What measurements should you be measuring in social media?

Each platform has its own measurements, and each brand will have some unique measurements it deems importatn. But, there are some general analytics that every brand should be looking at for the core platforms. With each platform, I have included the platform, the list of analytics measurements as well as the tools I use/suggest to collect that data. One note, this is just the details for non-paid ROI. Advertising (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc) should be tracked as well, but that data is unique and will vary much more depending on the brand strategy. The following criterion is specifically for organic and viral clicks, traffic and audience build:

Facebook – Facebook insights, Google Analytics

  • Total number of fans (likes vs unlikes included)
  • The number of people participating with the page (% of fans), organic and viral
  • The number of people that see the content because the fans (visibility to non fans)
  • The increase or decrease in conversation about the page (%)
  • Total consumption of the page (clicking on content)

Twitter – Hootsuite, Crowdbooster, Google Analytics

  • Followers of the brand
  • Clicks on links the brand sends out
  • Retweets and mentions of the brand publicly
  • Use of a brand hashtag (if applicable)
  • The top people who are talking about the brand

Blog – WordPress, Feedburner, Google Analytics

  • Subscribers to the blog
  • Shares (accross all channels) of the posts
  • Views and visitor count (repeat and unique)
  • Cross links to the site

Youtube – Youtube insights, Google Analytics

  • Video views (partial and to completion)
  • Subscribers (gain vs lost)
  • Likes vs dislikes, shares, favorites and comments
  • Results on clicks through to the website from the video

Instagram – Statigram, Hootsuite, Google Analytics

  • The number of shares of our instagram through outside platforms
  • The comments and likes on our images
  • Traffic to the website from shared links
  • Followers of the brand

LinkedIn – LinkedIn Analytics, Google Analytics

  • Follower count
  • Clicks on the product pages and back to the website
  • Requests or connection builds through LinkedIn
  • Comments or likes on status updates

Pinterest – Pin Reach, Cyfe, Hootsuite, Google Analytics

  • The number of incoming links from pinned images
  • The comments, likes and repins of the content
  • Traffic to the website from Pinterest
  • Followers of the brand

What analytics do you track for each of your platforms? 

Related posts:

  1. Measuring social media can be a pain in the ass.
  2. Dear social media, here’s my wish list…
  3. Open Discussion: Social media measurement, ROI & analytics

Category: Blog Management, Business & Marketing Strategy, Social Media
Tags: ,
  • http://ronamok.com/ ronploof

    Hi Kirsten.

    Two things:
    1) Great list, however something very important is missing from it…the content production that is being published into each channel. There’s a direct correlation between the social media inputs (content) and the social media outputs (subscribers, fans, likes, shares, etc…). For example, if one only produces a single video per year, it’s hard to expect one’s YouTube stats to go up and to the right. Same applies if someone publishes a crappy video every week:-)
    2) After determining what inputs and outputs to track, I like to put them into a custom dashboard to see how they behave over time. By comparing the audience, production, engagement, and reach of each channel, it’s pretty easy to see what content is working and more importantly, what content isn’t. In addition to the raw numbers, the dashboard also contains a living narrative section to capture observations, experiments, results, popular hashtags, company feedback, etc…This document helps the team look back in time to see what was happening at specific points on the timeline.
    If you’re interested, here is a demo Social Media Dashboard that I’ve built using free tools such as Google Docs and a little HTML: http://ronamok.com/smdashboard

    • http://wrightcreativity.com/ Kirsten Wright

      Ron,

      Solid points – but I didn’t discuss content because it is a separate issue and one I kind of (maybe mistakenly?) assumed was a given. But yes, without solid content, all the ROI in the world won’t save you! :)

«
»