What Social Media Metrics You Should Be Tracking

When it comes to social media marketing, there’s a tendency to create, create, create, with the hope that ‘the more the merrier’. But more doesn’t always equal better, and it doesn’t always equal results.

That’s why it’s really important to measure what you’ve done. Consistently reviewing your social media activity and content output, and the results it has driven, is the best way to make sure your time and money is going to good use. It gives you a better understanding of what your audience resonates with, and gives you a clearer idea of what to focus on in future.

When it comes to content, every brand, influencer or content creator will define success differently. Always think: Why are you creating this content and what are you hoping to achieve?

If your focus is to improve engagement on your Instagram account, review which posts perform the best and look for a common thread. Is there a certain style of imagery that your followers love? A particular video format? Or engaging captions that encourage your audience to leave comments?

Once you know what your goals are, you can work backwards and think about what you’ll be measuring.

The metrics to track

Instagram

• Followers (note: these will fluctuate, which is perfectly normal. You may also find you have periods of high growth and periods where your follower count doesn’t really budge. Again — totally normal. But if you feel as though you’re struggling to grow, take a look back at periods where you’ve seen high growth and see if there was anything you did differently that you could try again)
• Engagement rate per post. You can work this out with this formula: Engagement rate = (interactions / audience) x 100. According to Hootsuite, the global average Instagram engagement rates for business accounts as of October 2022 was 0.54% so if you’re hitting that or higher, you’re doing well
• Likes, comments, saves and shares. Are there certain posts that get more comments or saves than most? What’s being shared? This will give an insight into what is resonating with your audience

You can find this data straight in the Instagram app. Make sure you have a business account on Instagram so you get access to your ‘professional dashboard’. This is a useful tool to use as it breaks down your follower demographics, engagement, and reach.

TikTok

• Followers (how many followers do you have? And where have you seen growth?)
• Views (how many people viewed your video?)
• Likes (how many people liked it?)
• Comments (how many comments did you get? And what was your audience saying?)
• Shares (how many people have shared your video?)

Like Instagram, make sure you have a business account on TikTok. This enables you to access your analytics. You do this by going to your profile and opening the ‘settings and privacy’ tab in the top right corner. Under ‘Account’, choose the ‘Creator Tools’ tab, then select ‘Analytics’.

Facebook

• Page likes and followers (how many have ‘liked’ or followed your page?)
• Engagement (likes, reactions, comments, shares)
• Engagement rate. You can calculate that with this formula: Engagement rate = (total number of engagements / total reach number) x 100
• Link clicks (if you included a link to something in your post, how many people clicked on it?)
• Reach (how many people saw your post?)
• Impressions (how many times did your post show up in someone’s timeline?)

You can find this data straight in the Facebook app, Facebook Creator Studio and your ‘professional dashboard’ (similar to Instagram).

YouTube

• Subscribers (how many people have subscribed to your channel?)
• Watch time. This is the total amount of minutes viewers have spent watching your videos. YouTube pushed videos and channels with higher watch times, as its algorithm assumes it’s engaging. So when people search for the topic your video is on, it’s more likely to feature high up in the search results
• Audience retention. This shows you the percentage of viewers who watch and leave your video at every single moment of the video. Like watch time, YouTube favours videos with high audience retention. It’s also useful to see where viewers drop off (i.e. when they no longer find your video useful or engaging)
• Re-watches. This is the amount of times viewers re-watch certain parts of your video. If there are certain segments of your video that are getting a lot of re-watches, that will help you see what topics your audience engages with most
• Likes, comments, shares
• Traffic sources (where is your audience coming from? Have they found you via the search function on YouTube, or clicked a link that was shared on Facebook, for example?)

You can find all this data in YouTube Studio, plus lots of other metrics.

Pinterest

• Impressions (how many times did your Pin show up on a user’s screen?)
• Total audience (the number of unique users who saw your Pin in a given period)
• Saves (how many people saved your Pin to one of their boards? Note: Saves used to be called ‘Repins’)
• Engagements (the total number of times someone clicked or saved your Pin)
• Pin clicks (how many people clicked on your Pin?)
• Outbound clicks (the total number of clicks to the URL you included in your Pin)

You can find all this data in your ‘Analytics’ tab in your Pinterest account. Make sure you have a business Pinterest account to access this.

You may find that your goals change over time, which is perfectly normal. Social media changes rapidly — trends come and go, behaviours shift and new platforms come and disrupt the landscape entirely (I’m looking at you, TikTok).

Keep reviewing what you’re doing, what’s happening in the world of social media and what you’re trying to achieve. Then pick the best metrics for you and your goals.

Parts of this article are taken from my book, ‘Making Content Work: Tips, tools and templates for your brand or business’. Available now on Amazon, in paperback or Kindle.