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"\r\n\r\n\r\nThis post is brought to you by Simply Measured.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPublishing content on the Internet generates reams (or, rather, spreadsheets) of data. Creators like you have access to unprecedented information about how your content is received and acted upon.\r\nAs data gets bigger, more ubiquitous, and more social, you\u2019re right in assuming that at least some of it is important to you and your business. You\u2019re posting regularly and engaged with social media. But are you using it correctly? Getting optimal results for your business? And how, exactly, are you supposed to know?\r\nThe trick is to identify specifically what social data is relevant - and to analyze just exactly what that data means. There are a slew of metrics, tools, and services to help you make sense of your business\u2019 social data, as with any other data you\u2019re managing.\r\nAs a general rule, seek out rates and more nuanced metrics, avoid overemphasizing simple counts and totals. Here, we highlight five of the most important social media metrics you should be tracking - and they\u2019re not just the usual suspects.\r\n\r\n1. Reach\r\nMetric to track: Audience Growth Rate\r\nTracking benefit: Directly connect social media data with business\u2019 profits\r\nRelated metrics: Audience Growth, Total Followers\r\nThankfully, vague aggregated metrics like Facebook\u2019s \u201CPeople Talking About This\u201D are disappearing, replaced by more specific break-out categories. One item you should pay attention to is your Audience Growth Rate. A refinement of New Followers or similar stats, expressed in percent-change over time, the growth rate of your audience depicts your social media momentum.\r\nAudience Growth Rate allows you to evaluate marketing efforts over time, without getting distracted by irrelevant information total followers\u2019 numbers. Compare growth-hacking efforts in your business\u2019 infancy with more sophisticated campaigns you\u2019re using today. What events match up with the highest growth-rate periods in your history?\r\n\r\n2. Engagement\r\n\r\nMetric to track: Average Engagement Rate\r\nTracking benefit: Make engagement numbers meaningful and actionable\r\nRelated metrics: Reach, Overall Engagement, Audience Growth Rate\r\nAs your Audience Growth Rate follows a positive level of growth, you also need to ensure that you\u2019re speaking to the right people - and that those people are listening.\r\nAverage Engagement Rate allows you to check the pulse of your existing network and see how your social media efforts are resonating with this established base. Your average engagement rate compares your posts\u2019 engagement with your overall follower base. Again, numbers like shares, likes, favorites, etc. are great to brag about - and they are informative to an extent. But careful consideration of your audience\u2019s engagement rate lets you highlight your tribe amidst a sea of silent followers.\r\n\r\n3. Acquisition\r\n\r\nAlthough total acquisitions from Twitter and Facebook are far lower than from organic Google search, the Return Visit % demonstrates these network\u2019s unique value to your business.\r\nMetric to track: Visitor Frequency Rate\r\nTracking benefit: Optimize targeting of new and returning visitors\r\nRelated metrics: Click-Thru Rate, Impressions from Social Media\r\nTools like Google Analytics let you track website referral traffic from social media, see what percentage of overall referrals come from social media, and determine the frequency rates of your visitors. This last metric represents the real improvement on standard click-through rates (CTR) numbers.\r\nVisitor Frequency Rate parses viewers into new and return visitors, two particularly valuable groups to understand and target. Return visitor numbers further indicate the depth of engagement and strength of your social networks. New visitors confirm that your more nebulous \u2018reach\u2019 and \u2018audience\u2019 metrics accurately depict meaningful growth.\r\n\r\n\r\n4. Conversion\r\nMetric to track: Assisted Social Conversions\r\nTracking benefit: Directly connect social media data with business\u2019 profits\r\nRelated metrics: Last Click (Direct) Conversions\r\nBeyond getting visitors to your brand\u2019s website and then getting them to return, you should clearly define goals for how you want these visitors to convert into sales or other desired actions. At the same time, incessantly pushing your product is one of the surest ways on social media to lose your audience.