Check out the recording below where SEED Beauty (ColourPop’s parent company) Social Media Director Tiyana Grulovic shares her top insights on social media marketing in the beauty industry.

After years in editorial and fashion, Tiyana’s breadth of experience has lead to ColourPop ranking number 1 in our Top 100 Beauty Brands on Social Media report for 2021. Their stellar engagement across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter has propelled this agile brand to the top of the charts and into the hearts of loyal fans globally.

Along with host Seth Bridges, Tiyana delves into what makes a winning content strategy, team structure, and how to perform in a social-first industry.

Watch the full interview for all the insights:

ColourPop Social Media Secret Sauce

ColourPop’s loyal following is key to their success, but Tiyana also shared some strategy tips on putting your content to work for your brand.

Her professional experience with top brands in the biz like Urban Decay and Nasty Gal have informed longstanding principles on marketing including meeting your audience where they’re at and making the best of a campaign gone wrong. Supported by a talented team, Tiyana credits their success to collaboration within the marketing departments and the ability to test out new strategies quickly. Here are some of the top takeaways from Tiyana’s interview.

A Social-First Brand

ColourPop’s target demographic is on social media, so their social-first strategy makes total sense for the brand. Tiyana reiterated that at the heart of the social-first philosophy is their customers. Listening to their audience feedback, reviews, and analyzing engagement metrics means their social presence is valuable to their content, and more importantly, their products. She also noted that fostering their online community builds brand love, or superfans, that are loyal to the company and promote their favorite products on their own social channels.

Try All The Things

Tiyana notes that since algorithms reward early adopters of new features they’re always trying the latest product update like Reels, Guides, and IGTV on Instagram. When something flops, her top advice is to take your learnings into the next campaign; delving into the details of why something went wrong instead of beating yourself up over it means you can evolve and move forward next time.

TikTok has been especially interesting for ColourPop, their channel gets great engagement and always has some fresh storytelling narratives to share. Tiyana also noted that it’s her current favorite platform to spend time on and that your influence and creativity often stem from absorbing other content on a platform to get to know what works.

Collaborations Are Key

While she couldn’t give *too* many details away in the interview, it’s no secret that collaborations have been killin’ it at ColourPop lately. Tiyana mentioned a nostalgia-inducing Lizzie McGuire campaign that has had great success with young millennials who loved the show.

Her recommendation for collaborations, whether it’s with huge brands or micro-influencers, is to find the right audience fit for your brand and make sure to test out some fresh promotion ideas with each new launch.

ColourPop’s Lizzie McGuire product launch brought in high engagement totals on Instagram and TikTok.

Wrapping It Up

Don’t forget to explore the Top 100 Beauty Brands on Social Media report for all of our rankings and top examples from the hottest brands in beauty, including ColourPop. Plus, download the report for some standout campaigns that are just waiting for your personal spin.

If you have more questions about social media metrics or how to be a guest on the Data-Driven Marketer, reach out to us on Twitter.

The post The Fresh Face of ColourPop Social Media appeared first on Rival IQ.

Watch the interview with Ejolee Mitchell, Social Media Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance for inspiration for your next content campaign, how to get your user-generated content, and where to focus your tight budget on social media.

Along with host Seth Bridges, Ejolee shares her top takeaways from extensive social media work in the nonprofit sector at organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, iMentor, and Kepler, and her social media endeavors like #MarketingHoroscopes.

Watch the full interview for all the insights:

The nonprofit industry’s engagement metrics blow other industries out of the water. According to the data in our 2021 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report, the nonprofit industry saw above-median engagement rates across all social channels this year. On average nonprofits posted 9.2x per week on Facebook with a 0.13% engagement rate, tweeted 11x per week with a 0.055% engagement rate, and 4x per week on Instagram with a 1.41% average engagement rate.

Ejolee credits these above-average engagement rates with the emotion-inducing nature of nonprofit storytelling. Bringing a humanized story of the work you’re doing increases the empathy of your audience, according to Ejolee (and of course, the data). She emphasizes that storytelling is at the core of the nonprofit industry, as they’re not selling a product or service but a drive to improve lives around you.

Ejolee elaborates with specific campaign examples from nonprofits like Black Lives Matter and Save the Children who have employed personal anecdotes and experiences of their beneficiaries to drive an increase in follower counts and at the bottom line, donations.

