Coffee Social | Social Media Marketing, Content Creation, & Entrepreneurship

Social Media Numbers Don't Lie, But They Do Need Interpreting | S2 E27

Jonathan Howard and Mimi Langley Season 2 Episode 27

Answer this week's question...

Are you TEAM looking at data or TEAM ignore & create?

You don’t need to obsess over likes and views to know if your content is working. 📊

Let’s be real—too many creators measure success with the wrong numbers. The truth? Your posts could be hitting your goals harder than you realize—you just have to track the right metrics for the stage you’re in.

In this episode of Coffee Social, we break down the social media metrics map to focus on for every goal in your marketing funnel:

📈 Awareness – impressions, likes, video views, and audience size
 💬 Demand – comments, shares, and engagement rate
 🛒 Conversions – link clicks and page conversions
 📚 Adoption – brand mentions, reply rate, and response time
 🙌 Advocacy – UGC, post engagement, and % of impressions

If you’ve been stuck in “vanity metric” mode or second-guessing your results, this is your roadmap to finally measure what matters—and grow with purpose.

Grab a cup and enjoy! ☕

DID YOU LOVE THIS EPISODE A LATTE? 😂
Give the podcast 5 STARS & write an awesome review! It helps your hosts so much! 

PS: Mimi loves stars

FOLLOW YOUR COFFEE SOCIAL HOSTS
Instagram: @coffeesocialpodcast
Jonathan: @jonathanrhoward
Mimi: @mimilangley_

WATCH THE PODCAST
YouTube: @coffeesocialpodcast

ADDITIONAL BUSINESS RESOURCES (our sponsors for today)
Signature Membership (Instagram, Storytelling, Signature Style)
bit.ly/signaturemember

The Story Lab Podcast (Hosted by our very own Jonathan Howard)
https://thestorylabpodcast.buzzsprout.com/ 

Get SIGNATURE STYLE Tips Delivered Right to Your Inbox
Join Jonathan’s VIP Status Newsletter
https://sunny-builder-4038.kit.com/efd6f6bbe4 



*  Podcast Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. We may earn a commission from the links listed in this description.


Support the show

Speaker 1:

It's Corpy Social, the podcast all about social media and business. And now here are your hosts, jonathan Howard and Mimi Langley.

Speaker 2:

Hi everyone, hi Jonathan Howard.

Speaker 1:

Hello Mimi Langley.

Speaker 2:

Did I sound irritated? I'm not irritated. I'm actually having a really good day.

Speaker 1:

Are you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, okay, you know this for 2025, I'm just taking it as it comes to me TBD, tbd. I think I'm actually developing like a phenomenon with TBD, like I'm going to make that my thing this year.

Speaker 2:

Okay, right, because I feel like when we were in, by the way, jonathan has an amazing monthly membership, signature membership. I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about it, jonathan, but I'm part of it. I love being part of it, and they were going crazy when I mentioned TBD. I feel like all the women in there were like they understood what I meant when I said to be determined what I meant when I said to be determined.

Speaker 1:

They did and they did it. And there's a lot of them that are going through let's call it let's go with a word that Yofit uses and rebirth. They're going through a time of rebirth and refiguring out who they are and what they want to do, and I think there's a lot of that. But it was good to see people.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, okay, I like that too. Rebirth oh my gosh. Thank you, YoFit. We have a deep episode. It's not emotionally a deep episode, but it's like numbers and data and all that stuff. It's boring is what you're someone who has not really looked at their stuff on social media, your Instagram, wherever platform you're on. This episode will definitely inspire you to do so. Jonathan, do you want to real quickly introduce yourself, just in case it's someone's first time here?

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. My name is Jonathan Howard. I'm the owner of Success on Social and I help successful coaches reach their ideal clients by developing their signature style on social media so they stand out from the rest of everybody else that's out there and I'll pass it to you.

Speaker 2:

Well, hi everyone, I'm Mimi Langley and TBD.

