Social media is one of the most effective marketing channels I have used in my career. In fact, it has consistently been among those with the highest ROI for most companies over the past few years.
But it is not always easy to communicate this to decision-makers. A great social media report can help.
When reporting on social media, your team has time to evaluate how they are really engaging with the medium and communicate that to your company as a whole – and maybe even brag a little.
So how do you put together a solution that does all of this effectively? Read on for step-by-step instructions on how to create a social media report and some great social media report templates to help you get started even faster.
Table of contents
What is a Social Media Report?
A social media report is a summary of the performance of a company’s social media platforms and its efforts on them. I’m not talking about the analytics dashboards that monitor and track social media performance in real time.
Social media reports can contain raw metrics data (followers, successful click-through rates, likes, shares, purchases, etc.) but are more focused on presenting the bigger picture. Think about larger trends, insights, and progress toward your goals.
Types of Social Media Reports
A social media report can take any form you want, but in my experience it’s not uncommon to create smaller, niche reports to focus on critical areas.
Platform specific
How is Instagram going for your brand? How about YouTube? Each social media platform has its own culture and nuances, and these reports allow you to fine-tune your analysis and discussions accordingly.
Campaign specific
Have you launched a new product? Maybe publish a content offer to generate leads? You can also use a social media report to discuss campaign-level analytics.
If your social media account acts as a cog in a larger business initiative, you can use this report to see and compare how much each platform contributed to the success of the project. (HubSpot campaigns have always helped me.)
Paid media and earned media reports can also fall into this category.
Metric/goal specific
Was your team focused on increasing website traffic? How about boosting sales? With target-specific reports, such as: B. Campaign-specific reports allow you to analyze and discuss how each platform helped you work towards a specific success.
Why use a social media report?
Social media doesn’t just influence marketing. Prospects ask questions, customers write reviews, and others may follow you for thought leadership, education, or company news. It affects almost every aspect of your organization and customer experience.
So capture and disseminate the status of your social media channels via a social media report shows transparency, promotes cross-company alignmentand helps everyone work towards their goals.
A social media report is probably the most concise and clear way to update Educate your team or stakeholders on these topics – daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and/or annually.
Download the template today and easily insert your metrics to customize your company’s social media report.
What should your social media report include?
The subtleties may vary, but any great social media report typically includes four elements. Remember, it doesn’t really matter what you call these, but you want to make sure you fulfill each of their purposes in your final product.
Report overview
Think of this as a summary of your social media report.
This is where you document the key themes and findings of your larger document or presentation to set expectations for the future. It’s also helpful for busy executives who may not have time to read or sit through an entire presentation.
Goals and initiatives
What are you trying to achieve with social media? Recapitulating these in your social media report will provide context and direction for the rest of the information. Knowing your goals will tell you what information to look for.
Metric analysis
You don’t have to include all the facts and figures, but you will want to include some overarching metrics related to your goals. For example, if you’re trying to generate more leads, you should include your average conversion rate.
However, the main focus here should be on the analysis. Talk about what trends you see.
Read: Social Media Analytics: The Ultimate Guide
Key findings and recommendations
What story do your metrics tell? What conclusions can you draw from this about your strategy? What do they say about your goals? And most importantly: what are you doing next?
Your social media report should provide insights into your strategy, campaign, audience, content and any suggestions for further development.
Which social media metrics should you include?
Remember that not every social media platform performs equally. In fact, our research shows that usage doesn’t necessarily equate to ROI.
Because of this, your metrics, trends, and goals may be different for each platform, as well as the content of your social media report.
Some metrics will also be different simply because of the nature of the platforms – I mean, LinkedIn doesn’t let you retweet, and X doesn’t let you click a cry face button.
Every team’s social media report may look different, but let’s take a look at some of the most common metrics you should include to find what makes sense for you.
1. Target group size and growth (followers)
This metric tells you how big your reach is and how quickly it is growing. It is usually considered the key metric for social media and shows how large the audience you can reach with your posts and content.
2. Post frequency
This is pretty self-explanatory, but this metric represents how many times you posted in a given time period. It is usually combined with other metrics – such as: B. engagement rates – compared to help you determine the right rhythm for your audience.
This metric should also be channel specific, as it makes sense to post on some channels more often than others.
3. Post engagement
Post engagement measures how your fans and followers respond to your posts with likes, comments and shares. Healthy post engagement suggests that you have a loyal audience – and that your content is reaching them.
You can also track engagement as a percentage of your audience to determine engagement rate.
4. Mentions
One metric you have less control over is mentions. You can track mentions from customers, prospects, and even news outlets to gauge the perception of your business and brand online.
5. CTR
When a post links to a page on your website, you can measure how many people and what percentage of your audience clicked on the page.
