Social media is a key aspect of digital marketing. It is crucial to analyze social media metrics and evaluate the success of posted content. A critical mistake that novice marketers often make is relying solely on daily likes, comments, and shares. Though this gives you basic snapshots of performance, it does not allow you to delve into a deeper analysis of what exactly is working for you. With this in mind, I’ve outlined 10 performance-based metrics you need to add to your spreadsheets while analyzing your social media content strategy.

1.    Content-Based Metrics

Let’s begin with analyzing content before we discuss its performance. When you use content metrics, you can see what content resonate with your audience, and what does not. Create separate columns for various content pieces such as: links, videos, images, text-based posts and original posts. Track their performance over a period of time and look for distinct patterns that can help you understand your audience’s preferences.

2.    Audience-Based Metrics

Understanding your audience is vital while crafting content for social media. It can impact the way your content is perceived and interacted with tremendously. Also, if you spot a major difference in the audience you have on Instagram and Facebook, then you know you need to re-think your social media strategy. You may be attracting the wrong types of consumers unintentionally. While creating your spreadsheet, be sure to include columns for: total followers, new followers, male, female, primary location, age group, Google Analytics, and the accounts that you follow.

To analyze your social media audience, use tools like:

• Friends+Me
• Followerwonk
• Google Analytics Audience Report
• Tailwind

3.    Time-Based Metrics

Knowing how often you post, as well as when you post, can help you understand whether you’re missing out on key peak hours of traffic. Though there are multiple websites that claim to know exactly when to post for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, your own data can provide you with the insights you need. Make columns for: posts per week, posting time, posting day, number of seasonal or timely posts, most engaged audience time, and most engaged audience day.

4.    Social Media Listening Metrics

Social media listening is imperative for brands because it helps you understand what consumers are saying about your brand. This way, you can respond on time and ensure that you gain a deeper understanding about the way people think of you. If you notice more negative mentions over positive ones, then perhaps it’s time to change something! Make sure you add these columns in your sheet: total number of mentions, total positive sentiments, total negative sentiments, primary comments, and neutral comments.

5.    Engagement Metrics

As I said earlier, people rely far too much on the likes, and unless your goal is to increase the number of likes you get, this metric does not mean a lot on its own. Engagement should be a part of your metrics, but not the only thing that you consider. Make sure your spreadsheet has these columns for tracking engagement: total engagement, engagement by type (likes, comments, retweets, etc), increase in engagement rate, decrease in engagement rate, mentions received, and DMs (direct messages).

6.    Competitor Metrics

Understanding what your competitors are doing is quite important. Make sure your spreadsheet includes parameters such as: strengths, weaknesses, percent of engagement difference, and new opportunities.

7.    Social Traffic Metrics

Your social media may be buzzing but if that doesn’t drive any new consumers to your website, then what’s the point? You must examine your social traffic metrics to see what you can do to increase your sales and business. The following parameters can help you gauge the same: total sessions, total page views, bounce rate, pages per session, mobile vs. desktop traffic, most common links shared, and average session duration.

8.    Social Media Management Metrics

If someone manages your social media, is the person doing a good job? Track who manages your social media, how often they create updates, what growth have they contributed to, how have they handled PR issues, average response time for engagement, average response time for DMs, who reports the findings, and so on.

9.    Branding Metrics

These metrics can help you see how often the content you post aligns with your brand’s values. In order to ensure this, you must have branding guidelines for your team to follow. These guidelines should include do’s and don’ts, visual marketing guidelines, mission statement, company naming, and public relations policies.

10. Goals and Summary Metrics

Set clear, reachable goals for social media, and how you plan to achieve them. Your spreadsheet should include: accomplished primary goal, accomplished secondary goal, and difference from this quarter and last quarter. You should also record conversion rates, overall social media reach, economic value gains, losses, and total posts. Once you reach your goals, you can set new ones.

With these metrics, your brand should be able to craft more insightful strategies with data that reflects your performance.

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