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Social media has become a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes, particularly B2B companies. But with so many different metrics to track, it can be difficult to determine which ones are the most important. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of the top social media metrics that B2B companies should be paying attention to.
1. Engagement Rate
Engagement rate is a metric that measures how often people interact with your content. This includes clicks, likes, shares, comments, and other forms of engagement. It’s a great way to gauge how well your content is resonating with your audience and can help you identify opportunities for improvement. By tracking this metric, you can see which content is performing the best and which content needs to be tweaked or changed.
This has to be one of the most important metrics to optimise for. Social media platforms will favour a post with high engagement, from accounts with historically high engagement. So the knock on effect of engaging content pays off in terms of reach, leads and more.
2. Reach
Reach measures the total number of people who have seen your content. This metric is important because it gives you an indication of how successful your content is at reaching your target audience.
Reach is another highly important metric, because however your other metrics are performing, they will increase proportionally in line with your reach (provided you’re reaching the right audience that is).
Reach is also the one metric you can pay for. So if you optimise for your other metrics, you can boost your reach and achieve a predictable outcome.
3. Conversion Rate
Conversion rate is a metric that measures the percentage of people who take a desired action (such as signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase) after being exposed to your content. It’s an important metric to track, as it can help you understand the effectiveness of your content in driving sales.
For most businesses, conversions are the ultimate metric. You want your audience to take particular action because it has a tangible impact on your bottom line. Optimising your conversion rate is therefore a high priority for many. But you can’t optimise what you don’t measure! So make sure it’s being measured before you need it.
4. Brand Mentions
Brand mentions is a metric that measures how often your brand is mentioned online. This can be in the form of reviews, comments, or other mentions on social media. Tracking this metric is important because it can give you an indication of how people are perceiving your company.
There are a few different ways to track brand mentions on social media. The most common way is to set up Google Alerts for your brand name. This will notify you whenever your brand is mentioned on the web, including on social media. You can also use social media monitoring tools such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social to track mentions of your brand on social media. These tools allow you to track specific keywords and phrases, so you can easily keep track of when your brand is mentioned.
5. Referral Traffic
Referral traffic measures the number of people who visit your website from social media. This metric can give you an idea of how successful your social media campaigns are at driving traffic to your website.
Referral traffic from social media to a company website can be measured using Google Analytics. By setting up UTM parameters on your social media links (such as ?utm_source=facebook or ?utm_medium=social), you can track how many people are coming to your website from social media. You can also use tracking links, which are unique URLs that you can use to track the performance of specific campaigns.
6. Leads Generated
This metric measures the number of leads that are generated from social media. It’s an important metric to track, as it can help you understand the effectiveness of your social media campaigns in generating leads. Leads generated is a metric that measures the number of leads that are generated from social media.
Just as conversions are vital to most businesses, leads are often the lifeblood of a B2B company in particular. A successfully generated lead means you’ve reached the right audience, with the right message, and provided an effective way for them to show qualified intent. This lead is then primed for your sales process, maximising the efficiency of your team and resulting in more deals done.
Which metrics you choose to focus on are up to you. Our recommendation is to ensure all are being measured correctly, but to choose a handful to pay more attention to, and one as a priority. Being single minded in your goals helps you provide a lot more clarity in your marketing strategy.
If you need a hand defining your key metrics and setting your business objectives on social media. Get in touch!
Image credit: Fuse Studio from Noun Project