Definitions of Popular Social Media Metrics

To understand social media metrics, it will probably help to start with some well-defined definitions. I know I struggled a bit with grasping what some of the modern metrics were getting at, so I hope it is helpful to see it all laid out here.

Conversions = the number of people who achieved the desired result. This result could be paying for a product, signing up for a trial, completing a form, or any other goal you’ve set up for your campaign.

Leads = potential conversions. These include anyone with the need or interest to pursue your product or service.

Engagement = the total number of likes, shares, and comments on a post.

Reach = a measurement of the size of the audience to whom you are communicating.

Impressions = a look at how many people saw your post.

Funnels = The paths that visitors take toward converting.

Visits vs. unique visits = Visits count each time a person visits your site or page, regardless of whether or not they have visited before. Uniques count each person only once.

Bounce rate = The percentage of people who land on your page and immediately leave, without viewing any other pages.rate at which people leave your site after viewing only one page.

Exit rate = The percentage of people who leave your site from a given page. It is possible these people have browsed other pages of your site before exiting.

Time on site = a measure in minutes and seconds of how long a visitor stays on your site before exiting.

Audience growth rate = a comparison of your audience today to your audience yesterday, last week, last month, and so on.

Average engagement rate = individual post engagement compared to overall followers.

Response rates = These can be measured in two ways: either as the speed with which you respond to comments and replies on social media, or how quickly your marketing or sales department follows up with leads from social.

Inbound links = the number of sites linking back to your website or page.

We hope this has been a helpful tip sheet on popular social media metrics!