{"id":90492,"date":"2021-08-26T15:30:17","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T15:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/corp\/?p=90492"},"modified":"2025-11-18T11:51:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T11:51:39","slug":"social-media-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/marketing\/marketing-strategy\/social-media-reporting\/","title":{"rendered":"From Clicks to Clout: Mastering Social Media Reporting [+Template]"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are over 4.66 billion active internet users<\/a> worldwide every single day. That\u2019s 59.5% of the global population.<\/p>\n

Social media plays a huge role in online activity, with 500 million tweets<\/a> being sent every day. With all that data, it\u2019s no surprise that digital marketers<\/a> can struggle to sift through the noise when working on their social media reports.<\/p>\n

How can you be sure you\u2019re presenting useful information, rather than overwhelming your clients with an avalanche of figures and data that they can\u2019t possibly process?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where <\/b>analytics for agencies<\/b><\/a> come in. <\/b>Effective social media analytics tools provide you with everything you need to gather actionable information and present it in a clear and compelling way for your clients.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s explore how to create a social media marketing report<\/a> that helps your clients stay #trending.<\/p>\n

What is a social media report?<\/h2>\n

A social media report analyzes your marketing activities, brings together relevant findings, and presents them to your client in a concise and easy-to-digest format. It\u2019s an important part of any social media marketing strategy<\/a>, as it\u2019s used to tweak campaigns, make decisions about future spending, and track just how effective your work actually is.<\/p>\n

\"Definition<\/p>\n

Social media marketing continues to be big business. Facebook alone brought in $27.2 billion<\/a> in ad revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020, and over 86% of marketers<\/a> in the U.S. use social media as part of their advertising portfolios. That means the competition has never been fiercer, so effectively presenting your successes to clients is an essential part of building a long-lasting relationship. If anything, how you communicate the wins or losses is even more important than the results themselves.<\/p>\n

Social media reporting also helps you to identify gaps and weaknesses in your current social media strategy, letting you reallocate resources or make tweaks to your planning as the campaign develops. With proper website analytics data<\/a> backing up your efforts, your clients will see the benefits you\u2019re delivering for their business front and center.<\/p>\n

“86% of marketers in the U.S. consider social media a key component of their digital marketing strategy.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Creating a social media report<\/h2>\n

The secret to an effective social media report is planning. If you set clear goals and expectations with your client from the start, you\u2019re much more likely to have an easy path to reporting back on your work.<\/p>\n

After that, your focus should be on clarity: avoiding information overload and honing in on useful data and actionable insights<\/a> that can be taken forward into a coherent strategy. It\u2019s important to create a logical structure that tells a clear and meaningful story.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it\u2019s done:<\/p>\n

Step 1:\u00a0 Set clear goals<\/h3>\n

Before launching any successful social media marketing campaign, you\u2019re likely to assess your client\u2019s current activities and work together on creating a series of goals and objectives for the campaign. You\u2019ll then set key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure these objectives so that there\u2019s a tangible metric to evaluate your work against.<\/p>\n

Effective KPIs may focus on the total number of followers, impressions, mentions, a specific click-through rate<\/a> (CTR), average session duration<\/a>, or social media-based digital marketing metrics<\/a>. Before you get into those, it\u2019s worth restating your overall goals at the top of the report so that your client has your pre-agreed objectives firmly in mind.<\/p>\n

Step 2: Consider your reporting frequency<\/h3>\n

The frequency of your social media reporting affects what you should include, and depends largely on the purpose of your report. If you\u2019re helping your client plan their social media scheduling then a monthly report might be the best bet. It can help you identify the best times of day, week, and month to share content with their audience for the greatest engagement, and in turn, increase impact and maximize return on investment (ROI).<\/p>\n

Quarterly reports may help assess the effectiveness of your digital strategy<\/a> and are most likely to be requested by senior management interested in seeing performance numbers, planning future campaigns and spending, and measuring your success.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, weekly reports can help you stay on track of posts that go viral, and are particularly helpful for a more reactive social media marketing campaign with built-in community management.<\/p>\n

Step 3: Identify your audience<\/h3>\n

Next, work out who your report is for: will it be read by the client\u2019s marketing team<\/a>, data analysts, vice president, CMO, CEO, or board members? Considering what information each stakeholder is looking for is key, based on the decisions they\u2019ll be making. Keep it targeted to the right audience and demographics<\/a>, and remember the rule of thumb that the higher up the client\u2019s management structure your report goes, the more concise it needs to be.<\/p>\n

\"Demographics<\/p>\n

Step 4: Gather your data<\/h3>\n

At last, it\u2019s time to collect your social media metrics<\/a>. To avoid data overload it\u2019s important to focus on insights that will add value and meaning to your reporting. Using automated social media reporting tools will save you from manually collecting information from across different insights and analytics platforms.<\/p>\n

Here are 5 automated reporting tools to help you do that:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Hootsuite<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Buffer<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Socialbakers<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Sprout Social<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Keyhole<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"https:\/\/www.hootsuite.com\/\"<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Looking for more tools to complement your marketing efforts? Check out our list of must-use agency tools<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    As you explore the data, make sure to look through the available filters (such as country, demographics, platform, mobile vs. desktop<\/a> device, or time period). You might discover consumer trends that you may otherwise have missed, and find ways of targeting your campaign even more tactically. If, for example, you realize that 65% of your client\u2019s traffic is originating from Australia or Germany, you can tweak the timing of your campaigns to match that time zone and appeal directly to that audience.<\/p>\n

    \"Geographies<\/p>\n

    Ready-to-use social media report template<\/h2>\n

    Key steps to take:<\/p>\n