Fast Facts: Takeaways from Ejolee

• Consider having a Twitter chat with your network to expand your followers with hashtags, share noteworthy facts, and build up authority in your space. Note that it IS very time-consuming to prepare and build up the buy-in ahead of time but can be well worth it.
• Use reach, share numbers, and impressions as key metrics for awareness when you’re advocating for your work or social strategy internally. “Likes” and direct clicks may not be your only KPI, as many feel uncomfortable “liking” something of a sensitive nature and generally return to a cause after it sticks in their head.
• Plan, plan, and plan some more. Ejolee knows that small teams are swamped. Especially if you’re a one-woman shop it pays to plan ahead particularly on your calendar. Ejolee shared she blocks out calendar time for tasks that re-occur months in advance, gets a minimum of 48hrs notice for asks from colleagues, and gets a priority level on new asks from leadership to maintain a balanced workload.

Wrapping It Up

Give Ejolee a follow on Twitter if you’re looking for some levity with #marketinghoroscopes or have more questions about the roll-up-your-sleeves attitude of a nonprofit social media manager. Or, add these live nonprofit benchmarks into a Rival IQ account to see how your brand stacks up.

If you have more questions about social media metrics or how to be a guest on the Data-Driven Marketer, reach out to us on Twitter.

The post Successful Social Media for Nonprofits appeared first on Rival IQ.

Watch the interview with Convince and Convert’s Lauren Teague to get some intel and inspo for your 2021 Instagram strategy including how to spend your time on the platform, why you should care about your impressions, and what type of content to put into a Reel (also, what the heck is a Reel?).

Along with host Seth Bridges, Lauren shares her top takeaways from the 2021 Instagram Stories Benchmark Report, her favorite resources, and of course, what you should be trying out on Instagram this year.

Watch the full interview for all the insights:

Lauren lists the twelve features of Instagram that are available for marketers to deliver a message to their audience: Feed, Stories, Highlights, Reels, Instagram Live, IGTV, Guides, Shoppable posts, Stickers, Custom AR filters, the “link in bio” real estate, captions, hashtags (which Lauren points out are another opportunity to differentiate your content) and of course, DMs. She makes a great point by mentioning Instagram’s update to allow keyword searches for both captions and hashtags in the search capabilities–so don’t underestimate those extra places for content!

Seth and Lauren also dive into the data, specifically in regards to engagement metrics on Stories, from the 2021 Instagram Stories Benchmark Report. Notable strategies they highlight include before & after frames getting great tap-through rates and longer captions gaining engagement because a user needs to “hold” or pause the Story to read the full text. These are both useful strategies to invest in if you’re looking to boost your engagement rates and impressions.

Other notable strategies mentioned in the conversation include opening up your brand’s direct messaging functionality, utilizing Instagram Reels, nailing down a posting frequency, and collecting user-generated content. Let’s walk through each of these possible paths to take with your Instagram:

The Value of Opening Your DMs

Another exciting area to make an impact for your brand is the direct messaging functionality of Instagram. While this level of customer communication can feel like a full-time job itself, it can provide a lot of valuable opportunities for engagement. Lauren makes a great point that spending at least ten minutes a day responding and engaging with your audience elevates your brand to a more social experience to your following and having open DMs can also result in user-generated content to repurpose.

Seth mentions an excellent example from Kum & Go, a convenience store chain that repurposes funny DMs with customers into additional Instagram content. The idea here is that not only are you making an impact in the DMs, but efficiently using that time investment to bolster your Instagram strategy elsewhere. You can hear more about this Instagram strategy in the podcast from CStoreDecisions Seth was on earlier this month.

Instagram Reels

We’re seeing Instagram Reels live in their own space on Instagram. This challenger to TikTok is certainly making a splash on Instagram, including pulling attention to an additional section of the app and asking for a significant time investment from content creators. Here’s an Instagram overview of what Reels are, in case you haven’t tuned in to the latest trend just yet.

Of course, Reels are a significant time investment to create consistently. But if video production and ideation are in your team’s strengths and you’re looking to cultivate a following surrounding Reels before it becomes oversaturated it would be a great place to invest in. If you’re looking for some brand inspo when it comes to content, we interviewed Alex Lewis from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams to talk about all of their content creation initiatives.

