Measuring the value and impact of organic social media can be one of the hardest marketing types.  This is due to the nature of where this type of marketing typically sits on the marketing funnel.  It tends to be higher up in the funnel.

Just like with any type of marketing there is a funnel that is created and consumers move through with your brand.  It’s important to note that the metrics we are about to note below are just the organic social media metrics within the funnel of just organic social media.  Often consumers move from one type of marketing funnel to another type of marketing.  In other words, they jump funnels.  It’s not natural for someone to move through from beginning to end of your funnel with just one form or type of marketing.  This is why multi-channel marketing in multiple channels is important. 

It’s like attending a networking event and having conversations.  You don’t expect to close clients at networking events.  You expect, like with organic social media to start relationships and intrigue new and interesting conversations.  Because of this measuring items such as traffic driven directly to a website or even further down the funnel for actual conversions is difficult. In this blog post, we want to talk about what you can measure.

First, let’s talk about how to measure and an acronym that always comes up is S.M.A.R.T goals.

S-

Is the metric you are attempting “specific”. Do you know exactly what you are measuring?

M

“measurable” can you actually measure the metric?

A

“Achievable”, something that we are always shooting for metrics above what everyone else thinks is possible.  So we might not follow this one, LOL.

R

“Relevant”, is the metric you are looking to measure relevant to the campaign that you are running?

T

“Time-bound”.  Is there a time frame that you can measure the metric within and achieve it?

With S.M.A.R.T goals in mind let’s review organic social media metrics your marketing agencies should be measuring.

Let’s start at the top of the funnel of organic social media.  Is my post getting impressions and how many people am I reaching?  We put a lot of value on this metric.  The reason is it is telling us if we doing what the algorithm wants.  No, it’s not our first goal to do what the social media algorithm wants but if we play nice then our post will be seen by more people.  Since organic social media is at the top of the funnel, we are casting a wide net.  Algorithms have changed though to where our organic social media is being placed in front of people that are not our followers and would enjoy our content.  If we can get organic reach up, then we know we are doing a good job. As of the writing of this blog post, short-form videos on reels and TikTok are getting the largest reach.

This one goes hand in hand with reach.  If we are getting engagement with our ads then the social media algorithms take that as an indicator that our content is good and it should be shown to more people. Engagement involves, stopping scrolling in the organic social media feed, liking a post, commenting on a post, sharing a post, or even video watch time.  Your marketing agency has to get creative here as actually asking for a comment or likes is against rules for platforms. 

But if your marketing agency was to post something that naturally sparks a conversation, they were on the mark.  This means you might have to be edgy.  This might mean our marketing agency might go against your brand and so they have to think through the consequences.  You also need to make sure you have someone there to engage back with them on your end!

Hmm is this really important anymore? With the organic social media algorithms any more measuring this Organic social media, KPI seems more and more of an ego metric. 

The reason is algorithms are showing your content well past your actual followers. So growing your followers is not a reflection of how many people will see your content. 

The actual creative and engaging nature of the content is what is important.  You likely want a respectable number but it’s of lower importance for us.  If you create good content, then the rest will follow.

This really is a great indicator that you have a good teaser of information that can be found on the website.  Getting someone to click through gets them to your websites and engaged with other content! But, going back to S.M.A.R.T goals is it attainable?

First, you are working against the algorithms.  Their goals are to keep you on their platforms much as possible. So they are less likely to increase your reach if you are taking someone off their platform.

That makes reaching this or “attainable” goal less likely.  We still like to look at it though inside of Google analytics. if you can hit both sweet spots and mix up your content you win at both worlds.  It’s just not an ultimate goal for us.

Unless you are selling widgets this is even more difficult with organic social media.  Getting someone to leave a social media platform and at the same time do the desired action is hard. Especially if you are looking for phone calls or form fills. 

It’s possible if you lower the bar to perhaps gathering emails to form a funnel.  It’s also easier if you are selling widgets or services with offers. You just have to keep in mind that social media is not intended to be a “let’s push our next offer platform”.  It’s intended to be social and have a conversation. 

If you hold your marketing agency to this metric, you might look more like an infomercial.  Remember if you help enough people get what they want (good content) then you’ll get what you want (conversions).

So there you have it, all the metrics that we look at with organic social media.  While it’s difficult to measure and is at the top of the funnel it has some tricks that are measurable.  We should all understand that we want to get conversations started with our brand and realize that the conversation skips all around on multiple platforms and parts of the funnel. We just need to be there at that time to be helpful, engaging, and entertaining.

Rather Listen?

Listen to “Ep #50 – What KPIs Matter with Organic Social Media” on Spreaker.