Social media is one of the most crucial places to measure the success of any company – small, medium or large. For startups, the desire to go after every customer is at the core of customer acquisition. Social media platforms are huge sources of traffic, leads and customers.
Several startups invest a lot in social media. However, without the knowledge of the right social media goals, metrics and tracking methods it is not easy to create direction for your social media efforts. We look at 7 social media goals you should set for yourself as a startup, and how you can track them;
1) Brand awareness
The major reason companies join various social media channels is to get the word out there about their company. Creating awareness is, therefore, a critical part of social media involvement and should be adopted as a goal by all startups.
The following are potential metrics you can use to track this goal:
- Follower count – All social media channels have a way of indicating popularity levels via the total count of fans and followers of profiles.
- Mentions, Shares, Retweets, Pins, etc. – This shows how many people are directly engaging your brand.
- Posts reach – you can check your post reach. In most cases, the more your mentions, shares, retweets, and pins, the higher your post reach.
Tracking: You can track these metrics using the social media platform’s analytics. Twitter has Twitter analytics, Pinterest has Pinterest Analytics, Google Plus has its own analytics section and so does Facebook. Alternatively, if you use platforms like Buffer and Hootsuite, you can check the analytics there too.
2) Traffic
Companies get onto social media to improve their traffic. In fact, for most people, improving traffic to their websites by sharing content is a very important aspect of their social media campaigns.
The following are potential metrics to help you track this social media goal:
Social media traffic – how many people visit your website directly from your social media posts?
Percentage of overall traffic – The percentage of traffic accounted for from social media out of your overall traffic.
Bounce rate – how long do visitors take on your website after coming from social media channels? This shows the quality of traffic you receive.
Clicks on social media posts – Do people interact with your posts by clicking the links you share with their friends?
Tracking: Google Analytics is a very easy tool to use for tracking this goal. Under the Traffic section, you can check on Acquisition and you will see the source of traffic with social media being a category on that section.
3) New Leads
The expectation from every startup is that social media will at least help encourage people who could be potential customers to sign up. For SaaS startups, there is a definitive process through which leads are taken to ensure they sign up to become paying customers at a certain point in the process. Such startups, therefore, need to track how many new leads they get from each social network.
The following are potential metrics to help you track this goal:
- Signups from social media – follow the number of new signups to newsletters or free subscriptions that you receive from social media networks.
- Contest/event participation – how many people participate in your social media contests or events?
- Leads from posts – how many new leads are generated directly from your posts?
- Leads conversion – how many new leads convert to paying customers immediately from social media?
Tracking: Using Google Analytics it’s possible to track conversions from social media. However, you have to initially set conversion goals on the platform prior to starting your social media campaign. It’s important to keep an eye out for the best lead-capture software solutions. Other tools are Kissmetrics and Mixpanel.
4) Revenue
Increasing revenue is a very great incentive for startups to move to social media. Facebook has proved how much revenue it can generate for small, medium and large companies. Pinterest has proved how successful it is at generating revenue for businesses in the food, fashion, architecture, and design industries.
The following are potential metrics to help you track this social media goal:
- Signups / Revenue – How many people have signed up since you started your social media campaign? This directly translates to revenue when customers have to pay first to use your product.
- Revenue from ads – How many people have signed up as a result of your advertising campaign on social media?
Tracking: Google Analytics is also a very able tracker for this metric under the revenues section.
5) Brand Engagement
Engaging customers on social media is something every company dreams of. In fact, it is a good way of receiving feedback.
The following are potential metrics to help you track this goal:
- Likes, shares and comments – How many likes, shares and comments does your company receive on its posts?
- Mentions and Replies – How many times do customers/followers mention or reply to your posts?
Tracking: Fortunately, nearly all social media channels have all these metrics. You can track them platform by platform. Twitter has Twitter Analytics for each post or page as a whole, so does Facebook, Google Plus, and Pinterest. If you share your posts using third-party channels like Buffer and Hootsuite, you can track the same metrics on these third-party platforms as well.
6) Communities
Companies want to build communities around their brands. For this reason, they open chats (Twitter) or groups (Facebook) where the followers can meet to discuss common issues. Building communities around your company is one of the best social media goals to adopt because it greatly improves your credibility.
The following are potential metrics to help you track this goal;
- Facebook Groups – How many members does your Facebook group have and how fast is it growing?
- Twitter chats – Does the number of people joining your Twitter chats and hashtags continue to grow?
- Google Plus groups – How many members does your Google Plus group have and how fast is it growing?
Tracking: Some social media channels like Facebook and Google Plus have a way to analyse community statistics. Additionally, third-party platforms like Grytics and Community Analytics can help.
7) Social Media Customer Support
Social media is becoming one of the most preferred places for customers to get quick customer service. It is therefore important for any startup with social media goals to have improved customer support via social media.
The following are potential metrics to track this social media goal:
- Number of support queries – look for improved social media customer support queries.
- Response Time – an improved response time for your profile means you answer promptly to queries by customers.
- Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) – Improved scores show customer satisfaction is improving.
Tracking: You can track this manually or through software called Respond.
Finding the right PR tools to use and tracking your social media outreach efforts shouldn’t be complicated. By keeping an eye on the above metrics, you should be able to measure your success.
Setting your social media goals and tracking your progress shouldn’t be complicated. With the above tips, you can keep tabs on how your brand is performing online.
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