Apr. 19, 2023, | Updated Apr. 21, 2023 
by Joshua Ngala @JoshuaNgala 

Monitoring and analyzing social media performance is an important part of determining the success of a company’s social media strategy.

You can track and report on social media analytics using a variety of tools, including Google Analytics, Hootsuite Insights, and Sprout Social.

These instruments can be used to track metrics such as website traffic, engagement rates, and audience demographics for various social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

The tools will enable the company to find, acquire, clean, and transform data; understand data relationships; and deliver value from data.

You will then employ predictive analytics, which is the application of past data to predict future values, as well as prescriptive analytics, which includes the use of those predictions to drive decisions.

Here are some steps to help track and analyze social media performance:

1. Set clear goals and objectives:

Identify the specific goals and objectives of your social media presence, such as increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or generating leads. Knowing the desired outcomes of a social media presence is essential to develop a comprehensive strategy.

2. Choose the right metrics:

Identify the key metrics that will help you measure progress toward your goals, such as follower growth, engagement rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates on specific posts.

The metrics can be used as the key performance indicators (KPIs).

3. Use analytics tools:

Utilize social media analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Hootsuite Insights, or Sprout Social to track your metrics and analyze your performance.

These tools can provide detailed insights into your social media activity, including audience reach, audience demographics, engagement rates, and content performance.

First, connect your social media accounts to the analytics tool you choose.

Regularly check the analytics to see how your social media efforts are performing and identify areas for improvement.

Below are some key analytics tools:

Google Analytics: This tool allows you to track website traffic, including the source of the traffic (e.g. social media).

It also provides detailed information on user behavior, such as bounce rate, time on site, and conversion rate.

Hootsuite Insights: This platform allows you to track and analyze your social media metrics across multiple networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

It provides insights into engagement, reach, and audience demographics.

Sprout Social: This platform offers analytics and reporting tools for social media marketing. It allows you to track engagement, reach, and follower growth across multiple networks and provides detailed insights into audience demographics and behavior.

Socialbakers: It provides detailed analytics and reporting for social media marketing. It allows you to track engagement, reach, and follower growth across multiple networks. It provides detailed insights into audience demographics and behavior.

Buffer: This platform allows you to schedule, publish and analyze your social media content. It gives you an overview of your post performance, audience engagement, and follower growth across multiple networks.

With the help of a data scientist, that is if you have no experience handling data, gather data on your KPIs regularly such as daily or weekly.

Analyze the data and make recommendations for future social media strategies based on the insights gained from the analytics.

Share the report with relevant stakeholders to keep them informed on the performance of your social media presence.

4. Monitor your competition:

Keep an eye on your competitors and their social media performance. This can provide useful information about industry trends and best practices.

Follow them and examine their content, as well as their audience and engagements.

5. Analyze audience engagement:

Look at the types of content that are resonating with your audience and which ones are not. This will help you understand what kind of content your audience likes and wants to see more of.

Additionally, you can use this information to target your audience with relevant and effective advertising.

Track engagement metrics such as likes, comments, shares, and click-through rates for each social media post.

Identify which types of content are receiving the most engagement and which are not. Use social media analytics tools to analyze your audience demographics.

Analyze audience behavior and emotions towards your posts. Also, use tools such as Sprout Social, Hootsuite Insights, or Buzzsumo to analyze audience engagement and track key metrics.

6. Track conversions:

By tracking conversions, you can understand the effectiveness of your social media efforts, and see which platforms are driving the most traffic to your website and generating the most conversions.

Use tracking links and UTM parameters to track conversions.

This helps in understanding return on investment (ROI).

7. Regularly review and adjust:

Regularly review and analyze your social media performance and adjust your strategy as needed.

After tracking progress, identify areas of improvement and adjust your strategy accordingly.

8. Use A/B testing:

A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a method of comparing two versions of a website, app, or social media content to see which one performs better.

A/B testing can be used to test different elements of a social media post, such as the headline, image, or call-to-action, to see which version resonates with your target audience the best.

Here are some steps to perform A/B testing for social media content: identifying the element to test, creating the two versions, publishing the two versions, monitoring the results, and analyzing the results.

Apply the winning version and continue to monitor the results.