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Amol Ghemud About the Author
Published: August 14, 2018
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As the New Year ramps up, many CEOs and business leaders spend time thinking about how to get more ROI from social media marketing in 2018. It must not be surprise, but the social media landscape looks a lot different for businesses today than it did on this day last year.
Audience behavior is different, new players have entered the game, competition is fiercer than ever and some of the tactics that helped brands succeed 12 months ago are much less viable today.
When it comes to business, there’s nothing worse than going into a new year with the intention of executing the very same strategy that you implemented the year before. Every smart CEO knows that in order to continue fueling growth, you have to alter and build upon your plan.
Want to create a winning social media strategy for your startup or business?
The same is true with social media marketing. To get a better return on the time and money you invest in social media, you have to leverage insights and data gathered by yourself and others over the past 12 months to build a more effective plan for the year ahead.
Social Media Goals for CEOs
To benefit from social media, CEOs need to build a clear strategy that takes into account what they are trying to achieve. In other words, a social media strategy is meant to help you achieve your social media goals.
Here are 7 social media goals for every CEO handling businesses
1. Brand Awareness
To establish a presence and increase your reach on social. Social media metrics to be measured by the businesses should be the follower’s count, the reach of the social media post and the mentions and shares which the posts and campaigns get.
2. Web Traffic
To drive traffic to your website or blog. Social media metrics that matter in this scenario are the total traffic generated from social media, bounce rate of social media traffic and clicks on the social media posts.
3. Lead Generation
To collect key information from your prospects. Key social media metrics to measure in case of lead generation are downloads of the gated content, personal information of prospects collected using social media and participation in various activities on social media. The social media metrics related to clicks on lead generation activities and conversions of the leads from social media also matter a lot.
4. Revenue Growth
To increase signups or sales. Revenue growth also results in return on investment from the social media. While considering this social media ROI metrics, businesses must consider the signs ups and revenue generated from the social media channels and revenues from the advertisements.
5. Brand Engagement
To connect and engage with your audience. While businesses track social media metrics, brand engagement must be an important goal as, this results in customer engagement for the businesses. The metrics to measure are likes, shares and comments per post, mentions and replies for the social media campaigns.
6. Community Building
To gather advocates of your brand. Like influencers for the brands, the CEOs must also look for advocates for the brand who promote them on social media platforms. The social media metrics to track community building are the engagement of community on Facebook, Twitter chats and involvement of people in Slack community.
7. Customer Service
To help and serve your customers. Social media metrics that matter in case of customer services are, number of support questions, the response time to queries and customer satisfaction score (CAST).
10 Social Media Metrics which matter to the CEO
1. Social media followers
Social media followers though not treated as an absolute social media metrics for any business, it matters when we speak of the engagement of followers on the social media platforms. The goal of any CEO is to extend the network by increasing the reach, and here the follower count plays an important role. Building on the follower base on different platforms makes the businesses visible for the eyeballs.
For example, you may discover quickly that your YouTube profile is far more popular than your LinkedIn page, and this is a great opportunity to double down on your efforts there. This may also be a sign that your LinkedIn presence isn’t growing, and maybe it’s best to forget about it.
2. Follower growth
Another way to approach the follower count is to look at growth. This shows you whether you’re trending up (and fast), or if sadly, your followers are leaving you.
If increasing your follower numbers is a key social media metric, then the growth rate should be too. If your social media platform shows consistent growth over several months, you can justify the effort and dedication you’ve put in. Luckily, monitoring follower growth is incredibly easy. You can happily do it with a simple spreadsheet, updated each month.
3. Social media mentions
Mentions are a useful way to measure brand awareness and find out who’s really talking about you online.
Closely tracking mentions shows you:
How engaged users are with your content
The best days and times to share on social
Whether users like your product or service
Even measuring the mentions of your competition also matters a lot. This provides insights into the performance of your strategy compared with them.
As businesses want to increase the market share, monitoring mentions is a must to track and measure the progress of competition.
4. Brand sentiment
Sentiment analysis is a useful tool to quickly understand what people think about your brand online. Each tweet, Facebook post, or forum mention is assigned a positive, negative, or neutral sentiment.
For many brands, the most important thing to track is negative mentions. We all want to believe that our businesses are popular and well-liked, but unflattering comments can pop up at any time.
That’s why it pays to keep track.
Positive tweets also offer opportunities. Be sure to reach out to happy customers and brand advocates, and encourage them to continue spreading the word.
5. Top influencers
We talk about influencer marketing a lot at Mention. We know that influencers can help you grow your audience quickly, and they usually come a lot cheaper than advertising.
Monitor the influence of the people talking about you online. Increases in influence usually mean that you’re being written about in industry news publications, or talked about by important people on social media. And that’s definitely a good thing!
Tracking your top influencers can also lead to memorable and effective marketing campaigns.
6. Top engaging social channels
This next metric is a little more complex, but that’s not a reason to shy away. We want to prove that social media marketing leads to engagement. But we’re not talking here about likes and retweets – we’re talking about engagement on your website, which is very valuable.
