KPIs for Social Media: What Matters?

Brett: Welcome to the Circle Sessions featuring The Circle of Experts. The Circle of Experts are Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs, Tonnisha English Amamoo of TJE Communications. And Don The Idea Guy. I'm Brett Johnson from Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants. Each week, one of The Circle of Experts joins me to talk about some critical aspects of growing your podcast. We'll focus on marketing, social media monetization, and website design with the idea of implementing all of these together. This week. Tanisha is here from the circle of experts. Tanisha is on a mission to help small businesses level the playing field through digital marketing solutions. Tanisha, thanks for joining me again today.

Tonnisha: Of course. Anytime.

Brett: Let's talk about I think we all have heard about KPIs. We'll either see the three letters and we kind of go, okay, I think I know what that means. But let's talk about KPIs and social media, uh, and why it matters. But let's dig a little bit deeper about what are KPIs? What does KPI stand for? And why should we pay attention to that as podcasters or anybody that's diving into social media?

Tonnisha: That's a really good question. So KPI stands for key performance indicator. So typically with social media, the most common key performance indicators will be growth or followers. Impressions, reach, engagement. Some, um, of those things matter more to people than others, which I know we'll get into, but essentially, it's a way for you to kind of just keep track of how you're doing on social media based, um, on whatever your goals are.

Brett: So those KPIs, no matter what social media platform, are available to you once you sign up for a social media platform, is that correct? It's really you don't have to do a third party service. It's there in the background.

Tonnisha: Yeah, it's there to some capacity. Of course, if you're using a third party, you can get a little bit more information, but as long as you have a business account on a social platform, you're able to see that information. One interesting thing about Twitter, though, is that now they are showing people how many people have seen your tweets for everybody, which some people really don't like, because it's like, okay, 100 people saw this tweet, and then nobody did anything, and now everybody knows that 100 people saw it. Um, but on most platforms, that information is something only you can see. And of course, other people can see how many followers or friends you have. But as far as those deeper insights, is something that only you behind the scenes on that account have access to.

Brett: Right. So walking into a specific social media platform, um, and understanding the KPIs, would it be a good thing to do? Is understand what each platform does. Providing KPIs growth doesn't matter in one, but sharing does in others. Is that a good way to approach understanding what a KPI is for each social media platform?

Tonnisha: Honestly, when it comes to KPI, something that I've talked to clients about is really, what are our goals? What is something that we want to focus on? Some people really care about having a ton of followers versus some people care more about engagement, which I'm more of an engagement girl. I don't care if I have ten followers. If all ten of those people are commenting, liking, and sharing everything that I do, that's 100% engagement versus if you have 100,000 followers and only ten people are liking, commenting, and sharing things that you do. Your visibility, um, in getting your message out there, whatever it may be, isn't as big as you would want it to be. If you have 100,000 followers, you would hope at least half of those people would be somewhat engaged. Um, so it's really down to you as an individual and as a business about what matters. So I guess I can kind of also break down what these different KPIs mean. So, for example, of course we know followers, right? Followers are people who actually click, I want to follow this account, and hopefully, depending on the algorithm, their posts will actually show up on my feed when I get on that said platform. Um, and then you have impressions. So an impression is how many times someone may have seen something that you posted. Impressions can also be views as well. So let's say you have ten followers and you have ten impressions. You can assume that at least those ten followers saw your post at least one time. But it could also mean that one person saw this post ten times, which is why I don't like impressions, because it may have 100 views, but it may be from two people, right? So then you get to reach. So reach is actually the amount of accounts or people who this post reached. So let's say you have a post and it reached ten people. You know for sure that ten different accounts saw this post at some point in time. And then when people are engaging with the post, that means liking it, commenting on it, sharing it. Um, that's what we consider engagement. So people are actually seeing it and not just saying, great posts and keep scrolling. They're actually taking a time to like or do something, um, to show that they've seen the post. So, for me, personally, I prefer to look at reach. So how many people are seeing what we're doing and then how many of those people are actually engaging with our content? You'll have a lot of marketers, um, kind of push the impression number because it's a pretty number, it's a vanity number. Like, oh, look, we had 100,000 people or 100,000 impressions. But it's like, well, what does that mean? Did those impressions convert? Did people click the link that I put in that post? Did people comment that they engage? So, um, you kind of have to think about what matters to you uh, when you're using social media.

Brett: All right, how do you pull that out of a client then? So let's say you're going through an analysis meeting with them. Uh, how are the stages of your questions? How do you line that up to really pull that out of a client, to know really what they want, because they may be enamored by, let's, uh, say, TikTok, but maybe that's not the right platform for them, but they're just in love with it. How do you go through that process with a client to really not to dissuade them, but so they understand that may not be where you want to be because you're talking about this sort of thing?