Speaker 1:

And there you go, and we're going to leave it at that today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, I mean, you know, we'll see. You know, if I have anything, I will put it below in the show notes for you guys. I'm always coming up with something. So, jonathan, yeah, we have to. Cheers, I see you're ready. I need a sip of coffee. I know, wait, it's 12 o'clock, you're just drinking now.

Speaker 1:

It's the morning. It's very early in the morning, it is actually 12 o'clock and I'm just drinking now. This is my second cup, though.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, I remember that while we're filming this, I'm still pregnant, so, um, I can only have one cup. Yeah, so you're not drinking coffee right now. No, I had a little bit of my first cup, so Okay, but this is kind of for show in my podcast era mug. All right, so, jonathan, let's dive into this because it's Okay, we don't want it to be five hours.

Speaker 1:

We don't want it to be five hours. We're going to go pretty quick through it.

Speaker 2:

Well, first of all, when you're thinking about data, I know there's five stages of analytics, which I just learned. Well, there's five stages of your customer journey.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and you want to measure different things during those stages of the customer journey.

Speaker 2:

Okay, before we dive into that, do you think that all of this applies no matter what platform you're on?

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Because okay. So here's my question. Let's say, okay, I'm on Instagram because for this one specific reason, so wouldn't I just focus mostly on that one?

Speaker 1:

Yes, you would.

Speaker 1:

Okay, okay, but you want to make sure that your customer journey the people that are on Instagram are on that are following you for that specific reason. Because if they're following you because they're want to, you know, learn about what you're doing, then that's one thing. But if you're on Instagram for conversions, that's a different thing. But you got to kind of create content that increases awareness and really, you know, lets them know what you do, because that's the awareness, the consideration phase, before they get the conversion phase. So it depends on your level where you are on each platform.

Speaker 2:

Okay, no, that's good and I know it honestly, you guys, sometimes analytics and data can like go right over my head, like I'm like okay, whatever, but we're really going to do our best to like break each stage down so that you're at least aware that there's more than just views, right? I think that's what we really want to take away from this is like please don't quit or get super upset because you have 20 views on a reel.

Speaker 1:

Right, there's more. There's a lot more to it.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so yeah, are you ready?

Speaker 1:

I'm ready.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so the first one I wrote down was if your goal is awareness.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, if your goal is awareness, that means you want to get out in front of more people. You want people to know about what you do and how you're showing up. So if that's your goal, you're going to want to watch things like your impressions, your likes, your video views and your audience size, because those are the analytics that are showing that you're getting in front of more people. And if that's what you want because you're in the awareness phase, then that's what you're going to want to be watching. So the likes, the views, the audience size, those are the key things. And impressions, because that's how many people you're getting in front of. You want to increase the number of people you're getting in front of in the awareness phase.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and another word for awareness could be visibility. I mean, I know that's thrown around a lot, so discoverability is what you're doing, working. You might have to change it up a little bit.

Speaker 1:

Right, right. And the reason I refer to it as awareness here is because I measure my analytics based on the customer journey. So the customer journey that I some people say it has four, I believe it's five has five different steps in it and that we can go way into depth on. I've got a three-part masterclass on that, but that's just different.

Speaker 2:

Well, I think it's important to mention a lot of us who are entrepreneurs. We're not just trying to be an influencer and make money through brand deals. A lot of you will be selling your own things, and so that's why it's important to understand what a customer journey is, because that's what you're doing. You're bringing them from step one to step five. You know to purchase. Okay, I like that, and pretty much any social media platform shows you like your impressions, your cause. I'm thinking LinkedIn for sure does.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, yeah, and you know, if you're looking for an all-in-one sort of a place, I use Sprout Social when I'm looking to really dive into my analytics.

Speaker 2:

Sprout Social is by far the best. It's also great for a social listening tool. So Sprout Social it just so. Let's say, I plug in all of my social media platforms and then it will just give me like a whole overview on one page.

Speaker 1:

It gives you all the analytics and all of that and it also is is what it really is is a posting platform, but it focuses very heavily on the analytics and social listening. Hootsuite will do the same thing. I just prefer Sprout Social.