\r\nDirect click-conversion metrics might not show the value of your efforts to build trust and influence on social media, but Assisted Social Conversions certainly can. By defining specific conversion goals on Google Analytics and related tools, you can follow visitors referred through social channels and track their conversions over a period of time. Perhaps your witty tweet today won\u2019t make a sale, but you do end up with potential customers more likely to revisit your site. Now you can chart when that rapport pays off for your business.\r\nComparing Assisted Social Conversions with Last Click (Direct) Conversions also identifies which social networks are better at courting your specific customers, and which ones are more suited for sealing the deal.\r\n\r\n5. Activity\r\nMetric to track: Customer Service Savings\r\nTracking benefit: Show impact on business\u2019 bottom line\r\nRelated Metrics: Customer Service Costs, Social Media Posts\r\nGo beyond post counts and content types to connect social media activity with profits. Combine your social media data with other data related to your business, and derive information like Customer Service Savings. Your business\u2019 savings from social media equal the average time to complete traditional customer service, multiplied by hourly cost of customer service. Repeated 100 or 1000 times over, this translates to significant savings for your business.\r\nAvg. Time x Costs Per Hour x Customer Service Inquiries Completed = Savings\r\n(If you\u2019d like to get even more precise, subtract out the costs of answering those inquiries through social media)\r\nThose are social media analytics that can drive strategic planning, expressed in terms any business\u2019 decision makers will understand.\r\n\r\n\r\nDon\u2019t forget some of the core metrics\r\nMetrics to consider: Bounce Rate, Click-Thru Rate, Potential Reach, Influence\r\nTracking benefits: Familiar, Easy to communicate\r\nMetric limitations: Limited ability to inform decisions\r\nIf you\u2019re wondering how some of the buzzword metrics managed to stay off the list so far, it\u2019s because they\u2019re here, relegated to their appropriate, lesser status. Yes, these are some of the most obsessed-over metrics. They\u2019re also some of the least helpful.\r\n\r\nBounce Rate\r\nFor your business\u2019 website, you likely monitor your Bounce and Click-Thru Rates with great care. In terms of social media, however, you should reconsider before basing too many decisions on that data. Social media users have the shortest attention spans on the already disctraction-rich\u00A0Internet. If your bonus is tied to a website\u2019s bounce rate, that\u2019s a problem. However, flightiness of social media referrals who wind up on your site is not necessarily a negative. You\u2019re building awareness and loyalty, not selling a novella.\r\n\r\nClick-Through Rate\r\nWhat about that all-important Click-Through Rate (CTR)? Undoubtedly, this is a metric you\u2019re aware of in terms of websites and pay-per-click (PPC) internet advertising. This data is still certainly important - you clearly want your fans and followers on social media to click on links to your website and other items you post. But, in terms of social media metrics, there are a couple of more nuanced options that will serve your business better in understanding its socially connected customers.\r\n\r\nPotential reach\r\nPotential reach might be the most tantalizing and misleading metric of all. You can tweet at every pop star about Malala during the Super Bowl, and you\u2019ll still never get anywhere close to those gaudy numbers. No, audience growth and engagement stats, while not as overtly impressive, are the true drivers behind your reach or online presence.\r\n\r\n\r\nInfluence\r\nSimilar to \u2018potential\u2019 audience, influence scores are simple, sexy and all-too convenient. Touting themselves as the credit-score equivalent to social media relevancy, services like Klout and Kred distill your online influence into a single number. This can be useful for identifying influencers in your industry, amongst competitors, or within your follower base.\r\nThe problem is, this statistic is so limited (and the algorithm so complicated) that you can\u2019t use this information to drive other meaningful decisions. Maybe you could brag about the impressive scores for accounts you manage, but you\u2019ll risk making yourself look as ridiculous as this company.\r\n\r\nFinal thoughts\r\nAll social media metrics should be viewed through the lens of your overall business goals. Evaluate these analytics on the basis of how you\u2019re doing in pursuit of those goals, and leverage this information to drive decisions about better positioning your brand in the marketplace. Feel free to celebrate your numerical successes along the way - just make sure you\u2019re getting excited about the most meaningful metrics.\r\n\r\nHeader image credit: Chukcha / Shutterstock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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