Impressions! They’re Not that Great

Measuring the success of your social media posts is a fundamental component of compelling social media marketing. The days of feeling good about your campaigns and eyeballing engagement are long gone. Reviewing analytics at regular intervals and maximizing what is working and tweaking what isn’t, is not just important – it’s a necessity.

Social media platforms are constantly evolving with new features and functionality, but the base metrics remain the same, and it is important to understand their definitions and how they contribute to your campaigns’ success.

Reach versus Impressions

To keep social media marketers on their toes, reach, and impressions mean slightly different things on different platforms. But in general, this is how the two concepts are commonly described.

Reach refers to the total number of unique people who have seen your content. If 1,500 total people have seen your post, that means your post’s reach is 1,500.

Impressions refer to the total number of times your content has been viewed. If your post is seen a total of 10,000 times, that means the number of impressions for that post is 10,000.

I’m not sure who said it first, but “It’s about action, not eyeballs” is a popular social media marketing quote, and it presents a valid point. While an impression is the number of times something is seen, how many times does someone have to see something before they take action?

When Should You Focus on Impressions?

Calculating the total number of times your content has been viewed is always a worthwhile exercise. However, focusing on impressions during online and offline events is a great way to demonstrate the strength of brand and authority on a specific topic.

When Should You Focus on Reach?

Considering reach is the total number of unique people who have viewed your content, it is always an important metric to focus on. Reach also plays an important role when combined with other metrics such as engagement. If 100 people viewed your post and 40 people engaged, you have a great post. If the engagement number is under ten,  you will need to analyze the phrasing, hashtag strategy, and other variables to determine what can be updated to improve post-performance.

What Should You Always Focus On? Engagement.

While impressions and reach can inform you how your content is generally performing, it’s important to remember that they tell you nothing about whether someone has clicked or engaged with your content. While impressions and reach can affect the share of voice and overall brand awareness, it is engagement that drives true social media ROI. Make sure to combine reach with measurable actions such as page views, content downloads, and mailing list sign-ups.

3 Easy Ways to Increase Social Media Engagement

1. Graphics: Embrace your artsy side and let your fingers do more than search Google images for a complementary graphic. Use tools such as WordSwag, Canva, and Adobe Spark Post to create engaging quote cards, colorful custom graphics and more.
2. Narrative: You got their attention with your clever imagery, now follow up with an interesting narrative. Humans respond to storytelling – not being shouted at. Use humor and relatable industry phrasing to keep your audience engaged.
3. Video: Social video generates 1,200% more shares than text and image posts. Combining a human with a compelling narrative into a video post on the platform of your choice is a sure way to capture your audience’s attention.

As social media platforms continue to grow, remember to keep an eye on your key metrics. Knowing who your audience is and how they are interacting with your content is the data that will set you apart from your competitors and make all your social media campaigns successful.