How to Measure Your Channels’ Social Media Success With Hard Data
Influencer pop quiz: Do you know what any of these marketing acronyms mean? VTR. ROI. CTR. CR. ROAS. If you’re saying, ”Huh??”, that’s okay! Most influencers don’t have a marketing or business degree. As a creator, though, you’re basically running your own business. This means you need to move beyond vanity metrics to hard data social media metrics. We’re here to help.
What Are Vanity Metrics?
In the early days of YouTube & Instagram, channel success was measured by metrics like:
- Subscriber count
- Video views
- Likes
- Comments
- Shares
- Impressions
These are called “vanity metrics” because they don’t accurately measure the impact an influencer has on a brand.
They’re all talk, no action. Now, we admit, vanity metrics ARE important, and you DO need to know yours. They’re not, however, the be-all, end-all of predicting how much money a creator makes or can charge for a sponsorship. Yes, brands do want channels with more subscribers & views. the MagicLinks homepage says, “Sales are the new likes”. A creator with 30,000 subscribers can out-sell a creator with 500,000 subscribers. We’ve seen it before!
MagicLinks creator Ashley Parke might have only 34,000 subscribers, but she regularly hits the top of our sales lists. So, we casted her in a Nasty Gal campaign: She outsold almost every other creator in the campaign, even though she had the smallest fan base.
Why does this happen? Because influencers like Ashley take the time to build relationships and trust with their fans. That trust means a fan is much more likely to buy products the 30k creator recommends. You do need around 10,000 subscribers to start earning enough to attract brands’ attention – here’s why.
Here are the channel-by-channel social metrics we recommend knowing like the back of your hand.
What Do I Do With My Social Media Metrics?
Once you know your channel-by-channel metrics, add them to your creator press kit. Being able to demonstrate true fan engagement and sales from a brand or its’ direct competitors will make you an appealing asset to brands for long-term partnerships.
The analytics section of each social media network will give you these metrics:
- View-Through Rate
- Engagement Rate
- Social Shares
Check the performance reports in your MagicLinks creator dashboard for these metrics:
- Sales By Brand
- Click-Through Rate
- Conversion Rate
Now, go get ’em, tiger!
Cover images courtesy of MagicLinks influencers Talijah Monet and India Batson.
