THE POWER OF USING AND UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS

Blow your competition away without even leaving your desk.

If you’ve ever watched Mad Men, an award-winning American television series based on an advertising agency in 1960’s New York City, you’re probably familiar with the common media channels used 50 years ago to reach consumers. Today, things are very different.

The emerging prevalence and constant shifts of social media in the past five years alone have forced marketing professionals to stay on their toes and adjust their tactics every year, every month, even every week.

Although platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat allow your business to post ads and target a certain market within the site or app, there is a bigger opportunity that many companies disregard or forget to use. It lies in your social media analytics. Understanding this wealth of information can help you adjust and refine your message so you can know that it is speaking to your target audiences in a way that captures their attention.

Start by analyzing. I know – this is an intimidating term, but it’s one of the best resources we have as marketers! Take a look at your “insights” page on your platforms and get familiar with them. Don’t be overwhelmed. There will be some data that’s irrelevant to your business, and that’s okay. Look around and notice which posts are performing the best with metrics including impressions, engagements (likes, comments, shares/retweets, etc.), page views and the demographics of your viewers. Is there a common theme you’re seeing with your posts? Do certain types of posts do better on certain days or times of the week? Do pictures of sunsets get more likes and impressions? That is all valuable information specific to your brand.

Set goals and define the purpose of each platform for your brand. Do you want your Facebook page to be a source of friendly interaction with the community, or do you need it to be purely informational? (Those answers come from a well-researched and written strategy – which is a discussion for another time.)

Generate new content based on your findings. It is critical to create content that will resonate with your audience and make them more inclined to share. This could be a blog post that you found on the web (or wrote yourself!) that closely relates to your message or a fun and intriguing video. And interact with interactions. If it fits within your brand’s voice, respond to comments and shares to show your followers that your content and your brand is active and interested in what they have to say. As you share content and monitor your posts, try to incorporate the strategies you’ve gathered in harmony with the insights you’ve learned from your past post performance.

Analyze again. Social media is about constant adjustment to match ever-changing trends and behaviors. Plus, it takes time to get more comfortable with, and you’ll learn from your mistakes. Don’t be discouraged if your engagement doesn’t skyrocket right away. It probably won’t. Relationships take time, on or offline. Every post is a new chance for you to build trust and further define who you are.

Understanding your social media analytics is an essential part of knowing if your brand’s message is being seen and understood by your target audiences. Stay tuned for a post about specific tools you can use to do so!