How to Create a Social Media Report in 7 Simple Steps [+ Free Templates]

Social media is 1 of nan astir powerful trading channels I’ve utilized successful my career. In fact, successful caller years, it’s continuously been amongst those pinch nan highest ROI for astir businesses.

But showcasing that to decision-makers isn’t ever easy. A awesome societal media study tin help.

Social media reporting is your team’s clip to measure really it’s doing pinch nan mean truly, pass that to your institution astatine ample — and maybe moreover brag a small bit.

So, really do you put together 1 that does each of this effectively? Read connected for step-by-step instructions connected really to create a societal media study and immoderate awesome societal media study templates to thief you get going moreover faster.

Table of Contents

• What is simply a societal media report?
• Why usage a societal media report?
• What societal media metrics should you include?
• How to Create a Social Media Report
• Social Media Report Templates
• Social Media Report Examples

What is simply a societal media report?

A societal media study is simply a summary of really a business’ societal media platforms and efforts connected them are performing. I’m not talking astir nan analytics dashboards utilized to show and way societal media capacity successful existent clip here.

Social media reports tin see earthy metric information (followers, successful clickthrough rates, likes, station shares, purchases, etc.) but attraction much connected delivering nan large picture. Think greater trends, insights, and advancement toward goals.

Types of societal media reports

A societal media study tin return immoderate style you need, but, successful my experience, it’s not uncommon to create smaller, niche reports to attraction connected captious areas.

Platform-specific

How’s Instagram doing for your brand? How astir YouTube? Every societal media level has its unsocial civilization and nuances, and these reports let you to tailor your study and discussions to them much precisely.

Campaign-specific

Did you motorboat a caller product? Maybe people a contented connection to make leads? You tin besides usage a societal media study to talk campaign-level analytics.

If your societal media relationship is serving arsenic a cog successful a larger institution initiative, this study helps you spot and comparison conscionable really overmuch each level contributed to nan project's success. (HubSpot Campaigns person ever been adjuvant successful this for me.)

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Paid media versus earned media reports tin besides autumn into this category.

Metric/Goal-specific

Was your squad focused connected boosting website traffic? How astir boosting sales? Goal-specific reports, for illustration campaign-specific, fto you analyse and talk really each level helped you activity toward a circumstantial accomplishment.

Why usage a societal media report?

Social media doesn't conscionable impact marketing. Prospects inquire questions, customers constitute reviews, and others whitethorn travel you for thought leadership, education, aliases institution news. It touches astir each facet of your statement and customer experience.

So, gathering and distributing nan authorities of your societal media channels via a societal media study shows transparency, encourages cross-company alignment, and helps everyone work towards their goals.

A societal media study is besides arguably nan astir concise and clear measurement to update your squad aliases stakeholders connected these matters — daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and/or annual.

HubSpot's free societal media study template has pre-made slides for you to study connected each of your predominant societal media metrics.

Download nan template coming and simply plug successful your metrics to customize your organization's societal media report.

What should your societal media study include?

The good specifications tin vary, but each awesome societal media study tends to see 4 elements. Keep successful mind, that what you telephone these doesn’t really matter, but you want to make judge you execute each of their purposes successful your last product.

Report Overview

Think of this arsenic nan executive summary of your societal media report.

It’s wherever you archive nan astir important themes and findings of your larger archive aliases position to group expectations of what’s to come. It’s besides adjuvant to engaged executives who whitethorn not person clip to publication aliases beryllium done an full presentation.

Goals & Initiatives

What are you trying to execute pinch societal media? Recapping these successful your societal media study gives nan remainder of nan accusation discourse and direction. Knowing your goals tells nan assemblage what accusation they should beryllium looking for.

Metrics Analysis

You don’t request to see each nan facts and figures, but you do want to see immoderate overarching metrics related to your goals. For example, if you are trying to make much leads, you’ll want to see your mean conversion rate.

But nan main attraction present should beryllium analysis. Talk astir what trends you see.

Read: Social Media Analytics: The Ultimate Guide

Key Takeaways & Recommendations

What communicative do your metrics tell? What conclusions tin you tie astir your strategy from them? What do they opportunity astir your goals? And astir importantly, what do you do next?

Your societal media study should seizure insights connected your strategy, campaign, audience, content, and immoderate suggestions for moving forward.

What societal media metrics should you include?