How Often to Post on Instagram

It can be intimidating to keep up with all these content options! While the app’s appetite is insatiable and there are a ton of places to post, it’s important to understand your following’s interest through data and testing while making the most of your team’s strengths. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to Instagram strategy. A data-driven approach for your brand that utilizes benchmarks from your industry will help keep the expectations around content creation realistic. We gathered some helpful data about how often you should be posting on each social channel. Check it out if this is a pain point in your strategy.

Amy Landino’s Detail Therapy podcast which Lauren mentions cites a Business Insider article (gated) in which Instagram recommends handles with a following of 50-150k post 3 in-feed posts per week (Reels published to your feed, Posts, or IGTVs), 8-10 Stories a week, 4-7 Reels per week, oh AND 1-3 IGTV’s per week. Of course, that’s an extreme amount of content for any team to keep up with! So be sure to rely on your metrics for a posting frequency that works for your brand.

User-Generated Content in COVID times

It’s no surprise we’ve all been a little light on the content creation over the past 11 months… Lauren and Seth recommend asking your followers for their content. A ton of micro-influencers out there would love to be featured in your Instagram strategy. Lauren and Seth also spoke a lot about the Instagram “takeovers” which have seen a huge rise in popularity as a strategy this year.

A takeover could be as simple as a “day-in-the-life” of someone on your team, or could go as far as the celebrity Instagram swaps we saw over the summer. These types of user-generated content create a level of variety to your Instagram that can boost interest and engagement.

Strategies for Instagram Growth

Lauren got a ton of live questions about growing your Instagram following and engagement, most notably to get to that “creator” 10k mark. Lauren mentions that cross-over content can be key here: with 86% of Instagram users are also monthly active users on Facebook re-posting the same thing across your channels should be avoided. When you have a small team or just a small amount of time to invest, Lauren reiterates that main-feed posts (whether it’s a Reel, carousel, picture, etc.) will get you the most reach and algorithmic reward.

Carousels, which our data has shown get rewarded with repeat-impressions for non-swipers (see our top takeaways from the Social Media Industry Benchmark Report), are certainly a good place to start for main-feed Instagram posts. Don’t sweat it if you’re not a huge team; Lauren and Seth emphasize keeping up with consistent and high-quality content is more important than quantity. Plus, you can get creative with the multiple ways to repurpose that content like screenshotting your DMs, sharing UGC, and maintaining an up to date Highlight section.

Lauren was also sure to mention that your bio, and whatever link you have there, is important real estate to keep fresh and up-to-date to cultivate the qualified audience-channel fit that you’re looking for on Instagram–and don’t forget a CTA!

Wrapping It Up

Watch the video for all of the specifics, including some rapid-fire questions from the live audience covering which metrics to track on Instagram that align to your KPIs, the pros and cons of a stylized Instagram grid, the best tools for a seamless Instagram planning and posting, and where you can catch Lauren speaking next.

If you have more questions about Instagram strategies, social media metrics, or how to be a guest on the Data-Driven Marketer, reach out to us on Twitter.

The post Inventive Instagram Strategies for 2021 appeared first on Rival IQ.

Check out the live interview with Alex, AdWeek’s Hottest Content Marketer of 2020, as he shares how he got into social media marketing, how his team at Jeni’s supports the broader social media mission, and where he gets the inspiration for investing in trends on social.

Along with host Seth Bridges, Alex shares his methods for ROI modeling his organic social content. We also delve into a few excellent campaigns from Jeni’s including a WAP tweet earlier this year and a state fair campaign that brought nostalgia and innovation together.

Watch the full interview for all the insights:

Alex, along with the entire team at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, brought the Jeni’s brand to the #1 spot on the Top 100 Health Food Brands on Social Media Report for 2020. Their high-quality organic ingredients and high-quality social media content made for some splendid engagement rates.

If you have more questions about social media metrics or how to be a guest on the Data-Driven Marketer, reach out to us on Twitter.

The post Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams: Sweet Social Media Success appeared first on Rival IQ.

Tune in below as our resident data geek, founder, and Head of Product/Marketing Seth Bridges outlines all of the newest changes to your Rival IQ toolset. These fall features are designed to integrate seamlessly into your product usage for faster and more efficient social media data analysis.

