To truly harness the power of social media, it’s essential to analyze your account’s and content’s performance. This guide will walk you through how to find social media data and how to use it to measure your success.
Without regular analysis of the data, it’s challenging to gauge the impact of your efforts. Social media analysis will ultimately help you make data-driven decisions to optimize your strategy.
We encourage you to review and strategize about your performance on a regular basis. At minimum, aim to update the ‘Next Steps’ section of your strategy document quarterly.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the metrics used to measure success and how well you are achieving your goals. In the social media realm, there are several common KPIs:
Social media engagement metrics measure how much your audience is interacting with you. Tracking these metrics keeps you aware of how well your content resonates with your audience and which types perform best.
These include:
Reach and impressions measure the visibility of your content on user’s feeds. These metrics provide insight into how widely your content is being spread.
Follower growth metrics measure the number of new followers your social media account gains over a specified period.
Traffic and conversion metrics measure the number of viewers who complete your desired action.
Content performance metrics identify which types of content perform the best, helping guide your content creation strategy.
Audience demographics provide insight into the makeup of your audience, helping you determine if you are reaching your target demographic.
Social media data is found through a process referred to as ‘analytics.’ Social media analytics involve collecting and analyzing data and metrics to measure overall performance, aiding in making data-informed decisions to improve efforts.
Analytics can be found natively on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and LinkedIn, or through paid programs like Agorapulse, Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and HubSpot. Our marketing team uses Agorapulse for analytics but also leverages platform insights for quick data checks.
For help navigating these tools, check out blogs published by these platforms.
Data doesn’t mean anything if you don’t think about it and draw conclusions from it. What do the numbers show you? What kind of patterns, trends, or even anomalies do you spot in them? Identify what content and strategies were most successful and what can be improved. Compare your data at key milestones, such as the end of an academic year, to gauge progress.
Make sure to highlight anything that went specifically well during this reporting period. And celebrate your wins; social media management is not easy work!
Now that you have all these great insights, it’s time to make some informed plans on what should happen next. Should you create more video content? Were social media takeovers successful? Did event story reminders help yield a good turnout?
Provide actionable recommendations for future content, including new ideas or adjustments to posting schedules.
Make regular updates to the ‘Next Steps’ section of your strategy document and continue optimizing your strategy through your findings. Establish a regular reporting schedule—monthly, quarterly, or bi-annually—and continue to track and analyze your performance. Compare your performance against industry standards and past results to assess progress.
If you have any questions or need additional help, please contact Mary Leufstedt, Staff Associate of Web & Digital Communications, at mleufstedt@worcester.edu.
