But the problem isn’t bad managers. It’s irrelevant analytics.

Digital reporting prioritizes the things that are easy to report, not the things that are actually important to a brand. It’s no surprise that brand managers can’t make sense of reports full of click through rates, fan counts, and page views. None of these numbers align or even correlate with a brand’s objectives--driving sales, increasing affinity, and building brand value.

Brand mangers recognize this disconnect but assume that results-focused analytics are both expensive and complicated. Actually, measuring what matters doesn’t have to be either. The secret lies in identifying the handful of key metrics that truly propel your brand, and never losing sight of them throughout the measurement process. Often, these metrics can be analyzed through the platforms you already have.

You can make a start by doing these four things:

1. Determine what really engages your fans on Facebook. Ever wanted to know the right way to build a social messaging strategy? By categorizing and tagging posts, you can compare the response rates of different types of posts among your fan base. Once you know what works and what doesn’t you can give copywriters real direction: what, where, and when.


2. Learn the art of “when.” It’s not just what you say, but when you say it. Plot the timing of each post and its associated responses and wall exposures. You’ll soon learn the best times to activate your feed and stay top of mind in a contextually relevant way.


3. Track your visitors' actions. Clicks and click-through rates don’t tell you very much. It’s more important to understand what your visitors did once they arrived. Most analytics platforms (including the free Google Analytics) allow you to include referral tags in links. This lets you separate traffic on the backend and determine not the just the quantity, but also the quality of visitors attracted by media campaigns. How did they traffic around your site? What content did they engage with, and in what sequence? What content preceded people bouncing off immediately?


4. Track your brand perception online. The tools to measure brand perception online are available, affordable and easy to use. In fact, the same tools that work well in the offline space are equally applicable online. For example, you can survey users to quantify the impact of your Facebook page on “favorability,” “purchase intent” and “likelihood to recommend.” You can do the same for specific brand perceptions. Is your community moving the needle on your business? Has your audience internalized what your brand stands for?