Being active and engaging on social media can seem like an obvious win for your organization but, more likely than not, you and your leadership want to know what the return on investment is for the hours of staff time spent on your social channels. And making a compelling case, especially relying on free metrics tools, can be difficult.

Within the HIV community, identifying and reporting on meaningful metrics can also prove challenging. Here are questions to ask yourself when presenting metrics to leadership in your organization:

• How do your social media activities support the overall mission of your organization?
• Have you established communication goals up front and are you tracking the metrics that align with each goal?
• What is your goal in communicating with your target audience?
  • Raise awareness
  • Increase engagement
  • Encourage action
• Have you set realistic expectations with your leadership about your metrics (e.g., have you explained that Twitter routinely purges bots from their platform, which could lead to a decrease in follows)?
• What evaluation does your leadership want that can’t be provided from social media data (e.g., behavior change outcomes)?
• How will changes in social media platforms (and how they collect data) affect your organization’s data?
• What other information (e.g., case studies, highlights, audience quotes) would help tell the story of your social media activities?

In a recent article from ForbesExit Disclaimer, Teresa Caro, the SVP of Marketing at AtlanticusExit Disclaimer shared her view that "never before have we seen so many departments with overlapping business objectives having to play in the same sandbox. Each department has its own KPIs [key performance indicators], which poses a tremendous challenge when it comes time to measure the impact of any one individual social media campaign.”

For more resources on understanding and leveraging social media metrics, read these posts:

• Want More Social Media Data? There’s a Tool for That!
• Need More Social Media Data? Tips for Instagram Metrics
• How to Uncover Audience Insights with Data and Analytics