Social networking platforms can provide a wealth of data about your potential customers.
You might have started your campaign on multiple social media platforms. But only some social media marketing programs work consistently. So tracking social media analytics is critical to achieving success.
Almost every minor detail can be tracked using the right analytics tools. Set your social media metrics, use tools for data analytics, and measure success.
This is a brief guide on how you can accurately track your social media analytics.
How to Track Social Media Analytics In 12 Steps
-
Set S.M.A.R.T. Goals–
- S stands for specific
- M for measurable
- A for attainable
- R for Relevant
- T for Time-bound
-
Develop Brand Awareness
-
Understand Customers
-
Drive More Traffic
-
More Brand Mentions
-
Generate Leads
-
Boost User Engagement
-
Improved Customer Service
-
Decide Which Metrics Matter To You Most
- To gauge awareness, metrics like reach, volume, amplification, and exposure are relevant.
- Metrics like replies, comments, and retweets are essential to determine engagement.
- You have to track conversions, URL shares and clicks to drive website traffic.
- To trace fans and advocates, you should track the number of contributors.
- To measure brand mentions, you need to know whether your brand name is mentioned in customers’ conversations about the relevant industry.
- The number of new users tweeting with related hashtags
- Demographic information, including the location and gender of the target audience
- The daily tweet volume
10. Check In Regularly
Regular monitoring of SMM campaign performance lets you understand the upcoming demands. As a result, you can map your marketing strategy and take proper measures. You can review your analytics to identify your major competitors and evaluate your actions thoroughly. This approach will help you avoid the mistakes made by your competitors. You can improve in particular areas to beat your competitors. A daily review of your social media activities is helpful in several other ways.- Measure the results of your communications– As you communicate through social media, you may use analytics to determine the effectiveness of daily conversations.
- Improve your content ideas– You can learn about industry trends by reviewing social media platforms regularly. It will help you find innovative and fresh ideas for content. Your competitors’ social media posts can become your source of inspiration.
- Manage brand reputation efficiently- What are your customers saying about your brand? You cannot know it without keeping an eye on social platforms. Based on the SMM report, you can respond to customers quickly. Let customers feel that you always care for them.
- Finding influencers on social media- This is another reason to analyze social media campaigns regularly. Influencers are vital in reaching your brand’s name to the targeted audience. You can identify influencers in your industry and establish a connection with them. These professionals also help you increase conversion rates by winning consumers’ trust.
11. Pay Attention To Spikes And Drops
The number of impressions is an invaluable metric for evaluating social media marketing activities. It refers to how many social media users have noticed your posts and updates. Most popular social networking sites have analytics to show the impressions your updates receive. For instance, if you are running a Twitter marketing campaign, you’ll have to click on the Tweets tab to find Twitter Analytics. Measure the increase or decrease in the number of impressions on certain days. But, this impression metric has a different name on other networks. So, if it is a Facebook marketing campaign, you have to check the number of people reached. Again, in the case of Pinterest marketing, you can check Pinterest analytics by reviewing the number of repins. However, impressions and followers only have value if you get little engagement. Thus, there should be higher engagement if you find an increase in these metrics. When you receive more likes, retweets, comments, and repins, it indicates your followers’ interest in your content. You can replicate the technique that has provided the most desirable results. If the network enables you to publish different types of content, you need to identify the one that drives the most engagement.12. Use The Right Tools
Use the right social media analytics tools to capture performance-based and campaign-focused metrics. You can then measure your metrics with these tools. Some social networking platforms also provide you with analytics. You can use advanced third-party tools for this. These tools implement different analysis methods like- Data mining
- Traffic evaluation
- Hidden pattern analysis
- Data preprocessing
- Natural Language Processing
10 Metrics To Track in Your Social Analytics Tool
Data is always at the forefront, whether it is SMM or other digital marketing campaigns. But, the most challenging thing is identifying what information is important to you. To overcome this channel, you need to set up your social media metrics. Every metric is relevant to your SMM goal. Before learning about these metrics, you can create an Excel spreadsheet for data tracking. It will help you share your analytical data with your team. Add columns, graphs, and charts to the sheet for metrics. You can build a strong foundation for your campaign by determining metrics. In addition, you can easily track data using analytical tools.Social Media Content Metrics
Once your content has been shared on social media, it is time to evaluate its performance. SMM experts know that more than 70% of social posts are visual (images and videos). 50/50 is the golden rule for content developers. You’ll need to learn how to break down the original content you posted by you, your competitors, and industry experts. You can also analyze the reshared posts created by influencers. Besides, it is essential to focus on other types of content, including guest posts, reviews, and infographics. By sharing compelling content, you can draw the attention of several influencers and create positive sentiments among potential customers. Work on your spreadsheet and track the social media content across all platforms. Pay attention to- Video and image posts