A high click-through rate shows that you are sharing website pages that your audience finds relevant.
6. Conversions and new contacts
Conversions come into play when you use social media to generate leads, subscribers, or even customers.
If you want to match contacts to your social media team’s efforts, make sure you’re using proper tracking and setting reasonable goals, as in some industries it’s rare to convert directly from social media to a customer.
7. Return on Investment (ROI)
It can be difficult to directly attribute ROI to social media activity. However, if you decide that this metric is worth reporting on, make sure you have the right expectations and attribution models in place.
Read: How to Measure Social Media Marketing ROI (With Expert Advice)
8. Cost per mile (CPM) / Cost per click (CPC)
This metric is essential for monitoring the performance of your social media ads. Similar to ROI, it helps you assess how much you spend relative to what you get. You can ignore this if you only report on organic social metrics.
9. Competitive metrics
To provide a benchmark, consider analyzing the metrics above for your competitors.
Of course, these metrics can vary drastically depending on advertising, budget paid, and the size of the company, but it’s still worth making a comparison.
Note: You can Track all of these social media analytics in HubSpot. Lucky.
How to create a social media report
Step 1: Identify your social media metrics.
As we’ve discovered, different companies and different social media teams value different social media metrics. It’s your job to choose the metrics that matter most to your team and organization.
Considering the list above, the specific social media platforms you use, and your goals, narrow down the metrics you need to present to your team.
For example, if you’re focused on increasing your brand awareness, you’ll want to highlight follower counts and views. If your goal is website traffic, you should look at clicks.
Pro tip: When I’m not sure what to include or my report seems a little incomplete, I ask my colleagues what metrics they would like to see or which ones they need clarification on. Making these changes sooner rather than later will keep your team informed and engaged.
Step 2: Collect your data.
Once you know what you’re reporting on, it’s time to start collecting data.
When setting up your social media reports, create bookmarks for your data sources. Create an analytics page folder for each social media channel you analyze and/or Your social media reporting software for a comprehensive overview.
If you’re tracking clicks to your website, make sure you’re doing the analysis from a single master location, such as: B. your tracking URL builder or your traffic tracking tool like HubSpot or Google Analytics.
Step 3. Choose your report format
Consider who your target audience is and how best to serve them consumer information.
Maybe it’s a presentation, a spreadsheet, or a memo template for a social media report. Maybe it’s a combination of some formats and a video tour.
Pro tip: Whatever you choose, stick with it.
A consistent format ensures familiarity and makes future updates easier to compare and understand. And if you stick to your format, you can easily copy your most current metrics instead of having to reinvent the wheel each time.
Optional: Choose your social media report template
If you are just starting out, we recommend using a social media report template to make your life easier. For example, a PowerPoint or Google Slide deck template can be shared with your team via email, used for in-person meetings/presentations, or both.
Do you need a social media report template to get started? We’ll introduce a few options later, though You can’t go wrong with ours.
Step 4: Analyze performance
When all your data is in place, it’s time for analysis.
Which metrics have increased or decreased? Which posts did well or not so well? What does that say about your performance? How is your progress toward your goals?
Use this time to really dive in and see what your metrics are telling you.
Pro tip: AI has helped me a lot in this area. Check out our free guide: “How to use AI for data analysis”
Step 5: Summarize highlights and add context
Next, summarize the key findings and highlights of your analysis. Don’t just think quantitatively here; think qualitatively.
Maybe a big celebrity commented on a piece of content for the first time, or you saw a record number of shares. Be sure to record these in your report as well.
Also, add context to help your audience better understand the story you’re telling. What do I mean by that?
A social media report should always remind people where you come from and where you want to go. This means addressing how your numbers have changed since the last time period you presented and why they changed.
Talk about how this compares to your competitors and how you are achieving your goals. Even if people’s eyes glaze over when you talk about numbers, these highlights can win them back and get your message across.
Step 6: Add Visuals
A number chart on a slide deck is, well, pretty boring.
While a numerical chart is important for sharing as much information as possible in an organized manner, using images is a better way to convey the growth and success metrics of your social media performance.
Try incorporating any or all of the following into your social media reports:
- Linear charts showing followers over time.
- Pie charts to show clicks to different pages on your website (e.g. blog pages vs. case studies).
- Bar charts to show the number of interactions on each platform.
- Typography highlighting key trends or insights
- Screenshots of top and bottom performing posts
These examples are more eye-catching than cold numbers on a slide and further illustrate what you want your team to take away. Plus, you can easily install them Canva.
If you’re new to data visualization, check out our guide to data visualization for marketers.
Step 7: Make recommendations
Each report should contain clear action points about how you plan to continually improve your social media performance. Social media is constantly evolving, and so is your approach and strategy.