Speaker 2:

That might be good, especially if you're focusing on more than one. Yeah, you know what I mean, because it can take up a lot of time to look at everything. It does A lot of time and store it? Do you store your data? Do you have a spreadsheet where you put the analytics or do you just go off a sprout social and they like?

Speaker 1:

um, I have a spreadsheet where I put the analytics and I have a spreadsheets for my clients where I put the analytics. But there there was a time that I would sign up for like every six months I'd sign up for a trial under one of my clients names and pull all of their information in this free trial. I now pay for it, but for a while I was doing it with the free trial. We all do that.

Speaker 2:

We love free trials. It's almost like sign up for Paramount if you want to watch this movie and then you just cancel after seven days. I think that was a joke too, that they did this year at the Golden Globe, but anyways, okay. Next one Second stage would be your goal is to generate demand.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, if you're looking to your product so you might be one of three products or two products, or you know your competitor that they're considering and I say product, it could be service, it could be anything Then you're going to want to look at comments, shares and engagement rate. Why? Because they're starting to interact with. Look at comments, shares and engagement rate. Why? Because they're starting to interact with your product. They're thinking about it, they're asking questions about it, they're wondering how you do certain things. So it's really that chunk of stuff that comments, those shares, that engagement rate. That's what you're looking for when you're measuring consideration. So again, it goes from awareness they know about you now. Now they're measuring consideration. So again, it goes from awareness they know about you now, now they're considering you. So they're thinking maybe, maybe I might like them. They're asking some questions there. So that's, those are the metrics, those comments, that shares, that engagement rate.

Speaker 2:

I have like a metric I'm trying to meet, or just as long as it's growing consistently or whatever, like that's good enough.

Speaker 1:

Over time, you're going to have standards that you have for your business. That you know. If you're measuring this information, this is a good, this particular post that got this many views, whatever you're measuring, so you know you, if your best awareness post over time that got you, you know, a ton of new people in your in your funnel, may have gotten you 200 people in your funnel, that's going to be your benchmark because that's what you're looking for. So you're always going to be shooting for that 200 until you hit that 300 benchmark and then you're shooting for that 300. Okay, it's.

Speaker 1:

And the numbers, because every business is so different and you may you know, Mimi, it may be great for you to get 20 new clients off of a post, but that may be all you want. You're not looking to scale Maybe. Maybe you're looking to just stick with those 20 clients in your program and you need one of those posts, that's it, Right. Other people may want to get 2000 people in their program, so they need to have a different you know, a different benchmark that they're looking for to meet their goals.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, because then we get into the whole conversion rate and how you want to have this amount to even hit that conversion. Okay, you guys. Um, that might be another episode. That's like a lot of breaking down. And, jonathan, do you offer something like this?

Speaker 1:

I'm just curious if you consult on stuff like that Within my membership I do. If there's something that you're looking for individually, I do have one-on-one coaching and we can generally go over whatever it is you want to do in one-on-one coaching.

Speaker 2:

Like you dive into numbers and stuff we dive into numbers.

Speaker 1:

We look at what's working for you, what's not working for you. Part of getting a social media audit for me is looking, at least from what I can see, on the outward visibility of your content and your analytics. So next is conversion.

Speaker 2:

Wait, wait. Before we go to that, I want to do a commercial break.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, that's right, I have to hit a button.

Speaker 2:

So you guys, we will. I'll put all the links below again for anything that Jonathan's offering that's relevant to what you're listening to, because you want to utilize him. I don't know what he's doing right now. If you're watching the YouTube video, he's like fixing a frame in the background. I'm putting a button there. Oh yes, we have a commercial break.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Okay Well, we'll be right back, you guys, we'll throw some commercials up there it? Okay well, we'll be right back, you guys, we'll throw some commercials up there.

