The 8 Essential Social Media Metrics That Matter

Most social media advice out there is about “more, more, more.” More followers, more likes, more re-tweets, more click throughs, more ads. So on and so forth. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve about had enough of it. I mean, I know social media is a great thing and is an incredible opportunity for business owners, but at the same time…. I don’t feel like it, okay?! I don’t feel like dedicating half a day every day to my Twitter feed. I don’t feel like mapping out a Facebook strategy and then hiring a part-time virtual assistant to implement it for me. And I sure as heck don’t feel like using Pinterest for anything more than collecting delicious vegan recipes and Harry Potter jokes. And honestly? I really don’t think I’m the only one. Sure, we’re all highly ambitious entrepreneurs that get a high from working hard and seeing our efforts pay off. But we’re human, too. As much as we might like to, we can’t do everything. We need to relax sometimes and give ourselves permission not to do things. So, in this post, I’m not going to chastise you for using social media too much or not enough. I’ll trust that you can find the right balance for you and your business. You’re smart enough to do that and don’t need me policing and micro-managing you about it. Instead, I’m going to talk about the social media metrics that actually matter, so that when you do sit down to go through your Twitter feed or have a Facebook planning session, you get the most ROI for your time invested. Because honestly? You work too hard not to have every minute you spend working count.  

Why Number of Followers & Likes Really Doesn’t Matter

If you want followers on Instagram, you can pay a software to do it for you. I get a spam follow or comment from someone hoping this will work magic for them every single day, and I don’t even have a popular Instagram account. I can feel flattered that they liked three of my posts, left a “nice photo!” comment, and followed me…. or I can just ignore them, because I know a week from now the software they’re using will automatically unfollow me and this “relationship” they tried to establish with their modern-day spam will be entirely one-sided. Basically, if you want more followers, you can buy them. If you want more likes, you can post a motivational quote imposed on the top of a gorgeous stock image. And those things might feel exciting and play into our natural human urges that want us to feel liked and be desired… but those things aren’t playing a part in your overall funnel or doing much (if anything) to increase your bottom line. Instead, a social media like should only be the very first part of your funnel… and not even a necessary one at that. It’s where people should start becoming familiar with your brand and your message… so they’ll eventually sign up for your lead magnet and enter your sales funnel “for real.” (And, hint: you can have a wildly successful online sales funnel without social media. Really. Social media is honestly just icing on the cake.) So let’s get into the eight metrics that actually matter, shall we? Note: not all of these metrics will matter for every single business, either. Proceed with caution and try to take notes on only the metrics that feel like they’ve got a high level of resonance with your business.  

1. Engaged Commenters & Number of Average Comments

Spamming aside, comments are a sign that people are actually reading what you’re posting and engaging with it on a high level. Personally, I “like” a lot of pages that show up in my newsfeed, but that I never actually engage with besides that. Their content is good, but for the most part, I’m not a paying customer. There are a few brands and bloggers, though, that I follow and answer every question they ask me that shows up in my news feed. And most of the time, I’m a proud and happy customer of these people… or probably will be in the very near future. Because here’s the thing: just because people “like” your page or follow you doesn’t mean they’re sold-out loyal fans of whatever it is you offer or teach. Instead, it’s usually the people who actively engage and comment on your stuff that actually matter the most to your business. So instead of trying to grow your likes or your follower count so that maybe some of them will be the kind of people who engage via comments, strategize ways to prompt the fans you’ve already got to be actively engaged. This way you know you’re making the most of the work you’ve already done to collect those followers, and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how having an active “community” in your comments will really draw in others.  

2. Bounce Rate

When your analytics dashboard calculates bounce rate, it’s the number of people who come to your website and leave it after only viewing that one page. So if you’re leading traffic to a landing page with no menu—even if it has a high conversion rate—it’ll have a high bounce rate because people are only looking at that one page. So if that’s the scenario for your social media posts and ads that lead back to your site, bounce rate is something you can disregard. But, if you’re using social media to drive traffic to a cornerstone, evergreen blog post, for example, bounce rate is a really important metric to pay attention to. And basically, it answers this question: Do visitors find your content exciting enough to stick around? If not, they bounce. If yes, they click around to check out a few more pages before leaving your site. So if you’ve got a navigation menu present on the page you’re sending social media traffic to, the goal is to have a really low bounce rate. By paying attention to this metric, you can see what types of content your social media followings are most interested in, what topics they don’t care about, and which topic generates the most interest overall. With this information, you can better attune your social media strategy to what those audiences are after, increasing loyalty via those channels and getting the most bang for your buck as far as more bottom-line metrics like email subscribers, clients, and sales.

3. Visits vs. Unique Visitors

Metric	Definition
Number of visits	Each time a person visits your website, it counts as a visit.
Unique visitors	Counts each person only once.

So yes, getting more and more unique visitors is important… especially for those times when you’re hell-bent on growing and scaling your business. But if you’re only after unique visits, you’re missing out on the real potential of having a social media strategy in the first place. (Don’t get me wrong. This metric is important because it validates your marketing efforts.) So in addition to lusting after more unique visitors… also lust after getting them to come back, again and again. So, for example, if you have 1,000 unique visitors and 1,000 visits every month, that means that every person is coming to your page once and not coming back. But if you’ve got 1,000 unique visitors and 3,000 visits every month, that means that on average, each visitor is coming back to your site two more times every month, which is incredible. Social is about driving more and new traffic to your site, but in my opinion, the real power of it lies in “staying in touch” with your target audience on the days and weeks they aren’t on your site. You stay top-of-mind so they remember you even when there’s not one of your unopened emails sitting in their inbox or they’re not going through one of your free email courses. Because beyond using social to drive more visitors to your site, when you use it to drive previous visitors back to your site, you drive them deeper and deeper into your loyalty and engagement efforts. They dig deeper into your content every single time they come back, and over time, become “sold” on what you do—which either means they become a newsletter subscriber or they buy something. (And we all want all of our visitors to buy something, don’t we?) It’s probably lighter and more fun than the seriousness that you get into on your site, but it’s still really beneficial to make sure you’ve got a high-touch strategy going on. And honestly, the more touches the better. According to the , it takes 7-13 (or more!) touches to turn someone from a cold visitor into a viable sales lead.  

4. Time on Site

Imagine these two scenarios of someone who “bounced” from your site:

• A person who scrolled down the page and five seconds later closed your tab.
• A person who spent time reading your blog post until the very end and opted in for your lead magnet at the end of it.

Obviously, there’s an entire spectrum of options and user behaviors between these two points, but I think every single one of us would favor behavior more closely resembling the second option than the first one, right? Even if they left without visiting another page and gave us a “bounce.” So, in conjunction with your bounce rate for traffic that c

Metric	Importance
Click Through Rate	Measures traffic from ads, but not as important as conversion rate unless traffic is very low.
Conversion Rate	More important than click through rate; focuses on actual conversions from traffic.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most important social media metrics to track?

Engagement metrics such as comments and interactions are crucial as they indicate active participation.

Why is tracking unique visitors important for my business?

Tracking unique visitors helps validate your marketing efforts and shows how many new people are discovering your brand.

How can I increase repeat visits from social media traffic?

Encourage repeat visits by providing valuable content and engaging with your audience regularly. This keeps your brand top-of-mind and encourages return visits.

What role does social media play in my sales funnel?

Social media acts as the initial touchpoint in your sales funnel, helping to familiarize potential customers with your brand before they enter your sales process.