Tärkeimmät sosiaalisen median KPI:t, joita sinun tulee seurata

What Are Social Media KPIs? 

Simply put, Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, are defined as specific metrics that you should measure to track social media activity and the fruit of your efforts. In other words, tracking KPIs is a must if you want your social media account to have one of those cute little check marks with a giant number of followers or subscribers.

But how exactly can KPIs help you with growing your online presence? The potential for growth is immense. What KPIs should you track? The ones that will lead you to improvement and success. 

In this article, we will discuss important social media KPIs and how to set the right ones to improve your brand’s social media activity and increase brand awareness. Let’s get to it. 

Understanding the Significance of Social Media KPIs in Digital Growth

Recent research from April 2024 shows that about  62.6% of the world’s population uses social media and spends about 2 hours and 30 minutes on different platforms. Everything underlies this period. So, if you want to extend your online presence to more people, KPIs help you take the proper steps and stay on track with your social media activities. 

At their core, KPIs are practical tools that measure the success of your social media efforts. They provide valuable insights into your social media activity, empowering you to make data-driven decisions and shape future strategies and resource allocations. 

Moreover, as mentioned, KIPs track progress and monitor performance over time, providing you with a clear ROI and showing the value of social media to your business. 

This information enables you to decide whether to invest more time and resources in social media or employ a different strategy.  Additionally, KPIs help you craft or adjust your social media content calendar by giving you direction on what type of content you should focus on. 

Common Categories of Social Media KPIs 

You may have heard some of the most common social media metrics to measure, especially on Instagram or TickTok. There are lots of social media KPIs that we have categorized into different groups, each including several metrics. This variety of social media KPIs and categories measure different aspects of your business and social media efforts. Here they are: 

1. Engagement KPIs (likes, comments, reactions) 
2. Reach KPIs (follower or subscriber growth and impressions)
3. Conversion KPIs (conversion rate and CTR) 
4. Awareness KPIs (visibility and brand awareness) 
5. Customer experience KPIs (evaluating customer satisfaction) 
6. Financial KPIs (measure ROI) 

22 Social Media KPIs You Must Track

Each category mentioned has various metrics you should track if you want to rock your social media world. Most people only track a few common Social media KPIs, such as engagement and reach. However, if you’re going to fill the gap in your social media efforts and not miss a single factor, you should monitor all the factors mentioned below. 

Engagement KPIs 

• Likes/Reactions: This tells you how much your audience enjoys your posts. Lots of likes and reactions mean your content is hitting the spot.

• Comments: Comments are a great way to see how much people engage with what we share. Usually, more comments mean that our posts are working conversations. They also help create a community on social media and bring people together. Plus, comments can tell you a lot about your customers’ mindset.

• Shares: When users share your content and posts, it’s a big deal. It means they find it interesting and valuable enough to share with their friends and family, which also helps you reach more people. One way of increasing your followers is to increase the number of shares your posts can get.

• Saves: When users come across your post, they might save it, which means they find it valuable enough to visit later. This implies you’ve created engaging or informative content that resonates with your audience.

• Mentions: Another element of social media KPIs is mentions. They can track how often people talk about your brand. Naturally, the more mentions you get, the more you know you’re on their minds.

• Profile visit: It’s a good idea to track how many people check out your profile. More visits indicate that your posts, content, and ads drive interest and make people curious about your brand and services.

Reach KPIs

• Impressions: this is an important metric you can measure for your website through Google Search Console and track how often your content appears on results pages. Likewise, the number of times your posts appear on users’ screens and social media is called Impression, which is an important metric to measure. Therefore, high impressions mean your content is reaching more people. If users love your services or product, it also helps extend your audience and increase the number of followers.

• Reach is a social media metric that shows how many unique individuals have viewed media content. For example, if a post has 46,000 reach, it means 46,000 unique people have seen this post. Reach is an excellent way to measure how far your content is spreading.

• Follower Growth Rate: Another metric of social media KPIs is follower growth, which is crucial to observe because, eventually, you want to grow your followers and audience so that more people can know your brand. Steady growth in followers indicates that more people are interested in what you offer.