Feature Updates Video Walkthrough

The new feature updates include:

• • Support “AND” and “NOT” as well as “Include” and “Exclude” queries for post tags in social posts, insights, and custom dashboards
  • New custom dashboard widgets for your reporting, including “Focus Company at a Glance”

Watch the quick 7-minute video to see these new features in action as Seth walks through a skincare landscape with Kate Somerville skincare as the focus company.

Advanced Boolean Search in Post Tagging

With the post tagging features, we perform a quick analysis of Kate Somerville Instagram post performance with a specific emphasis on partnered and giveaway style campaigns. Seth uses the new advanced boolean capabilities of the post tagging features including “AND/NOT” and “Include/Exclude” queries for a deeper understanding of content performance.

Custom Dashboard At-a-glance Widgets

Seth also uses this skincare landscape to demonstrate the new custom dashboard at-a-glance widgets which include the advanced post tagging capabilities as well as new additions to the focus company. These widgets can be customized for slices of your data like auto-grouping based on time periods and adding in benchmarked averages in the main metrics for your focus company metric summary panel.

More fall features

Along with these great features explained in the video, we made some small but mighty changes to your abilities within the app. We’ve extended all data limits to now be able to look at year-over-year and two-year comparisons with 100 companies. If you have more than 200 companies you can now look back an entire year.

Plus, you can now add more companies to your account in increments of 1-5 without having to contact your CSM. You can add to your company count in the subscription settings of the app.

Wrapping it up

These latest features are an expansion of our updated Automated Insights and Expanded Competitive Benchmarking feature set from September. If you’d like a refresher on what else is new, catch this video walkthrough that demonstrates how to utilize automated insights and the competitive benchmarking features.

We’re thrilled to roll out these newest features and hear what you think, so if you have feedback please reach out to your designated CSM or DM us on Twitter.

The post Fall 2020 Feature Updates appeared first on Rival IQ.

In case you missed the Higher Ed Social Media interview series live we wanted to outline some highlights from our fall semester in a video wrap-up. This series explores the world of #hesm through the lens of top D1 social media professionals and nonprofit Higher Ed industry leaders.

Rival IQ co-founder and Head of Product and Marketing Seth Bridges interviewed these four top Higher Ed social media experts in a dynamic interview series you can watch anytime. Here’s a peek into those interviews:

For the full experience, check out the summaries of each of our guests below and links to their full interview recordings!

Michigan State University’s Ellen Doepke

Michigan State University topped the charts of our 2020 Higher Ed Social Media Engagement Report, performing particularly well on Facebook. Ellen Doepke, Director of Social Media at MSU, weighed in on recent social media success and what’s on the priority list for the rest of this year.

Ellen outlined her internal team makeup and social media education efforts across the campus community. Check out her full interview here, including some excellent intel on campus-wide social media education and pitching new ideas.

Jackson State University

The Jackson State University digital team, Associate Director Spencer McClenty and Digital Media Manager Kentrice Rush delved into what makes JSU’s social media stand out. We explored the growth and development of individual social media channels for the university and highlighted campaigns and strategies you’ll want to test out yourself.

The Jackson State University social team ranked 57th overall and top among HBCUs in the 2020 Higher Ed engagement report. Catch the recording of our interview with the team from JSU here, which was particularly interesting for advice on adjusting to the “new normal” COVID-19 has inflicted upon Higher Education marketing.

Plus, Courtney shared his approach to student interns and their empowerment to own projects from ideation to fruition. Watch the recording here including Courtney’s advice on reaching your core demographic, establishing partnerships and so much more.

Wrapping it up

These interviews were part of a special series dedicated to the Higher Education industry’s amazing engagement rates on social media. We know this industry outperforms so many others thanks to the data provided in our annual Social Media Industry Benchmark Report.

If you’re interested in more interviews from other industry experts, let us know who you’d like to hear from by mentioning us and them on Twitter.

The post Higher Ed Social Media Interview Series: Wrap Up appeared first on Rival IQ.

Ellen Doepke, Director of Social Media at Michigan State University, talked about the state of social media in higher education in this special edition of the Data-Driven Marketer.

Ellen, a born and raised Michigander who joined MSU with a background in journalism, shared tips on utilizing user-generated content, taking emotion out of decision-making with a metrics-first approach, and how to leverage competitive analysis to move social media goals forward.

