Social Media Reports & How To Make Them
If you work as a social media manager or strategist, then you know social media reports are your bread and butter when it comes to client retention.
The purpose of these reports is to give your clients monthly or quarterly breakdowns of the ROI (return on investment).
Here's an example of what an excellent social media report should include:
Follower increase
Website clicks
Engagement rate
Comparison of month-to-month analytics
Best-performing posts (video, carousel, image, etc.)
Content screenshots with the most comments, likes, and shares
Creative suggestions on content strategy
Competition analysis (optional)
These social media analytics will prove your expertise and months of hard work. With these numbers, you'll have clients paying you month after month— no questions asked!
RELATED: 5 Content Prompts to Help You Connect with Your Dream Client TODAY
What is Social Media Auditing?
Your social media reports are an overall audit of how your client's content is performing. They will tell you things like:
How long should your Reels be to get the most views?
What topics generate the most engagement?
Which CTAs (Call-To-Actions) have generated the most sales?
Social media auditing is typically done once a month. However, if you've been with your company or your client for a while, a quarterly audit works too.
It usually takes a minimum of 3 months to see any results from your social media marketing strategies. Changing things after a month based on a single round of social media auditing can hurt in the long run because your client might want to change directions before they can see what works (and what doesn't).
Still, you should keep a monthly tab on the numbers just so you're aware of any impending changes that need to be made.
How will you know? We'll get into social media analytics in just a sec!
RELATED: Create Your Annual Content Strategy
Social Media Report Analytics: 3 Things to Include
Naturally, most clients want to see one of three things: their follower growth and engagement rate.
This is where you really need to educate your clients on vanity metrics versus actionable metrics. Vanity metrics are exactly that: numbers that look your clients look badass (like hitting that 10K milestone on Instagram). However, these numbers don't determine whether your client's business will make any money.
Here are 3 social media analytics that does help determine your client's ROI:
Engagement rate: How often your client's followers interact (like, comment, share) with their content is vital to a successful social media strategy. More engagement means it's more likely the algorithms will work in their favor, and more engagement means their audience likes their content.
Website Clicks: Sometimes, your client's content will have a Call-To-Action that leads them off the social platform and onto their website. The number of website clicks they get every month indicates whether the CTA is something people are interested in. If not, their product or service might need tweaking (because nobody wants it). If so, your client should be making money directly from your social media marketing efforts.
Video Views: Views are borderline vanity metrics, but I think they're essential to include. It can help you determine if specific hashtags work well or what style of video your client's custom audience likes the most.
RELATED: How to Create Reels That Connect with Your Dream Clients
Example of a Social Media Report
It's taken me a long time to come up with social media reports that I like and that work well for my business. I've changed what data I include, the formatting, and the overall look over the last 4 years.
Nowadays, you can find an example of social media reports all over the web. But they're either:
Blatantly ugly: Visuals make a world of difference. Not only do they make you appear more professional, but they're typically easier to read.
Challenging to use: Google docs is not user-friendly. And Canva's templates either include too much or too little critical social media analytics.
Behind a paywall: Sure, it can take you hours (or, if you're picky like me — years) to build a template that you like, but I'm not about to drop $30 on social media reports that don't look good or aren't easy to use.
That's why I created this FREE template for you! Here's what's included:
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Grab your FREE Social Media Reports Template here!
Disclaimer: The business owners featured in this blog are members of Babe Crafted (at the time of publishing).
