This document provides an overview of how to track and measure social media performance against objectives. It discusses the importance of setting SMART objectives for reach, engagement, influence and impact. It then covers tools and methods for measuring each metric, including reach (impressions, views), engagement (likes, shares, comments), influence (connections, trust) and impact (website visits, conversions). The document recommends establishing benchmarks, regularly reporting on key performance indicators, and adjusting strategies based on results to continually improve performance.

1. Social Media: Tracking Your Reach
and Measuring Against Objectives
Workshop for #CCEOttawa

2. Food for
thought

3. OVERVIEW
“If you can’t measure it,
you can’t manage it.”
- Peter Drucker

4. • Understand performance
• Demonstrate success
• Push your agenda forward
• Adjust and improve
Why track and measure your social activity?

5. No standardization in social media measurements:
• Tools use different terms and count metrics in different ways
Tools are always changing:
• Free tools come and go, and networks keep changing the rules
Social media measurement caveats

6. Traditional marketing and social media
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact
Awareness
Interest
Consideration
Conversio
n

7. Start your measurement plan by setting SMART* objectives for:
Reach
• To obtain 300,000 impressions on Facebook and Twitter by March 31
Engagement
• To get an average engagement rate of 3% on Twitter posts by March 31
Influence
• To have 5 community advocates speak positively about our brand by March 31
Impact
• To have 300 people visit our website for more information by March 31
• To have 250 people sign up for our newsletter by March 31
Bringing it all together
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

8. REACH
“Whenever you can, count.”
- Sir Francis Bacon

9. How many people potentially saw your messages?
• Reach numbers via Facebook and Twitter
o Facebook: Organic reach is typically >10% of fans
o Twitter: Called Impressions--slightly higher
• Number of video views on YouTube
o Number of views of a blog post
o Tracking follower/fan growth overtime is also measuring your reach
Tools for measuring reach:
• Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics YouTube Insight, TweetReach
Measuring reach
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

10. Facebook reach
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

11. Influence of paid on organic reach
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
12/4/1512:00AM
12/5/1512:00AM
12/6/1512:00AM
12/7/1512:00AM
12/8/1512:00AM
12/9/1512:00AM
12/10/1512:00AM
12/11/1512:00AM
12/12/1512:00AM
12/13/1512:00AM
12/14/1512:00AM
12/15/1512:00AM
12/16/1512:00AM
12/17/1512:00AM
12/18/1512:00AM
12/19/1512:00AM
12/20/1512:00AM
12/21/1512:00AM
12/22/1512:00AM
12/23/1512:00AM
12/24/1512:00AM
12/25/1512:00AM
12/26/1512:00AM
12/27/1512:00AM
12/28/1512:00AM
12/29/1512:00AM
12/30/1512:00AM
12/31/1512:00AM
1/1/1612:00AM
1/2/1612:00AM
1/3/1612:00AM
1/4/1612:00AM
1/5/1612:00AM
1/6/1612:00AM
1/7/1612:00AM
1/8/1612:00AM
1/9/1612:00AM
1/10/1612:00AM
1/11/1612:00AM
1/12/1612:00AM
1/13/1612:00AM
1/14/1612:00AM
1/15/1612:00AM
1/16/1612:00AM
1/17/1612:00AM
1/18/1612:00AM
1/19/1612:00AM
1/20/1612:00AM
1/21/1612:00AM
1/22/1612:00AM
1/23/1612:00AM
1/24/1612:00AM
1/25/1612:00AM
1/26/1612:00AM
Lifetime Post organic reach
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

12. What is your Facebook post with the
highest reach in the last 3 months?
Activity #1: Facebook reach

13. Reach measurement tools: Twitter Analytics
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

14. Reach measurement tools: Tweetreach.com
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

15. What is your highest number of impressions
on a post in the last three months?
What is your percentage of impressions
compared to your followers?
Activity #2: Twitter reach

16. ENGAGEMENT
“One accurate measurement is worth
a thousand expert opinions.”
- Grace Hopper

17. Two types of engagement:
1. Passive engagement
• In-network clicks (post clicks, details expand, profile clicks)
2. Active engagement
• Likes, comment, shares, favourite/heart
Measuring engagement
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

18. Measuring engagement
Active Engagement
(All of these actions generate
a new story for users)
Passive Engagement
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

19. Measuring engagement
Active Engagement
(replies is another)
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

20. Engagement measurement tool: Twitonomy
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

21. Whichever way you choose to measure engagement rate…
...be consistent!
total engagements
÷ total reach
x 100
= engagement rate
Engagement rate
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

