You may have a good handle on your social media accounts, but have you ever dug into the metrics behind your account? Sure, you can see how many people like or comment on your post; but do you know what reach and engagement are? Understanding how these important social media metrics will allow you to analyze the effectiveness of your content and social media strategy, as well as your brand’s overall performance. The following metrics should be considered when evaluating the success of your social media presence.
Engagement
Engagement is the most straightforward of the metrics. It consists of the number of accounts interacting with your account and posts relative to your total reach. Things that count as engagement may include likes, comments, shares, and mentions.
Examining engagement is essential to understand how your audience perceives you and how well your content does. People are more likely to interact with high-quality content. If you find that your audience is not engaging with your content, it may be that your content is not exciting or eye-catching. To boost engagement on your account, you should post high-quality content that provides value to your audience. Your content may also encourage them to engage in some way by commenting, tagging their friends, or sharing the post; be careful to avoid engagement baiting if you encourage your audience to engage.
Reach
Reach is the number of unique accounts that have seen your content. Tracking reach is essential to understand how many people visit your content and where people see it. Is your content reaching users in your city or somewhere halfway around the world? Knowing how far your content is reaching will help you determine if the content you post is working. It is important not to confuse reach with impressions, which are similar in many ways but have one huge difference.
Impressions
An impression is a post being displayed to a user. The critical thing to know about impressions is that they do not differentiate between the same user seeing the content multiple times or multiple unique users visiting the content once. For example, if your post were shown to one person nine times, your post would have nine impressions. Your post would also have nine impressions if nine different users each saw the post once.
Impressions alone are not a metric you should be focused on. Instead, impressions help determine other vital metrics such as reach—how many unique accounts have seen your content and click-through rate—how many users clicked on your post compared to the total number of impressions.
Click-Through Rate
The click-through rate (CTR) is how many users clicked on your post or content in relation to the number of impressions it receives. CTR is important in determining how well your content performs and your audience’s general interest in your account and content. You should pay careful attention to your CTR, especially on paid campaigns, when ROI is crucial. CTR is a crucial metric when trying to use social media to drive more web traffic and increase online sales. You can increase your CTR by posting high-quality content that leaves your audience wanting more.
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