5 questions to ask when measuring your reach on social

Reach is one of the key metrics for measuring your social media ROI. After all, the purpose of launching campaigns and sharing content on social is to increase the reach of your brand - in other words, to get those so-called “coveted” eyeballs.

But what does it really mean to measure reach? And what should marketers pay attention to?

1. What is the reach of my campaign?

First things first, let’s clear the air on what reach really means. A basic definition would be the number of people who see your content, i.e. the number of unique views across your social media channels.

2. What kind of reach am I measuring?

The next thing on the list is to define what kind of reach you are measuring. The 3 most common types of reach are: organic, paid, and potential.

• Organic: How much traffic are you earning through good content and SEO? Are your followers and employees amplifying the reach of your campaigns by sharing it with their own networks?
• Paid: How many more views are you getting in return for paying to push content on people’s newsfeeds? What is the ROI of your paid social media campaigns?
• Potential: How many people do you expect to reach in your next campaign?

3. Where is my audience at?

With social media enabling the rapid spread of customer experiences and brand related conversations, marketers would do well to keep their eyes on potential hot spots, especially outside their owned social media pages where conversations may not be as easily controlled.

Identifying where your target audience is most active on is key for identifying opportunities and channels for customer brand-engagement. Keep in mind that the volume of chatter may not always be indicative of where you can achieve the most reach.

For example, majority of brand related mentions may come from Twitter, but the biggest audience, i.e. reach will be on news websites. This is because news articles generally enjoy a wider reach of audience than social media postings made by individuals who may not necessarily be influencers with a large social media following.

4. What is the trend?

When analysing your campaign, it's also important to identify where it peaked in terms of reach - and what you can do to plug the dips! This is key for marketers to better strategise for future campaigns.

5. What's next? 

Audience measurement can greatly enhance your social media analysis, be it key concepts, channels, or influencers for your campaigns.  As with all kinds of data, it all boils down to what you’re looking for, and what metrics define a successful “reach”.