KPIs Flashcards
KPI
Key Performance Indicator
Measures whatever performance is valuable to the business.
Tracked over time to measure progress.
A business metric should be measured against a target. A KPI should measure the success of achieving that target.
Helps brands to understand how well they are performing and if they need to change their strategy.
Most important metrics to measure are…
- Reach
- Engagement
- Conversions
- Customer Support/Consumer
Business Metric
A number used to measure performance.
A business metric should be measured against a target. A KPI should measure the success of achieving that target.
Potential Reach
How many people might see your posts across all of social media?
Say you have a Facebook profile that 300 people like. Now add your 500 Twitter followers. Same for your other social accounts. Sum it all up - that’s your potential reach.
Impressions
Reach
How many times did your post show up in someone’s feed or timeline? I’m not talking about the ones looked at, noticed, or read. Just the number of chances people had, by the screens they appeared on.
How to track it
- Identify the number of impressions for a given post on a given platform
- Identify the reporting period to measure, like a week, month, or quarter
- Compare to previous period to see a trend
Audience Growth Rate
Reach
What’s the rate of growth for your social media followers?
This is less about how many, more about how quickly.
And, was it faster than the previous months?
How to track it:
- Identify the number of new followers for the month on a given platform
- Divide that number by your total audience to get your growth rate
- Multiply by 100
- Compare to previous months to see a trend
Example:
- 100 new followers on Twitter in January
- (100 divided by 5,000 total followers) * 100 = 2% growth rate
New followers / Total Followers x 100 = Growth Rate Percentage
Post Reach Percentage
Reach
How many people have seen your post since it went live? That’s post reach.
For this KPI, experiment with when you post and what you post.
Because timing and content affects performance. Note the effects as you change these two variables.
How to track it:
- Identify a post to measure
- Identify how many people viewed your post (reach)
- Divide the reach by total number of followers
- Multiply by 100
- Compare to other posts, for the same and other reporting periods
Example:
- 200 people viewed your post
- (200 divided by 6,000 followers)* 100 = 3.3% post reach
Post Views / Total Follwoers x 100 = Post Reach Percentage
Social Share of Voice
(SSoV)
(Reach)
Want to know how many people mentioned your brand versus your competitors?
Sure you do.
Whether it be direction mentions like @hootsuire or indirect mentions like “Hootsuite”.
SSoV lets you know how relevant your brand is in the market.
How to track it:
- Identify a reporting period
- Measure every mention of your brand, direct or indirect, for that period
- Do the same for your competitors’ mentions
- Add the two together to get total mentions
- Divide your mentions by the total mentions
- Multiply by 100
- See who’s winning
Example:
- 300 of your mentions
- (300 divided by 2,100 mentions from everyone else) * 100 = 14.2% SSov. Nice one.
Mentions / All other Mentions x 100 = SSoV Percentage
Engagement
How people are interacting (or not interacting) with your posts.
Applause Rate
Engagement
Know how many people are clapping, liking, or favoriting your posts, relative to your total followers.
They just approved what you shared, and consider it valuable.
How nice.
Knowing this rate will help you share the right content for your audience.
Dig deep on this. Try to understand why people applauded. Was it because of that 50 percent discount? Or because of how it ended with such a heartwarming message?
How to track it:
- Identify a reporting period
- Identify a post to measure
- Sum the total approvals for that post
- Divide by your total followers for that platform
- Multiply by 100
- Compare to your target goals
Example:
- 250 likes
- (250 divided by 9,100 Twitter followers)* 100 = 2.8% applause rate
Likes / Followers x 100 = Applause Rate Percentage
Average Engagement Rate
Engagement
Similar to Applause rate, though for likes, shares, and comments. It’s also relative to your total number of followers.
The higher the rate, the better.
Just know, rate matters more than absolute number of likes, shares, and comments. Use this as a guide for what you post.
How to track it:
- Identify a reporting period
- Add up post’s total likes, comments, and shares.
- Divide by your total number of followers
- Multiply by 100
- See the trend over time, compare with your goals
Example:
- 120 likes + 230 comments + 165 shares of a post
- (515 divided by 23,200 followers)* 100 = 2.2% average engagement rate.
Likes + Comments + Shares / Followers x 100 = Average Engagement Rate Percentage
Amplification Rate
Engagement
Why be limited to just your network?
An awesome thing about social is benefiting from other people’s networks too.
Amplification rate shows how your followers care and share your content with their people. By their shares, retweets, repins, and regrams.
The higher the rate, the more interest your followers show in associating with your brand.
How to track it:
- Identify a reporting period, say for a week, month, or quarter
- Count the shares for a post, for that period
- Divide by your total number of followers
- Multiply by 100
- Compare that rate with your goals
Example:
- 95 shares of a post
(95 divided by 3,450 followers)* 100 = 2.75% amplification rate
Shares / Followers x 100 = Amplification Rate Percentage
Virality Rate
Engagement
Everyone dreams of going viral.
This KPI is the number of people who shared your post relative to the number of people who had a chance to see it (impressions, remember?).
Measure this for a reporting period.
Reminder… this is about rate, not absolute shares. A post shared 10,000 times may only get a .03% virality. While another post shared 6,000 times may get 9.1% virality - which is far better.
How to track it:
- Identify your target reporting period
- Identify the number of impressions for a post, for that time period
- The same for shares
- Divide shares by impressions
- Multiply by 100
- Compare that rate with your goals
Example:
- 110 shares of a post
- (110 shares divided by 1,980 impressions)*100 = 5.6% virality rate
Shares / Impressions x 100 = Virality Rate Percentage
Conversions
How effective is your social media? Time to find out
- Conversion Rate
- Click through rate (CTR)
- Cost-per-click (CPC)
- Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM)
- Social Media Conversion Rate
- Comment Conversion Rate
Conversion Rate
Conversions
How many visitors take the action you asked them to?
Here’s the ideal sequence…
You post. User clicks on your call to action link. User sees a landing page. They complete an intended action on that page.
Like subscribe to your newsletter, download your guide, schedule time to talk.
You do have calls-to-action, right?
Because being in social is more than just looking great. You’ve got a business to run and a boss to please.
A high conversion rate shows you that your fans and followers care about what you have to say, show, and share.
The set up:
- Create a landing page for your campaign
- Add the killer CTA
- Create a post with a call-to-action link to your page
- Place a cookie on the users machine, to associate the lead to a campaign
How to track it:
- Publish the post
- Track the number of clicks it receives
- Same for conversions
- Divide conversions by clicks
- Multiply by 100
- Compare this to your goals for the period
Example:
- 130 conversions of a post
- (130 conversions divided by 4,100 clicks)* 100 = 3.2% conversion rate
Conversions / Clicks x 100 = Conversion Rate Percentage
Click-through rate (CTR)
Conversions
For your posts, what’s the rate people click on your call-to-action (CTA) links?
I’m not talking about shares, likes, or comments, Rather, are people showing an interest in additional content?
Track this KPI often, to learn how compelling your offers are.
How to track it:
- Determine number of CTA clicks for a post
- Same for impressions
- Divide clicks by impressions
- Multiply by 100
- Compare the rate with your goals for that time period
Example:
- 95 CTA clicks of a post
- (95 divided by 5,900 impressions)* 100 = 1.6% click-through rate
CTA Clicks of a Post / Impressions x 100 = Click-through Percentage
