Social networks: how to measure KPIs?
Over the past decade, the use of social networks has grown exponentially, giving way to new forms of marketing strategies. In 2019, spending on digital marketing officially exceeds that of traditional media. Today, Facebook, LinkedIn, or even Instagram, have an essential role in the marketing campaigns of companies, all sectors included.
What are KPIs?
KPIs are performance indicators that allow you to measure the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. They are represented in the form of figures and are calculated before the launch of a marketing action in order to anticipate the results and determine the return on investment.
Thanks to the KPIs, a company will be able to see if the marketing campaign has reached its objectives and if it has been profitable or not. With this analysis, it will be easier to adapt and modify the campaign in case of unsatisfactory results. The use of KPIs is therefore useful to manage your campaigns as well as your communication on social networks.
How to measure KPIs?
Determine your goals
Before launching into the measurement and analysis of performance indicators, you should first ask yourself what needs they will have to meet. Do you want to increase your visibility, improve your notoriety, increase your sales, boost exchanges with consumers, attract new buyers? To be relevant, the objectives you set must be precise and in line with the company’s overall marketing strategy. According to the criteria you have established, you will be able to determine the most appropriate KPIs to meet your needs.
Customize KPIs
Once you have determined your objectives, you will have to choose which KPIs to use to best meet them. It is not useful to analyze all the KPIs you find, because some of them will not fit your strategy. Choose only the KPIs that are most relevant to your objectives.
Analyze the results
You will then have to ensure a regular and assiduous follow-up in the analysis of the chosen KPIs. This is not a one-time analysis that you do once in a while to make sure that your company has reached its objectives. We are talking about a long-term analysis. The analysis of KPIs should be done monthly or ideally once a week. At the very least, you should analyze your KPIs quarterly so that you can bounce back or revise your strategy if your results are too low or unsatisfactory.
Which KPIs to choose for a social network strategy?
There are two broad categories of KPIs that can be studied. The first is to look at your company’s activity. The second one looks more specifically at the impact of your actions on the market. Many performance indicators are available to you to measure the activity and efficiency of your marketing department. Some will be more relevant than others depending on the industry in which your company operates. You can then measure:
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The number of followers
The number of people who view, comment and subscribe to your account is crucial to the visibility of your business. The more people active on your account, the better! Indeed, the people who subscribe to your account will potentially share your publications with friends or acquaintances which will allow your brand to gain the trust of consumers. If the number of subscribers increases, you can consider that your campaigns are working well. Conversely, if it decreases or remains constant, it is not a good sign.
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Click-through rate associated with bounce rate
The click-through rate is the number of times a follower clicks on a link featured on one of your publications. If this rate is high, it shows that the proposed content is interesting and arouses the interest of your followers. This rate is even more relevant when associated with bounce rates. The bounce rate is the percentage of people who, once redirected to the website, leave the page without visiting it. By determining the bounce rate, you will be able to see how many people take the time to look at the content of your site via your social networks. You can then compare it to other web traffic sources to determine the return on investment on social media. You can, for example, compare the bounce rate from social networks with the bounce rate of people who arrived on your site directly after a Google search or a paid ad. If the bounce rate from social networks is lower than from other traffic sources, you are targeting the right audience on social networks.
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Commitment rate
On a publication on social networks, we tend to follow the number of comments, shares or “likes”. This is indeed an important criterion to see if your subscribers are interested in what you post, but you still need to analyze these numbers accurately! Receiving 30 comments for an account with 10,000 subscribers is not a very satisfactory result. However, this same data for 200 subscribers will be more relevant. To have a complete analysis of your results, you will have to calculate the engagement rate. This rate will tell you the ratio between the number of comments, shares or likes received, compared to the number of your subscribers.
Why is KPI analysis so important?
The key performance indicators will allow you to determine what obstacles stand between you and your goals. Once you have understood and studied these obstacles, you can begin to find solutions and ways to improve in order to reach your objectives. You will then be able to reorganize your strategy in order to maximize your results. Thanks to the KPIs, you will see if your strategy is effective or if it is not working at all. If it is not working, what factors need to be modified to make it more relevant.
Customized support for your social networks
Habefast advises and supports you in managing your marketing strategy on social networks. We are at your disposal to answer your questions and help you set goals in correlation with your business needs. Do not hesitate to contact us by phone or directly via our website.