Tonnisha: Yes. Well, I like to look at who are on these different platforms based on data. I love looking at data. Um, I'm a sprout social um, agency partner. So Sprout Social is actually a social media management tool that has tons of people that use the platform, including, like, big brands, so they're able to pull some data based on the users and kind of tell us, on average, what is the age or the demographics of people on these different platforms? So, first thing you have to understand, whether it's for your business, or maybe you're doing a podcast that has nothing to do with your business, but it's something that you're passionate about. It's really looking at, well, where are my people? Are they on TikTok? Are they on Twitter or Instagram? Understanding where they are, and then that's where you should go. Um, and if you don't want to go to those specific places, then how do you get your people to meet you where you are, which is something that you'll have to think about as well. So I like to start there just understanding from clients who's your target audience, where do you typically find them? How do you typically engage with them? Looking at different platform demographics and then making suggestions on where we should go. Sometimes, though, I may have a client who would be great for TikTok, but TikTok takes a lot of work. So maybe instead of TikTok, we do Instagram, because we can do a mix of, um, videos and photos and a couple of other things. And it's not so, um, video heavy, necessarily. Um, so that's the first thing you want to do, really, is just understanding who you're trying to reach, finding out where they are, and then getting on those platforms to meet them where they are.

Brett: So when you're tracking the KPIs, I'm thinking about all this information you have, and then my mind goes, spreadsheets. Oh gosh, okay. All this information and tracking it. So when you're working with clients, have you developed certain KPI spreadsheets or that's where things to form, as well as, uh, how often do you check this stuff?

Tonnisha: Yeah, so I guess I'm a lazy marketer because Sprout does the work for me. Thankfully.

Brett: That's okay.

see, okay, during this month,: 2023

Brett: No, I don't consider that being lazy marketer at all. I think it's smart because you're utilizing a tool that's out there that makes sense, that actually saves you time, saves you money, and gives you better insight for your client as well as the client, so they know, okay, we need to do this. We need to change this. Or, hey, we're rocking it here. Just keep going and keep the creative juices going. I think that's a really smart way of looking at it, uh, versus the spreadsheet piece. It just doesn't work. You'll quit on the spreadsheet in two months. You will.

Tonnisha: Exactly. Because that's super daunting. And honestly, most of the social media management platforms out there offer some type of reporting and analytics. Um, so if you're using a tool like that to schedule, um, even if you're using Facebook and Instagram natively, you can get some information. It may not be super expensive, but you can still get some information about how posts are performing, um, and what people tend to engage with more than others.

Brett: So, you mentioned Sprout. Are there other, um, platform or other apps, I guess you would say, uh, when it comes down to it, uh, that are pretty rapid and pretty good.

Tonnisha: Yeah. Who suite was actually the very first social. They might have been the first management tool out there, but at least they were the first tool that I actually ever used. Um, and they offer different analytics. Of course, if you're on the free account, you might get some things, versus if you're paid, you might get a little bit more. So that's another, um, good platform that's also super affordable. Um, another really affordable platform that I've used in the past is Buffer. Um, yeah, Buffer.com. They actually offer a free version of the scheduling tool, and you're able to get a little bit of analytics. Or you can opt in for a paid option to get a more in depth. But I remember when I was using Buffer, um, even like, a few years ago, it was like $8 a month for a paid version. So yeah, that's another good one I know people have used later. That's another one. Plan Ali is another one I've heard people use. I mean, there's really a ton of them, um, out there that at least offer some type of reporting and analytics for you to keep track of.

Brett: All right? Yeah. And I'm glad to hear you're saying on a monthly basis to check that, because podcasters tend to want to see analytics, like daily, how many daily? And again, it's totally vanity. That's all it is. They want to know how many each day and such. But, uh, that's really new podcasters, because then all of a sudden, like, okay, no sense me checking on the dashboard today. I know how many is going to come down today. Okay, this is a waste of time. And that monthly cycle, I think, makes a lot of sense, unless there's something you specifically want to see. You created something that was just, this is really good. I really want to see how it's going. And that's cool. That's fine, because that gets you excited about new projects, different, uh, nuances of videos you do or postings. And that's a good thing. But I like to hear that monthly cycle that there are better things to do than watch your dashboard.

