The world of social media metrics can be confusing to wade into, especially when doing it for the very first time. Aside from follower counts and post engagement percentages, new important metrics seem to be created every other day. No wonder it is easy for marketers to feel the heat when giving it a try.

Nevertheless, this is one of those areas you can never risk skimping on whenever you want to improve your social media marketing and boost your ROI. Therefore, we've compiled some of the essential social media metrics you should be paying attention to in this guide.

Engagement is one of the most critical social metrics to track when looking forward to executing growth strategies. The engagement rate is often used to track how actively involved your content the target audience is. It also helps you figure out how effective your brand campaigns are.

Engagement narrows down to how much your audience accounts are interacting with your account and how often. Keep in mind your target audience expects to find valuable content that appeals to their needs. Some of the engagement metrics worth looking into include likes, comments, shares, and clicks.

Even though this social media metric is frequently used, most marketers find it confusing. This is because you need to count on impressions and reach when it comes to awareness. This is primarily the case if your goals for social media are focused on creating brand awareness and perception. Therefore, understanding the difference between reach and impressions pays off before using this social media metric.

In a nutshell, impressions are how many times a post shows up in someone's timeline. On the other hand, Reach refers to the potential unique viewers a post could have. So be sure to understand how these two work before you finally use your Google Analytics account.

There are different metrics worth tracking when running your social media marketing campaigns. It all boils down to determining what you want to achieve from your social marketing campaigns in the first place. While the above hacks will help you out, you should continue reading about social media metrics to understand what it entails fully.

As a good starting point, consider checking out MediaOne’s Marketing website. Here, you can access every piece of information you need regarding the most important social media metrics to leverage.