Social media is likely one of the strongest advertising channels I’ve utilized in my profession. Actually, in recent times, it’s constantly been amongst these with the best ROI for many companies.
However showcasing that to decision-makers isn’t all the time straightforward. An amazing social media report will help.
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Social media reporting is your crew’s time to guage the way it’s doing with the medium really, talk that to your organization at massive — and possibly even brag slightly bit.
So, how do you place collectively one which does all of this successfully? Learn on for step-by-step directions on easy methods to create a social media report and a few nice social media report templates that will help you get going even quicker.
Desk of Contents
What’s a social media report?
A social media report is a abstract of how a enterprise’ social media platforms and efforts on them are performing. I’m not speaking in regards to the analytics dashboards used to watch and monitor social media efficiency in actual time right here.
Social media studies can embody uncooked metric knowledge (followers, profitable clickthrough charges, likes, submit shares, purchases, and many others.) however focus extra on delivering the massive image. Suppose larger developments, insights, and progress towards objectives.
Kinds of social media studies
A social media report can take any form you want, however, in my expertise, it’s not unusual to create smaller, area of interest studies to concentrate on important areas.
Platform-specific
How’s Instagram doing to your model? How about YouTube? Each social media platform has its distinctive tradition and nuances, and these studies mean you can tailor your evaluation and discussions to them extra exactly.
Marketing campaign-specific
Did you launch a brand new product? Possibly publish a content material supply to generate leads? You too can use a social media report to debate campaign-level analytics.
In case your social media account is serving as a cog in a bigger firm initiative, this report helps you see and examine simply how a lot every platform contributed to the mission’s success. (HubSpot Campaigns have all the time been useful on this for me.)
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Paid media versus earned media studies may fall into this class.
Metric/Purpose-specific
Was your crew targeted on boosting web site visitors? How about boosting gross sales? Purpose-specific studies, like campaign-specific, allow you to analyze and talk about how every platform helped you’re employed towards a particular accomplishment.
Why use a social media report?
Social media would not simply have an effect on advertising. Prospects ask questions, prospects write opinions, and others could comply with you for thought management, training, or firm information. It touches practically each facet of your group and buyer expertise.
So, gathering and distributing the state of your social media channels by way of a social media report reveals transparency, encourages cross-company alignment, and helps everybody work in direction of their objectives.
A social media report can also be arguably essentially the most concise and clear approach to replace your crew or stakeholders on these issues — each day, weekly, month-to-month, quarterly, and/or annual.
HubSpot’s free social media report template has pre-made slides so that you can report on your whole predominant social media metrics.
Obtain the template right this moment and easily plug in your metrics to customise your group’s social media report.
What ought to your social media report embody?
The positive particulars can fluctuate, however each nice social media report tends to incorporate 4 parts. Be mindful, that what you name these doesn’t actually matter, however you need to be sure to accomplish every of their functions in your ultimate product.
Report Overview
Consider this as the chief abstract of your social media report.
It’s the place you doc crucial themes and findings of your bigger doc or presentation to set expectations of what’s to come back. It’s additionally useful to busy executives who could not have time to learn or sit via a whole presentation.
Objectives & Initiatives
What are you attempting to perform with social media? Recapping these in your social media report offers the remainder of the knowledge context and course. Understanding your objectives tells the viewers what info they need to be in search of.
Metrics Evaluation
You don’t want to incorporate all of the info and figures, however you do need to embody some overarching metrics associated to your objectives. For instance, if you’re attempting to generate extra leads, you’ll need to embody your common conversion price.
However the primary focus right here must be evaluation. Speak about what developments you see.
Learn: Social Media Analytics: The Final Information
Key Takeaways & Suggestions
What story do your metrics inform? What conclusions are you able to draw about your technique from them? What do they are saying about your objectives? And most significantly, what do you do subsequent?
Your social media report ought to seize insights in your technique, marketing campaign, viewers, content material, and any options for transferring ahead.
What social media metrics do you have to embody?
Bear in mind, not each social media platform performs the identical. Actually, our analysis reveals that utilization doesn’t essentially equate to ROI.
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Due to this, your metrics, developments, and objectives for each platform could differ, together with what goes into your social media report.
