How to measure social media success: 12 social media metrics to track and improve performance

Whether you love them or hate them, social media metrics are key to growth! As a social media manager, you want to track performance so you can make changes based on what works and what doesn’t.

To help you out, we’ve created a guide on how to measure the success of your social media strategy. Plus, we’ve created a list of social media metrics every social media marketer needs to know.   

What determines success on social media?

Factors that showcase your content’s relevance and quality determine success on social media and influence the infamous algorithms. A detailed social media strategy, a distinct brand voice chart, posting consistently, keeping up on trends, engaging with your audience, and creating quality content all increase your chances of success. And they’re all assessed by social media metrics. 

What are social media metrics?

Social media metrics are ways to evaluate the performance of your content. Metrics like reach, engagement, and follower growth help gauge the impact of your social media strategy – and how to improve.  

For example, when posts get a lot of likes, comments, and profile visits, it shows platforms like TikTok that your content is high-quality and relevant to people with certain interests. To keep people scrolling, algorithms show this content more often in feeds. Tracking metrics related to business objectives also helps brands see what to do (and not to do) to see desired results. 

Psst! For more on the TikTok-specific insights, visit our guide to the TikTok algorithm in 2024. 

How to measure success on social media

So you’ve posted content using viral CapCut templates and trending Instagram audio? Awesome! But the fun doesn’t stop there. After you’ve posted scroll-stopping content, you’ve got to measure its performance.

Gauging true success on social media involves having goals for social media, choosing the right metrics to follow, developing a process to track social media metrics, and analyzing results to improve performance. To help you be the best social media manager you can be, let’s explore each step further.   

Step 1: Set goals 

To measure success, you first have to know what you want to achieve. Social media managers should review organizational objectives and set social media goals tied to business results. You can also use the popular SMART framework to ensure goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. 

For example, a goal to “Improve social media engagement” doesn’t follow this framework. It’s achievable, but without being specific or adding an element of time, it’s hard to know when you’ve achieved the goal. There are also many ways to measure engagement, but this goal doesn’t indicate how success will be measured. Finally, it may be relevant to business objectives but could do a better job of explaining how. 

A SMART goal might look more like this: “We want to grow HeyOrca’s community this month by increasing our LinkedIn engagement rate to 18%, generating 80 LinkedIn mentions, and adding 20 newsletter signups from social.”

It’s clear what HeyOrca wants to achieve and how it’ll be measured. The goal is achievable within the timeframe. And it’s relevant to HeyOrca’s company focus on community ​​(join yourself by signing up for HeyOrca’s daily social media newsletter). 

An important note – social media goals aren’t limited to platform-specific activities. As shown in the example above, they can be tied to broader marketing objectives (like increasing newsletter subscribers). 

With a list of 2–3 social media goals related to your company’s current strategic plan, the next step in learning how to measure social media success is choosing what metrics to track. 

Step 2: Determine key metrics 

Many metrics can be used to measure a specific goal. But, tracking every single one would get very overwhelming. Instead, choose the best social media metrics related to your objectives and use those to measure success. 

By following metrics specifically related to goals, you can avoid getting caught up in social media vanity metrics that have little impact on business results. For example, getting a lot of likes and followers is impressive, but this alone doesn’t show a return on investment. Consider things like clickthrough rate (CTR) and conversions as well to show value. 

In the example above, engagement rate, visits to HeyOrca’s newsletter signup page, and the number of subscribers gained from social media are all relevant to the goal. To take things a step further, HeyOrca could also track how many new subscribers become customers and the value of their account to showcase ROI. 

At this stage, if you’re wondering what social media metrics are best for your goals, we have you covered. Scroll below to find a list of 12 key social media metrics you could use.  

Step 3: Develop a process for metrics tracking 

The next step in learning how to measure social media success is developing a process for tracking metrics. This should be customized based on what works best for you and your team and should include how you’ll access social media data and how often. 

It’s possible to find data on social media channels themselves. But, this can be time-consuming. Instead, consider using a third-party platform with a built-in social media metrics tracker. 

For example, a social media scheduler like HeyOrca has reporting features that let you measure your Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and X (Twitter) performance all in one place.

OK, enough about HeyOrca reporting. (But, did we mention the platform has an AI tool that generates insights about social media data for you? And you can schedule reports to send automatically – a great way to impress your social media agency’s clients.)

Regardless of how you track data, you’ll also need to decide on a schedule for social media metrics reporting. This will depend upon your goal’s timeline. Generally, once a month does the trick, but shorter campaigns may require more frequent check-ins.

Step 4: Analyze social media metrics and revisit strategy 

Finally, this stage of measuring your social media success involves analyzing performance. Look back at your goals to see if you’re on track to achieving them and if the metrics you chose appear to be indicators of success. 

If results show you’re on your way to crushing your social media goals, awesome job! Keep up the great work. If it looks like you’re behind, no worries. There’s always room for improvement. 

Break down results and look for patterns. Does a certain post format or topic perform especially well? Could small changes like adding hashtags or engaging with your audience improve results? If you have a lot of data to process, use artificial intelligence to help analyze your social media performance. 

