Twenty Social Media Metrics, Sorted Into Goals You Can Actually Act On

Which Social Metrics Deserve Your Attention?

Buffer's guide walks through twenty social media metrics, explaining what each one tells you, how to calculate it and when it earns a place on your dashboard. Its central argument is that a metric only becomes useful once it is tied to a goal and a baseline, and that vanity numbers such as raw follower counts need pairing with a rate or an outcome before they guide decisions. The engagement sections include platform medians drawn from a very large post sample, along with a reminder that each network defines engagement differently.

For brand builders, this is a practical reference for cutting a crowded dashboard down to three to five KPIs. The advice on campaign and platform-level engagement is useful for planning mid-campaign changes, and the note on replying to comments is a simple lever many teams overlook. Social managers, content leads and creators preparing media kits should read it before setting targets for the quarter.