What Social Media Metrics REALLY matter for my Kingston business?

What social media metrics should I be tracking?
Which metrics are important for my business?
How important are likes and followers?

These are some of the most common questions we get about metrics. In this post, we’ll take you through the most basic metrics that every company should be paying attention to based on their goals. These are generalized across social media channels. The names of key metrics can vary from one channel to another, but we’ll cover the core measurements that you’ll want to stay on top of for your Key Performance Indicators, goal setting and campaign tracking.

The answer to this question comes down to one thing: does the metric I am analyzing help me make decisions that move me towards reaching my business goals?

When you see the metric, do you know what you need to do to progress towards your business goals? If you don’t, you’re probably looking at a vanity metric.

What is a vanity metric?

Vanity metrics make us feel good when they increase, yet they often leave us feeling quite clueless on an overall direction and lack true meaningful action from our audience.


Examples: Likes, Follows, Clicks

What social media metrics should I focus on instead?

Understanding which metrics you should be paying attention to is dependent on the goals you are looking to reach with your social media presence.


The most common goals of social media accounts for business:

  • I want to raise brand awareness
  • I want to attract potential leads 
  • I want to generate sales

If you want to raise brand awareness, you should focus on these metrics:

  • Impressions
  • Reach
  • Views
  • Shares
  • Mentions
  • Comments
  • Website traffic
  • Search Volume Data
  • External Links

If you want to attract potential leads, you should focus on these metrics:

  • CTR (Click-through-Rate)
  • Conversion Rate
  • Time to Conversion
  • CPC (Cost per Click)
  • Time on Lage
  • Cost per Lead
  • Lead Generation by Channel

If you want to generate sales, you should focus on these metrics:

  • CPC (Cost per Conversion)
  • Cost per Customer Acquisition
  • CTR (Click-through Rate)
  • Bounce rate
  • Customer Satisfaction
  • Net promoter score

The best way to identify and track these social media metrics is to ask yourself:

  • Vanity Metrics: How many people followed, liked, commented, downloaded or listened to this piece of content?
  • Brand Awareness Metrics: How resonant is this content, and how often is it shared with others?
  • Lead-Generation Metrics: How often does content consumption result in a lead?
  • Sales Metrics: Did we make any money from this content?

     Identifying which metrics you need to focus on helps provide a clear picture of what is needed to move forward with your social media efforts. It is important to keep in mind that these metrics will often grow together. The average person needs to see your content 7 times before taking action. Increased brand awareness will give you the audience you need to convert to leads. Those leads will take time before they become clients/customers. While the most important metrics are dependent on your goals, they should all be considered for what they are worth when developing your social media strategy.

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