Thalasar Ventures

Nearly half of nonprofits do not measure social media  metrics – they simply don’t know how to collect the information or they don’t know what to make of all the numbers. However, as social media plays a larger role in nonprofit marketing strategies, it’s important to track the ROI of your efforts and attempt to measure your reach and engagement. Here are a few quick tips to help you decide what to measure and how to analyze these social media metrics.

Goal Setting

The first step in analyzing your social media presence is establishing a goal. Do you want to know how a specific campaign is running? Which conversation topics or content pieces are shared the most? How many people visit a donation page from a link on Facebook or Twitter? Creating a social media goals means more than simply tracking numbers.

You’ll want to analyze awareness, attitude and action changes among your supporters. Establish your intent, and then set clear, measurable goals. Set a baseline to which you can compare your new social media data, and track your success accordingly.

Once you’ve established your goals, there are several different social media metrics you can track your progress.

Network Size

By measuring the your network size, you are simply tracking the number of followers and fans your nonprofit has gained over a set period of time. Try to profile your user demographics. Segment your supporters into various groups so you can target your messages more effectively.

However, remember that quality is more valuable than quantity when it comes to your network. Simply acknowledging that your network is increasing is not enough. More importantly, are your new fans and followers engaged with your organization?

Content Engagement

You can also follow your content engagement. Track the impressions, views and clickthroughs to see how many people are seeing your content and wanting to learn more. Similarly, keep track of likes and comments on Facebook. They, too, can show you which topics are more intriguing to your supporters and which ones aren’t as appealing.

You may also want to measure how long people are engaging with your content – are they staying and reading your blog entries, or do they “bounce” and leave immediately after entering? Tracking the time individuals spent engaging with your social media presence can also provide useful insights for your nonprofit as to what is compelling and engaging and what is not.

Content Sharing

Track any retweets, social media bookmarks, or inbound links you receive on your content. These metrics show how willing people are to share your content, spreading your message across multiple channels and reaching new audiences you might not have reached otherwise.

There are several different tools that can help you manage your social media presence, but make sure you still aggregate all of your information. Export it to a spreadsheet, pdf or email so you can keep track of all your data and analyze it with ease.

Tracking social media metrics is essential to evaluating your nonprofit’s marketing successes and ability to meet goals. As you begin to analyze your information, remember to keep your goals in mind. You may have a lot of new data, but more doesn’t necessarily mean better. Take these numbers and identify pertinent trends in awareness, attitude and action changes among your supporters, and establish next steps from there.