Speaker 1:

It's what keeps the lights on at Coffee Social. Go ahead, jonathan. Are you tired of not having the time, not having the clarity, not having a clue what to post or what trends are even important on social media? There is a solution out there, and that solution is the Signature Membership. The Signature Membership will help you by providing you a strategy showing you how to remain consistent, always having ideas on what to post and having clarity in your content. Overall, it's even going to help your visibility and your ability to make money on social media.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, I was getting ready to welcome you guys back and then I just had a quaff attack. Welcome back everyone. I hope you enjoyed. We hope you enjoyed those commercials.

Speaker 1:

Let's just continue on Such good sponsors, such good sponsors.

Speaker 2:

I mean, this is a fun episode. Analytics data, I hope you're having fun.

Speaker 1:

I hope you're happy. I hope you're happy now.

Speaker 2:

I was also thinking before we continue on, because I know we have three more stages we want to hit, but do you feel like ChatGPT could possibly help with this?

Speaker 1:

We have a.

Speaker 2:

ChatGPT episode.

Speaker 1:

by the way, ChatGPT could help you understand this. Also, if you take your analytics and you feed them into ChatGPT with some other information, you know you've got to really break it down for well, it might be able to put it in a chart for you. But yeah, you can try and say hey, I'm looking at, these are my analytics. What does it tell you?

Speaker 2:

And if you're looking for.

Speaker 1:

This is your goal. This is what you're hoping to accomplish. You know there's a lot of great prompts out there that will help you with some of these things. I'm going to start including some of those prompts in my membership as well for people, just to help them understand what you need to be asking chat, gpt to get a good output. I think that's that's all about. Yeah, it's all about what you're asking it, cause you could say what do these numbers look like to you? And it could tell you well, it looks like you suck and you need to die.

Speaker 1:

I would never talk to me like that, but you know, it might be because you asked it the wrong thing, right.

Speaker 2:

Okay. Okay, that's good. Okay, let's go to the third stage. So the third stage is driving conversions. What are we looking at when we want to drive conversions? Make sales, basically, yeah.

Speaker 1:

You're pretty much looking to make sales. You're looking to get them to decide. You're looking to get them to make a decision, whether it's you or your competitor, or you know your product or your service, whatever it is. You want them to decide on you and when they decide, they're going to be clicking links, or at least starting to make that decision process. They're going to click the link and they're going to see okay, does this look like? It fits me? So that click on the link may not lead to a conversion immediately. Right, right, it may be a research, and that's why the next step is kind of adoption, because if they don't convert right away, you can get them to understand what it is that you're doing and give them more information and really kind of do some customer education. You can also do some social listening which will allow you to find out why they're not converting.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, you know what I was thinking about. I kind of smushed those two together.

Speaker 1:

Sorry about that, but yeah.

Speaker 2:

No, no, no. No I mean because you're right, though Like, obviously the goal is to make the sale, but at least getting them to click takes them away from, you know, the social media platform to your offer, which is what you ultimately want. You want them to get on that landing page, well, and obviously buy. But I was also thinking we have a whole episode on many chat. If it's not out yet, it'll be up soon for coffee social. And I was thinking like that right there, like, oh my gosh, we love many chat but like utilizing that too.

Speaker 2:

You know how many people are commenting the word. You know.

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Like.

Speaker 1:

I don't know how many people are commenting the word yes, or an emoji with a, you know, a pitchfork emoji, whatever it is that you want to do, and then how many people comment that, and then how many people click on the link once they get that link. That's a conversion.

Speaker 2:

Okay, what about DMS? Can you, is there a DM analytic, or is it just kind of observing? I mean, you're going to want to.

Speaker 1:

That's really a manual analytic. There is there will be some measurement on ManyChat and on and Sprout Social also has it of how many DMs you've gotten, how quickly you respond to them. But that's also skewed, because how many of you have friends and family that also DM you on your business account, right, okay? And I, like I don't respond to Mimi on Instagram right away.

Speaker 2:

Unless it's something immediately, no one DM me on Instagram. It will get answered like four months later. Like I'm horrible.

Speaker 1:

She is bad.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so we talked about conversions. You want to look at your clicks? And then we went into adoption which I have here.

