Measuring social efforts can sometimes feel like the return on your investment (ROI) is dying on the vine.

As we enter the new year, it is worth reviewing your business goals and setting a clear direction in your digital marketing efforts to improve your bottom line. You might be happy with the amount of interaction and growth you see and how it leads to conversion. However, the last two years have seen significant disruptions to everyone’s marketing plans.

Here’s a quick overview of setting your social media marketing goals, including how to increase engagement and which metrics to focus on.

1. Define your goals

Create goals that encourage growth. It’s vital to include a number and hard deadline for each one. An example of this is increasing leads from social media by 10% in one quarter.

• 86% of marketers struggle with measuring the ROI for social media activities
• Only 37% of digital marketers who need to prove social media ROI are “very confident” in their ROI metrics.

2. Analyze the correct metrics

To narrow down which metrics are worthwhile to measure, try asking, “Will this metric help me achieve my goals?” Metrics to track include engagement, reach, referrals, and conversions.

• 80% of marketers use engagement as their primary social media success metric.

3. Increase interaction

Make fostering social media relationships a high priority — this will help you gain loyalty and trust. You can do this by commenting and/or sharing others’ posts and creating a community with your customers.

• 71% of consumers who have a positive interaction with a brand on social media are likely to recommend the brand to family and friends.

4. Adapt

Social media is ever-changing. The content and tactics that work now may not best serve your brand in the future. Analyze your audience regularly to learn how they are using social media so you can improve ROI over time.

• 60% of marketers view measuring ROI as one of their top three social media marketing challenges.

5. Use an effective tech stack

The right social media management solution can make it easy for you to connect with your customers, gain wisdom about your audience, and measure success metrics — saving you time and providing greater insights into ROI while also helping to maximize it.

• 36% of CMOs say they have a good qualitative sense of the impact of social media on their business but can’t quantify it.