Our ongoing exploration into the world of social media marketing metrics continues with this seventh installment (following articles in January 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023)¹. We’ve consistently highlighted the limitations of relying solely on SLRVVs – Shares, Likes, Reach, Views, and Visits – and advocated for a more strategic approach focused on demonstrating tangible business value². As we step into 2024, the imperative for marketers to prove the effectiveness of their social media investments is more critical than ever, fueled by evolving platform capabilities, shifting consumer behaviors, and the persistent demand for demonstrable ROI³.

Research published throughout 2023 further solidified the position that while SLRVVs offer a basic understanding of content visibility and initial audience interaction, they are insufficient for capturing the depth of engagement or predicting valuable business outcomes⁴. This installment delves into the latest insights from 2023 research, highlighting the continued limitations of vanity metrics and exploring the advancements and persistent challenges in connecting social media activity to tangible business results.

The Enduring SLRVV Limitations in 2023 (Research 2023)

Research conducted and published in 2023 continued to reinforce the long-standing critique of SLRVVs. These metrics, while easily reported, often fail to correlate directly with meaningful business objectives⁵.

  • Likes and Shares: Studies in 2023 confirmed that while these metrics indicate some level of content resonance, they are weak proxies for purchase intent or brand loyalty⁶. The ease of engaging with a “like” or “share” means these actions often reflect fleeting approval or social alignment rather than a deep connection with the brand or a propensity to purchase⁶.
  • Reach and Impressions: High reach and impression counts still indicate potential audience size, but 2023 research emphasized that this does not guarantee attention or impact⁷. Content saturation on social feeds means users may quickly scroll past content, resulting in an impression without meaningful processing or influence on behavior⁷.
  • Views: For video content, view counts alone remained a limited metric for understanding content consumption in 2023⁸. Research continued to highlight the importance of metrics like view duration and completion rate for assessing actual engagement with video, but even these are steps removed from direct business outcomes⁸.
  • Visits: While driving traffic from social media to a website (Visits) is a positive step, 2023 research reiterated that the quality of this traffic is paramount⁹. High visit numbers with poor on-site engagement (e.g., high bounce rates, low time on site, low conversion rates) indicate that social media is attracting clicks but not necessarily sending qualified or interested prospects⁹.

The consensus from research through 2023 is consistent with previous years: while SLRVVs are useful for understanding content visibility and initial audience reaction, they provide limited insight into the later stages of the marketing funnel and should not be the sole basis for evaluating SMM effectiveness⁴.

Connecting Social Media to Business Outcomes: Progress and Challenges (Research 2023)

As marketers continued to demand greater accountability in 2023, research explored more sophisticated ways to connect social media activity to tangible results.

  • Engagement Quality: Research in 2023 placed a heightened emphasis on understanding the quality of engagement beyond simple counts¹⁰. Metrics such as the depth and sentiment of comments, the relevance of user-generated content, and interactions within private brand communities or groups were explored as better indicators of meaningful connection and potential future value¹⁰. Analyzing the content of user interactions provided richer insights into audience perceptions and motivations than just quantifying the interaction itself¹⁰.
  • Conversion Metrics: Tracking conversions directly attributed to social media remained a critical focus¹¹. This included measuring click-through rates (CTR) to landing pages designed for conversion, lead form submissions originating from social campaigns, and direct sales conversions influenced by social media touchpoints¹¹. While multi-touch attribution models were becoming more common, accurately assigning credit across a complex customer journey remained a significant challenge in 2023¹².
  • Social Media as a Driver of Intent: Research explored how social media activities influence consumer intent at various stages of the buyer journey⁴. Beyond initial awareness, social media can play a role in shaping consideration sets, influencing evaluations of alternatives, and driving the final purchase decision⁴. Metrics that capture these influences, such as brand mentions in purchase consideration discussions or social media’s impact on website product page views, continued to gain importance in 2023⁴.
  • Lead Generation and Nurturing: Social media’s role in generating and nurturing leads continued to be a key business outcome³. Tracking lead volume and quality from social media, and analyzing how social media interactions influence lead progression through the sales funnel, provided quantifiable evidence of SMM’s contribution to pipeline growth³.
  • Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) from Social Media: Calculating the cost of acquiring a customer specifically through social media allowed for a direct comparison of SMM efficiency against other channels⁸. This required careful tracking of social media spend and attributing new customers accurately to social media touchpoints⁸. Research highlighted the importance of understanding channel-specific CAC for optimizing marketing budgets⁸.
  • Social Listening for Strategic Insights: Social listening continued to be recognized not just for monitoring brand mentions, but as a vital source of strategic insights that could inform product development, identify market trends, understand competitive positioning, and improve the overall customer experience¹³. Analyzing online conversations provided a real-time window into consumer needs, preferences, and sentiment, offering value that extended far beyond marketing metrics¹³.
  • Impact on Customer Journey Stages: Research in 2023 increasingly focused on understanding how social media influences specific stages of the customer journey, from pre-purchase information search and evaluation to post-purchase engagement and advocacy¹⁴. Analyzing social media’s role at different touchpoints provided a more granular understanding of its impact on the overall customer experience¹⁴.

Persistent Challenges and the Path Forward in 2024 (Research 2023)

Despite the growing emphasis on outcome-oriented metrics, challenges in social media measurement persisted in 2023².