Speaker 1:

Customer education, yeah, yeah, and that's because it really is adoptionist. Customer education it's it's getting them to believe in what you have. They're adopting your product as their own. They're getting to know the product, the service, stuff like that and you want to see an increase in engagement with the product, your services. You want to see brand mentions, and that's something that's measured through social listening. And then you also want to talk look at your reply rate, your services. You want to see brand mentions, and that's something that's measured through social listening. And then you also want to talk look at your reply rate and your time, because you want to make sure that you're replying to them in a timely manner, because they are looking to become the next thing they are looking to purchase your product, be a part of your community, all of those things. That's kind of all part of the adoption stage, and it's after they've clicked the button after they've clicked like the button to go to your product yeah, yeah, and they may have bought it, they may not.

Speaker 1:

These two can get a little bit because the conversion is technically getting them off social media and onto your plat, onto your own platform okay, but but it doesn't necessarily mean them purchasing, doesn't necessarily mean them purchasing.

Speaker 1:

Okay, okay, that's good to know, that's why the customer education and an increase of engagement and that sort of stuff is there, and then they'll convert to purchasing. Hopefully that's your goal. So an adoption can lead to a conversion and conversion can lead to an adoption. They kind of get mixed up a little bit, especially in the crazy world of social media right now.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so stage three and four can be, you know, back and forth.

Speaker 1:

Exactly.

Speaker 2:

I am pounding. I'm pounding this coffee by the way I know, are you nervous or are you just enjoying it?

Speaker 1:

No, I'm enjoying it.

Speaker 2:

Analytics is hard to talk about those sometimes because it can get confusing, Because I'm also like I'm one of those people that I have to like paint the picture in my head and I'm like he wants me to go here, so we get it. You guys, Do you have something that's shareable? Because I know that you showed me that.

Speaker 1:

I do have a chart that I share within my membership, are you? Are you wanting me to share it outside? No, I mean, if you. I mean I don't normally talk about this outside the membership uh, yes, I'm gatekeeping.

Speaker 2:

That's just well, that's listen, you know, that's totally fine. If you guys want a visual jonathan has created one and then just join the membership, try it out. At least you can always cancel the membership if you don't want it anymore always cancel it.

Speaker 1:

You can always cancel it. You'll love. Love me, but you can always cancel it. You'll love.

Speaker 2:

Jonathan and you'll get to see me. It's great, it's a win-win Okay let's go to.

Speaker 1:

I mean no, I keep you on track.

Speaker 2:

He's like the Jillian Michaels of social media.

Speaker 1:

She always says that I don't know if I appreciate it or not.

Speaker 2:

Or the Simon Cowell.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

The next one.

Speaker 2:

Okay, the last one, right Number five. The last stage is advocacy, and you said that that is people actually talking about your brand. Yeah, and that's your goal.

Speaker 1:

They're advocating for you, they are doing your job for you, and when you can get people to that advocacy phase, those loyal, those deep loyal fans that do the work for you, that is a glorious spot to be in. The people that will sell your product because it's so good and they got all of the results from it that they want all their friends to know about it. That's the advocacy phase, and that takes work, but it also takes quality customer service. It's one of the most important things when it comes to getting people into that advocacy phase, cause right now, brand loyalty is at probably an all time low. People, if they find something that's better, they're going to go to the thing that's better. The only way to prevent that is by being true, open, honest, human and delivering great service, making sure your customer always is happy, going above and beyond.

Speaker 2:

You know what's so wild? Because there's a lot of people selling the same stuff. Right, we know this. But I sometimes will just buy based on the person that I trust the most and I know delivers. You know what?

Speaker 2:

I mean Like they just, I don't know, I completely agree with you and also putting out a quality product. I mean, clearly, if they're rooting for you, they got something from what they just purchased and they want to share it, right and so okay. So let's say, for example, just like, if you put out a post and maybe you're talking about you know your new bootcamp dropping, launching soon, then you have people just already in the comments talking it up. Is that like would be part of advocacy?

