Setting Up and Measuring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

key performance indicators cycle

Key performance indicators (KPIs) make it possible for businesses to have an accurate measurement of what is working and what isn't. But how do you measure KPIs? Here are several useful tools for gauging the effectiveness of your various strategies.

  • Social Media Metrics plugin for Greasemonkey: shows you a comprehensive list of all your social shares in Google Analytics
  • RetweetRank: shows how often you get retweeted
  • YouTube Insight: in-site analytics that tracks your videos’ popularity, views, and more
  • ShareThis: provides visitors with an easy way to share your content; also integrates with Google Analytics to show you which social channels are the most successful/popular with sharers on your site
  • Reachli (formerly Pinerly) and Pinpuff: shows analytics reports for your Pinterest account. Pinerly also lets you create “campaigns” with selected pins and then compare different campaigns over time.
     

If you don't have solid KPIs set up, you may want to check Search Engine land for a great list of possible KPIs. And remember, when designing your KPIs, everything you do should fit under the umbrella of your business mission. Some examples of potential goals might be:

  •  Increase brand awareness
  •  Increase brand trust
  •  Increase brand loyalty
  •  Shorten the sales funnel
  •  Generate more leads/create a new lead generation channel
  •  Facilitate (or ease) customer support: either by reducing support-related emails or calls or to provide another outlet for support
  •  Increase customer satisfaction and/or interaction
  •  Understand user behavior
  •  Sell services/products
     

What do you think? What KPIs do you look for? What have we left off the list? Share your thoughts in the comments!