Social media plays a big role in marketing today. In almost every cross-media study we conducted, social media was the main driver of reach, often outperforming TV, online, or print media by a substantial margin.
Having a clear plan for what you want to achieve on social media, aligned with your organization’s goals, will help deliver strong results and returns.
To keep your social media activity aligned with your objectives, you can rely on various metrics. On one hand, internal analytics can be used to assess the performance of your owned media. If you want to understand who is sharing your content and the impact it has on your brand, this is where we can support you with our extensive panels and tools. But let’s start with your owned media.
What Can You Learn from Internal Analytics?
Analyzing your own social media channels gives valuable insights into your audience and performance. Here are the key areas to monitor:
1. Reach & Audience Growth
- Followers / Subscribers – size of your fan base
- Follower growth rate – how fast your community is growing
- Reach / Impressions – how many people see your content
Track growth over time and compare periods to understand what caused spikes in followers or reach.
2. Engagement
- Engagement rate (likes, comments, shares, saves) – shows fan interest
- Comments & shares – deeper interaction and relevance
- Video views & watch time – important for highlights or short videos
3. Content Performance
- Top-performing posts – shows which content works best
- Post frequency & consistency – helps plan your schedule
- Click-through rate (CTR) – measures interest in links like tickets, merchandise, or news
4. Fan Behavior
- Sentiment analysis – identifies emotions, opinions, or intentions behind comments
- Social media listening – tracks trends, topics, and discussions
Note: These two techniques are related but not the same; both provide qualitative insights.
5. Platform-Specific Metrics
- Instagram: story views & CTR
- YouTube: average view duration
Each platform is unique. Some are better for broad reach, while others excel at storytelling.
6. Commercial & Conversion Metrics
- Website traffic from social media
- Ticket or merchandise sales
- Branded content performance
7. Community Analytics
- Audience demographics and geography
Most of these metrics come from your owned channels.
Don’t Forget Earned Media
Earned media is the attention your campaigns or events get from others, such as shares, mentions, or posts by third parties.
Tracking earned media helps you answer questions like:
- Who shared your content and where?
- What reach and engagement did these posts generate?
- How much value did media and sponsorship posts create for your event?
IRIS has the largest earned media panel in the sports industry – meaning that if someone is talking about your event, we will find it. This also enables you to benchmark your performance with that of competitors.
Our custom dashboards can combine owned analytics with earned media and provide near real-time tracking.
Need More Insights?
We can help you:
- Grow your follower base
- See what content drives competitor performance
- Track which types of content get the most engagement
- Monitor earned media
- Benchmark your channels against competitors
Get in touch to learn more!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Olena Baumann (Posternak) has been working in the Insights Team at IRIS for 3 years, and specialises in Motorsports and International Federations projects.