How do you use social media measurement to educate your stakeholders?

1 Know your stakeholders

Before you present your social media measurement results, you need to know who your stakeholders are, what they care about, and how they prefer to receive information. For example, some stakeholders may be more interested in the big picture, such as the overall reach, engagement, or conversions of your social media campaigns, while others may want to see the details, such as the specific metrics, methods, or tools you used. Some stakeholders may prefer a visual presentation, such as a dashboard, infographic, or video, while others may want a written report, such as a PDF, email, or blog post. By understanding your stakeholders' preferences and expectations, you can tailor your social media measurement results to suit their needs and goals.

2 Choose the right metrics

One of the most important aspects of social media measurement is choosing the right metrics to measure your performance and impact. Metrics are the quantifiable indicators that show how well you are achieving your objectives and delivering value to your stakeholders. However, not all metrics are equally relevant, meaningful, or actionable for every situation. For example, if your objective is to increase brand awareness, you may want to focus on metrics such as impressions, reach, or followers, while if your objective is to drive sales, you may want to focus on metrics such as clicks, conversions, or revenue. To choose the right metrics for your social media measurement, you need to align them with your SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound), and use a social media measurement framework, such as the AMEC (Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication) framework, that helps you organize your metrics into different levels of outcomes, such as awareness, engagement, influence, action, and impact.

3 Provide context and insights

Another key element of social media measurement is providing context and insights for your results. Context and insights are the qualitative explanations that help you interpret your metrics and understand the why behind the what. For example, context and insights can help you answer questions such as: How do your results compare to your previous performance, your benchmarks, or your competitors? What are the factors that influenced your results, such as the content quality, the timing, the platform, or the audience? What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your social media activities? What are the best practices, learnings, or recommendations that you can derive from your results? By providing context and insights for your social media measurement results, you can show your stakeholders that you are not only reporting on numbers, but also on the stories, meanings, and implications behind them.

4 Use clear and compelling visuals

A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when it comes to social media measurement. Visuals are the graphical representations that help you showcase your results in an easy-to-understand and eye-catching way. Visuals can include charts, graphs, tables, icons, images, or videos that illustrate your metrics, trends, comparisons, or patterns. However, not all visuals are equally effective or appropriate for every situation. For example, if you want to show the distribution of your audience across different platforms, you may want to use a pie chart, while if you want to show the change in your engagement over time, you may want to use a line chart. To use clear and compelling visuals for your social media measurement results, you need to follow some basic principles, such as choosing the right type of visual for your data, using consistent colors and fonts, adding labels and titles, removing clutter and noise, and highlighting key points or takeaways.

5 Tell a story

The final tip for using social media measurement to educate your stakeholders is to tell a story. A story is the narrative that connects your results with your objectives, your audience, and your value proposition. A story can help you capture your stakeholders' attention, emotion, and memory, and persuade them to take action or support your cause. To tell a story with your social media measurement results, you need to follow some basic steps, such as setting the scene, introducing the characters, defining the conflict, presenting the solution, and showing the resolution. For example, you can start by explaining the background and purpose of your social media activities, then introduce your target audience and their needs and challenges, then describe the strategies and tactics you used to address them, then showcase the results and outcomes you achieved, and finally highlight the benefits and impacts you delivered to your stakeholders.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?