The Power of Social Media Marketing Metrics

Happy New Year!

I hope you had a great holiday that left you feeling refreshed, recharged, and ready for 2026.

During the early days of a new year, your nonprofit team is likely super busy with planning and strategizing for a brand new year of marketing opportunities.

Part of the marketing planning process typically includes budgeting and figuring out where to put this year’s resources…

But it’s not always easy to determine where your team’s time, effort, and budget should go, especially when it comes to constantly-changing areas of marketing like social media.

Luckily, this is where metrics come in to save the day.

You can use social media metrics to guide your resource allocation efforts, making decisions based on what the data tells you (instead of guessing or trying to predict the future).

What social media metrics can help you understand

Your social media marketing metrics — like followers, clicks, and engagement — can tell you a lot about how your organization is doing financially, mission-wise, and operationally.

Here are several different things you can use these metrics to measure and better understand.

• What was your return on ad spend?
• How many tickets did you sell after promoting an event?
• How many people signed up for your mailing list after posting about it?
• How many new people followed you and learned about your organization?
• Does your team feel confident setting up social media ad campaigns?
• Do you have the right software/tools to design professional marketing materials?

Decision-making and proving ROI with your metrics

Then, once you have that information in hand, you can use it to improve! You might use social media metrics to help you decide:

✓ Where to shift ad budgets, based on which platforms have the highest click-throughs

✓ Which platforms to increase staffing on, based on where you’re seeing the highest traction

✓ Where to change your strategy, or platforms to cut out based on low response or engagement

✓ Where to put your content creation efforts, based on which platforms have the best engagement

✓ Whether you want to outsource to fill any gaps, whether that’s in staffing capacity or tech abilities (like video editing)

You can also present your metrics (and the conclusions you made) to your team and board to prove the ROI of your social media and help with higher-level strategy.

That might look like “showing your work” and demonstrating the data that goes into social media decision-making, or how efficient your efforts are in terms of cost per impression/per click.

Success stories also make great case studies or proof of concept for new ideas!

Remember that social media is always changing

And, because of how quickly those things change, it’s not always easy to show ROI.

Plus, your time and effort are valuable! With limited resources, budget, and staffing power, you want to make sure you get the best return on your efforts you can.

That’s why it’s so important to look at (and use!) your metrics.

The definition of “good” social media performance or ROI may change, but if you’re letting the data guide your decisions, you’ll always be looking at what’s actually working - not just guessing and hoping for the best.

See you in two weeks!

Catrina

P.S. If you’re ready to improve your social media marketing efforts this year, I can help you start making the changes you want to see. Reply to this email and let’s chat about how I can help!

Catrina Ossmann, Clever Ideas Marketing®, works with nonprofits and community organizations to increase awareness and reach with consistent and effective marketing.

​​​

Have questions? Reply to this email!

PO Box 1547, Adrian, MI 49221
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​

© 2025 Catrina Ossmann - Clever Ideas Marketing®