22. INFLUENCE
“However beautiful the strategy, you should
occasionally look at the results.”
- Winston Churchill

23. Influence is measured by the ability to affect other people’s thinking online:
• How connected are you to a community?
• Do you communicate to a wide audience?
• What is the level of trust and respect by audience by your audience?
Measuring influence
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

24. Tools for measuring influence: Klout, FollowerWonk (Social Authority)
• Many tools attempt to measure influence of individual users, but still require a discriminating
review to evaluate for your self.
• It’s often better to measure the impact of your messages to reflect/assess the influence
Measuring influence
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

25. Measuring influence
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

26. Measuring influence
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

27. IMPACT
“We must move from numbers
keeping score to numbers
that drive better actions.”
- David Walmsley

28. Impact is determined by how many people took action outside of social media after
viewing your message:
• Number of click-throughs to a website
• Conversions (i.e. donate button, subscribe to newsletter, take a pledge)
• Visit your store, buy tickets to a show, etc.
Tools for measuring impact:
• bit.ly, Google Analytics
Measuring impact
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

29. https://bitly.com/wINBal+
Impact measurement tool: bit.ly
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

30. Impact measurement tool: Google Analytics
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Impact

31. Find a bit.ly link and measure how many
clicks it has and from what networks?
Activity #3: Impact

32. REPORTING
“Not everything that counts
can be counted, but everything
that can be counted counts.”
- Albert Einstein

33. Evaluating against objectives:
• Review: When you first start your social media plan you set:
o Long-term goals: Plan for the long term, and build toward it through incremental steps
o SMART objectives: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely
* Your objectives were made to be SMART for a reason – so that you could compare them to
your results at the end of your campaign in order to evaluate whether or not it was a success.
Big picture measurement: Measuring Overall Success

34. • Look at where you currently are and document your metrics as it stands. This will give you
something to grow from.
• Set KPI (Key performance indicators) at every step and track regularly (Excel)
Establishing benchmarks

35. Try to come up with three goals for your social media campaign, based on your overall
business goals, the type of online campaign you plan to run, and your social media
management style (depending on your allocated resources).
Achievable goals

36. Did you not reach enough of your target audience? Did the message not inspire enough
engagement? First look at what stage of the funnel went wrong and analyze from there.
You may have met some objectives, but not all. Here are some questions you can ask to
develop a more nuanced view of your campaign’s success:
• Did your campaign help save you money? (e.g. on printing costs)
• Did you reach a larger audience but have lower engagement levels?
• Can you demonstrate that your campaign contributed to better health outcomes?
• What can you change (messaging, timing, frequency) to support a higher level of success?
• Did you reach influential people?
What if you do not meet objectives?

37. OVERALL
“Take a risk and keep testing, because what
works today won’t work tomorrow, but what
worked yesterday may work again.”
- Amrita Sahasrabudhe

38. • Which metrics will ‘tell the story’ of your objectives and how you’ve met them.
• Choose a report format
• Your report can be short and succinct or lengthy and in-depth, time and resources permitting.
• Set up a regular reporting period (weekly, monthly or quarterly).
• Consider distributing your report to internal stakeholders to demonstrate success and
progress in social media.
Reporting: Social media metrics reports

39. Executive summary
• Summary of key finding and recommendations
Specific measures (show growth and analysis of how or why not objective was met)
• i.e. Reach objective: 15% increase in Facebook page views.
• i.e. Engagement objective: 10% increase in retweets on Twitter.
• i.e. Influence objective: 25% increase in positive behaviour change.
• i.e. Impact objective: 20% increase in downloads, sign ups, donations, event attendees, etc.
• Overall observations
Recommendations/conclusion
Sample report format

40. Facebook Insights (Reach metrics)
Metrics report example

41. • Network insights/analytics – performance/your own activity
• TweetReach – hashtag use
• Bitly – cross network link clicks
• Twitonomy – engagement trends
• Google Analytics* – Website activity
Measurement tools

42. Although you set out to follow a social media plan, you may realize through your reports that
there is a certain content that performs better than most.
Once you begin to see these patterns, you can alter your social media plan to ensure your
audience is getting what they want while also delivering the results you seek.
Adjustments and refinements

43. From reporting you might discover:
• Facebook posts with an image get more clicks.
• Tweets that include both an image and a link get more retweets, but fewer link clicks.
• Content that asks audience a direct question get more responses than generalized questions
• Twitter posts on Monday afternoons on average get a higher click-through rate.
Moving forward, note these observations, and tailor your posts to reflect the types of posts that
generate the best results.
Adjustments and refinements

44. Thank you!
Kelly Rusk
Digital Director/Partner
Banfield
@krusk
krusk@bsl.com