If your goals for social media include driving traffic to your website, then of course you should track this. But, beyond simple traffic, it’s valuable to see what those social users are doing once they arrive on your site. Are they engaging with your content, or leaving straight away?
7. Top referring social channels
Similar to our last metric, if your chief goal for social media is to drive website traffic, you need to know which platforms perform best. So find out which social networks bring the most visitors.
But, as you can see, you’re not just limited to the raw number of unique visitors or sessions. Your analysis should include factors like bounce rate (whether your visitors leave soon after arriving), conversion rate (whether they sign up for a service, or even buy), and their average time on site.
8. Top converting social channels
If you can prove that social media marketing leads directly to conversions (especially sales), you have a demonstrable return on investment.
Again, the goal here is to identify what works and increase your commitment to it. Likewise, if a channel brings you nothing, ditch it. There’s no reason to spend time and energy on social platforms that don’t bring your business.
Find your social channels that convert and “post your top content to that channel. Content with great CTAs (calls-to-action), landing pages that you know convert – post them as much as you can to those channels.”
9. Total social media conversions
This metric pulls all social media conversions together, rather than separating them by channel. Your marketing team likely has monthly or quarterly targets, and you need to know how social media contributes to these.
Total conversions are again a great way to prove the value of social media marketing. If you can show that social media is a consistent source of website conversions, you’ll know that what you’re doing works.
Even better, monitor trends in conversions over time. You can see in the above screenshot green arrows showing an improvement versus the previous 30 days. This might be due to a new campaign, some exceptional social content, or simply a little extra effort. Whatever the case, this increase in conversions shows that something’s working.
You want to achieve consistent growth, month over month. You also want to watch out for major dips in conversions, especially if these follow a change a strategy. If you’ve decided to try something different, and you see conversions fall away sharply, you may have bet on the wrong approach.
10. Revenue from social channels
Without a doubt, this is the metric that makes company executives take notice. Sure, they probably care about site traffic, social followers, and some of the others. But what matters most is the bottom line.
If you can draw a straight line from your social media marketing to money in the bank, you can confidently assess your social media ROI. Revenue isn’t the only thing that matters – if it was, we’d have cut this list by nine. But it definitely makes others pay attention.
Google Analytics lets you set website goals for each conversion point. From this, you can add a dollar value to each conversion. So if you know the source of each conversion (that was metric number eight), you can easily calculate the revenue generated by source.
There are also great tools like Marketo and Kissmetrics that will track your customer’s journey from that first conversion. This lets you tie that eventual customer to the social media link they clicked. So if you know that customer pays $10,000 per year, you can thank social media marketing for that revenue.
Conclusion
In the end, it always comes back to your goals. Of our 10 social media metrics above, you might only prioritize a few. And that’s normal.
After all, the point is to make more informed decisions for your business.
You may realize that social media marketing just doesn’t make sense for you. If it’s not building an audience, increasing brand awareness, or converting customers, then it’s probably time to pack it in.
You may also discover that you’re missing opportunities, and double down on specific social channels. It will all depend on your goals.
For Curious Minds
A static strategy fails because the social media landscape, including audience behavior and competition, evolves constantly. For a CEO, translating broad objectives into concrete goals is the key to demonstrating return; for instance, brand awareness is not just about being seen but about being remembered. This is achieved by tracking specific performance indicators.
Follower Count: Measures the growth of your potential audience base.
Post Reach: Shows how many unique users saw your content, indicating the breadth of your visibility.
Mentions and Shares: Reflect how much your content resonates, turning your audience into brand promoters.
By defining success with these metrics, you shift from ambiguous efforts to a data-informed plan. To see how these goals fit into a larger framework, explore the full strategic guide.
CEOs should view brand engagement as the process of building relationships, not just broadcasting messages. It is about creating a two-way dialogue that fosters loyalty and transforms followers into advocates. This active connection provides more value than a passive audience ever could. To measure this effectively, you must look past surface-level numbers. Key metrics that reveal true audience connection include:
Likes, Shares, and Comments per Post: These show how individual pieces of content resonate with your audience.
Mentions: Track unsolicited conversations about your brand, indicating organic interest.
Replies: The volume and quality of your interactions in response to audience comments signal a healthy, active community.
Focusing on these indicators helps your business build a resilient brand presence. Discover how to integrate this goal into your complete social strategy by reading on.
While related, these goals demand different approaches and measure distinct stages of the customer journey. Lead generation focuses on capturing prospect information for future nurturing, while revenue growth targets immediate sales. A startup must decide whether to prioritize building a long-term pipeline or securing short-term cash flow. The tactics and metrics reflect this choice. For lead generation, success is measured by downloads of gated content or form submissions. In contrast, revenue growth is tracked by direct signups or sales revenue from social channels. Choosing the right goal depends entirely on your business's immediate strategic needs. A deeper look at the article reveals how to balance these two critical objectives.
