This Is What You Need to Know About Your Social Media Stats

Urska Jaksa

Mar 11, 2021

You can now monitor your socials in one place to see what works and what needs improvement. We'll show you how to do it.

❓ WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS GUIDE:

• How to check on which online channels your audience is.
• Why your audience engagement is so important, and how to track it.
• What content resonates the best with your audience, and how you perform compared to other similar musicians.

➡️ We'll take you through with the example of British Indie Pop singer Arlo Parks. Follow the steps and apply them to your own case.

✅ Find your Artist Page.

Type your name in the search box in the navigation bar and find your name in the results, then click on the ANALYTICS tab. (If you can't find your Artist Page, add it, along with your links and we'll review your entry promptly.)

✅ Quickly assess your performance in Career Health.

This is the first section and we'll focus on the first indicator, Social Media Performance, which shows you your fanbase size and engagement on Instagram and Twitter in the past 3 months.

Your goal is to keep the indicator in the green area, which means you stand out from the artists who rank close to you. Otherwise, there's room for improvement.

To keep it balanced below, Arlo is only compared to Indie Pop artists who rank close to her.

👉 Looking at Arlo Parks, we can see her Social Media performance is very good compared to other Indie Pop Artists.

Let’s get into the specifics.

✅ Look into your fanbase.

Click on the FANBASE tab in the navigation bar above. This takes you to Total Fanbase Distribution, which shows you how your fanbase is distributed across social media and music channels.

Identify your strongest outlets. For promotional purposes, it's good to have at least one strong social media channel. 

This is because emerging artists usually grow one channel at a time. When you have a strong presence on one, it’s easier to invite your followers from one platform to another (for example, by promoting your Spotify tracks in Instagram Stories). Established artists, on the other hand, can already have a strong presence on multiple channels.

👉 More than half of Arlo Parks’ fanbase is on Spotify, followed by Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. This is great, as she can use the above-mentioned cross-promotion features of Instagram and Spotify.

✅ Check your fanbase’s engagement.

Skipping to the Fanbase vs. Engagement section, you get a comparison of your overall fanbase and its engagement on both social media and music channels.

You'll find out whether your fanbase growth is healthy, whether you’re attracting true fans, and whether you have good promotional potential.

• On the left, you want engagement and fanbase growing in parallel, creating a mirror image.
• On the right, you want to get (or keep) the blue engagement line above the red fanbase line.

Let's explain what this means in the case below.

In Arlo Parks' case, it’s clear that both her fanbase and engagement have been rising in the past year.

👉 On the left, we see that when she gained new fans, her engagement also increased, meaning she's been attracting genuine fans who are interacting with the content she's been putting out. This is healthy fanbase growth.

👉 On the right, the blue engagement line has consistently remained above the overall fanbase size (the red line). This tells us that her fanbase is highly engaged, which is crucial for promotional potential, as promoters and labels usually look for artists with highly engaged audiences.

If you want to see how this breaks down on Instagram and Twitter specifically, look at the Fanbase Growth and Engagement sections (before and after the current section).

An engaged audience will help you grow. The next time you release new music, launch merch, etc., your existing fans will engage with you, helping your content gain extra exposure and higher chance of expanding your reach.

✅ Learn what content works best for you.

Click on the CONTENT tab in the navigation bar above. Here, you'll analyze your Instagram content in the last three months (you can do the same with Twitter, one section further).

Three things to keep in mind:

• Improving your engagement with time.
• Getting your engagement rate to (or above) the industry average.
• Identifying posts that work best and using this knowledge in the future. 

👉 On the left, we see Arlo Parks’ performance has been improving in the past 3 months, as her average post likes and likes on the top post have gone up. This can be attributed to increased activity and fans catching wind of her debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams. If you’ve set a specific one-year/6-month goal for yourself, here is where you can check whether you’re on the right track or have to adjust your strategy.

👉 On the right, we see that Arlo has an engagement rate that’s higher than the industry average (only compared to artists with a similar fanbase size). This confirms that her audience is actively involved. If your engagement is lower than the industry average, it means that you have more room for improvement and can now set a specific goal.

Below that, there’s an overview of her most used hashtags and mentions. As her social media performance is good, it means these tags are working for her. If you’re looking for inspiration, search for similar artists who are doing well on Instagram and check which hashtags they’re using.

Now, let’s take a look at the top posts to see exactly which content worked best for her in the past 3 months.

👉 We can analyze the visual style, as well as captions and overall storytelling. Do the same with your content and replicate what works.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Screen your performance in the Career Health section and assess how you’ve been doing on social media compared to your peers. Is there room for improvement or are you already in the green?
• Check your Total Fanbase Distribution. Do you have a strong promotional outlet or do you need to work on building one?
• Take a look at Fanbase vs. Engagement and see whether or not your audience can help you grow.
• Finally, look at Instagram Content Performance to check what content is performing the best and replicate it.

➡️ It's your time to give it a go.

Search for your Artist Page, learn about your socials, and up your game.