The Social Media Analytics That Truly Matter To Brands

Many people believe that likes and followers make or break your career as a social media influencer, but this is far from the truth. When evaluating possible influencers for their next campaign, brands look a ton of different data points, such as your audience reach, impressions, engagement, and conversion rates.

Additionally, brands value unquantifiable data, such as the level of trust between you and your following, what previous experience you have, and how authentic you appear.

Confused about what all these terms mean? We’re breaking it down for you below!

Audience Reach

Audience Reach is essentially your entire follower count. This number indicates the full potential reach of your content.

While brands take this number into consideration, they evaluate it against plenty of other metrics depending on their campaign goals. For example, if the goal of the campaign is to purely raise awareness, then the brand heavily considers the audience reach.

Audience reach is helpful to know, but it shouldn’t be the only number that is considered, as audience reach is somewhat hypothetical (as not 100% of your followers will actually see 100% of your content).

Engagement

Engagement is the number of comments, likes, and shares on relevant platforms you receive. Brands place higher value on comments and shares than likes, which require less effort from your followers. The higher your engagement, the more valuable you are to brands.

Here are some tips on how to improve engagement.

Conversion

Conversion is the number of sales, subscriptions, sign-ups, etc. credited to your post or posts. It shows that your followers are not only viewing the content but interacting with it, and in some cases purchasing products based on your posts.

This is the most important measurable quality to brands, and also the most difficult to achieve. Even a 1% conversion of your entire following is considered successful.

To find out more specifics of what goes into calculating conversion rates click here.

Trust

An unquantifiable quality brands have started to focus on more is the level of trust between you and your followers. The level of trust present determines your ability to sway your followers’ opinions and push them to take action (aka purchase). You can have millions of followers, but if your audience isn’t engaged in your content and trusting your worldview, your content won’t be valuable to brands.

Here are a few tips on how to build greater trust with your followers.

Authenticity

Authenticity is an important quality because it is an indicator of both trust and engagement. The more authentic you are, the stronger the connection you make with your followers. The stronger the connection, the more likely it is that your followers will engage and purchase products.

Experience

What does your previously posted content looks like? Do you have interest beyond the influencer space? Brands like to work with influencers who fit their campaign image, and more than that, they like a sure thing, so influencers who have proven track records with sponsored content and can show strong metrics have an advantage.