How To Track the Success of Social Media

We all know by now (at least, we should) that social media is imperative for a small business.

Social media is a powerful tool for small businesses to connect with customers, build brand awareness, and drive growth. But how can you be sure your efforts are paying off? Well, it could depend on your goal.

Here’s a guide to help you track success through social media and uncover your goal:

1. Set Clear Goals

- Define Objectives: Before you can track success, you need to know what you’re aiming for. Are you looking to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, generate leads, or boost sales? Set clear, measurable goals for your social media efforts.

2. Utilize Social Media Analytics Tools

- Platform Analytics: Most social media platforms offer built-in analytics tools. Facebook Insights, Instagram Insights, and Twitter Analytics provide valuable data on your audience, engagement, and content performance.

- Third-Party Tools: Tools like Hootsuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social offer more in-depth analytics and can track performance across multiple platforms in one place. Your strategist should have several tools in place to track varying analytics in depth.

3. Key Metrics You Can Track

- Engagement Rate: This includes likes, comments, shares, and saves. High engagement indicates that your content resonates with your audience.

- Reach and Impressions: Reach is the number of unique users who see your content, while impressions are the total number of times your content is viewed. These metrics help you understand how widely your content is being seen.

- Follower Growth: Tracking your follower count over time shows how your audience is growing and whether your social media strategy is attracting new followers. (this is a popular goal but your strategist should provide realistic processes)

- Website Traffic: Use tools like Google Analytics to track how much traffic is coming to your website from social media. Look at metrics like page views, bounce rate, and conversion rate.

- Lead Generation and Sales: Track the number of leads and sales generated through social media campaigns. This can be done using UTM parameters, landing pages, and e-commerce tracking.

4. Monitor Customer Feedback

- Social Listening: Use tools like Mention or Brandwatch to monitor what people are saying about your brand on social media. This helps you gauge customer sentiment and respond to feedback.

- Reviews and Comments: Pay attention to reviews and comments on your social media pages. Positive feedback can be a sign of success, while negative feedback can highlight areas for improvement. Take both into account when pivoting any strategies!

5. Regularly Review and Adjust Your Strategy

- Monthly Reports: Create monthly reports to review your social media performance. Compare your results against your goals and look for trends or patterns.

- Adjust Tactics: Based on your analysis, adjust your social media tactics. If a particular type of content performs well, create more of it. If certain times of day yield better engagement, schedule your posts accordingly. This can change daily!

There are many ways you can track success of social media for your small business. The key is focusing on your realistic goals and being open to changing strategies as needed while keeping your mission and values in place.

Need help tracking and optimizing your social media success? We are here to help!