Choosing the right KPIs is crucial to the success of your social media strategy.
Without the right KPIs, your social media strategy is like a journey without a destination—you invest a lot of energy without knowing if you're making progress. Discover how to invest your time in measuring the right metrics and why KPIs are more than just reach and engagement.
What are KPIs and why are they important?
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measurable values that indicate the progress and success of a particular activity. KPIs help you evaluate your strategy effectiveness and support making data-driven decisions. In social media, KPIs can relate to a variety of aspects, from reach and engagement to sales and brand perception.
The challenge is to go beyond the typical social media metrics, because reach, likes or clicks say little about whether your overarching business goals are being achieved. For example, if your goal is to receive qualified applications for your vacancies, you need to actually measure the number of applications and not just clicks on a job ad. When setting KPIs, think about how to measure the end of the target chain and reflect the actual success of your work.
Defining goals – the first step
Many companies still don't know exactly what they want to achieve with social media - they simply do it because everyone else is doing it. This approach is neither motivating for those responsible for social media, nor does it create clarity about measures, content and target groups.
Define clear goals and objectives before you set KPIs. Your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART). Once you have SMART goals, you can develop relevant KPIs.
Here are some examples of goals and suitable KPIs that match:
1. Personal Branding
- Goal: Become known as a national expert on a topic.
- Strategy: Network with the right target groups; present yourself on social media with well-founded statements, prove you can present yourself well on panels and add value to the discussion; show examples of successful appearances; obtain positive feedback and make it visible; present a clear price structure for your work; make yourself easy to find.
- KPIs: Number of people reached in the target group, increase in reach, number of panel and interview requests, level of positive feedback.
2. Specialist Recruitment
- Goal: Attract specialists for IT security.
- Strategy: Targeted social media campaigns to address potential applicants; regular posts about company benefits and career opportunities; highlight current employee success stories; cooperation with technical colleges and universities; use specific job and career platforms.
- KPIs: engagement rate of job posts, number of qualified applications.
3. Brand Perception
- Goal: Be perceived as chic and cool by young women.
Strategy: Collaboration with influencers who appeal to the target group; creation of stylish and trendy content that reflects the lifestyle and values of young women; opportunity to test products; competitions and challenges that encourage interaction; and regular, authentic behind-the-scenes insights. - KPIs: Number of monthly positive mentions on social media by young women users.
4. Company Perception
- Goal: Be perceived as an open company.
- Strategy: Promote dialog with users through regular Q&A sessions; respond to comments and messages; demonstrate transparency in company decisions; share reports on sustainability and social projects; and participate in public discussions and debates.
- KPIs: Number of questions addressed to the company, response time and quality of responses.
5. Sales Increase
- Goal: Increase sales figures.
- Strategy: Social ads with clear call-to-actions; retargeting campaigns for website visitors; cooperation with celebrities; use of discount campaigns and special offers; regular analysis and optimization of campaign performance.
- KPIs: development of sales figures, conversion rates of social ads.
Set realistic and achievable goals
An important aspect when selecting KPIs is the achievability of the targets. Unrealistic targets can have a demotivating effect and overstretch resources. Careful planning and analysis of the available resources is therefore essential.
The success of your social media activities depends largely on how well your KPIs match to your defined goals. For example, if the goal is to increase sales figures, you should not primarily measure the interactions with the posts, but the actual impact on sales.
Choosing the right KPIs is crucial to the success of your social media strategy.
