These days measuring the success of your social media engagement is about so much more than post likes and page follows. A modern social media strategy builds an online community with a highly engaged audience. Your social media account should:
- Connect with customers by sharing a little about yourself or your business behind the scenes.
- Share knowledge that helps them and is relevant to your business.
- Get to know customers through conversation in comments or surveys.
This style of authentic engagement helps build the know, like, and trust needed to establish your business as the best in its field.
Whilst we often get a feel for how we are going on socials, my clients ask:
- How can we measure our social media engagement to check results?
- Which ones are important?
- What converts lurkers on the account to clients putting money in the bank for us?
Think about how you use social media yourself
My answer is to think about how you use social media yourself. It’s easy to feel you are winning as a business when your post gets a lot of likes. But think about the last few posts you liked on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other social media platform, especially posts from businesses, not friends.
- Did you read them in full?
- Did you follow up by checking out their page and following it?
- Would you recommend that business to a friend?
- Do you even remember the name of the business?
Most of us don’t. So, that means most people liking your post probably don’t either. Unfortunately, there is not always a lot of value in the simple like. The new metrics you need to measure and strive for are:
- Saves
- Comments
- Shares
Saves – Tell the algorithm that your post is valuable content
A save indicates that a user found your post so good they want to go back to it later. The social media algorithm wants to share valuable, enjoyable, popular content to keep people on its platform. More saves mean more credibility and higher algorithm value. If the algorithm knows followers find your content worth saving, it will keep showing your post.
Comments – Opportunity for direct conversation
Comments on your post also help the algorithm know your value. They also indicate that a follower is moving further into your sales funnel. A comment is your chance to talk directly with them. It’s like they have stepped into your store and started a conversation! Don’t miss the opportunity.
Shares – Expand your direct reach
A share puts your post in front of a whole new audience. If you have a following of 1000 people and 5 of them share with their followers, your reach can exponentially multiply very quickly, especially if a few of their followers feel the same way. This love for your content also increases your algorithm authority.
Let your social media engagement grow organically
A small reach with a highly engaged audience will grow slowly and organically in the right way. One thousand likes coming from a trending hashtag might feel great, but if none of them engages further, they will forget you as soon as they see the next post they like. Twenty new followers from one post might feel like winning the lottery, but who are they? Are they potential customers or other businesses hoping you will like them back?
A big business starts small
Richard Branson
Suppose you have 200 serious and engaged followers who are genuinely interested in your business and get likes as well as saves, comments or shares from a post. In that case, you have the beginnings of a convertible community that will organically grow. Staying in front of them, showing up regularly and being consistent means they will become your ambassadors. Imagine if just half of your followers recommend you to one friend looking for a business like yours?
How to measure social media engagement success
Are you set up as a business? Some platforms, like Instagram, only show you your metrics if you are a business, so ditch that personal account and take the next step for your business. It’s free!
When reviewing your social media engagement, you want to consider two types of metrics: individual post and overall growth.
Individual Post Success
Every post has a purpose and a related target metric to review. Often this is determined by your call to action, the action you wish clients to take when they see your post. Examples include:
- ‘Tag a friend who needs these in their life’ – is seeking growth by getting people to suggest the post to their friends. For this post – success is measured by number of comments and the number of non-followers who saw it.
- ‘Check out my new blog’ – is trying to get the audience to click through to their website. Success is about the percentage of viewers who click through to the website.
- ‘Save if you think this is valuable’ – is seeking to show the social media platform that they create valuable content. Success will be a high percentage of saves.
Overall Growth
In my first year of business, I grew my average number of engagements from 7% to 17%. I still try and double my engagement numbers every six months, and my big goal is an average of 30% engagement on every post.
Susie Basiaco – The Social Nest
At the end of the day, what most businesses seek through social media is to grow their highly engaged community. Greater reach and greater engagement translate to increased sales. Often the easiest way to view month on month increases is to run the reports monthly and enter them into a spreadsheet. This way, you can easily see at a glance where you began and how much you have improved. Consistent and sustainable engagement growth over time is always usually the best target.
To discuss growth targeted to help your business, contact me now to book a Personalised Consultation (prices start at $100).
