Analytic features are awesome- if you know how to use them.

This week, we’re taking a deep dive into the murky waters of social media metrics! You’ll learn what to track, how to interpret the data, and how to use it to improve your content strategy and boost your reach on 4 of the top social media platforms.

It’s a lot of ground to cover, so we’re going to break it down- this week, we’re focusing on the analytic features of Facebook and Instagram, and next week, we’ll cover Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by your analytics or mystified by your metrics, this one’s for you! Let’s dive in!!

Facebook

There are 6 must-track metrics on Facebook- engagement, reach, referral traffic, page likes, video retention, and ad metrics.

• Engagement- When we talk about engagement, we’re counting likes, comments, reactions, shares and clicks. When your followers click on a post, you know that it was compelling enough to grab their attention and make them stop scrolling. If they follow that click with a reaction or comment, you’ve hit the engagement jackpot!
• Reach- Tracking your reach lets you know how many people are seeing your posts. The more your followers like and engage with your content, the broader your reach will be. So, if you look at your numbers and see that they’re increasing, that’s a good indication that you’re nailing your content strategy.
• Referral Traffic- You need to be tracking the number of followers that click on the links you share. Whether it’s a link to your website, your latest lead magnet, product pages, or an article or blog post, those clicks matter! It’s important to know which platforms are bringing you the most referral traffic because it tells you where you need to focus the majority of your attention.
• Page Likes- Page likes are similar to reach in the sense that it lets you know if your customers are happy with your content. If you are regularly gaining new followers, your reach is increasing, and you’re doing something right. But, if you suddenly lose a lot of followers, you’ve got a problem…
• Video Retention- The video retention option helps you track how many people are watching your videos and how long they’re watching- and those are both REALLY important. Honestly, it might be more important to know how long people are watching. Here’s the thing, if you have 300 views, but 250 of them only watch 10 seconds of a 30 second video, well, that’s not great- you can’t just hook them, you’ve got to keep them on the line.
• Ad Metrics- The last key metric you need to be tracking on Facebook is your ad metrics. Your advertising budget is limited, right? And you absolutely want to make the most of it. If you’re not tracking your ad metrics, you could be throwing money away.

Instagram

Some of the key metrics are the same as Facebook- reach and engagement are critically important on every platform.

• Reach- When you’re measuring your reach on Instagram, you have a couple of different options. You can track your reach to see how many individual accounts have seen your post, or you can track your impressions which tells you how many total views each post got. Both metrics are useful but reach gives you a better indication of actual unique views.
• Engagement- Tracking your engagement has changed a bit recently. In the past, you could rely on likes, comments, and shares, but now Instagram has started hiding likes on branded content. Now Instagram is allowing users to collect and save posts via a bookmark icon under the image or video. This is honestly a great feature. If someone bookmarks your post, then you are totally on the right track.
• Story Retention- Stories have become a big part of content strategy since they were introduced a couple of years ago. Each story post will have its own metrics. You can track replies, impressions, and navigation- whether followers go back, move to your next story, and so on. This is particularly useful when you post multiple slides in your story.
• Growth- Measuring your growth on Instagram is an important indication of whether or not your content strategy is working to expand your reach. Knowing when you gain or lose followers matters. If you post a cool video and gain a bunch of followers, that’s awesome! If you post something controversial and have a mass unfollowing, you probably need to reconsider your strategy!
• Sales and Traffic- Instagram has become an awesome online marketplace. With the introduction of shoppable posts, Instagram Shops, and clickable links in bios, Instagram has become a valuable source of one stop shopping! If you’re already using some of these features to increase your sales, you need to know if it’s acting as a significant source of web traffic. You’ll need to use your favorite web analytics program to track the traffic from your shoppable links and see how it converts into actual sales.

When you know how to use your analytics and track your metrics, you have a far better understanding of what platforms are the best investments of your time and money, and you can constantly refine your content strategy for maximum impact.

To learn more about making the most of your metrics, tune in to this week’s episode of Building Your Empire with SophieZo.