• Share of voice: it is a marketing metric that compares your brand’s visibility across various marketing channels with that of your competitors. In the context of social media, it measures how much people are talking about your brand compared to your competitors. A higher share of voice indicates that your brand is more prominent in online conversations, which is a good sign for your brand’s visibility and influence.

Note: To enhance your social media efforts, you should conduct competitor benchmarking, which employs an audit and analysis that measures all these metrics for your competitors to see how they are doing.

Conversion KPIs

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): One of the most important social media KPIs you must track is CTR or the number of clicks your posts and links can generate. This metric shows the percentage of people who clicked on your links after seeing your posts. Naturally, a high CTR means your content is compelling and encourages action.

• Conversion Rate: Different brands and businesses can have various desired actions, such as making a purchase or completing a transaction. Generally, conversion rate measures how many people take a desired action after clicking on your links. Most of your social media activities aim to bring high conversion rates, which indicates that your content is effective at driving actions.

• Bounce Rate is one of the most important social media KPIs you should monitor. It tells you how many people leave your profile or website after viewing just one page. Despite other metrics, we are looking for a lower bounce rate, which means your site and profile or content are engaging enough to keep visitors on the post or the page.

• Liidien sukupolvi: As mentioned before, lead generation is another purpose of your social media efforts, providing your audience with informative and practical content. This is one of the metrics you should monitor in social media KPIs. It helps you track how many potential customers you get from social media efforts. Naturally, more leads mean that your content and strategies are attracting interest.

Awareness KPIs 

• Brand Mentions: shows how often people mention your brand on social media. The higher the number of mentions, the higher your visibility and brand awareness.

• Post Reach: Here lies the core concept of reach, which shows how many unique users have seen a specific social media post. If you have a higher reach number, more people will see your posts.

• Sentiment Analysis: This metric of social media KPIs may be underrated, but measuring it goes a long way. Sentiment analysis looks at the tone of the mentions and comments about your brand, whether positive, negative, or neutral. So, positive sentiment is great, while negative sentiment needs addressing.

Customer Experience KPIs 

• Response Time: One of the most important social media KPIs is customer experience KPIs, which measure the quality of your relationship with your customers. Response time tracks how quickly you respond to user inquiries or comments. Naturally, a faster response time makes for happier customers and shows your presence.

• Customer satisfaction score (CSAT): Since your audience includes potential customers, tracking CSAT is essential. It measures customer satisfaction based on their interactions with you, and of course, you want to keep this score high.

• Net promoter score (NPS): A high NPS means you have many loyal and happy customers willing to recommend your brand to others.

Financial KPIs 

• Return on Investment (ROI): it measures the financial return on your social media efforts compared to your investment. A high ROI means your strategies are practical and paying off.

• Cost Per Click (CPC): Social media ads are as important as Google ads. CPC, or cost per click, shows how much you pay for each click on your social media ads, and a lower CPC means your ads are more cost-effective.

How to Establish Effective Social Media KPIs? 

Now that you know what social media KPIs you must track, the natural question arises: how do you set the right KPIs for social media? It may seem intimidating, but understanding what you want to achieve and how to measure that success is a great help in shaping your business vision.  

The following steps will help you to get started: 

1. Outline your objectives

If you want to start your social media activities or enhance an existing one, ask yourself these questions: what are you hoping to accomplish with your social media presence? Do you put your efforts into brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, generating leads, or improving customer engagement? Maybe you want to increase direct purchasing. All in all, clear objectives will guide you in choosing the right KPIs.

2. Know and understand your audience

Another step that helps you determine your social media KPIs is understanding who your audience is and what they care about. Do they like videos and reels, or do they like audio podcasts? Are they more interested in visual content or prefer detailed text-oriented posts? Knowing this will help you focus on the right metrics and create more engaging content.

3. Set Relevant KPIs

Although we covered many social media KPIs, you should always select the ones that align with your objectives. For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, focus on metrics such as total impression, reach, and share of voice. If you want to boost engagement, focus on metrics like comments, likes, and shares.

