When the time comes to analyze your content, it may leave you feeling uneasy.
I am possibly intimidated by the idea of analytics. “What do the numbers even mean? Where do I begin? What should I be measuring exactly?”
You're not alone. When I landed my first client, I was a little nervous to start as there is a lot of “riding” on the numbers and you want to make sure you understand them.
Over the years I have come up with a straightforward breakdown of organizing, reading, and analyzing the insights on Instagram and LinkedIn.
Whether you're a seasoned Social Media Manager or new to the social media game, understanding how to measure your success on either platform and driving them toward your business goals is crucial to your strategy.
So, let's dive in!
Setting SMART Goals
First things first, let's talk about SMART goals.
SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals you set for your business or your social media strategy.
Specific- What exactly are you trying to achieve?
Measurable-How will you know you achieved it?
Attainable- Is it genuinely possible to achieve it?
Relevant- Does it contribute to your revenue?
Time-Bound- When do you want to achieve this?
For example, your goal could read…
Gain 2 more clients by increasing Instagram following by 3%-5% each month by posting 5x/ times a week with 3 Reels, one carousel post, and one static post/week for the full year of 2024.
Understanding the difference between KPIs and Metrics
To measure if you're on track achieving your goals you need to know the difference and how to align the two.
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are your overall business goals and metrics are what you will see in insights (Views, Reach, Saves, Shares, Followers, etc.)
So which one goes with what?
Followers KPI- Measure the Reach/Views, Follower Growth Rate, and Impressions metrics.
Engagement KPI- Measure Post Interactions, Saves, and Shares metrics.
Leads (=sales/clients) KPI- Measure Post Interactions, Profile Visits, and External Link Taps metrics.
Measuring the insights
So how do you crunch those numbers?
It's not as intimidating as it seems! Let's break it down with some simple formulas.
In an Excel document, make a table of the month you are analyzing with all the metrics you are measuring, totaling up all the metrics at the bottom. Once you start doing this each month you can start comparing each month…
Month-to-Month Comparison- Take the current month's total metric, subtract the previous month's total, divide that by the previous month's total, and multiply by 100 to get the percentage change.
Engagement Rate %- (Post Interactions / Impressions) x 100
Engagement Rate % Avg.: Total Engagement for the month divided by the number of posts
Reach Rate - (Reach / Following) x 100
Reach Rate % Avg.: Total Reach for the month divided by the number of posts
Follower Growth Rate: (Current month total followers - Last month total followers) / Last month total followers x 100
Conversion Rate: Number of conversions/number of website or landing page visitors x 100
What does it all mean?
By tracking these metrics and comparing them month-to-month, you will see what's working and what's not. Maybe your Engagement Rate increased, but your Follower Growth Rate is stagnant. That's valuable insight you can use to tweak your strategy.
Knowing what averages you should be hitting based on your Follower count will also help you know if you are meeting the right percentages. For example, if you are on Instagram and have a Following that is below 10k, your Engagement Rate % is 8% and your Reach Rate is 36%. So if you think 200 reach on your Reels is crummy, but your average is above 36%, then you shouldn’t worry, that’s amazing!
Averages are different for each platform, follower count and change over the years, so be sure to stay up to date on what your averages are.
Analyzing your content and strategy will show you what needs to improve and what to keep doing. Some months will be amazing and others may not, and that’s ok. It’s not always the algorithm's fault, and sometimes it can be. Don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t like what you see, however, this is a time to reflect and be honest with yourself about what needs to improve.
There you have it! Analytics 101 in a nutshell. Remember, it's not about being scared of the numbers; it's about using them to drive your business towards success.
Define your goals first and you will know what to measure! If you are struggling with this, don’t hesitate to ask for help. You can connect with me via my contact page to schedule a call.
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