Monitoring and social listening are ways to help you understand your audience, track metrics and the performance of the content you’re creating and sharing. 

Analytics, metrics, insights — whatever you call them, is the information that helps you understand how the content you are creating and sharing is performing. The GVSU Social team uses Sprout Social, a paid service, to collect analytics and create a monthly performance report. 

Albeit somewhat limited, social media platforms offer native analytic tools for business pages (and personal accounts on Twitter) to track performance. 

It’s important to keep an eye on engagements (likes, comments, etc.) across all of your platforms, particularly for inappropriate content. Comments using profane, insensitive, or otherwise inappropriate language should be removed immediately. 

Remember: Posts that are simply negative toward your page shouldn’t be hidden, deleted or blocked. Negative comments can often be an opportunity to respond to the user’s concerns with an educated response. Always use your best judgment for when or when not to engage with a negative comment. 

Social Media Lingo

•Impressions - number of times content is displayed.

•Reach - number of people who see content.

•Engagements - public shares, likes and comments.

•Organic: number of unique people who saw the content — for free.

•Paid: number of unique people who saw paid content, such as a Facebook Ad or boosted post.