What are Social Media Analytics and How to Use Them
By LeadPoint Digital
A great social media marketing plan isn’t so great if you don’t measure its success.
Social media analytics are a critical piece of social media strategy, allowing you to see how well your posts and ads are performing as well as understand the people who interact with your posts and ads and how they feel about your business.
With all that intel, you can create social media content that gets your audience excited and grows your bottom line.
About Social Media Analytics
Social media analytics are the data and metrics that help you measure the performance of your social media accounts, both in the short term and over the long haul.
This data is collected and curated by the individual social media platforms as well as various paid services, such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social and others.
Types of Social Media Analytics
A lot of data is available, and it’s up to you to prioritize which are most important to helping you meet your marketing goals.
Types of analytics include:
- Performance measures of content, including impressions, reach, like, comments, shares, views and clicks.
- Audience information, including age ranges, gender, location and the types of devices they use.
- Paid ad performance, including clicks, cost per click, cost per engagement and conversion rate.
With paid tools, you can also get data on influencers, sentiment analysis and see how your analytics stack up against your competitors.
What To Do with Social Media Analytics
Analytics can provide detailed insights into more than just the performance of a social media post. Through them, you can:
- Learn which types of content has the most impact, engagement and conversions to sales.
- Hear what people really say about your product or service.
- Understand who your social media audience is and tailor your content to meet their needs or grow your audience beyond your base.
- Learn about any customer service issues quickly.
- Know which of your social media accounts are growing and which aren’t and spot sudden changes or anomalies in followers as soon as they happen.
- See larger trends in content and conversations related to your business.
- Justify the need for social media and employees to support the effort.
Most importantly, it’s important to look at your social media analytics regularly. This will give you a feel of what’s “normal” for your accounts, so you can see the highs of good posts and the lows of posts that just aren’t working. Then adjust your strategy, doing more of the good and jettisoning the bad.
Don’t Be Intimidated
Figuring out which social media analytics to focus on can be overwhelming at first. The digital marketing team at Roanoke’s LeadPoint Digital can help you make sense of all the numbers. Our expertise, specialization, and access to advanced tools to help you get the most out of your social media strategy. Schedule a free consultation with us today to see how we can help you become a social media analytics rockstar!