Some metrics are additionally simply going to be completely different because of the nature of the platforms — I imply LinkedIn doesn‘t allow you to retweet, and X doesn’t allow you to click on a cry-face button.
Each crew’s social media report could look completely different, however let’s check out among the most typical metrics to incorporate that will help you work out what is sensible for you.
1. Viewers Dimension and Development (Followers)
This metric tells you ways massive your attain is and the way shortly it’s rising. It’s usually seen because the core social media metric, exhibiting how massive an viewers you’ll be able to leverage together with your posts and content material.
2. Submit Frequency
That is fairly self-explanatory, however this metric represents what number of occasions you posted in a given time interval. It’s often in contrast alongside different metrics — akin to engagement charges — that will help you decide the fitting cadence to your viewers.
This metric must also be channel-specific as a result of it is sensible to submit extra steadily on some channels than others.
3. Submit Engagement
Submit engagement measures how your followers and followers are reacting to your posts with likes, feedback, and shares. A wholesome submit engagement suggests you’ve got a loyal viewers — and that your content material is reaching them.
You too can monitor engagement as a proportion of your viewers to find out engagement price.
4. Mentions
One metric you’ve got much less management over is mentions. You’ll be able to monitor mentions from prospects, prospects, and even information shops to gauge the notion of your corporation and model on-line.
5. Clickthrough Fee
When a submit hyperlinks to a web page in your web site, you’ll be able to measure how many individuals and what number of your viewers clicked via to the web page.
A powerful clickthrough price reveals you are sharing web site pages that your viewers finds related.
6. Conversions & New Contacts
Conversions come into play if you happen to‘re utilizing social media to generate leads, subscribers, and even prospects.
If you wish to attribute contacts to your social media crew’s efforts, be sure to‘re utilizing correct monitoring and setting affordable objectives, because it’s uncommon in some industries to go straight from social media to changing into a buyer.
7. Return on Funding (ROI)
Immediately tracing ROI to social media efforts might be tough. Nevertheless, if you happen to decide it is price reporting on this metric, guarantee you’ve got established correct expectations and attribution fashions.
Learn: Tips on how to Measure Social Media Advertising and marketing ROI [With Expert Advice]
8. Price per mile (CPM) / Price per click on (CPC)
This metric is important for monitoring the efficiency of your social media adverts. Much like ROI, it helps you consider how you know the way a lot you’re spending in relation to what you’re getting. You’ll be able to ignore this if you happen to’re solely reporting on natural social metrics.
9. Competitor Metrics
To offer a benchmark, contemplate analyzing the aforementioned metrics to your opponents.
Clearly, these metrics can fluctuate drastically primarily based on publicity, paid finances, and the scale of the corporate, but it surely’s nonetheless worthwhile to make the comparability.
Word: You’ll be able to monitor all of those social media analytics in HubSpot. Fortunate you.
Tips on how to Create a Social Media Report
Step 1: Establish your social media metrics.
As we‘ve established, completely different firms and completely different social media groups worth completely different social media metrics. It’s your job to decide on the metrics that matter most to your crew and your group.
Maintaining in thoughts the checklist from above, the particular social media platforms you utilize, and your objectives, slender down the metrics you want to current to your crew.
As an example, if you happen to’re targeted on constructing model consciousness, you’ll need to spotlight follower numbers and views. In case your objective is web site visitors, you’ll need to have a look at clicks.
Professional tip: Once I’m not sure of what to incorporate or my report feels slightly incomplete, I ask my friends which metrics they’d wish to see or which of them they want clarification on. Making these modifications sooner moderately than later helps preserve your crew knowledgeable and engaged.
Step 2: Collect your knowledge.
As soon as you realize what you‘re reporting on, it is time to begin accumulating knowledge.
When organising your social media studies, create bookmarks to your knowledge sources. Make a folder for the analytics web page for every social media channel you’re analyzing and/or your social media reporting software program for an all-encompassing view.
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When you‘re monitoring click-throughs to your web site, be sure to’re analyzing from a single grasp location, akin to your monitoring URL builder or your visitors monitoring instrument like HubSpot or Google Analytics.
Step 3. Select your report format
Take into consideration who your viewers is and the way they finest shopper info.