Remember, not each societal media level performs nan same. In fact, our investigation shows that usage doesn’t needfully equate to ROI.

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Because of this, your metrics, trends, and goals for each level whitethorn differ, on pinch what goes into your societal media report.

Some metrics are besides conscionable going to beryllium different owed to nan quality of nan platforms — I mean LinkedIn doesn‘t fto you retweet, and X doesn’t fto you click a cry-face button.

Every team’s societal media study whitethorn look different, but let’s return a look astatine immoderate of nan astir communal metrics to see to thief you fig retired what makes consciousness for you.

1. Audience Size and Growth (Followers)

This metric tells you really ample your scope is and really quickly it is growing. It is typically seen arsenic nan halfway societal media metric, showing really ample an assemblage you tin leverage pinch your posts and content.

2. Post Frequency

This is beautiful self-explanatory, but this metric represents really galore times you posted successful a fixed clip period. It’s usually compared alongside different metrics — specified arsenic engagement rates — to thief you find nan correct cadence for your audience.

This metric should besides beryllium channel-specific because it makes consciousness to post much often connected immoderate channels than others.

3. Post Engagement

Post engagement measures really your fans and followers are reacting to your posts pinch likes, comments, and shares. A healthy station engagement suggests you person a loyal assemblage — and that your contented is reaching them.

You tin besides way engagement arsenic a percent of your assemblage to find engagement rate.

4. Mentions

One metric you person little power complete is mentions. You tin way mentions from customers, prospects, and moreover news outlets to gauge nan cognition of your business and marque online.

5. Clickthrough Rate

When a station links to a page connected your website, you tin measurement really galore group and what percent of your assemblage clicked done to nan page.

A beardown clickthrough complaint shows you're sharing website pages that your assemblage finds relevant.

6. Conversions & New Contacts

Conversions travel into play if you‘re utilizing societal media to make leads, subscribers, aliases moreover customers.

If you want to property contacts to your societal media team’s efforts, make judge you‘re utilizing due search and mounting reasonable goals, arsenic it’s uncommon successful immoderate industries to spell consecutive from societal media to becoming a customer.

7. Return connected Investment (ROI)

Directly tracing ROI to societal media efforts tin beryllium tricky. However, if you find it's worthy reporting connected this metric, guarantee you person established due expectations and attribution models.

Read: How to Measure Social Media Marketing ROI [With Expert Advice]

8. Cost per mile (CPM) / Cost per click (CPC)

This metric is basal for monitoring nan capacity of your societal media ads. Similar to ROI, it helps you measure really you cognize really overmuch you’re spending successful narration to what you’re getting. You tin disregard this if you're solely reporting connected integrated societal metrics.

9. Competitor Metrics

To supply a benchmark, see analyzing nan aforementioned metrics for your competitors.

Obviously, these metrics tin alteration drastically based connected publicity, paid budget, and nan size of nan company, but it's still worthwhile to make nan comparison.

Note: You tin track each of these societal media analytics successful HubSpot. Lucky you.

How to Create a Social Media Report

Step 1: Identify your societal media metrics.

As we‘ve established, different companies and different societal media teams worth different societal media metrics. It’s your occupation to take nan metrics that matter astir to your squad and your organization.

Keeping successful mind nan database from above, nan circumstantial societal media platforms you use, and your goals, constrictive down nan metrics you request to coming to your team.

For instance, if you’re focused connected building marque awareness, you’ll want to item follower numbers and views. If your extremity is website traffic, you’ll want to look astatine clicks.

Pro tip: When I’m unsure of what to see aliases my study feels a small incomplete, I inquire my peers which metrics they'd for illustration to spot aliases which ones they request explanation on. Making these changes sooner alternatively than later helps support your squad informed and engaged.

Step 2: Gather your data.

Once you cognize what you‘re reporting on, it's clip to commencement collecting data.

When mounting up your societal media reports, create bookmarks for your information sources. Make a files for nan analytics page for each societal media transmission you’re analyzing and/or your societal media reporting software for an all-encompassing view.

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If you‘re search click-throughs to your website, make judge you’re analyzing from a azygous maestro location, specified arsenic your search URL builder aliases your postulation search instrumentality for illustration HubSpot aliases Google Analytics.

Step 3. Choose your study format

Think astir who your assemblage is and really they champion user information.

Perhaps that’s a social media study presentation, spreadsheet, aliases memo template. Perhaps it’s a operation of a fewer formats, on pinch a video walk-through.

