Want to measure social marketing the way Facebook does? It's simple: Focus on business metrics rather than engagement data.
Facebook has long known that brands should move beyond engagement and measure social marketing with business metrics like leads and revenue. But the company often encouraged marketers to track engagement data. No longer.
For my latest report I studied how Facebook explains success to brands. I recorded the metrics highlight in 50 recent Facebook-published case studies and classified them into three categories: social metrics like engagement and followers, digital metrics like reach and site traffic, and business metrics like awareness and sales.
So how does Facebook measure social marketing? The company:
Almost always features business metrics. Nearly 90% of Facebook case studies highlight business outcomes. The Orlando Magic and clothing brand MeUndies, like 40% of the case studies, spotlight return-on-investment or return-on-ad-spend. Celebrity Cruises is among the 38% that emphasize sales.
Highlights digital metric half the time. Exactly 50% of Facebook's case studies feature digital data. More than one-quarter, including Lay's, spotlight reach or impressions.
All but ignores social metrics. Just one of the last 50 Facebook case studies features engagement -- and that marketer also highlighted brand survey data.
So to measure like Facebook does, focus on business outcomes over engagement metrics.
Want to learn more about how Facebook (and Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Twitter) measure marketing success? Simply Measured is offering free copies of my report "Measure Like The Social Networks Do."