It’s no secret that brands need to be active on social media platforms to be seen by the masses and, hopefully, their target audience. But what do the numbers say about the server? How can you use the data from your social media feeds to improve your marketing strategy and tactics?
It’s one thing to be on social media, but if you don’t make decisions based on the data they give you, it’s a waste of time and effort.
The types of data you get
All social media platforms collect data on a wide variety of things. Data is the numbers you will see on the backend, and you will use it to do some analysis and determine what is working and what is not. Here are some examples of data you will get from social media such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook:
- Actions
- Love
- Click URL
- keyword analysis
- new subscribers
- comments
- mentioning
- projections
- Use a hashtag
If you use Google Analytics for website data, you can also use it to get social media information. For example, Google Analytics will report things like:
- which social media platform brought users to your site
- how long these users spend on your site
- What percentage of users leave your website after a single view
Google Analytics offers several other pieces of data and can help you decide what to post on social media.
Define what success looks like
Before you even look at the numbers, determine what social media success looks like for your business. You can do this even if you haven’t created your social media profiles yet. For example, for some brands, the goal is to get more followers. But for others, it may be about promoting content and getting conversions based on content promotion.
There is no right or wrong answer here. Use your business strategy to guide you through the process and determine what social media success will look like in your business. Defining these Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) before you begin – whether you’re new to the platform or just starting to analyze data – will help you understand all the data and really see what works and what doesn’t. does not work.
Create and publish content in line with trends
Once you have identified your KPIs, you can start researching trends related to your business or brand. For example, when you look at your Instagram data, it will tell you which posted content has performed best. Looking for a trend there – are they all animal images? Are all of the graphics that include inspirational quotes? If so, use it to create future articles.
You may need to dig a little deeper to find a trend. Maybe the trend is the time of day you post content, or the way your signature is written catches people’s attention. All of this information is useful and should guide your future posts so that you can get the most out of whatever you post.
Personalization of content for each platform
with so many different social media platforms, it’s easy to break down what content to post on each. You can post similar content on any platform, but it will work best if you customize each post to better suit the platform. As you look at and analyze your past content, try to understand which post types are best for each platform.
Each platform has its own way of presenting data, but they will all give you access to numbers. This way you can see which posts reached the most people (got the most impressions), were the most engaged (users viewed or “liked” or even shared them) and which posts received the most comments.
Once you start to understand the types of content that work best on each platform, you can better plan your content strategy for the future. You may have notes like this:
- Twitter : short and witty statements combined with appropriate images and hashtags
- Instagram: gorgeous images with informative captions, hashtag combinations and links in the biography section
- Facebook : longer captions with quality links and great photos
- Pinterest : infographic linked to the information / article list
- LinkedIn : Articles and links to content for professional or personal development with targeted hashtags
The more detailed your notes, the better you can plan your content for the future, no matter what marketing challenges you face. It will also help you take a piece of content and customize it to work well on each platform.
Using audience profiles for personalized content
The more familiar you get with social media analytics for each platform, the more characters you’ll develop for each one. Some social networks even provide information about users interacting with your brand. For example, you can get information about their interests – sports, food, politics – and even their hobbies online. All of this information will help you better target the content you post.
Keep in mind that these characters or profiles are subject to change over time. The more subscribers you get, the more data you will receive. Whether you’re creating social media reports or documenting your characters, get in the habit of tracking changes in the data you see so you can continue to personalize and target your content.
