Every digital marketer and Web manager have for decades measured web traffic, and included both SEM and SEO into their digital marketing planning process. But with social media you need to define some new metrics to monitor your progress over time. Digital communication managers or social media managers need more intelligent metrics to monitor their efforts and results to take good decisions. Number of visitors, unique visitors and bounce rate (Common web metrics) will not give the social media manager the analysis needed related to day-to-day engagement or social trend data. 

We still need those web metrics mentioned and others to continue optimizing our websites, call-to-action processes and to monitor conversion rates etc. But more useful is to identify and define your main focus social media metrics. Then define related Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to monitor your progress over time, AND then do mashup of both web analytical data and social media data. Combining data results from search referrals, website and social media all together gives you REAL insights. 

Why is it so hard to identify and define metrics for social media marketing? I think it is because many organizations do not have a written social media strategy, and lack defining their social media goals and objectives. Goals and objectives always come first, and then you define your social media KPIs to monitor status and progress for your objectives. You should both identify and define quantitative metrics, and maybe more important; qualitative metrics. Choice of these “social” metrics depends of your social media objectives.

The easy metrics to identify are quantitative ones:

Quantitative metrics (Web conversions) - examples

• Sales
• Leads from contact forms
• Leads from Facebook
• Facebook “likes”
• Facebook comments
• Leads from tweets
• Re-tweets
• Web Traffic
• Blog post comments
• Inbound Links
• Subscribers (RSS/Newsletter)

Quantify ratios (# or %) with time limit for i.e.:

• Increased members/customers
• Increased Positive Brand mentions
• Increased buzz & social share of voice
• Social lead generation (use campaign ID tags)
• Increased referral traffic from social media sites 
• Increased article/blog comments/posts
• Virality (# of RT and posts on Facebook profile) 
• Increased Activity 
• Increased Influence
• Increased Reach
• Engagement duration 
• Community size (# of followers, fans, members) 
• Decrease in customer issues
• Reduction in costs, time and processes

Qualitative “social” metrics

Qualitative metrics are metrics which will define your future social media success. For these metrics you need to use social media (SaaS) monitoring tools. 

Qualitative metrics - examples

• Online Brand Awareness
• Positive Online Reputation
• Interaction & Engagement
• Trust & Loyalty
• Influence & Authority
• Visibility & Reach

Measure your progress with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Objectives should always be defined so they can be measured. One way to do this is to define: KPI`s (Key Performance Indicators). KPI`s are quantifiable performance measurements used to define success factors and measure progress toward the achievement of business goals and objectives. The Web Analytics Association (WAA) defines the term KPI in the context of web analytics: ”While a KPI can be either a count or a ratio it is frequently a ratio. A KPI is infused with business strategy - hence the term Key”

All KPIs should be SMART:  Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely 

One Facebook example

Goal #1:

Get leads from Facebook

Objective:

Create a FB Page/Group about our product/service X, with 1000 members by end of Q3. 

KPIs

 10% conversion rate from FB leads by end of Q1

 12 % conversion rate from FB leads by end of Q2

 15% conversion rate from FB leads by end of Q3

Key data analysis

If you do a mashup of data trends both for search referrals, website traffic and social media patterns, you will gain a higher level of digital insights you can really learn from. The insight should be included into your tactics for i.e. Facebook, twitter, YouTube, blog, website and e-mail campaigns.

Some tactical questions to consider:

• What functions and features do we want to have available to our community? 
• What will be the costs of building and manage and engage the community? 
• Will we be able to use internal and/or external human resources to build and maintain the community? 
• How long time will it take to get chosen tools and services launched? 
• What can we learn from our competitors, partners and others in these matters? 
• What is the wanted business Social ROI? 
• Which SaaS tools do we pick to monitor conversations, buzz and word of mouth? 

Set realistic goals and expectations. It probably took several iterations to arrive at your current communication/marketing, CRM, Social Media and Website strategy. Coming up with an optimal social network presence will require the same kind of learning by doing inside your organization. Starting off overly aggressive can set companies up for disappointment down the road and create “information overload” scenarios.

How do you determine social ROI? What is your top 3 social ROI metrics?