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Social media is among the strongest advertising channels I’ve utilized in my profession. In actual fact, lately, it’s constantly been amongst these with the highest ROI for many companies.
However showcasing that to decision-makers isn’t all the time straightforward. An excellent social media report will help.
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Social media reporting is your group’s time to guage the way it’s doing with the medium really, talk that to your organization at giant — and perhaps even brag a little bit bit.
So, how do you place collectively one which does all of this successfully? Learn on for step-by-step directions on create a social media report and a few nice social media report templates that can assist you get going even quicker.
Desk of Contents
What’s a social media report?
A social media report is a abstract of how a enterprise’ social media platforms and efforts on them are performing. I’m not speaking concerning the analytics dashboards used to observe and monitor social media efficiency in actual time right here.
Social media stories can embody uncooked metric information (followers, profitable clickthrough charges, likes, submit shares, purchases, and many others.) however focus extra on delivering the large image. Assume larger tendencies, insights, and progress towards objectives.
Forms of social media stories
A social media report can take any form you want, however, in my expertise, it’s not unusual to create smaller, area of interest stories to deal with important areas.
Platform-specific
How’s Instagram doing on your model? How about YouTube? Each social media platform has its distinctive tradition and nuances, and these stories help you tailor your evaluation and discussions to them extra exactly.
Marketing campaign-specific
Did you launch a brand new product? Possibly publish a content material provide to generate leads? You too can use a social media report to debate campaign-level analytics.
In case your social media account is serving as a cog in a bigger firm initiative, this report helps you see and examine simply how a lot every platform contributed to the mission’s success. (HubSpot Campaigns have all the time been useful on this for me.)
Paid media versus earned media stories can even fall into this class.
Metric/Aim-specific
Was your group targeted on boosting web site site visitors? How about boosting gross sales? Aim-specific stories, like campaign-specific, allow you to analyze and focus on how every platform helped you’re employed towards a particular accomplishment.
Why use a social media report?
Social media would not simply have an effect on advertising. Prospects ask questions, prospects write critiques, and others could comply with you for thought management, schooling, or firm information. It touches almost each facet of your group and buyer expertise.
So, gathering and distributing the state of your social media channels by way of a social media report reveals transparency, encourages cross-company alignment, and helps everybody work in direction of their objectives.
A social media report can be arguably essentially the most concise and clear option to replace your group or stakeholders on these issues — day by day, weekly, month-to-month, quarterly, and/or annual.
HubSpot’s free social media report template has pre-made slides so that you can report on your whole predominant social media metrics.
Obtain the template right this moment and easily plug in your metrics to customise your group’s social media report.
What ought to your social media report embody?
The wonderful particulars can fluctuate, however each nice social media report tends to incorporate 4 components. Remember, that what you name these doesn’t actually matter, however you wish to be sure to accomplish every of their functions in your ultimate product.
Report Overview
Consider this because the govt abstract of your social media report.
It’s the place you doc a very powerful themes and findings of your bigger doc or presentation to set expectations of what’s to come back. It’s additionally useful to busy executives who could not have time to learn or sit by means of a whole presentation.
Targets & Initiatives
What are you attempting to perform with social media? Recapping these in your social media report offers the remainder of the knowledge context and path. Realizing your objectives tells the viewers what data they need to be searching for.
Metrics Evaluation
You don’t want to incorporate all of the information and figures, however you do wish to embody some overarching metrics associated to your objectives. For instance, if you’re attempting to generate extra leads, you’ll wish to embody your common conversion fee.
However the primary focus right here ought to be evaluation. Speak about what tendencies you see.
Learn: Social Media Analytics: The Final Information
Key Takeaways & Suggestions
What story do your metrics inform? What conclusions are you able to draw about your technique from them? What do they are saying about your objectives? And most significantly, what do you do subsequent?
Your social media report ought to seize insights in your technique, marketing campaign, viewers, content material, and any ideas for transferring ahead.
What social media metrics must you embody?
Keep in mind, not each social media platform performs the identical. In actual fact, our analysis reveals that utilization doesn’t essentially equate to ROI.
Due to this, your metrics, tendencies, and objectives for each platform could differ, together with what goes into your social media report.
Some metrics are additionally simply going to be totally different as a result of nature of the platforms — I imply LinkedIn doesn‘t allow you to retweet, and X doesn’t allow you to click on a cry-face button.
Each group’s social media report could look totally different, however let’s check out a number of the most typical metrics to incorporate that can assist you work out what is smart for you.
1. Viewers Measurement and Development (Followers)
This metric tells you the way giant your attain is and the way shortly it’s rising. It’s usually seen because the core social media metric, displaying how giant an viewers you possibly can leverage together with your posts and content material.
2. Put up Frequency
That is fairly self-explanatory, however this metric represents what number of occasions you posted in a given time interval. It’s often in contrast alongside different metrics — akin to engagement charges — that can assist you decide the appropriate cadence on your viewers.
This metric must also be channel-specific as a result of it is smart to submit extra often on some channels than others.
3. Put up Engagement
Put up engagement measures how your followers and followers are reacting to your posts with likes, feedback, and shares. A wholesome submit engagement suggests you may have a loyal viewers — and that your content material is reaching them.
You too can monitor engagement as a share of your viewers to find out engagement fee.
4. Mentions
One metric you may have much less management over is mentions. You may monitor mentions from prospects, prospects, and even information retailers to gauge the notion of your corporation and model on-line.
5. Clickthrough Charge
When a submit hyperlinks to a web page in your web site, you possibly can measure how many individuals and what number of your viewers clicked by means of to the web page.
A robust clickthrough fee reveals you are sharing web site pages that your viewers finds related.
6. Conversions & New Contacts
Conversions come into play in case you‘re utilizing social media to generate leads, subscribers, and even prospects.
If you wish to attribute contacts to your social media group’s efforts, be sure to‘re utilizing correct monitoring and setting affordable objectives, because it’s uncommon in some industries to go straight from social media to changing into a buyer.
7. Return on Funding (ROI)
Immediately tracing ROI to social media efforts could be difficult. Nevertheless, in case you decide it is price reporting on this metric, guarantee you may have established correct expectations and attribution fashions.
Learn: The best way to Measure Social Media Advertising ROI [With Expert Advice]
8. Value per mile (CPM) / Value per click on (CPC)
This metric is crucial for monitoring the efficiency of your social media advertisements. Just like ROI, it helps you consider how you understand how a lot you’re spending in relation to what you’re getting. You may ignore this in case you’re solely reporting on natural social metrics.
9. Competitor Metrics
To supply a benchmark, think about analyzing the aforementioned metrics on your opponents.
Clearly, these metrics can fluctuate drastically based mostly on publicity, paid finances, and the dimensions of the corporate, however it’s nonetheless worthwhile to make the comparability.
Word: You may monitor all of those social media analytics in HubSpot. Fortunate you.
The best way to Create a Social Media Report
Step 1: Establish your social media metrics.
As we‘ve established, totally different firms and totally different social media groups worth totally different social media metrics. It’s your job to decide on the metrics that matter most to your group and your group.
Retaining in thoughts the record from above, the particular social media platforms you utilize, and your objectives, slim down the metrics it’s good to current to your group.
As an example, in case you’re targeted on constructing model consciousness, you’ll wish to spotlight follower numbers and views. In case your objective is web site site visitors, you’ll wish to take a look at clicks.
Professional tip: Once I’m uncertain of what to incorporate or my report feels a little bit incomplete, I ask my friends which metrics they’d prefer to see or which of them they want clarification on. Making these adjustments sooner fairly than later helps hold your group knowledgeable and engaged.
Step 2: Collect your information.
As soon as you understand what you‘re reporting on, it is time to begin amassing information.
When establishing your social media stories, create bookmarks on your information sources. Make a folder for the analytics web page for every social media channel you’re analyzing and/or your social media reporting software program for an all-encompassing view.
When you‘re monitoring click-throughs to your web site, be sure to’re analyzing from a single grasp location, akin to your monitoring URL builder or your site visitors monitoring device like HubSpot or Google Analytics.
Step 3. Select your report format
Take into consideration who your viewers is and the way they greatest client data.
Maybe that’s a social media report presentation, spreadsheet, or memo template. Maybe it’s a mix of some codecs, together with a video walk-through.
Professional tip: No matter you select, keep it up.
A constant format brings familiarity, making evaluating and understanding future updates simpler. Plus, whenever you keep your format, you possibly can simply copy over your most modern metrics fairly than reinventing the wheel each time.
Non-obligatory: Select your social media report template
When you’re simply getting began, we advise utilizing a social media report template to make your life simpler. As an example, a PowerPoint or Google Slide Deck template could be shared together with your group by way of e-mail, used for in-person conferences/displays, or each.
Want a social media report template to get began? We’ll share just a few choices later, however you possibly can’t go flawed with ours.
Step 4: Analyze efficiency
With your whole information in place, it’s time to investigate.
What metrics went up or down? What posts did effectively or not so effectively? What does this say about your efficiency? How concerning the progress towards your objectives?
Use this time to actually dig in and see what your metrics are telling you.
Professional tip: AI has helped me rather a lot on this space. Take a look at our free information, “The best way to Use AI for Knowledge Evaluation”
Step 5: Summarize highlights and add context
Subsequent, summarize the important thing findings and highlights out of your evaluation. Don’t simply suppose quantitatively right here; suppose qualitatively.
Possibly a significant movie star commented on content material for the primary time, otherwise you noticed a document variety of shares. Be certain that to seize these in your report as effectively.
Additionally, add context to assist your viewers higher perceive the story you’re telling. What do I imply by this?
A social media report ought to all the time remind individuals the place you got here from and the place you intend to go. Meaning addressing how your numbers have modified for the reason that final time period you introduced, along with why they modified.
Speak about how this compares to your opponents and the way you’re monitoring towards your objectives. Even when individuals’s eyes glaze over whenever you speak numbers, these highlights can win them again and get your message throughout.
Step 6: Add Visuals
A chart of numbers on a slide deck is, effectively, fairly boring.
Whereas a numerical chart is necessary for sharing as a lot data as doable in an organized manner, utilizing visuals is a greater option to convey the expansion and success metrics of your social media efficiency.
Attempt incorporating one or the entire following into your social media stories:
- Linear graphs to indicate followers over time.
- Pie charts to indicate clicks to totally different pages of your web site (weblog pages vs. case research, for instance).
- Bar graphs to indicate the variety of engagements on every platform.
- Typography highlighting key tendencies or findings
- Screenshots of prime or low-performing posts
These examples are extra eye-catching than chilly numbers on a slid, they usually additional illustrate what you need your group to stroll away with. Plus, you possibly can simply make them on Canva.
If information visualization is new to you, try our Information on Knowledge Visualization for Entrepreneurs.
Step 7: Make Suggestions
Every report ought to include clear motion gadgets about how you intend to constantly enhance your social media efficiency. Social media is continually evolving, so your method and technique for it ought to, too.
Social Media Report Templates
Creating your personal social media report from scratch could be labor-intensive. Utilizing a template to remain organized will help lighten the load. Listed here are 4 of my favourite choices.
1. HubSpot
Okay, perhaps I’m biased, however I’m a giant fan of our free social media report template right here at HubSpot.
What I like: It offers you one thing easy and neat to current, and you may customise it to suit the objectives, platforms, and frequency you really want. I additionally love that the template begins with an outline of all of your owned social media channels on the primary web page.
With this, you possibly can see your viewers for every channel, what number of posts you made, how they carried out (engagement), and what this seems to be like as a share of your complete viewers at a look.
Then, on the next slides, you possibly can discover every particular platform, its objectives related to it, and even its prime posts.
Total, this social media report template is the right mix of highlights and particulars. Plus, it’s out there as a Phrase Doc, PowerPoint, Google Doc, or Google Slides deck, making it accessible to a large viewers.
2. Later
When you’re searching for one thing a bit extra designed, Later has a free social media report template so that you can attempt as effectively. However there are just a few caveats.
This template solely is available in one format — an editable Google Slides deck — and is organized as a month-to-month report. The design additionally could possibly be too playful for some, nevertheless, you possibly can edit it to match your private cadence and model.
