Last Updated on September 13, 2024 by admin
Social media is one of the most powerful channels I’ve used in my marketing career. In fact, it’s one of the channels with the highest ROI this year.Social media is one of the most powerful channels I’ve used in my marketing career. In fact, it’s one of the channels with the highest ROI this year. I’ve found that creating a social media report template is a great place to start when deciding on what you want to include in your social media strategy. Successful social media marketing isn’t a mindless task. However, it takes careful planning and strategizing to engage your audience. Knowing what to post, how often to post, how much to invest in paid social, and what metrics you should be measuring are all key parts of a successful social media strategy. Luckily, all of these elements can be tracked in a social media report, so you know if you’re on the right path. Read further for more information on social media metrics to include in your report, and use HubSpot’s Free Social Media Reporting Template to get started. Image Source Table of Contents What is a social media report? What are the different types of social media reports? Why use a social media report? Social Media Metrics to Report On Free Social Media Report Template Social Media Report Examples How to Make a Social Media Report What is a social media report? A social media report is a way for marketers to analyze and extract data based on how various social media platforms are performing. This might include measuring metrics such as followers, successful clickthrough rates, likes, post shares, purchases, and more. There are two types of social media marketing: organic and paid. Organic social media is free (beyond employee time) and includes creating posts, videos, content, and other engagement efforts. Paid social media is paid advertising through social media channels and might look like promoted content, influencer marketing, and other social media efforts that cost money and must be budgeted for. What are the different types of social media reports? 1. Performance Report This type of reporting is pretty straightforward. Take each of your social media platforms (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and, using the free social media report template, fill out the first page that reports on each owned channel. You’ll want to know your audience for each channel, how many posts you made, how they performed (engagement), and what this looks like as a percentage of your total audience. Image Source 2. Earned Media This type of report (found on the second page of the free template) looks at your reach and impressions. Each platform will have different audiences and metrics to follow regarding your engagement. This type of report can give you a better idea of what your reach currently is and how to improve it. Image Source 3. Key Initiatives and Goals It’s not enough to just blindly post on different platforms. You need to have a clear idea of the different social media campaigns you want to accomplish on a monthly basis and what engagement you want to reach for a campaign to be considered successful. Use HubSpot’s Free Social Media Reporting Template pages 5-26 to fill out: Your monthly goal for a given social media platform Your strategy for that platform and key initiatives That platform’s opportunities Any wins from that platform (ex, most liked post, most commented post) Image Source Why use a social media report? A social media report is the best way to distill the key metrics your social media team is tracking on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and/or annual basis. Since social media encompasses so much, gathering and reporting on the data and channels that you’ve determined are most important for your business provides a lens of focus for your social media marketing team and delivers a necessary high-level overview for leadership. Social media doesn’t just affect marketing. Prospects ask questions, customers write reviews, and thought leaders follow you for company news. Because social media coincides with nearly every aspect of your organization, gathering and distributing the state of your social media channels is a move that shows transparency and encourages cross-company alignment. You can also use a social media report to report on campaign-level analytics. If your social media account is serving as a cog in a larger company initiative, this report shows to what extent social media contributed to the project’s success. Remember, not every social media platform performs the same. Here’s a graph that shows how marketers are using platforms and their prospective return on investment (ROI). Image Source HubSpot’s free social media report template has pre-made slides for you to report on all of your predominant social media metrics. Download the template today and simply plug in your own metrics to customize a social media report for your organization. Featured Resource: Free Social Media Report Template Social Media Metrics to Report On Your business likely values some metrics over others when it comes to social media reporting. Likely, these metrics also vary between your channels — since LinkedIn doesn‘t let you retweet, and Twitter doesn’t let you click a cry-face button. Before you start reporting on your social media channels’ performance, read through this list of options for social media metrics so you can determine which ones you should include in your report. 1. Audience Size and Growth This metric tells you how large your reach is and how quickly that reach is growing. This is typically seen as the core social media metric, as it shows how large of an audience you can leverage with your posts and content. 2. Cadence of Posts A rather self-explanatory example, this metric represents how many times you posted in a given time period. This metric is usually compared alongside other metrics — such as engagement rates — to help you determine the right cadence for your audience. This metric should also be channel-specific because it makes sense to post more frequently on some channels