Tracking Your Social Media Marketing: Tips and Tools

How are your social media marketing efforts stacking up? Do you even know how to track your social media marketing to maximize ROI? If not, it’s really not as difficult as it may sound. Tracking these things is actually relatively easy, once you know what to look for. It’s just a matter of taking some time to learn about the various analytics tools, and how to use them to see what you need to go in order to get the most out of your social media marketing.

Facebook

If you want to access the detailed analytics on Facebook, simply log in as a business manager. Then, you can go to the Insights tab. You will see the most important metrics immediately, with the two most important being the Actions on Page and the Post Engagements. These metrics are important if you want to really understand Reach, Page Views, and Page Likes.

Instagram

This site has its own built-in business analytics that are not as powerful as other tools, but do give you data that you can use to track your social media marketing efforts, such as the best times to make posts. You will need to really take advantage of your bio, because it is the only spot where you can link to your site. It is also a good idea to use a custom tracking link on your bio, such as Bit.ly or UTM links from Google.

LinkedIn

The page analytics aren’t overly in-depth, but you can get some good insight with the data that is available. This data is broken down into three categories: Updates, Followers, and Visitors. Updates lets you see how well your posts are doing. Followers shows you how you got the followers you have. Visitors shows who is looking at your business page.

Twitter

You will find some pretty cool statistics on the Twitter Analytics dashboard. You can see performance numbers going back 28 days, and see your top tweets. Look at how people are engaging with your tweets, and see a list of your most recent tweets, as well as numbers for impressions (how many people see your tweets), engagements (when people click, favorite, retweet, and respond to your tweets), and engagement rates.

Tools You Can Use

Now that you know what to look for on these social media sites, it is time to find the best tools to use in order to really track analytics and make your social media marketing really work for you. Some of our favorite tools include:

• Social Media Dashboard – Use this tool to measure applause rates and economic values. It lets you create many dashboards to let you visualize overall performance on all platforms. It doesn’t offer metrics that aren’t offered in-app on other sites, but you can see all of the metrics in one social media dashboard that is easy to use.
• Riffle – This plugin browser lets you see stats and keywords from other social media users. Once you have installed Riffle, the logo will show up next to user names. Click on it, and see a metrics dashboard on the side of the screen. You can also see the various hashtags people are using the most, and see if they are using your space or talking about what your competitors are offering.
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  Klout – This is another tool that measures amplification rates, applause rates, and economic value. Once you have connected all of the social platforms you use, you will see an overall score from 0-100, rating your influence. It will also let you see how much of an impact each account has on your social media marketing efforts.
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  Sum All – This tool gives you a “Daily Digest” and a “Week in Review” stat sheet that is delivered right to your inbox. There is a free version that gives you information about reach and mentions, and you can use this information to see how users see your business. This tool measures conversion rates and amplification rates.
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  IconSquare – This was designed for Instagram, and it measures a lot more than simply “likes”. It shows the “love rate” (follower engagement), the “talk rate” (comments), and the “spread rate” (engagement outside of followers). IconSquare measures conversion rates, amplification rates, and applause rates, so you really get to see how much people like your content.