Social Media Analytics for You, Your Boss, and Your Company

One never knows what will be successful on social media that is why many people who eventually achieve over a million followers and countless engagement on their social media profiles begin by applying trial and error to their posts. This is how to test what works, analyze the data, adjust and start all over again. For every goal, there should be a related metric to track its progress. Social media analytics allow one to understand what is working and what is not. This will shape the social media strategy into a successful one.

For businesses, social media analytics are crucial. Businesses are usually oriented on providing a product or service to an audience. Social media is a worldwide pool of one’s audience and by implementing social media analytics, the business can better understand that audience for its product’s success as well as its social media success. By having social media analytics reports, a business is able to visually see the impact social media has on it. This is also true when wanting to keep an eye and have a leg up on competitors. Everyone is on and interacting on social media. It would be a giant missed opportunity to not take that data and provide social media analytics to keep improving.

On completion of one’s social media analysis, one should compile all the information acquired in reports showing results so that the social media worth is proved, and budget necessities are justified accordingly. These reports should be targeted to yourself, your immediate boss, and your company’s management team. With all the data acquired, its presentation is key to conveying the meaning desired and not overwhelm anyone. These reports should communicate the five key metrics should be included: engagement, awareness, share of voice, ROI, and customer care.

The most detailed report, believe it or not, is made for yourself. This is because you are the person in charge of the social media strategy and its execution, therefore, you are the person who needs to understand the ins and outs of the organization’s social media performance.

The higher up the position the report is meant for, these metrics will be shown as in the big picture without the details.

Social media performance cannot be calculated overnight, it is a process. However, to keep a personal track of the day-by-day performance the following metrics should be included in the daily reports for yourself.

· Number of posts

· Net followers gain or loss

· Number of likes

· Post reach

· Number of comments

· Number of shares

· Number of mentions

· Number of page/profile views

· Number of clicks on post links

· Number of clicks on the link in your bio

· Number of story views

· Number of video views

· Best performing kind of posts

In weekly reports for your immediate boss, a more complete picture should be provided. However, it is important to keep the report simple and easy to follow. This means visualizing the important data so that many figures can be included in one easily understandable graph or chart. In this report one should do the following.

· Identify short term social media goals.

· Display the data metrics that communicate engagement, awareness, share of voice, ROI, and customer care as an overview of the week broken down for each platform used.

· Provide an insights wrap up.

· Tie this week into the social media strategy.

· Communicate what will be done going forward.

It is important to remember that the higher up the position the report is written for, the more concise it must be. Tailoring these reports to one’s audience is extremely important to remain valuable and successfully communicate the points intended. The monthly reports for the company’s management team are focused on a wider view that encompass the key learnings and monthly takeaways of the social media performance. In this report one should include the following.

· Identify social media goals.

· Show an overview of data metrics over the month with five illustrations to represent each data metric category: engagement, awareness, share of voice, ROI, and customer care.

· Provide an insights wrap up.

· Celebrate successes.

· Arrive at compelling conclusions.

· Provide key learnings and monthly takeaways.

· Tie the month into the social media strategy.