Pro tip: Whatever you choose, instrumentality pinch it.

A accordant format brings familiarity, making comparing and knowing early updates easier. Plus, erstwhile you support your format, you tin conscionable transcript complete your astir up-to-date metrics alternatively than reinventing nan instrumentality each time.

Optional: Choose your societal media study template

If you’re conscionable getting started, we propose utilizing a societal media study template to make your life easier. For instance, a PowerPoint aliases Google Slide Deck template tin beryllium shared pinch your squad via email, utilized for in-person meetings/presentations, aliases both.

Need a societal media study template to get started? We’ll stock a fewer options later, but you can’t spell incorrect pinch ours.

Step 4: Analyze performance

With each of your information successful place, it’s clip to analyze.

What metrics went up aliases down? What posts did good aliases not truthful well? What does this opportunity astir your performance? How astir nan advancement toward your goals?

Use this clip to really excavation successful and spot what your metrics are telling you.

Pro tip: AI has helped maine a batch successful this area. Check retired our free guide, “How to Use AI for Data Analysis”

Step 5: Summarize highlights and adhd context

Next, summarize nan cardinal findings and highlights from your analysis. Don’t conscionable deliberation quantitatively here; deliberation qualitatively.

Maybe a awesome personage commented connected contented for nan first time, aliases you saw a grounds number of shares. Make judge to seizure these successful your study arsenic well.

Also, adhd discourse to thief your assemblage amended understand nan communicative you are telling. What do I mean by this?

A societal media study should ever punctual group wherever you came from and wherever you scheme to go. That intends addressing really your numbers person changed since nan past play of clip you presented, successful summation to why they changed.

Talk astir really this compares to your competitors and really you are search toward your goals. Even if people’s eyes glaze complete erstwhile you talk numbers, these highlights tin triumph them backmost and get your connection across.

Step 6: Add Visuals

A floor plan of numbers connected a descent platform is, well, beautiful boring.

While a numerical floor plan is important for sharing arsenic overmuch info arsenic imaginable successful an organized way, utilizing visuals is simply a amended measurement to convey nan maturation and occurrence metrics of your societal media performance.

Try incorporating 1 aliases each of nan pursuing into your societal media reports:

• Linear graphs to show followers complete time.
• Pie charts to show clicks to different pages of your website (blog pages vs. lawsuit studies, for example).
• Bar graphs to show nan number of engagements connected each platform.
• Typography highlighting cardinal trends aliases findings
• Screenshots of apical aliases low-performing posts

These examples are much eye-catching than acold numbers connected a slid, and they further exemplify what you want your squad to locomotion distant with. Plus, you tin easy make them connected Canva.

If information visualization is caller to you, cheque retired our Guide connected Data Visualization for Marketers.

Step 7: Make Recommendations

Each study should incorporate clear action items astir really you scheme to continuously amended your societal media performance. Social media is perpetually evolving, truthful your attack and strategy for it should, too.

Social Media Report Templates

Creating your ain societal media study from scratch tin beryllium labor-intensive. Using a template to enactment organized tin thief lighten nan load. Here are 4 of my favourite options.

1. HubSpot

Ok, possibly I’m biased, but I’m a large instrumentality of our free societal media study template present astatine HubSpot.

What I like: It gives you thing elemental and neat to present, and you tin customize it to fresh nan goals, platforms, and wave you really need. I besides emotion that nan template starts pinch an overview of each your owned societal media channels connected nan first page.

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With this, you tin spot your assemblage for each channel, really galore posts you made, really they performed (engagement), and what this looks for illustration arsenic a percent of your full assemblage astatine a glance.

Then, connected nan pursuing slides, you tin research each circumstantial platform, its goals associated pinch it, and moreover its apical posts.

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Overall, this societal media study template is nan cleanable blend of highlights and details. Plus, it’s disposable arsenic a Word Doc, PowerPoint, Google Doc, aliases Google Slides deck, making it accessible to a wide audience.

2. Later

If you’re looking for thing a spot much designed, Later has a free societal media study template for you to effort arsenic well. But location are a fewer caveats.

This template only comes successful 1 format — an editable Google Slides platform — and is organized arsenic a monthly report. The creation besides could beryllium excessively playful for some, however, you tin edit it to lucifer your individual cadence and brand.

