How to Read Social Media Analytics and Optimize your Strategy Accordingly
In this Guest Post, social media experts from @HomemadeSocial_ break down what each of your metrics * actually * mean and how to use your insights to inform your content.
Hi there! Allow us to introduce ourselves- we’re Homemade Social, a boutique social media marketing agency specializing in social + digital + influential campaigns for lifestyle brands.
Before putting any effort into your brand’s social media, it is important to establish goals as it will set the stage for the social media strategy to follow. Contrary to popular belief, social media is not a mindless game of just posting whatever, whenever. In fact, never post just to post. Behind every piece of content should be purpose backed by a strategy supporting set objectives.
So, what are you hoping to get out of social media for your business? The answer to this question will allow your digital marketer to know where to put most of their energy when planning content and what metrics to look at most when tracking analytics.
Remember, the purpose of tracking social media analytics is to tie the metrics back to your goals and optimize your strategy going forward based on the insights found. Read on to discover the meaning of popular social media metrics and how to use them to inform your content strategy!
SOCIAL MEDIA METRICS GLOSSARY
REACH - Reach is the number of users that have seen your post aka the number of users your post reached.
IMPRESSIONS - Impressions is the total number of times your post has been seen. It is not the same thing as reach because one user can view your post multiple times. Why would they do that? Likely because the content made an impression on them! While reach only accounts for the number of users, impressions accounts for the number of times the content was seen by those users.
ENGAGEMENT - Engagement is any form of interaction on your post. There are several ways a user can engage with your content, including:
Likes = This is the number of users that double tapped or tapped the heart icon on your post.
Comments = This is the number of comments your post received.
Saves = This is the number of users that saved your post to refer back to later.
Shares = This is the number of users that sent the post to another account for viewing.
These metrics then contribute to your engagement rate, which is a percentage revealing the level of engagement your post received from those who saw it. The more likes, comments, saves, and shares a post has, the higher that post’s engagement rate.
To calculate the engagement rate of your post, use this formula:
Engagement rate = engagement / impressions OR followers
And remember: Engagement = total number of likes + comments + saves + shares on your post
So, why is this important? A high engagement rate signals to the algorithm that the content is valuable and that users enjoyed seeing it. Therefore, the higher the engagement rate, the higher the chance of the post being pushed to more users by the algorithm. This “push” is done both via users’ home feeds and the explore page.
PROFILE VISITS - This is the number of times your profile was viewed.
WEBSITE CLICKS - This is the number of taps on the website in your profile.
FOLLOWERS - This is the number of accounts that follow you. It is also a vanity metric, meaning it’s a number that can make us feel good but doesn’t really tell us a lot. Regardless, it is a good metric to track routinely, especially if your goal is to increase brand awareness or grow your following.
INFORMING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
While each metric discussed is important to track, here is a breakdown of specific metrics to pay attention to based on certain goals:
If your immediate goal is to increase brand awareness, pay extra attention to and formulate your strategy around increasing…
Followers
Shares
If your immediate goal is to foster a relationship with your current audience, pay extra attention to and formulate your strategy around increasing…
Engagement rate, which is influenced by:
Likes
Comments
Saves
Shares
If your immediate goal is to increase sales, pay extra attention to and formulate your strategy around increasing…
Website clicks
Overall, when tracking analytics, take note of what is doing well and continue doing it. If something is not resonating with your audience as expected, consider trying out something else! Repeat this process each time when tracking monthly social media analytics to continue optimizing your strategy.
HELPFUL TOOLS
This can be A LOT- we know! Luckily, we have plenty of resources available to help you. Here are a few of our most popular:
For general analytics assistance...
For increasing engagement...
For increasing brand awareness/growing your following...
We hope this blog post was helpful for you in learning more about social media analytics! Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram for more tips! See ya on the ‘Gram!
xx- The Homies of Homemade Social
7 Books that Changed my Small Biz (for the better)
Being a small biz owner is no joke, and statistically, the majority of Small Businesses will fail within the first 5 years. As I approach my own five year mark (full of failures, lessons, big oopses, by the way) I wanted to take the time to share the business books I have read that really changed not only the way I thought about my small business, but changed the way I thought about myself as a business owner. Here’s a breakdown of my top faves!