Tonnisha: Yes, for sure. And with podcasting, I'm the type of podcast person where I will purposely especially if it's a podcast I really like. For example, I love crime junkies. I love a lot of true crime podcasts. I think Serial was the first podcast that I ever listened to. Um, so I'll let them build up because here in one episode, and I'm like, oh, I got to know what's next. So I may let two or three build up and then binge it for hours, even if it's a two hour episode, I don't care. I'll listen to it while I'm working, while I'm driving, whatever. So what's podcast is interesting because it's not necessarily that daily consumption of content like it is on social media. Usually podcast. Unless it's like The Daily from the New York Times. It comes out once a week. So during that time, it might drop on a Thursday, but then somebody might not listen to it until Sunday while they're cleaning or doing something. So it's a little bit different. So I definitely think monthly is good for podcasters, for sure, because people are consuming on their own time because it's an on demand thing. And I've even noticed, too, some, um, of the podcast. Now. Uh, I listened to this podcast called Something Was Wrong. Have you ever heard of that one?

Brett: No.

Tonnisha: It's kind of like kind of true crimey, but it's actually like people telling their stories where they might have been in some sketchy situations that they've survived. So it's a lot of, like, crazy stuff, and, like, every season is a little bit different. Like, the last season I listened to was solely based on this one guy, and all these women were telling their stories about their experience with him. But something that they offer now is if you subscribe to their Apple podcast, you can get the next episode early.

Brett: Okay.

Tonnisha: I've been thinking about it. After you listen to one, it's like, well, I kind of know what's next. Um, so, yeah, so you may have people who do that versus people who may just kind of let them build up and binge it. Even with that season. I just binge that whole season. It's already been out. They already started a new season. But I just finished the last season, maybe like, last week, because I just binged the whole thing at least once a day. I may listen to, like, two or three episodes. So, yeah, you may find with that, or somebody may just discover your podcast and then they'll go back to the first season and kind of work their way through. So it's a little bit different, uh, with podcasts, for sure.

Brett: Yeah. Well, I think your example right there is a good way for podcasters to take a look at what kind of podcast they're creating and how they should use media, social media, uh, because if the people are doing that, then they're binging. So it's a different reaction to the social media. I think any business can take a look at it that way. It's like, what do we do special that we need to do something special on social media ah. About these things or product, really, whatever the case might be. I think it's that understand what you're creating and how your audience is using you and then go into it with the KPIs and the social media. That's important.

Tonnisha: Sure, yeah. Because one thing, um, with some of those true crime podcasts, some of them, like, I know with Payne Lindsay and the up and Vanished, uh, I don't know if you ever heard of that one. It's another true crime one. But when he was solving that case of Tara Grinsley, I think her name was, like, there was the podcast, but then he was also on social media posting updates in between the podcast. So sometimes you have to understand the episode you're looking into. You may need to look at the social media, like, wait, hold on, what happened? Because he may say, like, yeah, I made this post, and he made, like, skim over. And you're like, wait, whoa, I missed that. Same thing with crime junkies. Um, they actually have an app now and all that. So they're, like, super sophisticated with it. But before then, sometimes they may say, okay, we're looking at a map, and this person lived here. They supposedly walked to this place. So what could have happened in between there? Uh, oh, by the way, the map is on our social media. You can go look at it or the map is on our website. So then it makes you want to go so that you can actually see what they're talking about on the podcast. So if you can find a way to make it engaging where it's not necessarily giving people an extra step because if they want to have full understanding of what you're talking about, you can say, hey, check the description of the podcast. We put a link in there for you to see what we're talking about. People may do that and that's kind of how you get more engagement, be able to kind of cross over between just people listening to the podcast and then engaging on social media.

Brett: Yeah, I love how these different mediums just work together seamlessly, quite frankly. And it's not tricking anybody. I have to show a map somewhere, so it's either going to be on a website or on social media. Let's make it work both places. And all of a sudden, you're understanding your KPIs, you're understanding what your audience will and won't do. And that's a good lesson to understand. It really is. Yeah, for future use. And you're feeding that into that fear of missing out stuff too. Uh, isn't that great? I love it. Well, super. This has been a really good, deep dive into KPIs. I really appreciate it because it's helped me think about it a little bit differently too, and understand that there is software out there. You don't have to do it on your own inexpensively and just get what you need to do. So if anybody has any more questions about this or actually maybe dive in a bit deeper with you, how can they get a hold of you about this?

Tonnisha: Yeah, you can go to my website, it's TJEcommunications.com, and sign up for my mailing list. Or you can find me on social media @ tjecomm and send me a DM or give, uh, me a call or email me.

Brett: Cool, sounds good. Hey, and thanks for following and subscribing to The Circle Sessions from Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants.