Social Media Analytics Explained - Everything you need to know
Social media analytics can be confusing, but truly understanding them is an essential part of any content strategy, as it allows you to know exactly what’s working, and what might need changing up.
Nowadays, we’re lucky that a lot of social media scheduling tools offer a plethora of analytic tracking features, enabling you to dive deep into what content is serving your audience and what could be improved.
At Bloom Creative, all our social media clients can choose to receive a monthly analytics report.
But, when I first started sending these reports out, clients were a little bit confused as to what the numbers actually meant until I ran through it with them during our monthly catchup.
This reaffirmed what I’ve always thought about numbers, statistics and analytics…
Numbers are not that useful when staring at you on a page; you’ve got to know how to take action from them.
With so many different social media platforms, all using their own terms and phrases, it can be difficult to navigate what actually matters to your business.
Fans vs Likes vs Followers
Comments vs Replies
Retweets vs Reposts vs Reshares
It’s a minefield!
Social media analytics explained
Below, I’ve broken down some of the most common analytics collated by social media scheduling tools:
Audience growth
Most commonly known as followers, but some platforms call them Fans, Subscribers, Audience or Page Likes
Basically, anyone who has hit that all-important Follow me button on your socials.
Fans and followers
The total number of people who currently:
Like your Facebook Page.
Follow your Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and TikTok accounts.
New fans and followers
The number of new people who:
Liked your Facebook Page.
Followed your Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and TikTok accounts.
Reach
Reach measures how many people have seen your content/page/post. It’s a good one to track if your goal is brand awareness - the higher the number, the more eyes have been on your post.
Below are the common types of reach you can track for different platforms:
Page/profile reach
The combined number of people who have seen any content from or about your pages or accounts.
For example, posts, mentions of your pages, check-ins to places and ads.
Post reach
The number of people who saw your post(s).
Note: Some platforms allow you to see the combined reach of all your posts from a selected time period. But, you can also usually see the reach of individual posts.
Impressions
Impressions measure how many times your content was viewed.
Don’t confuse it with reach, which is how many people have seen it. Impressions also take into account if one person saw your content multiple times.
Again, impressions are good to track if your goal is brand awareness, and it’s also good for building a relationship with your audience, as you can see that your content was memorable or had an impact if someone has viewed it multiple times.
Page/profile impressions
The number of times any content from or about your pages/accounts was displayed on a person’s screen.
For example, posts, check-ins, ads, feed stories and more.
Post impressions
The number of times your posts have appeared on someone’s screen.
Engagement
Different platforms offer users different types of engagement with your content. But overall, engagement is anything that the user actively chooses to do with your content beyond simply viewing/reading/watching.
For example, a like, a comment or a share with their friends.
Monitoring your engagement is always important, especially if you’ve already built a following and are now ready to build a stronger relationship with your audience and convert them to customers.
Engagement rate
Engagement rate is a measure of how much your audience actively engages in your content (for example, a like, comment or share) compared to your reach or audience size.
It’s a handy stat to look at because while 10 likes on a post may not sound like much if you’ve got 50 followers, 20% of them are actively engaging with your content.
Average engagement rate
Engagement rate is a measure of how much your audience actively engages in your content, for example, a like, comment or share. The average engagement rate takes an average from all your accounts.
Post reactions and likes
The number of reactions on Facebook and LinkedIn and the number of likes on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
Post comments and replies
The number of comments on posts on Facebook, LinkedIn and TikTok and the number of replies to tweets on Twitter.
Post link clicks
The number of clicks on the links in your posts.
Page clicks
The number of people who clicked on a post. For example, if they tapped on a photo or played a video.
Other honourable mentions:
Page/Profile visits
The number of people who have visited your page/profile.
Website clicks
The number of people who have tapped on your website link in your profile.
Video plays
The number of times your video(s) has been played.
Confused about which analytics you should be monitoring for your business?
Book a 1:1 session with me where we go through your current social media goals and create a plan of action of which analytics you should be tracking.
MORE CONTENT:
