Apart from the social media metrics you should be tracking, your report needs the following to be helpful for your leadership team to track growth.

While we have already discussed the important metrics that should be a part of your strategy (read our blog!), let’s talk about the elements that should be included but are often overlooked.

1. Objective

   The objective of your social media campaigns should be predetermined. Why? Because it prevents you and your team from shooting in the dark.

   By setting clear goals upfront, you create a focused framework for your team’s activities. This direction is vital for ensuring that every action taken, every content piece created, and every dollar spent contributes towards a unified purpose. It’s about having a clear vision of what you want to achieve, whether it’s increasing brand awareness, driving sales, engaging with your audience, or launching a new product.

   Moreover, these objectives are essential when communicating with your leadership team. They provide a rationale for the resources you’re employing – be it time, money, or human capital. When you can link your activities directly to predetermined goals, it becomes much easier to justify your strategies and expenditures. It shows that your actions are not vague but are part of a calculated effort to achieve specific, measurable results.

2. Investment in social media activities

   Your investment in social media activities primarily outlines your monetary and resource stakes included in your social media strategy for the month, quarter or even the year. For instance, it can be human resources like a social media manager, copywriter and designer, and on the other hand, it may also include different tools you are deploying for the overall strategy.

   Human Resource Investments: This includes the staffing required for your social media strategy, such as a social media manager, copywriter, designer, content strategist, and other roles. Each of these roles plays a distinct part in crafting and executing your social media presence. For example, a social media manager might oversee the strategy and coordinate efforts across platforms, while a copywriter and designer work on the content creation aspect. Highlighting these roles in your report underscores the human capital invested in making your social media efforts successful.

   Tool and Technology Expenditure: In addition to human resources, the investment in various tools and technologies is a significant part of your social media strategy. This may include content management systems, analytics tools, scheduling software, and other digital tools that facilitate the execution of your strategy. These tools are essential for tasks like tracking engagement, scheduling posts, analysing audience demographics, and measuring the overall effectiveness of your social media efforts.

   Financial Outlays: Apart from personnel and tools, other financial outlays such as advertising costs, subscription fees for premium tools, and expenses for any external agency support should be accounted for. These costs are direct investments into expanding reach, gaining insights, and enhancing the quality of social media activities.

   Setting the Right Expectations: By including a detailed breakdown of these investments in your social media report, you set clear expectations about what is being put into the social media efforts. It helps stakeholders understand the scope and scale of the operation and why certain results are expected.

   Justifying the Expense: This section also plays a vital role in justifying the expenses incurred. By correlating investments with outcomes (such as increased engagement, lead generation, or brand awareness), you can demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) of your social media activities. This is essential for evaluating the effectiveness of your strategy and for securing or adjusting future budgets.

   Adding these to your social media reports helps you set the right expectations as well as justify the expense that may incur.

3. Expectations

   Very similar to objectives, but here we dive a little deeper. Your expectations highlight the projected future of particular investments and activities in a particular timeline. For instance, your expectations can include:

• Increase followers by 3x the current number. 
• Increase the diversion rate to the shop link by 50% in 6 months. 
• Enhance the brand engagement rate by 25% by the end of quarter.
  

  Your expectations help you determine your success parameters and determine the quality of the performance in a set timeline. 

4. Delivered Results

   As the name suggests, delivered results display the success or failure of your social media efforts. However, your delivered results are highly dependent on dynamic elements like attrition within your team, and failure of the tool, to name a few.

   Key points to consider when elaborating on Delivered Results in your social media report include:

   Impact of Team Dynamics: The performance and consistency of your social media team play a crucial role in the results delivered. Attrition, or turnover within the team, can significantly impact your social media activities. For instance, losing a key team member might slow down campaign execution or content production, affecting your overall social media performance.

   Quantifiable Metrics: Delivered results should include quantifiable metrics like growth in followers, engagement rates, conversion rates, and ROI from social media campaigns. These metrics give a clear picture of the success or failure of your strategies.

   

   Comparison with Goals and Benchmarks: The report should compare the delivered results with the initial goals and industry benchmarks. This comparison helps in understanding where your efforts stand in relation to your expectations and the industry standard.

   Analysis of Successes and Failures: It’s not just about stating the results; a good report should also analyse why certain strategies were successful and others were not. This analysis could include factors like content relevance, campaign timing, audience targeting accuracy, which channels are working (or not), and even external factors like market trends or competitor activities.

   

   Adaptability and Future Recommendations: Finally, the report should reflect on how these results shape future strategies. It should suggest adjustments or new approaches based on what has been learned from the successes and failures. This section is critical for continuous improvement and adaptability in your social media approach.

   Incorporating these elements into the Delivered Results section of your social media report provides a comprehensive view of your efforts’ effectiveness and lays a foundation for future strategies and improvements.

5. Time-Specific Goals

   Setting goals is an essential aspect of effective planning and strategy. But it’s not just about what you want to achieve; it’s equally important to understand the time and resources necessary to reach these objectives. This understanding significantly influences the value and impact of your decisions.

   For example, let’s consider some time-specific goals you might set:

   Increase Organic Traffic: You aim to boost your website’s organic traffic by 50% within the first six months. This goal is not just ambitious but also time-bound, which helps in creating a focused strategy for SM and content marketing. You would need to allocate resources accordingly, plan out your SM strategies, and perhaps even engage in content marketing campaigns within this timeframe to meet the target.

   Establish a Social Media Team: Another goal could be to form a dedicated social media team within a month. This is a shorter-term goal, requiring immediate actions like hiring skilled professionals, setting up communication channels, and aligning them with your company’s social media strategy. It’s a critical step to ensure that your social media presence is managed efficiently and effectively.

   Set Up a Social Media Content Engine: You might also aim to establish a fully operational social media content engine within two months. This goal involves not just forming a team but ensuring they are equipped to produce and distribute content regularly. It means putting in place processes for content creation, approval, scheduling, and analysis. This goal ensures that your social media strategy is not just initiated but is also sustainable and scalable.

   By setting such time-specific goals, you create a clear roadmap for your team. It helps in allocating resources effectively, prioritising tasks, and measuring progress over time.

   This approach fosters a sense of urgency and focus, making it more likely that your team will achieve the goals within the set timeframe. It also allows for timely adjustments if things are not going as planned, ensuring that your strategies remain flexible and responsive to changing circumstances.