To get started, you simply person to make a transcript and plug successful your information, but that said — you do request to person a Gmail relationship to return advantage of it.

What I like: While prioritizing Instagram (Later is an Instagram tool, aft all), it does see charts for each societal media platforms. You besides tin easy clone and edit fields to make nan platform activity for different platforms.

I’m besides a instrumentality of nan cardinal learnings slide. It makes it easy to get each of nan astir important accusation successful 1 place.

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3. Hootsuite

Next, we person a societal media study template from Hootsuite.

Like Later’s, this template comes pinch an editable Google Slides platform that you request to transcript to use. It besides has a well-organized and visually pleasing creation that you tin edit to lucifer your marque colors.

I’d opportunity this creation is much cosmopolitan and adaptable than Later’s.

What I like: I emotion really this template includes instructions connected really to capable it retired correct successful nan document. It makes it easy to complete descent by descent and it’s cadence agnostic.

It besides has dedicated slides for each awesome societal media platforms already, highlighting cardinal accusation for illustration clicks, likes, and apical posts arsenic good arsenic platform-specific metrics for illustration retweets.

4. The CMO Club

Last up is nan social media study template from The CMO Club. And, arsenic you mightiness conjecture pinch a main executive audience, this 1 is each astir nan data. Unlike our different options, this template comes arsenic an editable Google Sheet.

What I like: While little suited for a presentation, this societal media study template gets highly granular astir your strategy's numbers and metrics.

It has abstracted tabs for important accusation your determination makers will want to spot like:

• Objective and Benchmarks
• Audience Insights
• Metrics and KPIs
• Platform Analysis
• Platform Analysis
• Content Analysis

But it still ends pinch recommendations and cardinal takeaways.

Pro tip: if you’d for illustration to get much imaginative and ocular pinch your societal media study than what these templates offer, Adobe and Canva person a bunch of free designs you tin research with.

Social Media Report Examples

Now, astir societal media reports are confidential (for evident reasons), but I was capable to find a mini fistful of examples to springiness you an thought of what a vanished merchandise whitethorn look like.

1. Top Performing Posts

In summation to creating a awesome template, Later offers an highly adjuvant societal media study illustration connected its blog utilizing it.

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Here, you’ll spot an illustration of a top-performing station slide. Not only does it show nan existent posts and what it accomplished, but it besides offers penetration into why nan squad believes it did well.

2. Profile Traffic

Keyhole did an fantabulous occupation gathering different types of reporting that Coca-Cola could see successful its societal media reports successful this blog. This illustration looks astatine Coca-Cola’s wide floor plan postulation complete a group magnitude of clip (in this case, a year).

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I for illustration this type of reporting because it allows you to measure nan ebb and travel of assemblage behaviour and if there’s a inclination complete time.

3. Follower Growth

Next, we spot a study of Coca-cola’s follower maturation complete a circumstantial play of time.

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For a marque aliases squad focused connected marque consciousness seeing a floor plan for illustration this (especially 1 that shows continuous improvement) really helps item nan effectiveness of nan activity they’re doing connected societal media.

4. Post Type

This illustration from Coca-cola analyzes Coke’s different types of contented — some really often nan institution shares definite types and past which types execute nan best.

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Seeing nan charts side-by-side allows you to spot if your station strategy aligns pinch nan posts that are astir popular. The colour coding besides makes it easier to spot which parts of nan 2 charts spell together.

5. Social Traffic

Another elephantine company, Walmart, intimately watches its societal media traffic. Take this study image from 2023:

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This study looks astatine different types of societal media postulation based connected platform. You tin intelligibly spot that YouTube is their apical societal media performer, pinch Reddit and Facebook only achieving half of YouTube’s engagement.

I for illustration this type of study because it puts into position what your stock of postulation is for immoderate fixed platform. If I’m going to put successful paid societal media, I will put successful nan level that’s performing nan champion organically to get much bang for my buck.

You tin spot really each type of study follows a akin curve, giving you penetration into which months you grew nan astir and which platforms performed nan best.

(Social Media) Reporting for Duty successful 2025

Social media reports are basal for knowing your performance, aligning your team, and demonstrating nan worth of your efforts to stakeholders.

By thoughtfully organizing metrics, analyzing trends, and providing actionable insights utilizing nan societal media templates and guides I shared here, your societal media study tin service arsenic a powerful instrumentality to refine your strategy and execute your goals.