What your social media analytics actually mean

Feel like your social media accounts need a boost? Whether you need to inject more energy into your content, change the type of content you're creating, or simply post at a different time, the key to growing your profiles is understanding what performs well. 

The answer to what will work for you lies in your social media analytics. Once you understand them, they can give you clear insight into what’s working, what isn’t, and how to grow your platform strategically. 

Here is your step-by-step guide on how to make the most of your analytics to help grow your social media accounts.  

1. Find your analytics 

Accessing your analytics will vary depending on the platform, but they’re usually within your settings or dashboard. On Instagram, business accounts have a ‘Professional dashboard’ below the bio, which gives you a snapshot of your profile views over the last 30 days, and you can dive deeper by heading into ‘Settings and activity’, then ‘Insights’. Here you can view custom date ranges, monthly summaries, and content comparisons. 

On LinkedIn, this is available under the ‘Analytics’ tab on your page. You’ll also find useful data like search appearances, showing how often your page appears in search results. If you’re managing multiple platforms, tools like Sprout Social can bring all your data into one place, making it easier to track and review performance across channels. 

2. Figure out what they mean

Social media analytics can feel overwhelming at first, with niche terms and percentages coming from every angle. Here is a quick breakdown of the most important metrics:

• Views – The number of times your content is watched or seen (often for video). One user can count multiple times.

• Impressions – The total number of times your content appears on screen, including repeat views.

• Reach – The number of unique users who see your content.

• Engagement – Interactions such as likes, comments, shares, saves, and clicks.

• Engagement Rate – The percentage of people who engage compared to those who see your content.

• Audience – Your total followers, often including demographic insights.

• Unique Visitors – The number of individual users who visit your profile.

• Profile Visits – Total profile views, including repeat visits. 

• External Link Clicks – The number of times users click links that take them off-platform.

3. Interpret the data 

Collecting data is one thing, and understanding where the real value lies is another. It’s not always as straightforward as looking at the number of followers you have increasing and thinking everything is going well. 

For example, if your engagement is declining but your audience is growing, your platform is reaching the right places, but your content might not be resonating with new followers. Or if you are struggling to get new followers, you might need to look at your posting times and the types of content you are posting to make sure your content is reaching new audiences. 

Once you identify where the gaps are and what you’re doing well, you can start asking yourself questions like: Is my content relevant to my audience? Am I posting at the right time? Which type of content performs best? 

4. Come up with a plan to improve your analytics 

Here, your top-performing content is your biggest clue and can often reveal a lot about what your audience is looking for.

During February, across Instagram and LinkedIn, our best-performing post is a team selfie from a Pancake Day outing, and this is no surprise to us, as from previous analysis, we know that on our page, team content tends to always perform best (Thanks for the ego boost guys!).

This means, going forward, we will continue to include them in our strategy as well as test a variety of other content. From here, we can find out which posts are a hit and miss and adjust our strategy proactively, rather than guessing. 

5. Track your analytics over time

The main advantage of long-term tracking is that analytics can become your best friend. With consistent data over several months, you can clearly see where your account is growing and where it might need some attention. This can help define your brand’s niche and future strategy. 

Ideally, your metrics should grow together. For example, increases in followers, engagement and link clicks can suggest your content is not only attracting attention but also creating action.

We know analytics can be tricky to understand, and often it takes a while to grasp. If you would like an expert to analyse your social performance, get in touch with the team today.