Speaker 1:

Those are your brand advocates and those are the things you're looking for that post engagement on specific posts, the amount of user generated content, which is what UGC is, and that's people creating content about your product, people posting about a service they received from you, or people even you know putting the product out in. You know, oh my God, I got this coffee from Mimi and it's amazing. You should absolutely try it. It is the best coffee I've ever had. Mimi is the best.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, I love it. That's like my life call right there. Can you imagine if I make coffee?

Speaker 1:

Mimi coffee yeah.

Speaker 2:

It all turned into just me making coffee. Like you know, that was the journey. I need to get you a TBD t-shirt. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1:

Like I'm already like.

Speaker 2:

See, this is what happens Once. Like an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur. You guys like the creative juices are already flowing. Tbd, I can go somewhere with this.

Speaker 1:

Okay, back to analytics. It's going to be TBD coffee. Before you know it, the coffee for a coffee social will be TBD coffee.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, you guys. I'm living for this right now. Who would have known that this whole episode was just for me really to come up with the next million dollar plan. Okay, so Screw you, Dunkin' Donuts, we don't need you. No, we love Dunkin'. We have TBD coffee. We don't have it yet.

Speaker 1:

Okay, tbd, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2:

We're just laughing, you guys. It's almost like because that just comes up literally every time me and Jonathan talk. I'm like TBD. He's probably annoyed by this, so you can resell to your advocates.

Speaker 1:

They will go back to that consideration phase and purchase from you. But if they're in that advocacy phase they're going to like you.

Speaker 2:

They're going to want to buy.

Speaker 1:

They're a fan. They're doing their shit. You're good.

Speaker 2:

No, no, but no really, though. That is, at the end of the day, the ultimate goal. I know everyone's always trying to get new people, new people, new people, but if you look at it, it's usually the people that have already purchased that will purchase again. They will be your buyers.

Speaker 1:

So, jonathan, and the people that refer more people take care of the people that you have.

Speaker 2:

Take care of the people that you have. That should be a big quote on a post-it note, you guys. I'm going to put it below in the show notes so you can copy and paste Well, you took, you took an episode about data. And and below in the show notes so you can copy and paste Well, you took an episode about data and you really gave us a lot, jonathan, to look at. So, thank you, buddy, no problem. Okay, do you want to go ahead? We'll wrap it up for you guys. You want to go ahead, jonathan, and do your spiel.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely so. If you guys haven't already and you enjoy our banter back and forth and our fun times while still providing you really useful information, then go over to your favorite podcast platform and give us a review. Let us know what you think. You can make comments on Spotify now. I responded to a whole bunch of people's comments on Spotify the other day. You can rate us on Spotify. You can rate us on Apple, so we'd love to hear what you have to say about all the different episodes and everything. Go over to your favorite podcast platform, give us a rating, give us a review, make a comment on Spotify, whatever you want to do, and Mimi, over to you oh, I uploaded a video, by the way to Spotify.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, I got to look at that. Yes, and we're also on Instagram. If you want to interact with us, you can always DM us there and then we're on YouTube. If you'd rather watch the podcast episode and you're not already doing that, we're on YouTube. You can go ahead and subscribe. I do have a question the most important question of them all for this episode you ready Team Jonathan. Oh my gosh, are you team looking at data or team ignore and create? Listen, it's not okay to ignore.

Speaker 1:

I'm team looking at data.

Speaker 2:

Well, actually you have converted me, I'm telling you, the more I talk with Jonathan about this stuff like it's so true, it's not someone once said it's not magical, it's mathematical, it's so true. That is always stuck with me, jonathan.

Speaker 1:

So yep, wasn't me that said that.

Speaker 2:

No, but it's not magical. It's not magical, it's mathematical and that is the truth, though, at the end of the day, you guys, numbers are the lungs for a successful business. Yes, they are Okay, that is it All right, our friends, we done, we're wrapping it Thank you so much. Thank you so much for watching and listening. We'll see you in the next episode. Bye everyone. Bye, jonathan Howard.

Speaker 1:

Bye, Mimi Langley.

People on this episode

Podcasts we love

Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.