Which Social Media Metrics Are Really Important

Facebook shares, retweets, the number of Twitter and Facebook followers…

These social media metrics offer surface insights into how a campaign or piece of content performed, but they don’t really show how your efforts are helping boost the bottom line. Social media analytics is a crucial tool in developing your business, because it reflects how all your hard work is paying off (or not paying off). Here’s a list of social media metrics you may already be tracking and how to take them to the next level.

1) Click-through bounce rate

Bounce rate refers to the percentage of page visitors who leave your website after only viewing one page. Click-through rates are important as a metric, since they indicate that your social media messaging is compelling enough to spark interest with your audience. Therefore, track the bounce rate of website visitors who came from social networks, and compare that rate to website visitors who visited your site. If your social media bounce rate is lower than those other sources, you can be sure that you’re targeting the right people on social media.

2) Share of traffic driven

If search has a bounce rate that’s twice as high as social media, but drives 20 times the traffic, social is still going to look less valuable in comparison. That’s why social media managers need to track more than just the amount of traffic driven, and start tracking the share of traffic driven by social.

Tracking share of traffic driven can be done in the same place as your bounce rate. Within Google Analytics, under Acquisition and Channels, click on the Sessions field. This will rank all of the channels based on the number of sessions they drive. In the column, beside the actual number, you should also be able to see a small percentage figure. This percentage represents the share of traffic being driven by each channel.

3) Social share of voice

The social share of voice details what percentage of mentions within the industry is about your brand and what percentage is about the competition. This is quite a valuable metrics, because, through it, you can eliminate doubts about whether it’s worth being on social media and show just how well your social efforts are being received. Tracked over time, social share of voice can be a powerful illustration of your social campaigns paying off.

4) Don’t just track comments, track conversation rate

Your conversation rate is the ratio of comments per post to the number of overall followers (or Page Likes). You can do this for one of your social networks in particular, or for all of them. It helps you determine how much of your audience is compelled to add their voice to the content you post on social.

5) Don’t just track likes, track applause rate

Likes are also valuable social media currency. However, we suggest tracking your applause rate instead, the ratio of likes per post to the number of overall followers (or Page Likes). This will provide the context needed to make likes more than just a vanity metric. Your applause rate will let you know exactly how much of your audience is finds your content interesting (or not).