Before you attempt to build your Social Media Support Value Model, we need to talk about the two classifications of social metrics. This is a fundamental concept to understand, because it dictates when and how you need to pull your reporting. Your analytics can be broken down into two unique classifications based on how the results are captured. These two classifications are Post-Based Metrics and Action-Based Metrics. In general, your reporting tool drives whether your metrics are action or post based, and you need to ask your software provide with methodology they are using.
This classification refers to metrics and reporting systems that are based on the time and date that posts are made. The metrics are designed to report on the actions that you, as a company, have taken within a time period, for example the month of January.
One of the primary issues with post based metrics is that the reporting window never actually closes. If you run your report for the month on January on the 5th of February, you will get Engagement numbers for metrics Likes, Impressions, and Clicks. However, if you rerun your January report on the 10th, you will now receive all new numbers for your post based on additional activity that has occurred during those five days. Even though you are reporting on the same time period, your numbers will continue to change. This is especially important for metrics like link clicks. If your link shared via social is picked up by a popular blog or forum, your metrics may ramp up a month or more after the initial post-date.
The open ended aspect of Post Based Metrics necessitates building out a strategy to track and capture the ever-increasing nature of your metrics. This unfortunately means that you need to re-pull your reporting for historic months to understand how they have changed. While this is time consuming, it does ensure that you are not under-reporting your metrics and leaving value on the table. One way to accomplish this is by building out a reporting spreadsheet similar to the one below. By recording metric growth for past months, you can see both the total impact you have in any given reporting period [Column Sum], as well as the total impact based on when you published the post [Row Sum].
Synopsis: Metric reporting leveraging the date of the corporate action. These metrics never truly lock-in.
Platform Example: Sprinklr
Action Based Metrics | Tracking Link Clicks
Social Service Value 
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