Success on social networks can mean several things depending on who you ask. However, it is true that everyone wants to know the answer to this question:

Am I successful on social networks?

There is no right or wrong answer. The first step is to understand what your social media goals are and how to measure them.

There are three essential objectives of social media. Although most businesses would like to do all three, they should usually focus on one over the other:

These objectives are:

  • Brand recognition
  • Customer Service
  • Sales and conversions

Each of these primary objectives is measured by different indicators. The number of objectives you can successfully meet will depend on the resources you have available, your priorities and how well you can coordinate your efforts.

Using social networks for brand recognition

What did you do the first time you created a social media strategy? Most of us analyzed what others were doing to use it as a guide. This phenomenon was identified by psychologist.

One of the most common interpretations of “brand recognition” is to measure success by the number of followers – because it’s a visible (and simple to understand) number.

This metric can show solid results if you are:

  • A new brand looking to become better known
  • A business trying to establish itself as an influencer or authority
  • A business preparing for a promotion and social networks will be your main channel

But how many followers are enough? How can one measure influence on social networks?

There is no single correct answer that can define you as “successful”, but here are some indicators:

  • What are the metrics of your closest competitors?
  • How do other customers evaluate you online?
  • What are the statistics of your industry leaders?

This will give you an idea of the success you can expect on your social networks.

To make it easier for you to compare and keep track of your growth, Agorapulse has unlimited reports available. It is important that you make regular reports so that you can compare your growth over time. It is also important that you analyze the performance of your content or your advertising strategy.

Customer Service

It’s true, social networks have become a very important channel for customer service.

More and more people are turning to platforms like Facebook or Twitter to try and get help quickly. To be able to offer quality customer service, use

  • Automatic rules
  • A team strategy
  • Saved Responses

It is absolutely necessary that you do not miss any important messages. While most of your customers’ messages will go directly to your Inbox, you should make sure to go one step further. On Twitter you can create keyword searches that help you identify (and monitor) possible fires.

Create specific and measurable objectives such as:

  • Average response time
  • Customer satisfaction surveys
  • Interaction in social networks
  • Customer retention

Sales and/or conversions

The ultimate goal you want to track to determine your success on social networks is sales or conversions. And no, they’re not the same thing.

Conversions mean completing things like:

  • Signing up for your newsletter
  • Survey responses
  • Clicking on your website

And this is just the main ones. If you’re trying to get someone to do more than react on your social networks, or solve a problem for your customers, then you’re looking for a conversion.

Again, success will depend on several factors, including the industry you work in. You may not always have relevant data from averages in your industry or from your competitors. Either way, you can always compare your results with traditional tools and see how your social media strategy influences them.

To measure your social media success, you’ll want to combine your social media reports with analysis tools such as Google Analytics.

Social media success and ROI

Ideally, all methods of measuring success in social media should lead to a positive ROI for your business. Some are harder to track than others.

For example, sales are fairly easy to measure. You spend $1,000 a month on your social media efforts and earn $10,000.

But what about the increase in your mailing list? Or customer retention figures? I’m sure that’s something you’ll want to track as well, since these figures are part of your sales funnel.

It’s very easy to keep track of these numbers when you have a well established process and constantly track information from certain time periods. With this information, you can always make necessary changes to your strategy.