The Six Most Important Social Media Engagement Metrics

Social Media Engagement is measured in many different ways. In the end, the goal of Social Engagement Metrics is to show strengths and weaknesses within

your social marketing campaigns. How well your social media efforts perform in these six areas of engagement will determine if you are generating the right ROI from your businesses social media campaigns

1.Applause rate per post

Applause rate per post is easily calculated across social media by dividing the number of Likes (used to be called favorites), FB likes or Google +1s, by the number of social media posts within a given period. For example, for Twitter, say you wanted to calculate the applause rate of your tweets during the past week. First, divide the total number of Likes (favorites) (let’s call it 27) by the total number of tweets you sent out during the week (let’s say 51 for you). So, my applause rate for the past week would be 53%.
As you are looking for solid yet robust metrics, it should be noted that the Applause metric is typically low effort – low impact actions. Applause rate should be considered a superficial, low level of engagement in the sense that it requires little effort on the part of your audience and is likely to have a relatively low impact on your brand.

2.Conversation rate per post

Your conversation rate is defined by the total number of mentions or comments divided by the number of social media posts over a set period. For example, if a person posted ten posts on Instagram in one day and received a total of 50 comments for all the posts combined, your conversation rate would be 5.0.

Conversations are types of actions such as mentions on Twitter and comments on Instagram. Consider the actions a medium level of engagement. These actions take more effort than just a click of a button. After all, if someone is moved enough to think about the post and write a comment or response of some sort, then they are certainly at a higher level of engagement than those in the Applause category

3. Amplification rate

Your amplification rate is the total number of retweets or Facebook shares divided by the number of total social media posts on these platforms. Your amplification rate is perhaps the most important engagement metric as it suggests brand visibility and awareness.

Amplification is BOLD ACTION.  These are actions like shares on Facebook, Retweets on Twitter, or Sharing on YouTube. It is NIRVANA –  the highest level of social engagement. Even though a retweet or a share do not necessarily require much effort as they are just a matter of a click, they are meaningful as social actions. It is your consumer saying – this is interesting or important enough to me that I want to share it with my friends, families, and others.

4. Clicks and Visits

Clicks and Visits identify the traffic your social media activity generates. Keep a close eye on your Google Analytics dashboard and monitor visits for each of the messages you post across your digital platforms. This gives you a good idea of how your business is performing here.  Depending on your marketing goals and the demographics of users you are trying to reach, the number of visits and clicks on links in those posts will define your success.

5. Qualitative metrics

Qualitative metrics refer to comments and feedback that express ideas or issues that customers might be experiencing. While there is no exact measurement here – perhaps the most beneficial social media action a business can take is to consistently listen and respond on social platforms to customers and potential customers.

You will also be able to identify emerging patterns and be very useful when delivering quarterly or annual reports.
Listening is at the heart of social media monitoring and can deliver value by uncovering opportunities and risks. Hearing where, when, and how customers are using products can identify new potential customers and feature requests. By listening, you can find out exactly what your audiences and potential customers think and feel about your brand, products, methods, and team. This is one of the many reasons Social Media is so powerful in business today. It helps connect businesses to communities and communities to brands.

6. Total engagement

Your overall engagement rate on every platform is calculated by the total number of interactions (likes, shares, and comments on Facebook, retweets, mentions, and favorites on Twitter and so on), divided by the total number of posts shared on each platform.
You need to understand these key metrics and how your posts will impact them positively or negatively. Each post you make contributes to your company’s brand awareness strategy and fuels exposure, reinforces benefits, extends the target audience, and can occasionally diminish the brand through messaging posted on these networks.

Action Steps

Take a look at these six metrics with your Marketing, Digital, and Social teams to see if you are meeting goals that matter. In addition, we can further greatly assist you with great social media best practices and custom social engagement metrics designed to fit your company.

Send us a quick note here or call us at (469) 907-1057 to have us help your business grow.