social media metricsIf you want to compete in today’s fast paced business environment, you have to be social. But just simply being active on Twitter, Facebook, and all the rest is never enough. How can you track your social media efforts to ensure that your strategy is up to par? This week’s roundup introduces you to some best practices for social media metrics.

1. 5 Social Media Metrics You Can Stop Tracking Yesterday

Why: “There’s a difference between knowing what social media metrics to track and knowing which metrics are not meaningful when measuring social media ROI,” says Taylor Nelson in this Business 2 Community post that shows you how to differentiate “between the metrics that are vanity and useful.”

2. From likes to leads: The new metrics for B2B social selling

Why: “Just as with the early days of B2B social adoption, when companies were trying to establish brand awareness and community across social networks, social selling has now become a ubiquitous buzzword and company mandate, and the lack of best practices around what metrics to work towards and how the role of the social seller should be defined confuses even the most progressive sales and marketing leaders,” writes Henry Nothhaft, Jr.

3. Know the Difference Between Your Data and Your Metrics

Why: “A successful organization can only measure so many things well and what it measures ties to its definition of success,” write Jeff Bladt and Bob Filbin as they show us the “difference between numbers and numbers that matter” in this still relevant post from HBR.

4. 5 Shifts to Fix Your Social Media Metrics

Why: “The goal is not to be good at social media. The goal is to be good at business because of social media,” says Jay Baer as he discusses some “areas where social media metrics and reporting can be fixed.”

5. How to Measure PR and Marketing Outcomes on Snapchat

Why: “Many of the social marketers and PR practitioners that I reached out to are perplexed by Snapchat although most agree that the potential audience is compelling,” writes Jim Dougherty in this WUL post that teaches you how to “engineer appropriate metrics” for your business via Snapchat.

6. 5 Social Media Metrics You Must Check Regularly To Grow

Why: “A track and field star needs to measure how long it takes them to complete a track in order to be able to improve upon it…Social media is the same way. We do our best and run the distance but then we need to take a step back and analyze what happened so we can plan for success,” says Melonie Dodaro for Social Media Today.

7. Which Stats Matter: The Definitive Guide to Tracking Social Media Metrics

Why: “Wouldn’t you know it, social media stats aren’t just as simple as looking at the right numbers! There’s a difference between knowing what the stats mean and knowing which stats are meaningful,” writes Kevan Lee for Buffer’s blog.

What social media metrics are most important to your business? How do you keep track of these metrics and transform them into meaningful data to fuel your strategy? Please share in the comments below. 

Image: mkhmarketing via Flickr, CC 2.0