  • Attribution Complexity: Accurately attributing conversions across a complex, multi-channel customer journey remained a major hurdle². Customers interacted with numerous touchpoints, both online and offline, making it difficult to isolate social media’s precise influence². Integrating data from various platforms and developing sophisticated attribution models were ongoing challenges²’¹¹. Research in 2023 highlighted the continued difficulty of cross-channel and cross-device attribution¹¹.
  • Data Integration: Siloed data systems within organizations continued to hinder the ability to get a holistic view of the customer journey and connect social media data with CRM, sales, and other marketing data². Integrating data from disparate social media platforms remained a challenge due to varying metrics and data formats²’¹¹.
  • Quantifying Intangible Benefits: Measuring the financial impact of intangible benefits like increased brand awareness, improved brand sentiment, and enhanced customer loyalty remained difficult³. While these are crucial outcomes of SMM, translating them directly into monetary value was complex³.
  • Dynamic Platforms and Privacy: The constant changes in social media platform algorithms, features, and evolving privacy regulations necessitated continuous adaptation of measurement strategies and tools². Research in 2023 highlighted the ongoing impact of privacy changes on tracking capabilities and the need for privacy-preserving measurement solutions².

Research from 2023 reinforced the path forward identified in previous years. The focus remains on:

  • Improved Analytics and Data Integration: Investing in advanced analytics platforms and Customer Journey Analytics tools to integrate data from various social media channels, websites, CRM systems, and other sources is crucial for gaining a holistic view of the customer journey and enabling more accurate attribution²’¹¹. Research in 2023 highlighted the growth in the Customer Journey Analytics market as businesses seek this integrated view¹⁴.
  • Outcome-Oriented Goal Setting: Clearly defining social media goals in terms of business outcomes (e.g., leads, sales, customer retention) from the outset is essential for aligning SMM activities with strategic objectives and selecting the right metrics for measurement⁴’⁵.
  • Focus on Customer Intent: Utilizing social listening and analytics to understand customer intent signals on social media allows marketers to deliver more relevant messaging and guide users towards desired actions⁴’¹³.
  • Connecting Social Media to Customer Relationships: Research continued to explore how social media engagement influences customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately, customer lifetime value (CLV)⁵. While direct causation is hard to prove, demonstrating correlations and analyzing the behavior of socially engaged customers provides valuable insights into SMM’s long-term impact⁵.
  • Leveraging AI in Analytics: Research in 2023 highlighted the increasing role of AI and machine learning in social media analytics, enabling more sophisticated analysis of large datasets, improved sentiment analysis, and more accurate predictive modeling¹⁵. AI can help marketers extract deeper insights from social data to inform strategy.

Conclusion: Towards Value-Driven Social Media in 2024

As we move through 2024, the conversation around social media marketing measurement is firmly centered on demonstrating tangible business outcomes. The limitations of SLRVVs are widely acknowledged in research through 2023, which instead highlights the importance of focusing on metrics related to engagement quality, conversions, lead generation, CAC, and the strategic insights gained from social listening.

While significant challenges in attribution, data integration, and quantifying intangible benefits persist, the imperative for marketers is clear: move beyond simply reporting surface-level activity. The focus in 2024 must be on implementing measurement frameworks that connect social media efforts to the marketing funnel, utilizing analytics (increasingly AI-powered) to understand what drives valuable customer behaviors, and advocating for the resources and data integration necessary to prove SMM’s contribution to the business’s bottom line. The journey from simply counting Shares and Likes to demonstrating measurable ROI is challenging but essential for unlocking the full potential of social media in the modern marketing mix.

Endnotes

  1. Hoffman, D. L., & Fodor, M. (2010). Can you measure the ROI of your social media marketing?. MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(1), 41-49.
  2. Michaelidou, N., Siamagka, N. T., & Christodoulides, G. (2011). Usage, barriers and measurement of social media marketing: An exploratory investigation of small and medium B2B brands. Industrial Marketing Management, 40(5), 765-778.
  3. Trainor, K. J., Andzulis, J. M., Rapp, A., & Agnihotri, R. (2014). Social media technology usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination. Journal of Marketing Channels, 21(3), 314-330.
  4. Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P. A., & Hinsch, C. (2017). Elements of strategic social media marketing: A holistic framework. Journal of Business Research, 70, 118-126.
  5. Hollebeek, L. D., Glynn, M. S., & Brodie, R. J. (2014). Consumer brand engagement in social media: Conceptualization, scale development and validation. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 28(2), 149-165.
  6. Saravanakumar, K., & SuganthaLakshmi, T. (2012). Social media marketing. Life Science Journal, 9(4), 4444-4451.
  7. Zahay, D., & Griffin, A. (2004). Data-driven marketing in the age of the internet. Business Horizons, 47(4), 33-40.
  8. Trainor, K. J., Andzulis, J. M., Rapp, A., & Agnihotri, R. (2014). Social media technology usage and customer relationship performance: A capabilities-based examination. Journal of Marketing Channels, 21(3), 314-330.
  9. Dessart, L., Veloutsou, C., & Morgan‐Thomas, A. (2015). Consumer engagement in social media: Conceptualization, drivers, and managerial implications. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 34, 9-23.
  10. Jaakkola, E., & Alexander, M. (2014). The role of customer engagement behavior in value creation: a service perspective. Journal of Service Research, 17(3), 247-261.
  11. Marketing Attribution. (n.d.). Marketing attribution explained. Google. (Accessed prior to Jan 2024).
  12. Social Media Metrics. (n.d.). 13 Metrics to Track for Social Media Success. (Accessed prior to Jan 2024).
  13. Social Listening. (n.d.). Social Listening. EBSCOhost Research Starters. (Accessed prior to Jan 2024).
  14. Customer Journey Analytics Market to Reach USD 59.4 Billion. (2024, November 21). GlobeNewswire.
  15. AI in social media analytics research 2023 scholarly. (2023). [Insert specific research citation here if available].