Grow Three Of Your Key Social Media Metrics By Using These 5 Tips

Being a social media manager isn't as easy as it used to be .

Over the past couple of years, terms such as 'engagement rate, social reach and average growth rate' have become synonymous with the job.

Good social media managers are constantly on the front foot, trying to find new ways to increase these metrics . Luckily, we're here to help with a simple 5 step guide to improving three key social media measurement tools.

Increase your engagement rate

An 'engagement rate' is generally used to benchmark a post's popularity . It can be calculated by using this simple two step formula: add the likes, shares and comments on the post and divide that number by your total number of fans or followers .

1) Publish content regularly

Microsoft has published some very interesting data on this very subject. Over two months, they looked at over 200,000 retweets. Of these RTs, 18 per cent contained a hashtag, 9 per cent had a @mention and a startling 52 per cent had a URL. If you're linking to engaging and useful content, you will get the interaction you crave.

2) Don't be shy

According to research by social media expert Dan Zarrella, if you simply say “Please Retweet” you will earn over 50 per cent more shares. You were always told that 'it won't hurt to ask' and now you know that's especially true in the world of social media.

Improve your social reach

A post's reach rate is its potential audience. This is increased by the amount of followers/likes a page has and by the post appearing in search results.

3) Leverage hashtags

Leveraging popular hashtags is an obvious way to gain an audience well beyond your own followers. Don't be shy about joining trending tags. It can and will improve your reach. It will also make your Twitter feed look relevant and up-to-date with popular trends.

4) 'Boost' is a magical word

It's not the ideal solution, but sometimes there is no other option. If you've funds available, boosting posts can dramatically improve your Facebook reach, which just for the record, is often less than 2 per cent of your fans.

Push your average growth rate

5) Have a competition

It may sound simple, but holding a 'like and share' or 'retweet for your chance to win' competition is an effective way of growing your fanbase and followers.

For example, a small Dublin bar went from approximately 1,000 fans to well over 10,000 in just a couple of days by running one of these competitions where they gave away two concert tickets.

So there you have it, 5 simple tips to improving 3 core social media metrics. Now is time for you to go and grow your followers and impress everyone!