understanding social media metrics

UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL MEDIAMETRICSWWW.KEYWORDSANDJARGON.COM

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Cross Channel TerminologyIn the online world, there are a lot of terms that can be applied to various channels and situations.

Here are five terms that can be applied to all social networks.

ImpressionsWhether you work in PR, PPC or communications. Whatever your title if you produce content youmeasure impressions. Impressions in the realm of social media refers to the number of people that have had apiece of brand published content feature in their newsfeed. However, this should not be referred to as a sign ofengagement or as a definite view as most brand created content is often overlooked in favour for user and peercreated content.

EngagementsEngagements are simply the measure of interactions by an audience with a piece of content.Engagements are often seen as the be all and end all of social media, however the pursuit ofbusiness goals should always be the main focus.

InteractionsAs mentioned in Engagements above, interaction is the tangible measure of engagements. A user interactswith brand content by retweeting, liking, sharing, commenting etc.

TargetingAs in PPC, targeting refers to who adverts are displayed too. Some networks have more advanced targetingthan others however they all allow some form of targeting to ensure social marketers can ensure their paidadvertisements are seen by users who fit their customer profiles.

BenchmarksBenchmarks are used in social media the same as they are in other channels - to validateperformance and justify budget allocation. Benchmarking against direct competitors and groupswho market to the same audience is common practice, as is benchmarking against previousmarketing efforts.

Monthly/Daily Active UsersCommonly abbreviated to MAU and DAU, these terms inform a brand how many users within their immediateaudience are active.


Vanity MetricsVanity metrics are vanity. They make great headlines however they provide no real measure onperformance. The best use of a vanity metric is to use it alongside benchmarks or when analysingtrends.

Vanity metrics vary between social media platforms.

Facebook Vanity MetricsVanity metrics on Facebook are fans, likes, comments, followers and shares.

Twitter Vanity MetricsVanity metrics on Twitter are followers, favourites, replies and retweets. I would also like to add tothis list when someone adds you to a list, the measure of the number of lists you are on is a vanity.

YouTube Vanity MetricsVanity metrics on YouTube are subscribers, views, likes and comments.

LinkedIn Vanity MetricsVanity metrics on LinkedIn are followers, comments, shares and likes.

Is Klout vanity?

Klout is an online tool that measures influence, launched in 2008 it boasts over six-hundred millionusers globally.

It measures social media influence taking into account 400 different factors along with 12 socialmetrics. Klout measures your influence and suggests content based on interests and what hasperformed well previously, logically by doing so your Klout score will increase as will your influence.

Is Klout vanity? No.

By using Klout as a learning and benchmarking tool you can gauge yourself more effectivelyagainst competitors. Automatically Klout assigns all Twitter users a score, however those whoregister can link multiple social channels and get a more accurate score for all networks.


Facebook is the largest social media site in the world and boasts more metrics than any othernetwork in it’s internal analysis tool Insights. However, not everything that matters is available inInsights.

Average Reply TimeThe average time elapsed between a user posting onto the brands Facebook wall and when thebrand actually replies. This metric allows a brand to understand and plan it’s customer serviceresources as well as provide an efficient and positive customer experience.

Response RateThis metric is calculated by looking at how many responses a comment receives after it is postedonto a brands wall. This is useful in planning customer service resources.

BoostingFacebook encourages brands to utilise the platform as a mass media service. As with PPC, brandsmust pay Facebook for their posts to reach wider audiences - this is called post boosting.

Monthly/Daily Active UsersCommonly abbreviated to MAU and DAU, these terms inform a brand how many users have usedtheir Facebook App. Combined with engagement and benchmarks the effectiveness of a brandsFacebook App can be measured.

ReachThe number of people that have been exposed to a piece of brand content - these are impressionsand are not indicative of engagement or that the content has been consumed.

When Fans are OnlineThis is a useful metric to bear in mind when scheduling posts to achieve maximum organic reachand engagement.

Page and Tab VisitsUseful for a brand that uses custom tabs to enhance a user’s experience on Facebook, Timelineviews are also logged in this feature in insights.


Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short 140-character messages called "tweets". Registered users can read and post tweets, but unregisteredusers can only read them. Twitter Analytics has developed and is a useful tool, however not allmetrics can be measured from this.

Average Reply TimeThe average time elapsed between a user tweeting using the brands handle and when the brandactually replies. This metric allows a brand to understand and plan it’s customer service resourcesas well as provide an efficient and positive customer experience.

Response RateThis metric is calculated by looking at how many responses a comment receives after it is postedonto a brands wall. This is useful in planning customer service resources.

InfluencersBy building relationships with key users who are able to influence your audience. It is alsoimportant to recognise yourself and competitors as influencers. Brands can amplify their messagesand react to a potential PR crisis by working with and having positive relationships with keyinfluencers.

SentimentSentiment indicates whether or not the buzz around a brand’s Twitter handle is positive ornegative. Sentiment is a metric that is best measured over time to analyse and identify trendsrather than used as a snapshot to measure a single event or day.

Twitter CardsLead generation cards are like a promoted tweet, they can however be used to generate followers,leads and downloads (of guides).


YouTube metrics would be familiar to anyone from the TV advertising industry, however theyprovide more depth, accuracy and insight. YouTube is also the second largest search engine in theworld, having a strong and meaningful brand presence on this channel is more important than ever.

Estimated Minutes WatchedThe total sum of minutes watched by everyone that has viewed a YouTube video over it’s lifetime.This is more of a vanity metric and doesn’t read into engagement.

Audience RetentionIt’s rare that a YouTuber makes it all the way through a video. This metric identifies how far a usergets into watching a video - or the percentage of the video that the average person watches. Thisis useful to identify any potential edits to the video, especially if key messages are at the end of thevideo and a large percentage of users don’t make it that far.

Average Video LengthThis metric identifies the length of the average video within a particular channel or sector. Combinethis with audience retention metrics and a brand can calculate an optimal video length and whereto place key messages.

Pre-roll CampaignsThese are video ads that play before a video starts and are charged on a CPM (cost per thousand)on a views basis. The majority of these can be skipped after 5 seconds. To disable the skip button,you just pay more.

AnnotationsThese are messages that can be overlaid on videos to promote different videos and link off to othersites. These can be useful when trying to generate traffic to other sites.


LinkedIn has vastly improved it’s advertising offerings and is now the largest professionalnetworking platform in the world. Through Showcase pages and it’s advanced jobs platform,reaching decision makers and potential hires is now easier than ever.

Acquired FollowersThese are followers that a brand acquires through paid promotions, this enables a brand to justifyspend to increase audience numbers.

AudienceLinkedIn will show whether or not content was sent to all followers. This is true for organic ortargeted posts and for sponsored updates.

ReachLinkedIn refers to impressions as reach. It’s the total number of times a piece of brand content waspresented to users in their newsfeeds. A sub-metric of this is unique reach, which is the exactnumber of newsfeeds that the content is served on. The unique reach metric is accurate for a usermay refresh their page multiple times affecting the reach metric.

EngagementLinkedIn determines Engagement as a percentage of impressions against the total number ofinteractions and clicks.

Hiring UpdatesBased on hiring patterns of a competitor you can gain insight into potential new products or adirection that they are going in. This is useful to pre-empt certain events and campaigns.

understanding social media metrics

Social Media