Being a small biz owner is no joke, and statistically, the majority of Small Businesses will fail within the first 5 years. As I approach my own five year mark (full of failures, lessons, big oopses, by the way) I wanted to take the time to share the business books I have read that really changed not only the way I thought about my small business, but changed the way I thought about myself as a business owner. Here’s a breakdown of my top faves!
Might as well start off with what might be the obvious choice here. These two books by Jen Sincero are great because you can literally read them in an afternoon. Jen’s writing style is friendly, approachable, and sometimes a nice kick in the …ass regarding treating yourself and your money with the respect they deserve. I love that she encourages ‘abundance’ mindset over ‘depravity’ mindset in not just financial facets of our lives, but in happiness, too. I think that these books helped me to consider how what I tell myself paves the path for what materializes.
3. The Power of Habit: Why we do What we Do in Life and Business
I love this book by Charles Duhigg because it looks into the science of our habits and how habits become so ingrained that we forget that we are doing them. He breaks down in great detail about how our ‘keystone habits’ can trigger larger life changes so that we can change the habits that we feel stuck in.
The habits I am looking to break are my ‘unproductive’ habits… mindlessly scrolling instagram, falling into Pinterest rabbit holes, or spending too too long looking at a project without getting up, moving around, taking a break, and giving my brains and eyeballs a break. I like having this book on habits nearby to remind me that these ‘habits’ are all programmable in our own brains, and that we have the power to do something different about them.
This book is an absolute classic. I love the old-timey sounding punctuation that Napoleon Hill uses throughout that makes it feel like a very enthusiastic college lecture.
My biggest takeaway from this one is the anecdote he tells in the beginning about his son who was born without the ability to heal. Instead of taking pity on his son, or treating his affliction like he was less than everyone else, Hill instead raised his son with the idea that he was more special than everyone else. Hill says he '“wished his son to hear, so he did” which is part confidence, part manifestation, and part stopping at nothing to find solutions… All of which are super powerful lessons in mindset and business. I think this book is a great read for anyone who needs a little oomph in their goal setting, financially and otherwise.
5. Contagious: Why Things Catch On
The internet says there is no one else more well versed in why things go viral than Jonah Berger. When I read this book (back in 2015 by now, but literally picking it up again to re-read tonight) I remember enjoying how Berger explains exclusivity, social currency and social proof. For example, he talks about how airlines game-ified the points system, making their different membership levels into status symbols (I totally fall for bougie ‘insiders-only’ stuff like this and you probably do too).
Berger’s book made be think about how I can create these moments in the brands that I create for my clients. How can we add that extra level of detail, that extra hint or sprinkle that only the BEST of the BEST of that brand’s clients know about and appreciate? Like Disney’s hidden Mickey phenomenon… ideas that spread through word of mouth have much longer and stronger business legs in the long run.
6. Big Magic
Elizabeth Gilbert is a great read if you’re down for a little kooky woo-woo in your life. I for sure dabble in woo-woo-ness so this book was another quick and easy read for me.
Although a lot of her book felt a little predictable, the one that stuck with me is her explanation of how ideas exist in the universe in search of a host, and that it is possible to sit on an idea for too long, and that that idea might just move on to the next host (which explains the phenomenon of seeing the infomercial for the exact invention you wanted to create, but never did). I like this theory because it encourages us to act on our ideas as they come to us, to brainstorm on them, flesh them out, then decide if they are meant to be, or meant to move on. I have ideas like this anywhere between 5-20x a day. I get so many ideas that I will write them in the steam on the shower doors, only committing them to paper or laptop if I am still thinking about them by the time I get out of the shower. I love that Glibert brings the idea, of ideas, and illustrates them as being energetic bodies instead of random synapse firings.
7. The Art of Thinking Clearly
This last one came recommended by a good friend of mine who I think is particularly intelligent. :) The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli is not so much a business book as it is a life book. The best part about this one is that each little story is only a few pages, and leaves you with a good idea of why our brains work the way that they do, and what our inherent biases are towards others, towards our situation, towards ourselves, and towards the world as a whole.
The small anecdotes make this a great travel or beach read, because you can easily share the stories like “Why You Shouldn’t be Friends with Supermodels” and “Why you see Shapes in Clouds.” There are soooo many good nuggets in here that make you think “yeah, well duh” in a way that you wouldn’t have been able to put into words yourself, which I think is why I like it so much.
Which ones am I missing? Let me know in the comments, shoot me a DM or send a carrier pigeon!
