If you work or volunteer at an animal shelter or even run your own rescue organization, you’re probably already using social media to promote adoptable dogs and cats. But are you using it well and to its full potential? Do you know what works and what doesn’t for the people you’re trying to reach?

Social media has proven to be a powerful tool in marketing shelter pets – check out this ASPCA press release to learn just how much of an impact social media can have in the shelter and rescue community.

I’m a firm believer that social media is one of our biggest assets in finding forever homes for pets in need. As with any other tool though, it’s important to know how to use it effectively and efficiently to get the most out of our marketing efforts and our time. 

The bad news is there’s no one-size-fits-all rulebook with step-by-step instructions on how to get dogs and cats adopted with the help of social media (that I know of, anyway). So, figuring out what works best takes a bit of trial and error.

The good news is we can use a social media channel’s built-in features to measure how well the content we create and share is performing. With that insight, we can then adjust our content creation and marketing efforts according to what our followers respond positively to. If we find that a particular kind of content performs extraordinarily well and seems valuable to a lot of people, we can create more of it to replicate or build on that success.

How It Works

1. Create content (such as photos, infographics, or videos)
2. Share the content on social media
3. Measure the performance of the content
4. Adjust the content according to analytics

There’s a lot to write about content creation, distribution, and adjustment, and I’ll save that for other posts. For now, let’s focus on measuring the performance of our social media content.

What to Measure

Reach Rate

Reach is pretty straightforward; it simply refers to the number of people who have seen a particular post. We all know about the importance of this metric: The more people a dog or cat can reach on social media, the higher its chance of finding its forever human.

To calculate the post-level reach rate:

Reach rate (%) = reach of a post / # of followers * 100.

To calculate the average reach rate for all posts within a specific time frame:

Average reach rate = reach rates from all posts within a specific time frame / # of posts within that time frame.

Engagement Rate

You’re probably already familiar with the term engagement – it refers to the interactions a post gets. When people engage with our content through, for example, comments and shares, they increase its visibility. This, in turn, can help a featured dog or cat be seen by just the right human. Engagement also tells us if our posted content resonates with our audience.

To calculate the post-level engagement rate:

Engagement rate (%) = # of interactions (likes and other reactions, comments, shares) on a post / # of followers * 100.

To calculate the average engagement rate for all posts within a specific time frame:

Average engagement rate = engagement rates from all posts within a specific time frame / # of posts within that time frame.

Applause Rate

This metric looks at how many likes (and other positive reactions) a post gets and puts this in relation to followers. Because the applause rate, as the name suggests, focuses on positive reactions, it’s extremely useful in determining what content our audience finds valuable and what they may want to see more of. For example, if we find that our followers love portraits of dogs but don’t care too much about social media bingo, then we’ll likely focus our efforts and time on creating (and posting) more of what works and shift away from what doesn’t yield desirable results.

To calculate the post-level applause rate:

Applause rate (%) = # of positive reactions (likes etc.) on a post / followers * 100.

To calculate the average applause rate for all posts within a specific time frame:

Average applause rate = applause rates from all posts within a specific time frame / # of posts within that time frame.

Conversation Rate

The conversation rate looks at a post’s total comments in relation to followers. What differentiates this metric from the engagement rate is that it looks at just comments, not total interactions. It shows us what kind of content motivates our audience to go beyond clicking on or tapping the like button. When followers are enticed to add their own thoughts and opinions to our posts, they likely find them valuable and they give us a chance to have a conversation with them.

To calculate the post-level conversation rate:

Conversation rate (%) = # of comments on a post / followers * 100.

To calculate the average conversation rate for all posts within a specific time frame:

Average conversation rate = conversation rates from all posts within a specific time frame / # of posts within that time frame.

Amplification Rate

This metric indicates how many times a post was shared in relation to followers. We all know how important shares are to help pets check out of the shelter and into their forever homes. More shares translate to a wider reach, which increases a pet’s chances of adoption. But this metric tells us more than that; it shows which content truly resonated with our audience, enough to motivate them to hit that share button. In a nutshell, it indicates what our audience loves, but it also gives us an idea of how much our followers trust us because, hey, they deemed our content credible enough to expose their own networks to it.

To calculate the post-level amplification rate:

Amplification rate (%) = # of shares of a post / followers * 100.

To calculate the average amplification rate for all posts within a specific time frame:

Average amplification rate = amplification rates from all posts within a specific time frame / # of posts within that time frame.

Keeping Track

Analytics tools, even for just one social media platform, can provide an overwhelming amount of data. It’s easy to get caught up in wanting to track everything and to get carried away with vanity metrics that are really not helping us determine where to best focus our resources, effort, and time. By picking just a few, powerful metrics to track, we can avoid losing sight of what really matters and can gain actionable insights to help us tailor our content to our audience’s preferences and, hopefully, score more shelter pets their forever homes.

If you don’t have the budget for a social media analytics tool, you can keep track of and organize your chosen metrics in a spreadsheet program, such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.

Do you have any other metrics that you would add to this list? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Sources

• https://www.aspca.org/about-us/press-releases/new-research-points-social-media-important-tool-animal-shelters-and-rescues
• https://blog.hootsuite.com/calculate-engagement-rate/
• https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-metrics/
• https://buffer.com/library/social-media-metrics/
• https://www.kaushik.net/avinash/best-social-media-metrics-conversation-amplification-applause-economic-value/
• https://www.searchenginejournal.com/social-media-vanity-metrics-stop-tracking/321245/

Analytics Marketing