We were thrilled to host such a transparent guest who weighed in on not only her social strategies but also MSU’s internal team makeup and social media education efforts across the campus community (skip to 19 minutes). We also got to ask tons of questions including channel-audience fit and deciding which channels to invest time and money into (skip to 27 minutes).

Watch the video for all the intel:

Ellen shared how her team regulates inappropriate comments on their university social feeds and shared MSU’s guide to commenting to inspire your team.

For all the latest Higher Ed info, read the Higher Education Social Media Engagement Report for 2020 with the full rankings of over 350 D1 college and university social media handles across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for insider insights on how this industry gets. it. done.

If you have more questions about social media metrics or how to be a guest on the Data-Driven Marketer, reach out to us on Twitter.

The post Higher Ed Social Media: Michigan State University appeared first on Rival IQ.

We hosted Courtney Gray, founder of HBCU First to discuss his nonprofit mission of helping Black youth navigate the college and career journey, putting theory into practice with his team of dedicated interns, and how their marketing programs have had to be flexible to massive amounts of change in the past 6 months.

Courtney also details empowering his team to spearhead outreach to their own peers and how they’re reaching an audience of prospective and current college students online. If you’re looking for some out-of-the-box ideas and a whole lot of inspiration, this is a video to tune into for sure.

Watch the video for all the intel:

Read the Higher Education Social Media Engagement Report for 2020 with the full rankings of over 350 D1 college and university social media handles across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for insider insights on how this industry gets. it. done.

Don’t miss the third and final edition of the Higher Ed Social Media webinar series with Michigan State’s Ellen Doepke to talk about how they crushed their Facebook engagement this year, and what’s next in social media for MSU on Tuesday, October 6th at 10 AM PT. Register for the final interview here.

If you have more questions about social media metrics or how to be a guest on the Data-Driven Marketer, reach out to us on Twitter.

The post Higher Ed Social Media: HBCU First: Increasing College Success for Black Youth appeared first on Rival IQ.

Product Manager Tiffany Lin & Head of Product Seth Bridges present the full scoop on the newest Rival IQ features and how to utilize them to the fullest. In the walkthrough video we covered these three latest areas of the app:

• Automated insights for faster analysis and simpler communication of social success to your stakeholders
• Expanded competitive benchmarking so your competitive data is embedded throughout the app, at your fingertips
• Layout changes and upgrades that make your time in the app more effective and efficient

You’ll also hear great questions from the live attendees. Check out the full video:

Here are a few of the resources we referred to in the video that should help give more background info like, the launch post breaking down the automated insights and expanded competitive benchmarking, the latest data on how often you should be posting on each social channel, and this help article on how Rival IQ computes averages in your data.

Want more tutorials and case studies using Rival IQ features? You can check out past videos in the Learning Rival IQ series.

If you have more questions or want to see a specific topic covered in a training webinar, reach out to us on Twitter, anytime.

The post Automated Insights & Expanded Competitive Benchmarking: Getting The Most from Your Data appeared first on Rival IQ.

We hosted Associate Director Spencer McClenty and Digital Media Manager Kentrice Rush to talk about their efforts on the JSU social media presence, including how they shape their content calendar, what social media on-the-fly looks like for JSU, and how being alumni benefits their social media authenticity.

Plus, Spencer and Kentrice dish about the communications and behind-the-scenes of the JSU organizational structure and how their team is the go-to for all of the university’s individual social media handles. If you’re looking for some expert-level social media strategy and execution this is definitely a video to watch.

Watch the video for their top tips and experiences:

Want more info about the data and rankings we discussed in the interview? Read the Higher Education Social Media Engagement Report for 2020 with the full rankings of over 380 D1 college and university social media handles across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Don’t miss the second edition of the Higher Ed Social Media webinar series with Courtney Gray, founder of Cerar & Malcolm, a brand development agency, and HBCU First, a college success and career access nonprofit for Black youth on Wednesday, September 23rd at 10 AM PT. Register for the full series here.

If you have more questions about social media metrics or how to be a guest on the Data-Driven Marketer, reach out to us on Twitter.

The post Higher Ed Social Media: Jackson State University appeared first on Rival IQ.

Are you ever tired of hearing the phrase “vanity metrics”? You know, the ones that supposedly make you look good as a social media manager but don’t have an impact on sales or leads.

Here’s the thing: there’s no such thing as vanity metrics. All of your likes, repeat impressions, and more add up to an impact on your company’s bottom line. Your job as a marketer is to identify the goals of your social media presence and set a strategy to achieve them for each channel. It all starts with knowing what you’re tracking.