To get began, you merely must make a replica and plug in your data, however that stated — you do must have a Gmail account to benefit from it.
What I like: Whereas prioritizing Instagram (Later is an Instagram device, in spite of everything), it does embody charts for all social media platforms. You can also simply clone and edit fields to make the deck work for different platforms.
I’m additionally a fan of the important thing learnings slide. It makes it straightforward to get the entire most necessary data in a single place.
3. Hootsuite
Subsequent, we now have a social media report template from Hootsuite.
Like Later’s, this template comes with an editable Google Slides deck that it’s good to copy to make use of. It additionally has a well-organized and visually pleasing design that you may edit to match your model colours.
I’d say this design is extra common and adaptable than Later’s.
What I like: I like how this template contains directions on fill it out proper within the doc. It makes it straightforward to finish slide by slide and it’s cadence agnostic.
It additionally has devoted slides for all main social media platforms already, highlighting key data like clicks, likes, and prime posts in addition to platform-specific metrics like retweets.
4. The CMO Membership
Final up is the social media report template from The CMO Membership. And, as you may guess with a chief govt viewers, this one is all concerning the information. Not like our different choices, this template comes as an editable Google Sheet.
What I like: Whereas much less suited to a presentation, this social media report template will get extraordinarily granular about your technique’s numbers and metrics.
It has separate tabs for essential data your choice makers will wish to see like:
- Goal and Benchmarks
- Viewers Insights
- Metrics and KPIs
- Platform Evaluation
- Platform Evaluation
- Content material Evaluation
But it surely nonetheless ends with suggestions and key takeaways.
Professional tip: in case you’d prefer to get extra artistic and visible together with your social media report than what these templates provide, Adobe and Canva have a bunch of free designs you possibly can experiment with.
Social Media Report Examples
Now, most social media stories are confidential (for apparent causes), however I used to be capable of finding a small handful of examples to provide you an thought of what a completed product could seem like.
1. High Performing Posts
Along with creating a terrific template, Later presents a particularly useful social media report instance on its weblog utilizing it.
Right here, you’ll see an instance of a top-performing submit slide. Not solely does it present the precise posts and what it achieved, however it additionally presents perception into why the group believes it did effectively.
2. Profile Visitors
Keyhole did a wonderful job gathering various kinds of reporting that Coca-Cola might embody in its social media stories in this weblog. This instance seems to be at Coca-Cola’s general profile site visitors over a set period of time (on this case, a yr).
I like one of these reporting as a result of it means that you can consider the ebb and circulate of viewers conduct and if there’s a development over time.
3. Follower Development
Subsequent, we see a report of Coca-cola’s follower progress over a particular time period.
For a model or group targeted on model consciousness seeing a chart like this (particularly one which reveals steady enchancment) actually helps spotlight the effectiveness of the work they’re doing on social media.
4. Put up Sort
This instance from Coca-cola analyzes Coke’s various kinds of content material — each how often the corporate shares sure sorts after which which sorts carry out one of the best.
Seeing the charts side-by-side means that you can see in case your submit technique aligns with the posts which can be hottest. The colour coding additionally makes it simpler to see which components of the 2 charts go collectively.
5. Social Visitors
One other big firm, Walmart, carefully watches its social media site visitors. Take this report picture from 2023:
This report seems to be at various kinds of social media site visitors based mostly on platform. You may clearly see that YouTube is their prime social media performer, with Reddit and Fb solely attaining half of YouTube’s engagement.
I like one of these report as a result of it places into perspective what your share of site visitors is for any given platform. If I’m going to put money into paid social media, I’ll put money into the platform that’s performing one of the best organically to get extra bang for my buck.
You may see how every sort of report follows the same curve, providing you with perception into which months you grew essentially the most and which platforms carried out one of the best.
(Social Media) Reporting for Responsibility in 2025
Social media stories are important for understanding your efficiency, aligning your group, and demonstrating the worth of your efforts to stakeholders.
By thoughtfully organizing metrics, analyzing tendencies, and offering actionable insights utilizing the social media templates and guides I shared right here, your social media report can function a robust device to refine your technique and obtain your objectives.
