2 Easy Metrics Your District Should Track On Social Media
As communicators, math is not always our favorite subject. So imagine my dismay when I realized that sometimes the key to smart communications...is math. At Forthright, we believe that by tracking metrics, from website visits to email clicks to social media engagement, we can gauge what’s working, what’s not, and build data-backed campaigns as a result.
The good news is, tracking engagement (and building measurable goals) doesn’t have to be hard. That’s why today, we’re sharing our tips for the two key metrics you should always track on social media, empowering you to make data-backed decisions about your content—and to best serve your district!
Metric One: Impressions and Reach
Let’s start with getting your content in front of your audience! As a school district communicator, one of your goals is sharing your district’s news with as many families and community members as possible. By tracking impressions (also called reach) across your district’s social media platforms, you can easily gauge how many eyes are on your content.
Data we like to track:
Overall monthly impressions—and then compare it with data from other months!
The three posts with the most impressions
The three posts with the least impressions
Pro tip: Creating a simple Excel (or Google Sheets) spreadsheet and tracking your metrics monthly will help you establish trends and build strong content.
Metric Two: Engagement
Active engagement (likes, loves, retweets, clicks, and more) is important not just because it shows that your audience is interested in your content, but also because individual posts with high engagement are then boosted in newsfeeds. This means that more engagement leads to higher impressions—and in turn, often even more engagement on the post.
Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter also rank your content higher overall in newsfeeds when you have regular engagement and impressions.
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Data we like to track:
Overall monthly engagement—and then compare this with data from other months, too!
We like to break it down by type of engagement. For example, we track number of likes on a post, number of clicks, etc.
The three posts with the most engagement
The three posts with the least engagement
Comments—good and bad
Pro tip: some social media outlets, like Twitter, allow you to export data in an Excel document, at which point you can easily use Sum and Average functions to make the math easy! I personally also use a percentage calculator to easily track percentage growth and decreases when it comes to data like impressions and reach.
Decoding the Data
Once you’ve pulled your data, it’s time to add meaning to the numbers. As you look at your metrics, ask yourself the following questions:
Is posting at a certain time performing better than others? For example, are posts that you share at 5 p.m. habitually outperforming ones posted at 9 a.m.?
Are specific topics resonating more with your audience, based on your engagement?
How does your formatting impact impressions and engagement? For example, are more people stopping to read your post if it includes an image?
Is using a best practice tactic, like tagging organizations and staff members, leading to higher engagement and impressions?
Do your most popular posts have something in common? How about least favorite posts?
By tracking just a few easy-to-pull metrics and answering these questions, you can tweak your social media strategy—and ensure your target audience always sees your most important messaging.
