To an unassuming eye, the world of social media is a very fast-paced, high energy environment. There are just far too many social media platforms and posts that it’s hard to keep track of just about anything that’s happening.
However, the same world offers rich insight as to what is going on with just about anything. You can track the progress of an event, the rise (and the downfall) of a brand, or how a celebrity is being judged in the public eye. Anything related to a product, a personality or an advocacy can be easily listened to in social media.
Now you might wonder – which social media metrics should I keep track of? There are tens, if not hundreds of social media metrics out there today. But in reality, you only need 5 social media metrics to get started on making your social media reports. If you can track these key metrics, you can present an action plan to your client on how they can strengthen their social media presence and reputation.
These top 5 social media metrics serve as the basis of other social media metrics that you might find today.
VOLUME – NUMBER OF BRAND MENTIONS
In order for you to get a social media report started, the first and most basic social media metric that you have to monitor is volume. It’s as simple as counting how many mentions you are getting for what it is that you are monitoring.
Even if it sounds quite simple, getting the volume of mentions has value to social media reports. Volume determines:
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Trends – trends refer to the increase or decrease in volume. A sharp increase or a sharp decrease in mentions can be very telling. Regardless of sentiment (which will be discussed in detail later), observing the trends can be helpful, especially when it comes to brand monitoring, whether it’s set for a short term, or a long term basis.
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Benchmarking – benchmarking refers to the target number of mentions that your brand would have during a specific time period. You need to determine this target number on a daily, weekly or monthly basis so that you would know if your brand is generating enough buzz in social media.
SHARE OF VOICE – % BRAND MENTIONS VS. COMPETITOR MENTIONS
Share of voice might have a different meaning in advertising or public relations, but in social media, share of voice is pretty straightforward. Share of voice determines the number of mentions that is being generated by your brand, against the number of mentions being generated by your competitors.
The share of voice shows the standing of your brand against your competitors. If your brand is coming up as one with the most number of mentions, then you might be doing something right. If your brand is on the lower side in terms of volume of mentions, then it is possible that you do not have the right kind of social media strategy in order. This is the value of share of voice when submitting a report to your client with this metric.
At AllFamous Digital, we use the Radian6 Analysis Dashboard to determine this social media metric. We generate the mentions through this tool between the brand that we are monitoring and their competitors. Radian6 has the capability to capture public posts of any brand, no matter where in the world the mention was made. Through Radian6, we can definitely give a clear-cut view of the share of voice metrics to our clients.
SHARE OF CONVERSATION – % BRAND MENTIONS VS. COMPETITOR + INDUSTRY MENTIONS
While share of voice determines the number of brand mentions without the specific details other than the volume, the share of conversation is quite different. Share of conversation is more applicable to reports that are covering specific topics.
For instance, you are making a report for a mobile network provider and you want to know how it is against other competitors. If you are using the share of voice model, it’s as simple as getting the number of mentions per brand for a given time period.
By still using this example, you want to see which brand has the most number of mentions in terms of network coverage and call services. Putting these sub-topics into account makes the share of voice metric different from a share of conversation metric.
POSITIVE SENTIMENT – % POSITIVE MENTIONS
It’s very nice to look at the positive mentions that your brand gets in social media, but it’s also important to know what you will do with the percentage and the types of positive mentions that you are getting.
The percentage of positive mentions for your brand shows just how much people in social media (you, me and everyone who has access to an internet connection) speaks well of your brand. From these positive mentions, you can reinforce the good points that people recognize about your brand and apply it in your social media activities.
The percentage of positive mentions needs to be strictly monitored. A slight decrease in the percentage of positive mentions can be disastrous for your brand, as it is possible that the negatively slanted mentions is growing in number. Thus, vigilant monitoring of this metric is key to your brand’s success.
NEGATIVE SENTIMENT – % NEGATIVE MENTIONS
The percentage of negative mentions is one of the most important social media metrics out there. Aside from determining just how many mentions you are getting that creates a negative impact on your brand, you are also guarding your brand from getting more negative mentions than it is already getting.
If the percentage of positive mentions need to be strictly monitored in terms of a decrease in percentage, negative mentions should be monitored for an increase in percentage. Any increase in the percentage of negative mentions may pose a threat to your overall brand reputation, so a trained eye to monitor these changes is quite important.
Another wonderful reason as to why negative mentions should be monitored is best explained by Salesforce through the Radian6 Engagement Console. This is a tool that we use at AllFamous to tag negative posts, and is also very helpful in changing the perspective of people with negative sentiment about your brand so that they can be advocates for your brand in the future. Watch the video below to know more about this tool:
The truth with negative mentions is that these mentions won’t go away, but simply changing the consumer climate can decrease the percentage of negative mentions so that you can have a good brand atmosphere in social media.
Social media metrics are slowly becoming standardized, no matter which industry the brand you follow belongs to. Keeping these social media metrics in mind can really help you provide the reports that your client wants and the information that you need as the world turns digital day by day.
This article also appeared on: https://www.afdigital.com/key-social-media-metrics-to-monitor-brand-success/