Leading businesses recognize that in a crowded digital space, attention is the scarcest resource. They have shifted from a purely acquisition-focused model to one centered on deep audience connection. The evidence lies in the superior performance of brands that cultivate active communities over those that simply chase follower counts. High engagement metrics, such as likes, shares, and comments per post, are direct indicators of content relevance and audience loyalty. These interactions boost organic reach through platform algorithms, effectively turning your audience into a marketing channel. This focus on authentic connection is what separates thriving brands from those that get lost. Learn more about building an engagement-first strategy within the full article.
Data increasingly shows that modern consumers expect swift and accessible support on social media, making it a critical brand touchpoint. A positive customer service interaction on a public platform can act as powerful social proof, while a negative one can cause significant damage. The connection is clear, companies that excel in social care build stronger, more resilient brands. To validate this impact, leaders must track specific metrics beyond just counting support questions. Key performance indicators include:
Response Time: How quickly your team addresses customer queries.
Customer Satisfaction Score (CAST): A direct measure of how happy customers are with the support they received.
Monitoring these numbers provides clear evidence of your customer service effectiveness. The full text offers more insight on integrating service into your social media goals.
To drive meaningful website traffic, a CEO must implement a structured, data-driven content plan. A successful approach moves beyond random posting to a deliberate strategy designed to attract and convert visitors. First, identify your highest-performing web pages and create social content that directly promotes their value. Second, schedule these posts consistently across your relevant social channels with compelling calls-to-action. Third, use analytics tools to meticulously track performance. Key metrics to monitor include:
Clicks on Social Media Posts: The primary indicator that your content is successfully compelling users to visit your site.
Bounce Rate of Social Media Traffic: This reveals if the visitors you attract are finding the content on your website relevant and engaging.
This systematic process ensures your efforts translate into tangible results. Explore how this fits into a broader set of goals by continuing to read.
A singular focus on vanity metrics like follower count is a relic of the past; it offers no insight into business impact. To future-proof growth, a CEO must adopt a balanced scorecard approach, viewing social media as a multi-faceted tool that can drive value across the entire customer lifecycle. Fiercer competition rewards brands that build genuine connections, generate leads, and provide excellent service, not just those with the largest audience. A holistic strategy that integrates goals like brand engagement, lead generation, and customer service, each with its own specific metrics, creates a more resilient and adaptable marketing engine. This strategic depth is what will define success. The full article explains how to build this comprehensive plan.
As competition intensifies, the cost of advertising on social media will rise, which will inevitably squeeze ROI for businesses that fail to adapt. Simply boosting posts will no longer be enough. CEOs must shift their mindset from buying reach to earning attention through superior content and precise targeting. To protect and grow the revenue from advertisements, a more sophisticated strategy is required. This involves investing in high-quality creative that resonates deeply with a niche audience, using advanced targeting to minimize wasted spend, and ensuring a seamless path from ad click to conversion. A focus on organic community building can also supplement paid efforts. Dive deeper into the article for more on maximizing your return.
The most common mistake is confusing activity with achievement by focusing on easily measured but low-impact 'vanity' metrics like follower count. These numbers feel good but do not connect directly to business objectives, making it impossible to prove ROI. The solution is to build a strategy backward from your primary business objectives. Instead of starting with 'we need more followers,' start with 'we need to increase sales by 10%'. This forces you to define a clear social media goal, such as revenue growth or lead generation, and track the metrics that actually matter, like signups, conversions, and revenue. This goal-oriented approach transforms social media from a cost center into a measurable growth driver.
Relying on an outdated social media plan guarantees diminishing returns because the platforms, audience behaviors, and competitive pressures are in constant flux. A strategy that worked 12 months ago is likely less effective today. The solution is to treat your social media plan as a living document, not a static one, that is continuously informed by new data. Smart CEOs build processes for annual and quarterly reviews, using insights gathered over the past year to refine their approach. This involves re-evaluating goals, testing new content formats, and reallocating resources based on performance metrics like engagement rates and conversion data. An adaptive strategy ensures your business remains relevant and effective.
Community building moves beyond the passive awareness of a brand to the active participation of its audience. While brand awareness is about reach, community building is about creating a sense of belonging and turning customers into advocates who contribute to the brand's culture. A strong community provides invaluable feedback and generates user content. Unlike awareness metrics, community success is measured by interaction. Success indicators include:
Engagement within a dedicated Facebook Group.
Active participation in branded Twitter chats.
Meaningful conversations happening in a platform like a Slack community.
These metrics reflect a much deeper level of connection than a simple follow. The full article details how to integrate this into your overarching strategy.
A successful lead generation campaign requires a methodical approach, not just creative posts. The process should be structured like a sales funnel, guiding potential customers from initial interest to providing their information. First, create a valuable piece of gated content, like an ebook or webinar. Second, design social media posts with compelling copy and a clear call-to-action that directs users to a landing page. Third, ensure the landing page is optimized for conversions, with a simple form to collect prospect information. Throughout this process, it is critical to track metrics like clicks on lead generation activities and, most importantly, the final conversions of the leads to measure true campaign success.
Amol has helped catalyse business growth with his strategic & data-driven methodologies. With a decade of experience in the field of marketing, he has donned multiple hats, from channel optimization, data analytics and creative brand positioning to growth engineering and sales.
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