There is no official right answer for this. It all has to be based on your individual goals, but you know I have to put my two cents in about how we measure success. Below is a quick run-down on some great metrics we use that have truly helped us succeed with a wide variety of clients. I kept it to the big three of Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, but if you have your own success metrics for another social network, we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Social Media Success Metrics
- Overall Channel Success-Retweets
- Engagement-Link Clicks
- Growth-Retweets
- Overall Channel Success-Reach per Post
- Engagement-Comments & Likes
- Growth-Shares, Page Likes, & People Talking About This
Google+
- Overall Channel Success-Recurring Active Hangouts
- Engagement-+1s & Comments
- Growth- Engagement in Communities
As I mentioned in my first post, determining a measurable goal in the initial stages of your social media campaign is extremely important. And continuously measuring your success and benchmarking your results will help to determine what content resonates most with your target audience, allowing you to optimize your social community management efforts to reflect these learnings.