagement reflects the total number of audience members who interact with your content. But what counts as engagement? It can be split into several different categories:

• Interaction with your page: Button clicks, profile clicks and clicks on any tabs.
• Interaction with your posts: Comments, likes and shares.
• Interaction in direct messaging: Messages on your page or responding to a message.
• Interaction with other pages: Mentions of your page or commenting on other pages’ posts. 

Social media followers are important, but they’re not everything. If you have a bunch of unengaged followers, it’s not going to do you any good. A brand with 10,000 highly engaged followers is more valuable than one with 100,000 passive ones who never interact. This is because high engagement signals strong brand loyalty and trust. Additionally, social media algorithms prioritize content with high engagement, so even a small account with high interaction can outperform a large one with lower interaction.

Followers

While engagement is one of the most important metrics, you can’t have that without at least a small but mighty band of people. Rather than focusing on a large follower count, the goal should be growth. Steady growth shows social proof and credibility, identifying your brand as one that constantly attracts new people. 

One way to grow your followers is by identifying engaged and relevant people and prioritizing those individuals. This shows that your brand pays attention to and rewards loyalty, which is an attractive quality for a company. 

Other ways to attract and retain high-value followers include:

• Creating valuable content.
• Engaging authentically.
• Leveraging user-generated content.
• Using strategic SEO.
• Collaborating with influencers and partners (According to Sprout Social, 90% of marketers reported that sponsored influencer content performed better in terms of engagement compared to organic posts).
• Running targeted campaigns and giveaways.
• Analyzing and adjusting as needed. 

Impressions

Reach and impressions are similar. However, there are some key differences. Impressions are the total number of times your content is displayed, no matter if it was clicked on or not. For example, if a single post reaches 500 people but is displayed 1,500 times (and some people saw it multiple times), the impressions are 1,500. 

This metric plays a leading role in brand recall since repeated exposure strengthens brand awareness. Consider the Rule of Seven. Forbes found that seeing high-quality content multiple times helps people remember your message and recall your brand when it’s time to make a purchase. 

To increase impressions, post consistently, leverage Stories and Reels, encourage shares and saves and engage actively. As a result, more people could come across your brand organically and stick around for years. 

ROI (Return on Investment) 

ROI looks different for every business because all companies have unique goals. Measuring success from social media ensures that your efforts contribute to business goals. Some of the most popular ROI metrics include leads, conversions and sales. 

To track ROI effectively:

• Set clear social media goals, like lead generation or direct sales.
• Use tracking links to monitor traffic and conversions from social posts. 
• Watch engagement and track how social interactions lead to website traffic, sign-ups or purchases.
• Identify how social media contributes to the overall sales funnel.

While you can do this manually, it helps to have a tool that can take some guesswork out of the process. Top ROI tracking resources include:

• Google Analytics.
• Facebook Business Suite.
• Facebook Ads Manager.
• LinkedIn Social Media Campaign Manager.
• UTM Tracking.
• Sprout Social and Hootsuite.
• HubSpot and Salesforce.

Shares

Social shares are the act of sharing website content across social media platforms, including directly sharing content but also commenting, linking or otherwise engaging with posts. They’re one of the most powerful customer engagement metrics because they signify that your content is worth reading and spreading. When your content is shared, it means more trust and endorsement, expanded reach, boosted SEO and authority and higher engagement potential.

Social sharing is like digital word-of-mouth marketing, which is powerful because 88% of people trust recommendations from people they know more than any other channel, per Nielson. 

Want to make more shareable content? 

• Make it emotionally resonant.
• Provide value, either through education or problem-solving. 
• Use eye-catching visuals.
• Keep it relatable and timely.
• Encourage sharing directly.
• Leverage user-generated content.
• Optimize for each platform. 

CPC (Cost per Click)

CPC lets you in on how much you’re paying for each click on your ad. This amount reflects how efficient your ad campaigns are at driving traffic. For instance, if you have a high CPC, your ads might not be reaching the right audience or your targeted keywords are very competitive. 

Optimize your CPC for better results by doing the following:

• Refine targeting: Narrow your audience to the most relevant groups.
• Improve quality score: Use platforms like Google Ads to determine how relevant your posts are.
• Optimize social media post copy: Make sure your copy aligns with user intent and is clear and compelling.
• Use negative keywords: Regularly review and add negative keywords to avoid paying for irrelevant clicks that don’t lead to conversions. 
• Make bid strategy adjustments: Use automated bidding strategies like target cost per acquisition to allow the social media platform to optimize your bids for better cost efficiency. 

Tips and Tricks From Social Media Experts

So, you know what social media metrics to track, but you’re still looking for easy ways to boost your success online. Look no further! Here are a few helpful hacks to get you started:

• Optimize for each platform’s algorithm.
• Leverage AI and automation for smarter posting.
• Master the art of social selling.
• Hack customer engagement with micro-influencers and user-generated content.
• Use advanced audience targeting and retargeting.
• Optimize ad spend with AI-driven bidding.
• Maximize organic reach with strategic content formats.
• Capitalize on AI-powered social listening.
• Turn social media into an SEO powerhouse.

One other best practice that can make or break your social media marketing is finding helpful tools that align with your team’s goals. At Brafton, we use Sprout Social, Hootsuite and other social media content marketing tools to manage and automate scheduling, making it easier to ensure all content goes out when and where it needs to. 

Reviewing Your Metrics and Updating Your Strategy

Analyzing your social performance is one thing; responding based on those metrics is another. Ready to level up your social media marketing strategy to improve your reach, enhance engagement and boost ROI? Follow these steps: 

Step 1: Audit Your Current Social Media Marketing Effectiveness

Assess where you’re currently at, what’s working and what needs some help. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel: keep doing what you’re excelling at and figure out what areas to adjust. 

Step 2: Focus on Key Social Media Analytics That Align With Your Goals

You can’t track every single social media metric — that would be stressful and cause a major headache. Think through the KPIs that will actually help you determine what’s working and generate better results. Then, focus your efforts on those social media metrics, giving you the bandwidth to optimize your strategy without getting overwhelmed. 

Step 3: Adjust and Optimize Your Strategy 

As you analyze your social media performance and figure out what needs some work, adjust your strategy accordingly. Do you lack engagement or struggle to keep follower numbers up? Find specific and measurable ways to improve your approach. 

Step 4: Implement and Monitor Changes

Once you’ve identified areas for improvement and made adjustments to your strategy, it’s time to implement the changes and actively monitor the outcomes. Instead of overhauling everything at once, implement changes in phases. This allows you to measure the impact of each adjustment and see what works before committing fully.  

Ultimately, your social strategy isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it process. Like any aspect of digital marketing, it takes vigilance to keep your social media efforts competitive. 

Now, go and see how well your social media marketing is doing, and we’ll do the same.