- Original content
- Text-based content
Social Media Listening
Social listening is a technique to help you identify people’s comments and conversations about your brand. The most important thing is to understand customer sentiment by analyzing conversions that may be positive, negative, or neutral. Conversation monitoring and analysis enable you to determine the best way to respond to your target audience. Analytics tools make it easy to address your customers’ pain points and give a response at the right time. So, what are the most important things if you choose social media listening as a metric? From brand mentions to neutral sentiments, everything should be tracked.Social Media Audience
How do you know that your content is engaging your target audience? For instance, the age range of your target customers is 40 to 50 years, and they should be from New York City. But your Instagram account has attracted several young users from around the world. It leads to an audience alignment problem. It means that you have not been successful at attracting the right people with social media content. Sometimes, bots cause an issue. They only temporarily increase your engagement and do nothing beneficial for you. If social media platforms find that you use bots for engagement, they will penalize you. This is why you set audience metrics and track relevant data so that you engage only real followers (not bots). The most critical data that you should track include:- Gender-related percentage
- The newly acquired followers
- Total number of followers
- Accounts you have followed
- Location and age group of the target audience
Metrics On Social Media Posting Time
Which is the best time to post content on social media platforms? When does your audience engage most with social media content? Have you been able to maintain consistency in your social media posting activities? Tracking these metrics will help you figure out the perfect time to publish content. You may also detect gaps that you must fill. In most cases, marketers like to post content on relevant and trendy topics. While tracking time-related data, you need to focus on- The days that have engaged the highest number of social media users
- Seasonal and timely posts
- The number of posts in a week
- The best time to engage the audience
Competitor’s Performance Metrics
Both small and big organizations use social media for promotional purposes. Are they performing better than you? Do they have weaknesses? It is imperative to look at your competitors’ activities while running SMM campaigns. However, you don’t need to rely solely on your findings. Your competitors may have tried their best to achieve your social media campaign goals. It does not mean that their tactics will be effective for your business. Still, you can rely on the information obtained through meticulous research. It will help you find fresh ideas and better strategies. To track your competitors on social platforms, you have to determine the strengths and weaknesses of your strongest competitors. It is also possible to find new business opportunities. Keep an eye on your competitors’ social media accounts to understand how they compete. Check their regular posts and ads just as other users do. Understand the type of content they share regularly.Social Media Traffic
Have you received traffic from social media platforms? Do social visitors increase the bounce rate? If these visitors leave your website shortly and return to the social site, it raises the bounce rate. It happens when your website content and digital messages do not align with each other. With a slight adjustment, you can solve the problem. You can persuade your social media users to take the right action. Their actions will affect your site, form submissions, and product pages. Advanced tools help you track social media users activities after clicking on your link and visiting your site. You will learn whether the user has navigated to other pages and submitted the online form. Besides, you also learn social media analytics trend and tweak your strategies accordingly. You need to calculate page views, bounce rate, average session duration, traffic source (mobile and desktop), and standard social media links for traffic data monitoring. Pick the right tools to track data on social media traffic.Social Media Engagement
Engagement is one of the most important metrics to evaluate social media marketing performance. Some businesses do not have the goal of attracting more likes. Still, social media engagement metrics provide them with a clear picture. To have explicit knowledge about engagement level, you need to count the- Total number of engagements based on likes, retweets, shares, comments, and link clicks
- Increase or reduction in the engagement rate
- Number of messages you have received from social users
Social Media Branding
Branding metrics are highly significant in measuring the alignment of your online posts and your brand. Have you chosen consistent captions for spreading the brand voice? Do your social media posts show your brand name? Images shared on social platforms should also use the same filters. Tracking your branding information is part of a social media marketing campaign. So, ensure you have not violated branding guidelines while posting on social platforms. You’ll need to update your posts regularly. Evaluate your social media branding activities to ensure proper alignment of your posts and branding guidelines. For example, you may have posted social media content with your abbreviated brand name. But, in the next month’s post, it shows the full name of your brand. Figure out this inconsistency in your social media branding campaign. Maintaining a consistent rhythm with social media content is highly important.SMM Campaign Management
Keep track of how you manage your social media campaign. The most significant thing to identify is the social media campaign manager. Besides, you should track-- The size of your social media marketing team.
- The efficiency of the person who created the report
- Frequency of reporting
- The right team size, depending on the number of goals to be achieved
- Potential PR problems and the way they are managed
- Average Response Time