Once you’ve compiled insights from your analysis, revisit your content strategy and make changes to double down on what’s working and switch up things with less impressive results. 

Social media metrics to track

Hopefully, you now have a better idea of how to measure social media success. To help you track your goals, we’ve put together a list of 12 key social media metrics and how to use them. 

Social media brand awareness metrics 

Reach and impressions are common awareness social media metrics. Since awareness is the first step in a customer’s path to purchase, these metrics can be important to evaluate when learning how to measure social media success. Here are a few metrics that track awareness: 

1. Reach

Reach is the number of unique social media users who see your post. This metric can be pulled straight from social media (or HeyOrca!).

2. Impressions  

Similar to reach, impressions are the number of times a post appears in a feed. Impressions are often higher than reach, since a particular post may appear in someone’s feed multiple times. This is another awareness metric that can be pulled directly from social media or your favourite social media scheduler (*ahem* HeyOrca). 

Posts with unusually high impressions may mean users keep returning to the post because they found it particularly valuable or entertaining. 

3. Profile views 

Some social media platforms, like TikTok, include statistics on profile visits, meaning the number of users who view your profile. While this metric may not be your primary measure of success, it could help gauge interest in your brand. (If people keep clicking on your profile, you’re doing something right!) 

Engagement metrics for social media

Social media engagement metrics relate to how people interact with your posts, which can be by liking, commenting, sharing, and saving. If you’re wondering how to measure social media engagement, here are a few metrics to consider: 

4.  Post engagement rate 

Post engagement rate is a metric that shows what percentage of your audience engages with your content. To calculate it for a particular post, find the total number of post interactions by adding up its likes, reactions, shares, comments, and saves. Then divide that number by impressions or followers.   

Since not all followers will see your post and everyone who engages won’t necessarily follow you, there’s some debate about whether to use the number of followers or impressions when calculating an engagement rate. So, there are 2 options: 

• Post engagement rate = (Total number of post interactions / number of post impressions) x100
• Post engagement rate = (Total number of post interactions  / number of account followers) x 100

Either option works, just be consistent. You don’t want to switch between using impressions and followers. That would make it hard to track and understand changes in engagement rates. 

5. Account engagement rate

This metric is a percentage that reflects how effectively your account (and its content) resonates with your community. Here’s how we calculate account engagement at HeyOrca:

• Account engagement rate = (Total Engagements / total Impressions) x 100

Too much math? We don’t blame you. HeyOrca Reports will automatically calculate your account engagement rate for you. 

6. Campaign engagement rate

Similarly, to find the engagement rate for a certain campaign, you have 2 options: 

• Campaign engagement rate = (campaign interactions / campaign impressions) x 100
• Campaign engagement rate = (campaign interactions / number of followers) x 100

7. Video view rate

A video view rate shows how many people have viewed your video compared to how many times it’s appeared in someone’s feed.

• Video view rate = (Number of video views / number of impressions) x 100

Note: Social media platforms vary in what they count as a view, some can be just a few seconds of playtime. While this metric may show your video is getting attention, a video completion rate can be a better indicator of engagement. 

8. Video completion rate 

A video completion rate is the percentage of people who watched your entire video compared to how many times it’s appeared in someone’s feed.  

• Video completion rate = (Number of completed views / number of impressions) x 100

This is a great metric to gauge your audience’s interest in your video content. 

Audience growth metrics

Audience growth metrics can be leading indicators of success. 

9. Change in followers (aka follower growth)

It’s a good idea to keep an eye on how many followers or Page likes you gain – or lose – over time. This can be tricky to track manually, so HeyOrca does it for you! 

10. Follower growth rate 

A follower growth rate is a step up from profile visits, measuring how much your social media audience has grown over a certain time. It can be calculated by dividing the number of followers gained by the number of followers you started with. 

• Follower growth rate: (Change in following / number of followers at the beginning of the period) x 100 

Note: If you want to calculate your overall social media audience growth across all platforms, you’ll have to add up the change in followers and original following on all your accounts.  

Social media conversion metrics

When learning how to measure social media success, some of the most important metrics to consider are related to conversions. These social media metrics are more closely related to business results, making it easier to showcase value. 

11. Click-through rate 

A click-through rate measures the number of clicks from social media content compared to the number of impressions. A high click-through rate shows interest in your content and brand. This is an important metric to track if your goal is to get customers off social media and onto your website, signup page, etc. 

• Click-through rate = (Link clicks from social media / impressions) x 100

Note: To improve accuracy and get more detailed data, create UTMs for social media posts and see exactly where each click comes from. 

12. Conversion rate 

A conversion rate shows the ratio of people who complete a desired action compared to the number of clicks. Examples of conversions are buying a product, subscribing to an email list, or booking a demo call. This metric is closely related to business results and your social media goals.

• Conversion rate = (The number of conversions / the number of clicks) x 100

Again, using customized UTMs will help better track conversions and overall performance. 

Social media marketing metrics made simple 

There you have it, how to measure social media success in 4 easy steps. Hopefully, you’ve found our guide helpful in deciding on your social media goals and metrics to follow. With a plan in place, you’re free to get back to making stellar social content and watching the results roll in. 

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