The Most Important Social Media & Digital Marketing Metrics Can Only be Felt With the Heart

Being a data and ROI junkie I often find myself buried deep in analytics, spreadsheets and conversion funnels. I like to look for the “why” in both data and people.

It's easy to get side tracked by all the geekdom in social. From looks (impressions) to listens, comments, likes, follows, retweets, influence scores, views, demographics, insights, conversions and the list goes on.

Time is our most valuable asset in life and business. I like to achieve the highest ROI possible out of every minute I spend online. Hopefully you do too!?

Social Media is About Humans Connecting to and Growing With Other Humans

Underneath all of the bits, bytes, and likes we can't forget why we like social media in the first place. Social networks connect human beings. They provide a way for us to better communicate, share information, learn, grow, and help others do the same.

Some of the most important metrics for a successful business can not be found in the quantitative insights, likes and views. They can't be fully measured or tracked. These metrics can only be felt, seen and heard via the people that are behind the avatars, video views, podcast listens, Facebook comments or Instagram likes.

When is the last time you did a reality check on how the people in your community are doing? When is the last time you did a check in with your client teams to see how they are doing personally or professionally? Do they have the information they need? Are they growing in their career as a result of the services you provide? Do they feel empowered to do more, be more ? Are you helping them achieve their goals both personally and professionally?

I speak and train all over the globe. In the past month I have had at least 10 people come up to me after my presentation and tell me that I have changed their lives. I've had several in tears they are so overwhelmed with thankfulness for the content I have been pumping into the mainstream digital and social media community for over 10 years.

Many people in our industry have told me my content has not only helped them find inspiration, but has helped them start a business and literally put food on the table for their family. Seeing these same people now speak at events, writing books and paying it forward to others is truly heart warming and my WHY I do what I do every day of this journey.

For me, this qualitative feedback matters more than any vanity metrics can quantitatively tell me. The fact my content is impacting people's lives and business with hundreds of case studies is what matters most. It's impact…. true impact in the heart and lives of real human beings.

It's not a vanity metric managed with a bot on Instagram that will bring you success. Instead it's words, emotion, knowledge and experiences shared that connect us together.

I'm in this for the long game, not a quick fix. It truly is a marathon not a sprint.

Welcome to the Inspiration Age of Metrics

If you need a break from the standard analytics and measurements, check out the below 10 social inspiration people metrics. Read them and then do a sanity check with some of your clients and community members. If you are ignoring these metrics you might be missing out on unique opportunities to inspire and connect with your audience and take the relationship far beyond what your competitors are doing who only care about their own Facebook likes and retweets.

Welcome to the inspiration age. We are no longer simply in an information or technology age. This era is about people. Yes, we have tons of technology and it's changing faster than we can keep up with. However, the tech, social networks, likes and clicks are nothing without people behind them, reading them, learning, growing and sharing.

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10 Social Inspiration People Metrics You Can't Ignore:

1. Inspiration. Are you inspiring your community members, partners and clients to try, do, and be more? Do they feel inspired to write, share and give more than before to their own community?

2. Empowerment. Are they empowered because of the value you offer them? Does the knowledge help them feel confident and able to take on the task, project, mean boss, day or week? Do they feel better empowered to inspire change within their organization?

3. Grow. Are they growing and learning as a result of your business and personal relationship? Are you sharing insights that helps them learn, pivot when necessary and take  a leap of faith that takes their career to the next level?

4. Career. Are they growing in their career as a result of working with you and your organization? Have they learned new skills that have helped them achieve a promotion or increased visibility?  Could they maybe use a coaching session from you on where to go next with their career? Do you have insights that you can share that can help them navigate an internal organizational change?

5. Pay it forward.  Has their success also enabled, empowered and inspired them to help others? There is no better metric in my book than to see a client share what they have learned from me or my organization with a team member who is thirsty for the information or needs such to do or keep their job.  This is one of the best metrics in my book.

6. Lowest common denominator technically challenged. We like to make it a goal within client organizations and teams that we will help the least technical or social savvy person. I love identifying up front who within the core team or stakeholder group is the most against or most intimidated about adopting social media. Usually if you can get to the heart of WHY they are not wanting to adopt the new way of communicating you can get to the heart of many other aspects within the organization that will help the entire team and project. I love taking a non technical geek and turning him or her into a lover of Twitter and Pinterest by the time we are done. I have seen this happen in real life and I can tell you the smile on their face when they succeed is far better than any quantitative ROI metric.

7. Connect. Are you helping them connect with others? Are they able to use social media in a way that is helping them connect with one another, with partners, colleagues, industry leaders and stakeholders? Can you now better connect with them via a tweet or Facebook status update?

8. Credibility. Have they gained recognition or achieved increased credibility from the work they have implemented while partnered with you? Do others now better count on them or trust them? Are they now able to better advise their peers or join new projects with an increased sense of empowerment, and credibility?

9. Integrity. Are you hurting or helping the integrity of your community, client teams and partners? Are you delivering projects on time and in budget so that as a result they also have integrity in the promises they make to peers, clients and stakeholders? Are you staying true to your word so they can stay true to theirs?

10. Achievement. Bottom line are your community members, partners, colleagues and clients achieving success? Are they reaching and surpassing their goals in both business and life?

I believe we must first inspire our audiences to connect with us. As they connect with us they learn, grow, inspire others and achieve their goals. As a result and by default, we then achieve our goals.

We must first focus on the goals of others before we can achieve our own. If we forget their goals we're forgetting why we are in business in the first place.

 Inspire – Connect – Achieve

Did these social inspiration metrics hit home for you? Is it time you did an inspiration check in with your community, clients or partners? The more we can help others and keep the people in social media the more we will all achieve. What other metrics do you use to inspire and connect with your audience and clients?

Supporting Resources:

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