Measure your online marketing

You can measure your social media marketing using web analytics, tools provided by the platform and third party tools. Measuring and monitoring your activity helps you improve future campaigns and get a return on investment.

Types of social media 

Types of social media include:

• social networking platforms - such as Facebook, LinkedIn and X
• photo and video sharing platforms - such as YouTube, Instagram and Flickr
• bookmarking tools - such as Pinterest and Reddit
• syndication and aggregator sites - such as content sites and price review sites
• onsite or 'owned' media - such as blogs, customer reviews, product ratings, etc

For information on measuring specific social media platforms, see:

• measure and monitor your Facebook activity
• measure and monitor your X activity
• LinkedIn for business
• Pinterest for business

Key social media metrics 

You should track and measure both your own social media campaigns and what people are saying about your brand online. Metrics include:

• how many people follow you on social media platforms
• engagement rates with your social media posts
• number of views of your videos and time spent watching
• geographical spread of followers or viewers
• brand sentiment - ratio of positive to negative comments
• share of voice compared to competitors - frequency of conversation about your brand

There is a wide range of tools to monitor and measure your social media activity. You need to establish benchmarks of your current performance, against which you can measure future progress.