Maybe that’s a social media report presentation, spreadsheet, or memo template. Maybe it’s a mix of some codecs, together with a video walk-through.
Professional tip: No matter you select, keep it up.
A constant format brings familiarity, making evaluating and understanding future updates simpler. Plus, once you keep your format, you’ll be able to simply copy over your latest metrics moderately than reinventing the wheel each time.
Optionally available: Select your social media report template
When you’re simply getting began, we advise utilizing a social media report template to make your life simpler. As an example, a PowerPoint or Google Slide Deck template might be shared together with your crew by way of electronic mail, used for in-person conferences/displays, or each.
Want a social media report template to get began? We’ll share a couple of choices later, however you’ll be able to’t go incorrect with ours.
Step 4: Analyze efficiency
With your whole knowledge in place, it’s time to investigate.
What metrics went up or down? What posts did nicely or not so nicely? What does this say about your efficiency? How in regards to the progress towards your objectives?
Use this time to essentially dig in and see what your metrics are telling you.
Professional tip: AI has helped me quite a bit on this space. Take a look at our free information, “Tips on how to Use AI for Knowledge Evaluation”
Step 5: Summarize highlights and add context
Subsequent, summarize the important thing findings and highlights out of your evaluation. Don’t simply suppose quantitatively right here; suppose qualitatively.
Possibly a serious superstar commented on content material for the primary time, otherwise you noticed a file variety of shares. Ensure that to seize these in your report as nicely.
Additionally, add context to assist your viewers higher perceive the story you might be telling. What do I imply by this?
A social media report ought to all the time remind folks the place you got here from and the place you intend to go. Which means addressing how your numbers have modified for the reason that final time frame you introduced, along with why they modified.
Speak about how this compares to your opponents and the way you might be monitoring towards your objectives. Even when folks’s eyes glaze over once you discuss numbers, these highlights can win them again and get your message throughout.
Step 6: Add Visuals
A chart of numbers on a slide deck is, nicely, fairly boring.
Whereas a numerical chart is necessary for sharing as a lot data as potential in an organized approach, utilizing visuals is a greater approach to convey the expansion and success metrics of your social media efficiency.
Attempt incorporating one or the entire following into your social media studies:
Linear graphs to indicate followers over time.
Pie charts to indicate clicks to completely different pages of your web site (weblog pages vs. case research, for instance).
Bar graphs to indicate the variety of engagements on every platform.
Typography highlighting key developments or findings
Screenshots of high or low-performing posts
These examples are extra eye-catching than chilly numbers on a slid, they usually additional illustrate what you need your crew to stroll away with. Plus, you’ll be able to simply make them on Canva.
If knowledge visualization is new to you, take a look at our Information on Knowledge Visualization for Entrepreneurs.
Step 7: Make Suggestions
Every report ought to include clear motion gadgets about how you intend to constantly enhance your social media efficiency. Social media is consistently evolving, so your strategy and technique for it ought to, too.
Social Media Report Templates
Creating your personal social media report from scratch might be labor-intensive. Utilizing a template to remain organized will help lighten the load. Listed here are 4 of my favourite choices.
1. HubSpot
Okay, possibly I’m biased, however I’m a giant fan of our free social media report template right here at HubSpot.
What I like: It offers you one thing easy and neat to current, and you’ll customise it to suit the objectives, platforms, and frequency you really want. I additionally love that the template begins with an summary of all of your owned social media channels on the primary web page.
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With this, you’ll be able to see your viewers for every channel, what number of posts you made, how they carried out (engagement), and what this seems like as a proportion of your complete viewers at a look.
Then, on the next slides, you’ll be able to discover every particular platform, its objectives related to it, and even its high posts.
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Total, this social media report template is the proper mix of highlights and particulars. Plus, it’s obtainable as a Phrase Doc, PowerPoint, Google Doc, or Google Slides deck, making it accessible to a large viewers.
2. Later
When you’re in search of one thing a bit extra designed, Later has a free social media report template so that you can attempt as nicely. However there are a couple of caveats.
This template solely is available in one format — an editable Google Slides deck — and is organized as a month-to-month report. The design additionally might be too playful for some, nonetheless, you’ll be able to edit it to match your private cadence and model.