Social media report templates
Creating your own social media report from scratch can be labor-intensive. Using a template to stay organized can help ease the burden. Here are four of my favorite options.
1. HubSpot
Okay, maybe I’m biased, but I’m a big fan of ours Free social media report template here at HubSpot.
What I like: You get something simple and beautiful to present, and you can customize it to the goals, platforms, and frequency you actually need. I also like that the template starts with an overview of all your own social media channels on the first page.
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This allows you to see at a glance what audience you have for each channel, how many posts you have written, how they performed (engagement), and what this looks like as a percentage of your total audience.
You can then explore each individual platform, their associated goals, and even their top posts in the following slides.
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Overall, this social media report template is the perfect mix of highlights and details. In addition, it is available as a Word document, PowerPoint, Google Doc or Google Slides, making it accessible to a wide audience.
2. Later
If you are looking for something a little more design, Later there is a free social media report templateTry it too. But there are a few caveats.
This template only comes in one format – an editable Google Slides deck – and is organized as a monthly report. The design might also be too playful for some, but you can adapt it to your personal rhythm and brand.
To get started, all you need to do is make a copy and enter your information. However, you will need a Gmail account to take advantage of it.
What I like: While Instagram is a priority (Later is an Instagram tool, after all), it includes charts for all social media platforms. You can also easily clone and edit fields to make the deck work for other platforms.
I’m also a fan of the key takeaways slide. It makes it easy to get all the important information in one place.
3. Hootsuite
Next, we have a social media reporting template from Hootsuite.
Like Later’s, this template It comes with an editable Google Slides deck that you’ll need to copy to use. It also features a well-organized and visually appealing design that you can edit to match your brand colors.
I would say that this design is more universal and adaptable than Later’s.
What I like: I like that this template includes instructions for filling it out right in the document. It makes it easier to complete slide by slide and is independent of cadence.
It also already has dedicated slides for all major social media platforms, highlighting key information like clicks, likes, and top posts, as well as platform-specific metrics like retweets.
4. The CMO Club
This comes last Social media report template from The CMO Club. And as you can imagine in a boardroom audience, it’s all about the data. Unlike our other options, this template comes as an editable Google Sheet.
What I like: This social media report template is less suitable for a presentation, but it provides extremely detailed information about the numbers and metrics of your strategy.
It has separate tabs for important information your decision makers want to see, such as:
- Goal and benchmarks
- Insights into the audience
- Metrics and KPIs
- Platform analysis
- Platform analysis
- Content analysis
But it still ends with recommendations and important insights.
Pro tip: If you want to make your social media report more creative and visual than these templates offer, Adobe And Canva There are a number of free themes you can experiment with.
Examples of social media reports
Now most social media reports are confidential (for obvious reasons), but I was able to find a few examples to give you an idea of what a finished product might look like.
1. Top performing posts
In addition to creating a great template, Later offers an extremely helpful social media report example using this template on their blog.
Here’s an example of a top-performing post slide. Not only does it show the actual contributions and what was accomplished, but it also provides insight into the reasons why the team believes it worked out well.
2. Profile traffic
Keyhole did an excellent job putting together different types of reports that Coca-Cola was able to incorporate into their social media reports this blog. This example looks at Coca-Cola’s total profile traffic over a set period of time (in this case, a year).
I like this type of reporting because it allows you to assess the ebb and flow of audience behavior and see if there is a trend over time.
3. Follower growth
Next, we see a report on Coca-Cola’s follower growth over a period of time.
For a brand or team focused on brand awareness, a chart like this (especially one that shows continuous improvement) really helps highlight the effectiveness of their work on social media.
4. Post Type
This example from Coca-Cola analyzes Coca-Cola’s different content types – both the frequency with which the company shares certain content types and which content types perform best.
By looking at the charts side by side, you can see if your post strategy is in line with the most popular posts. Color coding also makes it easier to see which parts of the two diagrams fit together.
5. Social traffic
Another giant company, Walmart, is watching its social media traffic closely. Take this report image from 2023:
This report examines different types of social media traffic depending on the platform. You can clearly see that YouTube is their top performer on social media, with Reddit and Facebook only getting half of YouTube engagement.
I like this type of report because it puts into perspective what your traffic share is for a particular platform. When I invest in paid social media, I invest in the platform that performs best organically to get more bang for my buck.
You can see that each type of report follows a similar curve. This will give you insight into the months in which you grew the most and which platforms performed best.
(Social Media) Reporting for the service in 2025
Social media reports are important for understanding your performance, aligning your team, and demonstrating the value of your efforts to stakeholders.
By carefully organizing metrics, analyzing trends, and providing actionable insights using the social media templates and guides I’ve shared here, your social media report can serve as a powerful tool for refining your strategy and achieving your goals serve goals.