Sprout report showing both engagement and impressions

[shaownhasan]

Clicks
Have you ever come across an Instagram caption where the first line was so intriguing that you just had to click to read more? Traditionally, clicks were about posts that had links that you could click on. But as social media posts have changed, so have clicks.

Clicks are everywhere. At the post level, a click could be an expansion of an Instagram business owner data caption or a tap on a Tweet to look through photos. There are also clicks that are made on your Instagram profile page and clicks you make to expand a Pin.

These numbers are found in native analytics or summarized in a tool like Sprout. As you dig into the social networks you’re targeting, you’ll learn in detail which clicks they track and how they name these metrics.

Likes
You’re familiar with double-tapping that post to show how much you enjoyed the Instagram photo. Likes and favorites indicate that the account appreciated your post enough to interact with it. And while some platforms like Instagram and Facebook are now hiding the Like count from public view, you’re still able to see these numbers in your analytics.

Shares
Post and profile shares are an excellent way to measure engagement. It means your post was so intriguing that your audience had to send it to someone or share it to another platform.

A screenshot showcasing how to share a post on Facebook
Shares have different names on different platforms. On Pinterest, it’s a save; on Twitter, a retweet; on Instagram, use of the share icon to either DMs or a Story; and on Facebook, it’s still called a share but you have many options to choose from. A high share count is also an indication of how viral a post is.