Must-have metrics for your social media monitoring

Social Media Metrics and KPIs are values used by marketing and social media teams to measure the performance of social media campaigns. Social media marketing is a fundamental part of any business, driving visits to a website and converting web users into leads.

Social media teams often use a number of social media channels to increase impressions and reach of marketing messages. This can make it difficult to track the success of campaigns, since the data and results are found in multiple locations. In order for marketing teams to really understand their social media performance, it’s important to measure social media metrics and track results month over month.

These must-have social media metrics and KPIs should combine social channel data with your web analytics data to highlight top performing channels and campaigns, making it easy for teams to optimize social media strategies.

Scroll down further to get inspiration of other top social media marketing metrics you and your team can consider to start tracking the success of the online community your building.

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Guide to Marketing KPIs & Metrics


Social Media Metrics and KPI Examples

Social Media Metric | Twitter Engagement Metrics

Twitter Engagement Metrics

Understand which tweets are most effective in your campaigns.

Social Media Metric  | Twitter Followers Metric

Twitter Followers Metric

Understand the effectiveness of your company’s Twitter page.

Social Media Metric | Facebook Page Like Metric

Facebook Page Like Metric

Understand the effectiveness of your company’s Facebook page.

Social Media Metric | People Talking About This on Facebook Metric

People Talking About This on Facebook Metric

Understand how people are engaging with your page.

Social Media KPI Metric | Facebook Engagement Metrics

Facebook Engagement Metrics

Understand which posts are most effective in your campaigns.

Social Media Metric | Key Social Metrics

Key Social Metrics

How effective is your website at building an audience?

Social Media KPI | Social Followers vs Target

Followers Growth KPI

Social Followers vs Target

Social Media KPI | Social Events

Social Events

Monitor events on your social stream to nurture engagement and grow your audience.

Social Media KPI | Social Traffic and Conversions

Social Traffic and Conversions

The effectiveness of social media campaigns at generating website traffic and goal conversions.

Social Media Metric | Social Shares

Social Shares

Measure the amount of times your content has been shared on social media platforms.

Social Media Metric | Social Followers

Social Followers

Measure the total number of users that are following your account on social media platforms.

Social Media Metric | YouTube Channel Subscribers

YouTube Channel Subscribers

Measure the number of YouTube accounts are following your posts and are receiving your channel updates.

Social Media Metric | Instagram Followers

Instagram Followers

Measure the amount of Instagram users are following your account.

Social Media Metric | Facebook Likes

Facebook Likes

Measure the total number of Facebook users that like your company page.

Social Media KPI | Facebook Ads Campaign Performance

Facebook Ads Campaign Performance

Make sure your message is reaching the right audience by measuring your Facebook Ads campaign performance for the date range of your choice.

Social Media KPI | Facebook Ads CPM and CPP

Facebook Ads CPM and CPP (last 7 days)

Compare cost per impressions and cost per 1000 people reached over the past 7 days from your Facebook Ads.

Social Media KPI Metric | Facebook Ads Impressions and Reach

Facebook Ads Impressions and Reach (last 7 days)

Compare your Facebook Ads impressions with reach over the past 7 days.

Social Media KPI Metric | Facebook Ads Todays Summary

Facebook Ads Today's Summary

Drill down into today's campaign metrics and monitor your Facebook Ads objectives.

Marketing Metric | Social Sentiment

Social Sentiment

Brand Perceptions and Brand Equity.

Social Media KPI | Social Visits and Leads

Social Visits and Leads

The effectiveness of social campaigns at driving visitors and leads to your website.

Social Media KPI | New Followers

New Followers

How many social media followers are your campaigns attracting?

Social Media KPI | Facebook Page Demographics

Facebook Page Demographics

Understand the the makeup of your audience.

Marketing KPI | Social Interactions Metrics

Social Interactions

Measure the engagement levels of your social media campaigns

Social Media Monitoring with a KPI Dashboard

What is a social media metric?

A social media metric is an analytics measure used to determine the performance of a company's or individual's social media activity. Marketers use social media monitoring software as a tool to observe activity on social platforms and gather information about how users are engaging with your brand online.

The challenge facing marketers is that the nature of social conversation is now dispersed, making it difficult to aggregate social conversation and consolidate it in a meaningful view. No single platform has a monopoly on social conversation, which is why getting data from all social is key to understanding the big picture. It's not just conversation, it's the actions that result as part of those conversations.

Tracking social analytics is bi-directional. The end goal of monitoring social media metrics is to use the data acquired in order to improve marketing efforts and pro-actively respond and engage. For example, social media and website presence should be integrated because they drive teach others traffic in addition to engaging your audience differently. Measure things that you can attach meaning to -– things that can help you make informed decisions. Learn about the 12 must-have metrics for your social media dashboard.

It’s important to track social media metrics because they are a good indication of how people are viewing your business, the quality of your content and general interest. Social media metrics illustrate a unique form of brand engagement that CMOs, VPs and managers value. Social analytics is essential to any business and needs to be monitored like any other component of marketing.

How do you measure social media ROI?

Social Media Return on Investment (ROI) is the monetary proof that your marketing efforts are working. According to Social Media Examiner, “Social media ROI is defined as a measure of the efficiency of a social media marketing campaign”.

Tracking social media ROI allows marketers, and businesses in general, know what’s working and what’s not, to improve tactics and properly allocate time and resources. Before you track ROI you need to set goals for the specific social media metrics you want to track. It is important that you have a unique and specific goal for each social media metric.

For example, Twitter ROI can be calculated a number of ways. One being through Bitly. Most marketers are familiar with bitly as a link-shortening tool, but bitly also provides an analytics platform that can help you track the success of the links you place on Twitter. Your target ROI for this metric will be entirely different than your Followers metric.

Social Media ROI = (SM return - SM investment) / SM investment %

To calculate investment, look at the labor cost (time) associated with your social media tools, the monthly or weekly cost of using these tools and services, and your advertising spend. Adding all these costs together will give you your investment.Some of the most important metrics to track social media ROI is Lifetime Value, Average Sale, and Pay-per-click costs because it attaches a monetary value to your social media metrics such as Twitter Followers, Social Traffic and Conversions and Social Visits and Leads. Learn more: Marketing Return on Investment.

Tracking Social Media Metrics on a Dashboard

Dashboards are a great social monitoring tool for business because they create a central location for you to track all your social media accounts and campaigns. Tracking social media metrics allows your marketing team to analyze performance and make real-time decisions based on results. Learn more: social media dashboard.

Social Media Dashboard | Dashboard Example
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Guide to Marketing KPIs & Metrics
