1. Reach
Metric to track: Audience Growth Rate
Tracking benefit: Directly connect social media data with business’ profits
Related metrics: Audience Growth, Total Followers
One item you should pay attention to is your Audience Growth Rate. A refinement of New Followers or similar stats, expressed in percent-change over time, the growth rate of your audience depicts your social media momentum
2. Engagement
Metric to track: Average Engagement Rate
Tracking benefit: Make engagement numbers meaningful and actionable
Related metrics: Reach, Overall Engagement, Audience Growth Rate
As your Audience Growth Rate follows a positive level of growth, you also need to ensure that you’re speaking to the right people – and that those people are listening.
3. Acquisition
Metric to track: Visitor Frequency Rate
Tracking benefit: Optimize targeting of new and returning visitors
Related metrics: Click-Thru Rate, Impressions from Social Media
Although total acquisitions from Twitter and Facebook are far lower than from organic Google search, the Return Visit % demonstrates these network’s unique value to your business.
4. Conversion
Metric to track: Assisted Social Conversions
Tracking benefit: Directly connect social media data with business’ profits
Related metrics: Last Click (Direct) Conversions
Beyond getting visitors to your brand’s website and then getting them to return, you should clearly define goals for how you want these visitors to convert into sales or other desired actions.
5. Activity
Metric to track: Customer Service Savings
Tracking benefit: Show impact on business’ bottom line
Related Metrics: Customer Service Costs, Social Media Posts
Go beyond post counts and content types to connect social media activity with profits. Combine your social media data with other data related to your business, and derive information like Customer Service Savings. Your business’ savings from social media equal the average time to complete traditional customer service, multiplied by hourly cost of customer service. Repeated 100 or 1000 times over, this translates to significant savings for your business.
Avg. Time x Costs Per Hour x Customer Service Inquiries Completed = Savings
(If you’d like to get even more precise, subtract out the costs of answering those inquiries through social media)