{"id":752,"date":"2014-06-25T09:33:25","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T09:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.printivity.com\/insights\/?p=752"},"modified":"2025-07-30T18:44:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T18:44:03","slug":"are-you-using-your-social-media-metrics-properly-likes-vs-shares-vs-click-through-traffic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insights.printivity.com\/are-you-using-your-social-media-metrics-properly-likes-vs-shares-vs-click-through-traffic","title":{"rendered":"What Social Media Metrics Should You Measure?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today, I wanted to talk a bit more about the relationship between likes (on Facebook), social shares, web traffic, and sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a variety of metrics you can use to measure success on social media, through Likes, Shares, and Traffic\u2014each metric indicates a health\/weakness about different parts of your social media strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, I\u2019m going to be dissecting the top social media metrics to show you what they really mean about your social strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Get<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How do we measure success on social media?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are three different metrics you can use to measure your success on social media: Likes, shares, and traffic. One useful way to look at success is through the lens of the customer buying process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your goal as a business owner is to get people moving through the buying process. You want people to come to your site and move all the way through your buying process until they reach the end, where they become a customer. That\u2019s where you get paid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are steps in between landing on a site and making a purchase (like clicking through pages), but we\u2019re going to use today\u2019s article to talk about the important steps of the buying process and how your social media strategy affects that process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three distinct ways for you to measure your success on social media, and see if your strategy is producing results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likes\u2014easy to get, but don\u2019t put dollars in your pocket<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Likes are one of the clearest metrics available for measuring your success on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visually, it\u2019s easy to see that you\u2019re accumulating these likes on your profiles. It\u2019s one of the most prominent features on every social media page, and it\u2019s the metric that most of us focus on when we work on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likes are never \u201cbad\u201d to have, but getting 100 more likes won\u2019t equate to more sales. Use it mostly as an indicator of your traction on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likes do not guarantee money in your pocket, but they\u2019re nice to have. Ask for them occasionally and when it\u2019s convenient to do so. Remember: don\u2019t go overboard on getting likes \u2013it\u2019s not something you should spend countless hours on. Likes will help validate your Facebook page as one that has some traffic going through it\u2013it\u2019ll show you\u2019re an experienced business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likes give you validation more than they give you sales. A like shows your customers\/potential customers\/followers that you\u2019re worth following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think of likes as existing in two different forms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n