Businesses often struggle to understand how effective social media really is for the brand. How do you know when a social media campaign is working?

To determine the success of your social media efforts, measurement and analytics are key. Keep careful records of what is being spent on social media, what types of content you’re sharing and how each post is performing. Then you can use the best metrics available to elevate your social media efforts.

When it comes to social media, there are countless Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that you could look at to measure your success. Identify what KPIs will give you the best feedback for your brand, then track them at every stage of the game.

As you take a closer look at KPIs, you’ll notice that the metrics behind the social media admin wall are measuring different things. It’s important to work strategically and know your  goals , so that you can choose the most important data to watch specific to your brand.

Consider whether you are trying to determine whether people know about your brand, or how often they are engaging with the brand. If you are offering more than content on your social media channels, you’ll also want to think about your conversion rate. You may also be interested in the overall impact social media campaigns are having on your customers. Each one of these items relates to different metric areas, such as Reach, Engagement and Conversions – even customer loyalty. Honing in on particular types of metrics will put strategy behind the analytics, and give you a better picture of whether you are accomplishing your goal.

When you’re selling a product, the best KPIs for your business to measure will likely be focused on conversions and getting the customer to follow inbound links. These  six metrics  were determined to be some of the most effective last year, and they will go a long way toward helping you achieve the conversion goal.

To determine the effectiveness of your social media marketing, take a look at link clicks. When you study statistics like Facebook Insights, the metrics will include overall clicks on your post, but then it will go into even more detail showing you whether or not you actually inspired followers to click through to your website. Reach and Impressions are also very different metrics. While Reach is showing you how many people glanced at your post, Impressions is telling you how many times those people saw the post. These metrics will help you drill down to your goal, whether you’re aiming at brand awareness or drawing in a new customer.

One of the most powerful tools in your metrics toolbox is platform engagement. When you see this data, ranging from likes and shares to retweets, comments and re-blogs, this means you are connecting with your audience and your message is resonating with them. This may not always end in ROI, but every instance of these actions is helping to build and develop your brand’s presence online.

When it comes to paid ads, the metrics are going to look very different. You’ll want to keep an eye on button clicks, to make sure you are attracting people to your website, and you’ll want to keep an eye on your relevance score. When you achieve a high relevance score, it means that your content is performing well within the platform and overcoming any obstacles that might be presented by new algorithms. The data will show you how the content measures up, and chances are, if your content is performing well on social media, it’s also performing well with your target audience.

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