4. Set SMART Goals 

A practical model for setting goals is SMART goals, which means your goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. To give an example, instead of saying “increase engagement,” aim for something like “increase average post engagement by 35% over the next four months.” That includes specific objectives and a measurable goal. 

5. Assess your current performance 

It’s always good to know where you are starting and where you are heading. Knowing your starting point is essential before establishing new goals. For this purpose, you can analyze your performance data and set realistic and attainable goals accordingly. 

6. Track and refine your KPIs 

Finally, regularly review your social media KPIs to ensure you are on track to meet your business objectives. This will help you be ready to adjust your strategy if something isn’t working as planned. Social media algorithms constantly change, so it’s better to maintain flexibility on your KPIs and social media strategies. 

Common Mistakes with Social Media KPIs and How to Avoid Them

Social media KPIs are valuable metrics to help you measure your success, but sometimes, you’re very likely to fall into traps that can hinder your progress. Understanding these issues and how to avoid them will help you tackle the obstacles and pave the way to achieving your goals. 

1. Missing the bigger picture 

When setting social media KPIs, it’s easy to overlook the broader idea and ultimate goals and get tunnel-visioned. For instance, you may find a small gap in the reach or engagement metrics and stress yourself out, which could be due to external factors like seasonal trends or changes in social media algorithms. Therefore, it’s better to always maintain a bigger picture and long-term goals in mind and avoid perfectionism. 

2. Giving much value to vanity metrics 

It’s prevalent among social media influencers or users to value metrics such as the number of followers, subscribers, or likes. Although these numbers are important to measure and may look impressive, they don’t always reflect actual business growth or engagement. So, it’s best to focus more on metrics directly related to your objectives, like conversion rate, ROI, and engagement rates. 

3. Having unrealistic objectives 

Another pitfall people may fall into is setting unrealistic goals. Of course, ambitious goals are great, but they must be achievable. Try to maintain a realistic vision and set attainable targets to avoid frustration and burnout. One solution is to employ SMART goals, which we talked about earlier. This way, you’ll position yourself for success rather than disappointment. 

4. Disregarding to share the findings and data

Another common mistake in working with social media KPIs is neglecting to share the results of your analysis. It’s critical to communicate effectively with other team members and share your findings with the rest of the group so they can use this information to improve the workflow. 

5. Overlooking qualitative data

Social media KPIs provide practical metrics that measure and bring numbers on a specific scale. While data in numbers are necessary to measure success, qualitative data should also be considered. Details like comments, reviews, and direct messages can provide valuable insight into your online performance. Feedbacks reflect sentimental data that numbers usually fail to capture. Therefore, considering them will significantly help with improving your social media performance. 

How to track social media KPIs

Social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter (X), Ticktok, and Facebook offer native KPI analytic tools for professional accounts. However, they may not cover all your desired KPIs. So, you can use other social media management tools. Here are a few ones to get inspired by: 

• Hootsuite offers insightful information, robust analysis, scheduling, and engagement features. 
• Sprout: known for excellent customer support and thorough reports. 
• Buffer: focused on scheduling and suitable for social media content planners with a user-friendly workspace. 
• Google Analytics: primarily used for website analytics but integrates with social media data for in-depth analysis and comprehensive insights. 

Additional Tips and Advanced KPIs 

We covered almost all the necessary social media KPIs for a successful online presence. Still, if you plan to gain a deeper understanding of your social media efforts, consider tracking these, too: 

• Demographics: provide you with visual information about the age, gender, location, and interests of your audience. As they help you better understand your audience, they can help create content according to the majority of your audience and their preferences. 
• Follower quality: This shows the engagement rate compared to the number of followers or subscribers. Fake followers and scammers are not beneficial for your account. 
• Customer lifetime value (CLVT): total revenue customers generate during their lifetime. 

Wrap up 

From TickTok to Instagram and Twitter, social media platforms are great ways to promote your services and products while providing valuable content for your audience. Social media KPIs and the right metrics help you track your efforts and maintain an effective online presence, increasing sales and revenue and helping your audience live better lives by providing practical and valuable content. Set the right KPIs; nothing can stop you from meeting your business goals.