How do you know if your social media posts are working?
Whether you’re on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, there are some useful numbers to keep your eyes on. These will tell you whether you are getting the results you want from your efforts on social media.
Where to find them
The first thing to do is to make sure you have a business account (or business page on Facebook). This gives you access to loads of useful data.
On most platforms, you can see “Insights” under each post, if you are logged into your account. In addition, you can find all of your data in one place.
On your Facebook page, look for the “Insights” tab.
On Instagram, tap the 3 lines in the top right corner of your profile.
On Twitter you can log into your analytics on your desktop. Search for “Twitter Analytics” to get started.
Here are the 6 numbers I like to watch.
1. Impressions
This is the number of times your post has been seen. This is similar to “reach,” - however reach is the number of people who have seen your post. If your post gets a lot of engagements, (see below), it will be shown to more people and you will get more impressions.
2. Engagements
The number of reactions, comments, and shares your post has received. The higher the better for this one! Sharing content that your audience is interested in will get more engagements. The best “quality” engagements are comments and shares - this takes more effort that clicking “like” and shows your audience is more interested.
3. Engagement Rate
This is a really useful number to monitor, because it allows you to compare results over time. You can calculate engagement rate in different ways, but I use number of engagements divided by reach (number of people who have seen your post) as a percentage. If your engagement rate is going up, then your are hitting the mark with your content and your audience are enjoying it!
4. Post Clicks
The number of times someone has clicked on your post. This is another way of measuring engagement. A click could be a reaction, or it could be click to view a photo, read more of your caption, or to visit your website.
5. Click Rate
This tells you the percentage of people who clicked on your post after seeing it. It’s calculated by number of clicks divided by number of impressions as a percentage. Again, this is a great way to see how engaged your audience is with your content. By comparing different posts, you can see which type of content your audience likes best.
6. Link Clicks
If you want your audience to visit your website, landing page or Etsy Shop, this is the number to watch! Not all of your posts will include a link, but for those posts that do, you will want to monitor how many people actually clicked. You can calculate the Link Click Rate in the same way as the click rate (see above).
By keeping an eye on these numbers, you can make sure your content is right for your audience and fine-tune it to get the best engagement. People who engage with you on social media are building a relationship with you, and so they are more likely to become clients or customers.
If you would like more help with your social media strategy, get it touch!