There seems to be a lot of talk lately about what are metrics in social media and how to measure them. I have taken a crash course in analytics the last few months and have discovered some of the key metrics you should look at in judging success.
The metrics for Facebook are:
- Likes – How many people clicked the Like button
- Shares – how many people clicked the share button
- Impressions – How many people potentially saw your post
- Edge Ranking (Engagement Rate) – a algorithm by Facebook that takes into account, impressions, shares, likes, etc of posts and comes up with a percentage score.
- Comments – how many people commented on the post
- Clicks – How many people clicked the link that was in your post
The metrics for Twitter are:
- ReTweets – how may people retweeted your content
- Replies – The number of people who replied to you
- Direct Messages – The number of people who sent you a Direct message
- Clicks – How many people clicked your link
- Impressions – The potential number of people who saw your post.
Google+
- Stay tuned because your guess is as good as mine
Note one metric missing. Its sales. While it is important and everyone is in the business to make money, Sales should be a secondary goal. If you look at some of the sales funnels on the net, you will see Social is usually at the top of the funnel. Therefore it takes longer to make a sale then with other forms of media.
The important thing is to figure out which one or ones of these are most important to you and your business. I have found out every company is different and you will need to adjust the mix as needed. This is determined if you want branding, a new product launch, if you are a service or consumer good.
For 102, I will go more into what each metric means and how you can apply it to the business. In 201 I will go into how to create a spread sheet and judge which posts are working and which are not. Remember you should experincment in social and have fun with it!