We’re breaking down the top social media engagement metrics that impact your overall performance on social media. To keep things simple, we grouped them together by metric instead of the individual channel.

Social media engagement metrics you should be watching

• Impressions
• Reach
• Engagement rate
• Likes
• Comments
• Shares
• Clicks
• Click-Through Rate
• Mentions

Impressions

Impressions are the total number of organic, paid, and viral views on your post. When measuring your impressions, don’t forget that repeated views by the same person get counted in the total number of impressions.

Impressions help answer the ever-present question social media marketers face: is anyone even out there ? Knowing how many people are seeing your posts is an important first step in measuring engagement so you can set your goals accordingly. You can also work to expand your impressions by varying the timing of your posts, content types, which platforms you’re using, and more.

Reach

Reach is the total number of unique users that saw the post organically, virally, and through paid ads. Even if someone comes back to your post a few times, their visit is counted only once for reach. Reach also combines your follower count plus the follower counts of anyone who has shared the post in question.

Reach helps you get the most accurate picture of who saw your post since it never counts repeat views and therefore can’t be inflated. It’s also an important number to keep in mind when you’re looking at the engagement rates of your posts since it’s one option of the denominator in the equation.

For a little more context on the difference between reach and impressions, Sprout Social, a social media scheduling tool, has a great write up on their blog.

Engagement rate

Your brand’s average engagement rate is the number of engagement actions (like clicks, likes, comments, and more) a post receives in relation to how many people saw it. Shown as a percentage, this gives a great read on the amount of your audience that’s engaging with your posts and helps you compare your engagement to competitors regardless of audience size.

While your engagement rate can be calculated by dividing by impressions or reach, we find that dividing by followers gives the most accurate data for competitively benchmarking your rates against others in your industry.

This is arguably your most important social media engagement metric to track because higher engagement rates mean your content is resonating with your target audience.

To find your brand’s engagement rate per post, add up a post’s total likes, comments, and shares, etc. and divide by your total number of followers. Then multiply that sum by 100 to get your average engagement rate percentage per post. Instead of crunching numbers, you could also use a tool that measures this all for you, like Rival IQ.

Our Rival IQ Twitter boasted an engagement rate of 7.88% from our highest performing tweet last quarter.

Benchmarking engagement rates against your industry standard is vital to understanding how you’re really performing on social. Knowing the bottom line of what engagement rates look like in your industry on each particular platform lets you set a bar to strive for. Plus, the competitive insights of industry tracking give your brand a leg up over the competition.

Likes

Likes can vary depending on your platform but are generally low-effort on-platform reactions to content. Emoticon reactions to your Instagram Story, hearts on Instagram or Twitter, and reactions such as wow, care, and laughing on Facebook are all considered likes. With a like, or even a negative reaction, your audience is expressing some form of interest in what you’re posting.

LinkedIn recently jumped on board with the emoticon reactions with these custom branded and professional-feeling options.

Likes not only give a concrete number to track, but the emoticon addition also allows you to parse a sentiment analysis of your audience’s reaction. It’s generally seen as a low-level engagement action to favorite or a tweet, but scrolling to choose a reactive emoji adds another level of effort. Keep an eye on both the count of likes and the type of like for the fullest picture of engagement.

Comments

Comments are the total number of organic and paid comments and replies to comments on your post and shares of the post. These can look different on different platforms: a “reply” on Twitter, for instance, would qualify as a comment.

A viewer’s comment on your content is a significantly weightier action than hitting like, as it takes more effort to write up a reply than to double-tap and keep scrolling. Depending on the comment contents, your audience is telling you it’s thought-provoking and they either really like or dislike your content.

Positive or negative, comments on your posting give the social platform an indication that your viewers are highly engaged with your content and want to see more of it. Hefty engagement types like comments can boost your overall reach and impressions.

Shares

A share is when a user broadcasts your content to their social feed, group, or specific individuals. Shares not only signify engagement from your audience, they also significantly increase your posts’ reach.

Shares, retweets, reposts, and the like are considered more valuable when they contain an editorial note from the sharer, as it adds an increased level of time investment. Take Facebook for example, who recently shared that “meaningful conversations” in-app are key to success. A retweet with a comment or a share on Facebook with a caption takes a little more effort from your audience.