To get began, you merely must make a replica and plug in your info, however that mentioned — you do have to have a Gmail account to make the most of it.
What I like: Whereas prioritizing Instagram (Later is an Instagram instrument, in spite of everything), it does embody charts for all social media platforms. You can also simply clone and edit fields to make the deck work for different platforms.
I’m additionally a fan of the important thing learnings slide. It makes it straightforward to get the entire most necessary info in a single place.
3. Hootsuite
Subsequent, we’ve a social media report template from Hootsuite.
Like Later’s, this template comes with an editable Google Slides deck that you want to copy to make use of. It additionally has a well-organized and visually pleasing design which you could edit to match your model colours.
I’d say this design is extra common and adaptable than Later’s.
What I like: I really like how this template contains directions on easy methods to fill it out proper within the doc. It makes it straightforward to finish slide by slide and it’s cadence agnostic.
It additionally has devoted slides for all main social media platforms already, highlighting key info like clicks, likes, and high posts in addition to platform-specific metrics like retweets.
4. The CMO Membership
Final up is the social media report template from The CMO Membership. And, as you may guess with a chief govt viewers, this one is all in regards to the knowledge. In contrast to our different choices, this template comes as an editable Google Sheet.
What I like: Whereas much less suited to a presentation, this social media report template will get extraordinarily granular about your technique’s numbers and metrics.
It has separate tabs for essential info your determination makers will need to see like:
Goal and Benchmarks
Viewers Insights
Metrics and KPIs
Platform Evaluation
Platform Evaluation
Content material Evaluation
Nevertheless it nonetheless ends with suggestions and key takeaways.
Professional tip: if you happen to’d wish to get extra artistic and visible together with your social media report than what these templates supply, Adobe and Canva have a bunch of free designs you’ll be able to experiment with.
Social Media Report Examples
Now, most social media studies are confidential (for apparent causes), however I used to be capable of finding a small handful of examples to offer you an concept of what a completed product could seem like.
1. Prime Performing Posts
Along with creating a fantastic template, Later gives an especially useful social media report instance on its weblog utilizing it.
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Right here, you’ll see an instance of a top-performing submit slide. Not solely does it present the precise posts and what it completed, but it surely additionally gives perception into why the crew believes it did nicely.
2. Profile Site visitors
Keyhole did a superb job gathering various kinds of reporting that Coca-Cola might embody in its social media studies on this weblog. This instance seems at Coca-Cola’s general profile visitors over a set period of time (on this case, a 12 months).
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I like one of these reporting as a result of it lets you consider the ebb and move of viewers conduct and if there’s a development over time.
3. Follower Development
Subsequent, we see a report of Coca-cola’s follower progress over a particular time frame.
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For a model or crew targeted on model consciousness seeing a chart like this (particularly one which reveals steady enchancment) actually helps spotlight the effectiveness of the work they’re doing on social media.
4. Submit Sort
This instance from Coca-cola analyzes Coke’s various kinds of content material — each how steadily the corporate shares sure varieties after which which varieties carry out the very best.
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Seeing the charts side-by-side lets you see in case your submit technique aligns with the posts which might be hottest. The colour coding additionally makes it simpler to see which elements of the 2 charts go collectively.
5. Social Site visitors
One other large firm, Walmart, intently watches its social media visitors. Take this report picture from 2023:
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This report seems at various kinds of social media visitors primarily based on platform. You’ll be able to clearly see that YouTube is their high social media performer, with Reddit and Fb solely attaining half of YouTube’s engagement.
I like one of these report as a result of it places into perspective what your share of visitors is for any given platform. If I’m going to spend money on paid social media, I’ll spend money on the platform that’s performing the very best organically to get extra bang for my buck.
You’ll be able to see how every kind of report follows an analogous curve, providing you with perception into which months you grew essentially the most and which platforms carried out the very best.
(Social Media) Reporting for Obligation in 2025
Social media studies are important for understanding your efficiency, aligning your crew, and demonstrating the worth of your efforts to stakeholders.
By thoughtfully organizing metrics, analyzing developments, and offering actionable insights utilizing the social media templates and guides I shared right here, your social media report can function a strong instrument to refine your technique and obtain your objectives.