Every business that has started a social media account to promote their business has wondered how this effort translates into profit. The truth is that no one really knows what a like, an interaction, or a view means for your business. If this is the case, which social media metrics are worth measuring? Mashable asked a collection of entrepreneurs what strategies they employ to gauge their social media success.
Shane Snow - Contently Tracks: Reach, engagement, and influence. Reach gives an idea of who saw your content (page views and social impressions). Engagement measures who consumed your content (total minutes spent on your content or spent per page). Influence measures if anyone took action because of your content (shares, subscriptions).
Laura Roeder – LKR Social Media Tracks: Views, likes, engagement to measure interaction with the masses. Meanwhile build non-quantifiable relationships with individual influencers.
Nicolas Gremion – Free-eBooks.net Tracks: Virality (percentage of people who create a story from your post). Virality is much more important than sheer “likes” because viral posts mean that you ignited your fans’ passion or excitement.
Derek Flanzraich – Greatist Tracks: Superfans (a fan that stays over time and consistently shares, likes, and tweets your content).
Matt Wilson – Under30Media Tracks: Conversions. Regardless of likes or engagement, who is an actual customer? “Business is not a popularity content, and in many cases having lots of attention and hype can detract from your brand and distract both your customers and team.”
Heather Huhman – Come Recommended Tracks: Relationships with thought leaders (develop unique one-on-one relationships with every follower). “Social marketing strategies focused solely on increasing likes or follows don’t say much for a brand as a whole.”
http://mashable.com/2013/05/20/social-metrics/