Similar to comments, social channels will reward that extra effort by boosting your handle’s significance within their algorithms to show your audience more of what they’ve interacted with.

Don’t miss the Tweets about your Tweet.

Now on iOS, you can see Retweets with comments all in one place. pic.twitter.com/oanjZfzC6y

— Twitter (@Twitter) May 12, 2020

Twitter’s taking their share analytics to the next level by segmenting quote retweets and instant retweets as separate engagement types.

Sharing your content, even privately, is a big step for your audience. Not only are they engaging with your content, but they also want their friends to engage with it. Shares, particularly ones with a personal note or opinion, are really valuable to your brand and the social algorithms.

Clicks

Clicks refers to the number of times a user engaged with your link, video, etc. with a click. Engagement on-platform is great, but if you’re aiming for landing page views, a form fill, or other off-platform action, a click is what you’re really after in posting your content on social.

Clicks, the elusive off-platform “get them to the site” metric, is a rewarding win that boils down to dollar signs. It’s important to build an audience that trusts your content will deliver as-promised so your brand can get past the click-bait skepticism most of us have developed as consumers.

Click-Through Rate

Clicks are best measured through Click-Through Rate or CTR. CTR is the rate at which your audience clicks on a link within a post and is found by dividing the number of clicks by the number of impressions on the post. Not to be mistaken for on-platform engagement actions, your CTR is specifically tied to a link that brings the audience to additional content.

Tracking CTR will give you invaluable insight into how compelling your copy is to your target audience. It’s a fuller picture of performance than absolute clicks because it’s a percentage based on people who actually saw your post rather than a static number.

Mentions

Mentions are the cornerstone of a good social listening strategy. A mention is whenever anyone uses your brand name on social media.

Mentions are mostly tagged with an @, but using your brand name totally counts. Content shares independent of the “share” button, even when you’re not tagged, can also fall under the umbrella of mentions. These engagement interactions all add up to benefit your brand name and help you keep your eye on your online presence.

Brand mentions lead to a larger awareness measurement that can impact customer loyalty, direct traffic, reputation, and so much more. Your overall brand awareness is tracked in many ways, but a concrete indication of reach and distribution of your brand name is measured through mentions. There are tons of free and paid tools that can monitor brand mentions and shared content so you don’t have to. We rounded up our favorites on this list.

Why social media engagement metrics matter

All of these metrics, when tracked regularly and accurately, play into the larger story of your social media performance. Using your metrics to inform your social strategy, like where to spend your ad budgets, what types of content to invest time into creating, and which areas to improve on, all round up to a more efficient and effective social media presence. Plus, you’ll debunk the “vanity metric” myth by moving those KPI needles.

To get started measuring your engagement metrics, check out our list of social media analytics tools that make the reporting process simple. Or, get a head start with a free 14-day trial of Rival IQ which combines social media analytics tracking with benchmarking analytics from your competitors.

The post Social Media Engagement Metrics That Actually Matter appeared first on Rival IQ.

We hosted Patrick Crawford, an outdoor enthusiast and founding partner at Inkwell Media, a creator agency located in Boulder, Colorado. Patrick spent the earlier parts of his career in media, working both at Freeskier Magazine and Vail Resorts. In this episode of the Data-Driven Marketer, we dove into all things social media in the outdoor brand and retailers industry including building awareness campaigns, finding influencers, and measuring your success.

Patrick gave three top tips to get started utilizing influencers in your own social media campaigns:

1. Identify your target campaign audience
2. Find influencers that match your brand ethos and
3. Allow them the freedom to show how they’d use your product or service in real life

Authenticity in influencer marketing is key!

Watch the video for all of Patrick’s takeaways and tips on social media in this niche:

Want more info on the top brands in the outdoor space? Read the Top Outdoor Brands on Social Media, a definitive report on how all our favorite gear brands and retailers performed on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter in the last year.

Or, skip straight to the influencer rankings and download the PDF report that shows off our favorite outdoor influencers and their latest high engaging brand campaigns.

The Data-Driven Marketer is an episodic webinar series at Rival IQ. You can check out past recordings in the DDM Webinar page, plus keep an eye out for more live interviews to come.

If you have more questions about social media metrics or how to be a guest on the Data-Driven Marketer, reach out to us on Twitter.

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