Measuring what matters

Social analytics dashboards show you fifty numbers. Three are worth checking weekly, three more monthly, and the rest are noise. Here's the working set.

Weekly metrics

1. Engagement rate per post

(Likes + comments + saves + shares) ÷ impressions. Tracks whether your audience actually finds your content worth their time. If this drops for three weeks in a row, something is off.

2. Reply-rate on comments and DMs

What percent of incoming comments and DMs got a response within 24 hours? If you can't keep this above 90%, you're neglecting the engagement half of social marketing.

3. Profile visits

The proxy for interest. Someone who visits your profile is far more likely to buy than someone who just liked a post. A healthy account grows profile visits month over month.

Monthly metrics

4. Link clicks and attributable conversions

Use UTM tags on every link you post. Then in your website analytics, count the conversions that came from utm_source=social. This is the bottom line — did this month's work drive anything downstream?

5. Follower growth rate

Not absolute follower count — growth rate. 500 new followers on a 5,000 account is huge. 500 new on a 50,000 account is flat. Rate matters more than count.

6. Share-of-voice in your niche

Harder to measure but crucial. Use a tool (or manually track) to see what percent of conversations in your category mention you vs competitors. Over time you want to trend up.

Metrics to ignore

• Total follower count. Vanity. 100k bots are worth less than 1k real prospects.
• Impressions / views in isolation. Only useful divided by engagement — the rate, not the raw number.
• "Reach." Heavily manipulated by platforms, poorly standardized, rarely actionable.
• Engagement rate without context. "Our ER is 3%" means nothing without a baseline — is that high or low for your niche? Always compare to your own last month, not to random industry benchmarks.

The monthly review ritual

Block 30 minutes on the first of every month. Open your analytics and your content calendar side by side. Answer three questions:

• Which posts from last month outperformed? Why?
• Which underperformed? Can I see a pattern?
• What will I change for the next month? (One change. Not five.)

Write your answers down. After six months, you'll have a rolling record of what you've tried and learned that's worth more than any marketing book.