Social media is the biggest marketing tool to exist in today’s digital age. Social platforms have redefined the customer journey over the years, simplifying it and making it smoother. The customer journey is usually divided into 4 different stages of the social funnel. Tracking the metrics in each stage of the customer journey is super easy. All you need are some online tools, active social media accounts, and a reliable internet connection (find reliable yet cheap internet service in your area here)
- Awareness
- Engagement
- Conversion
Every stage has its own set of metrics that highlight the efficiency of your social media marketing strategy but where do the social media metrics stand in the customer journey?
Before we dive into the details of these metrics and how to track them, let’s define the stages of the customer journey first.
- The awareness stage measures audience growth including your current and potential target audience.
- The engagement stage highlights how your content is being communicated with the audiences and how effectively is the audience interacting with it.
- The conversion stage shows how effectively and successfully your engagement works with the audience.
Now that you’re fully aware of the stages in the customer journey, without further ado, let’s begin discussing social media metrics and how to track them!
Awareness Metrics
Awareness metrics measure the reach and impressions.
- Brand Awareness
As the name suggests, brand awareness is about the attention and recognition your brand gets from the audience. This is measured against a specified time frame to understand relevant data. Attention on social media comes in the forms of shares, likes, mentions, links, and impressions. The reporting period can go from lasting a week to months.
You can track brand awareness by
- Determining the metrics your business will rely on to measure brand awareness
- Determining the period
- Ensuring consistency across all forms of data
2. Post Reach
Post reach determines the number of people who have seen your post on social media. Post reached is highly affected by the content and timing of your post, therefore it’s quite easy to track it.
You can track Post Reach by:
- Measure the reach of your post
- Divide the reach by the number of followers you have and then multiply by 100 to get the final percentage.
3. Audience Growth Rate
The audience growth rate shows the speed at which your brand’s following is growing on your social platforms. Instead of telling you how many new followers you gained in a month, it shows you how fast you made new followers on social media.
You can track Audience Growth Rate by:
- Measure the number of new followers against a specified reporting period
- Divide the number of new followers by your total number of followers and multiply by 100 to get the final growth rate.
4. Potential Impressions
Potential impressions measure the number of people who CAN see your post during the reporting period. It highlights how many people have shared your post within their network. As a business, this metric helps you expand your audience and boost progress.
You can track potential impressions by:
- Use any online monitoring tool to track the shares, mentions, and retweets of your posts
- Record the number of people that mentioned your brand, and the followers of accounts that saw the mentions.
- Multiply the number of brand mentions with the number of followers that saw your brand impressions
5. Share of Voice
This metric is typically used for competitive analysis and paid marketing campaigns. It gives insight into how your brand is doing compared to your competition. Share of Voice essentially measures the competitor’s mentions and yours at the same time.
You can track Share of Voice by:
- Record every indirect and direct mention of your brand, across all social platforms
- Record every mention of your competitors during the same period
- Add the total number of mentions of your and your competitors brand
- Divide the number of your brand mentions by the total and multiply by 100 to get the final percentage.
Engagement Metrics
These metrics depict how well your content and brand connect with the audience.
6. Post Engagement
This metric depicts how the audience is engaging with your account and how often.
You can track Post Engagement by:
- Finding the value of engagements (likes, comments, and shares)
- Finding the reach of your posts
- Dividing the number of engagements by the reach
7. Engagement Rate
The average engagement rate is the number of comments, likes, and shares your post gains against the total number of your followers. A high engagement rate means the audience can relate to your content. To calculate the engagement rate, you must track the engagement rate of every content you share on your social profiles.
You can track Engagement Rate by:
- Adding the total number of likes, comments, and shares of a single post
- Divide the number by the number of followers and multiple by 100 to get the engagement rate.
Conversion Metrics
Conversion metrics show how effectively your brand is marketing and engagement on social platforms. Is it good enough to convert prospects into customers?
8. Conversion Rate
It’s the number of people who take an action after clicking on call-to-action buttons or links against the total number of visitors on your page. The visitor can take actions such as subscribe to your emails, download PDFs or register for an online webinar, etc.
A high conversion rate reflects the value of your content to the target audience.
You can track the Conversion rate by:
- Posting a call to action button or link
- Attaching a cookie to the user’s system to track the lead
- Use online campaign reporting tools to record the total number of clicks on the post
- Divide the number of conversions by the total number of clicks and multiply by 100 to get the final conversion rate.
9. Bounce Rate
Bounce Rate is the number of visitors who click on the CTA buttons or links from your post and leave the page without taking any action. In simpler words, it measures the incoming traffic on your social platforms.
You can track Bounce Rate by:
- Setting up an on Google Analytics
- Clicking on the Channels segment in the Acquisition tab
- Clicking on the Bounce Rate button.
CPC, CPM, PPC, and social media conversion rates are similar metrics tracked similarly.
To Wrap It Up
Knowing how to conduct and improve your business approach on social media is important for a successful journey. Understand and keep track of your social activity by using these metrics to improve customer experiences!
Baldwin Jackson is a successful digital marketer with expertise in search engine optimization and content marketing. The perfect balance of his analytical ability and creative thinking is what sets him apart from other practitioners in the digital marketing realm. He has helped a lot of small and medium-sized businesses in crafting their digital marketing strategies that are not only cost-effective but delivers results as well.
Baldwin is also a proud father of two kids and a Sports enthusiast. When he is not working, you will find him watching ESPN and the NFL network. He has been able to get an amazing package on his favorite channels from Buytvinternetphone.com
