Social Media Analytics Made Easy: A Guide for Business Owners

Social media platforms are incredibly large, hosting a place for people all over the world to share ideas/opinions and collaborate. But they are also much more than that for businesses—they are a place to market products and services and interact with customers on a more personal level. Having a social media presence for your business is one of the easiest ways to reach a wide audience to entice them into what you're selling. 

But, how do you determine the most effective way to use social media for your business? Easy answer, to track analytics and use that data to determine what content is working; and what is not. 

Setting Clear Goals: 

The very first step when beginning your social media strategy is to set clear goals that are specific and measurable. What is it that you want to accomplish from creating content on social media? Whether you want to increase brand awareness, improve traffic and conversions, or catch more engagement you must clearly define it before being able to properly execute strategy. 

Write a goal using the S.M.A.R.T. acronym; Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. This will help you implement a strategy and allow you to fully track the success or failure of it. You will be able to compare the analytics you receive from your social platforms back to your goal to see if you are accomplishing what you set out to. If your social media strategy reflects a different goal then it will not have any positive impact on your business, at least not in the way you want it. 

How Do I Track Analytics? 

Most social media platforms include free-to-use analytic software that captures data directly from the program. Facebook, Tik-Tok, LinkedIn, and Instagram for example all provide excellent data tracking software with the creation of your free account. 

I recommend also creating an Excel or Google Sheets spreadsheet where you can personally record your data and implement formulas to easily compare and contrast the analytics over time. This way you can share this data with anyone else on your team that may need it, and you can see what social strategy provides the most growth. Create a tab for each social media platform you currently use and create headers for the analytics you would like to keep track of. 

Test, Learn, Adapt:

When implementing a social media marketing strategy it is important to understand that your strategy might not always be the right one for your business. It is okay to fall short the first couple of times you try social media marketing. Especially with the speed at which trends can change, it is important to constantly adapt and improve your strategy to receive better results based on previous data. 

Running what's called an A/B test where you show certain followers or customers one version of something and you show other followers or customers another version. This will help you understand which strategy provides the greatest results based on the goal you set for the business.  

Terms You Should Know: 

Reach: The total number of unique users who have seen your content. Reach shows how far your content has spread across the platform.

Impressions: The total number of times your content is displayed, regardless of whether it’s clicked or not. Impressions can be higher than reach, as the same person might see your post multiple times.

Engagement: The total number of interactions with your content, including likes, comments, shares, saves, and clicks. Engagement reflects how much people are interacting with your content.

Engagement Rate: The percentage of people who engaged with your content out of those who saw it. It’s calculated by dividing the total engagement by the total reach (or impressions) and multiplying by 100.

Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who clicked on a link in your post after seeing it. CTR is calculated by dividing link clicks by impressions and multiplying by 100.

Conversion Rate: The percentage of users who take a desired action (like signing up for a newsletter or purchasing a product) after interacting with your social media content. It’s calculated by dividing the number of conversions by the total number of clicks and multiplying by 100.

Demographics: Data about your followers, such as age, gender, location, and language. Knowing your demographics helps tailor your content to your audience.

Bounce Rate: The percentage of people who click a link in your post but leave the landing page without taking further action. High bounce rates often indicate that users aren’t finding what they expected.

Top Performing Posts: The posts that received the highest engagement, reach, or impressions over a given period. Reviewing top posts helps identify what type of content resonates most with your audience.

Cost per Click (CPC): The amount spent on an ad campaign divided by the total number of clicks it received. CPC helps you understand the cost efficiency of your ads.