Did you know that the United States had over 223 million social media users in 2020? This number translates to more than 80% of the country’s entire population. Armed with that knowledge, it’s no wonder why social media marketing has become a critical part of most businesses’ success in the 21st century.
With millions of posts, tweets, videos, and other content being posted on social media these days, you’re probably wondering how brands gain instant visibility on the internet overnight. The answer is social media data.
Like other marketing strategies, you need to have a plan to make your social media campaign work. By collecting data from social media, you’ll have a better idea of who your target audience is, how to tailor your content, and how you can make your audience interact better with your brand. With that, you can then leverage the information to create an effective social media plan that will increase your brand’s reach and maximize your return of investment (ROI).
If you’re wondering how you can use social media data to your advantage, we’ve gone ahead and did the research for you. This article will discuss what social media data is and how you can use it to build a solid and effective social media marketing campaign.
What is Social Media Data?
Social media data, or social data, refers to the raw information collected through your users’ activities throughout the social media platforms. It shows how your audience view, interact or engage with your content. The data is managed and organized through a data management platform (i.e. Lotame, SalesForce DMP, etc.) then converted into useful information that will help guide the decisions of social media marketers as they craft their social media plan. A few examples of social media data include shares, likes, mentions, comments, reach, views, URL clicks, etc.
Think of your social media data as the raw ingredients and your social media analytics as your meal. When you collect those social data, it may not make sense at the first glance. But as you run it through an analytics tool, like those provided by social media platforms, these data can be converted into useful information that will guide your next steps in social media marketing.
With the information you gathered, you can then answer some important questions in your social media marketing campaign, such as:
- Which platform am I getting the most conversions?
- What type of content does my audience consume more?
- Which of my posts are generating the most conversions?
From there, you can gain an insight into how your campaign is doing and what actions you need to take in the future to make it more effective.
How to Use the Data to Create a Better Social Media Strategy
Now that you have your data and have analyzed it, the next step is to use the information to create a better social media strategy.
Here’s how you can do it:
1. Use your data to refine your target audience
When you’re marketing your brand, one of the most important things to consider is whether it’s reaching the right audience or not. It’s safe to say that without an audience, you won’t expect any results.
Customer data from social media can help you identify whether you’re targeting the right audience or not. Every platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) has built-in analytics that lets you in on some insights about your followers. They can provide you with information like demographics, interests, and social media activities. You can use that to pick the audience you want to target.
Once you have the information, you can then set up your campaign so your ads are visible to your target audience.
2. Tailor content based on interests and trends
Social media data also allows you to determine what type of content or products is currently generating a buzz online. With that, companies will be well-informed about the kind of content they should run – be it blogs, videos, infographics, ads, or influencer marketing. x
Marketers should also be able to identify chatter around their brand on social media. They can look for keywords, sentiments, and language towards their brand. This will help them determine whether their brand is positioned correctly on social media.
3. Identify top-performing campaigns on each platform
Built-in analytics tools on social media platforms help marketers build their target audience and provide them with insight into how their content is performing on the platform.
Many social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram enable marketers to track and analyze social media data within the platform. For instance, if you own a business page on Facebook, the platform’s analytics will track your KPIs such as interaction, engagement, reactions, comments, shares, and more on every content you post. Twitter Analytics can give information like mentions, link clicks, and followers, then summarize these at the end of each month.
With that, the marketers can get a bigger picture of what type of content their audience is typically consuming and make more of that.
4. Reach your audience at the right time
As a marketer, you’ve probably heard other marketers mention that there is a “best time” to send a tweet or publish a post on social media. While they’re not entirely wrong, there’s no universal best time to do any of these things. The truth is, the “best time” to publish a post or send a tweet will depend on your brand and target audience. To know this, you’ll need to refer to your social media data to get the trend.
Look at the data you gathered on your social media posts. Try to analyze it based on the time you published the posts. For example, some companies may see the highest engagement on their posts earlier in the day during workdays – probably during their morning commutes to work. Others may see the highest interaction with their brand on social media on specific days of the week. Again, it would depend on the behavior of your target audience on social media.
Once you have the trends figured out, you can then schedule your posts and tweets to be published at that specific time and day of the week.
5. Personalize content offering to increase engagement
Personalization is the process of creating data-driven content to specifically target a specific individual(s) within your target audience. Interestingly enough, it’s one of the biggest trends that’s shaping the world of digital marketing today.
In fact, according to a survey done by Accenture Interactive involving 8,000 consumers worldwide, “91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands who recognize, remember, and provide relevant offers and recommendations.”
Fortunately, social media is armed with the tools that let you analyze your audience’s behaviors on an individual level as it relates to your brand. The data will show you what type of content each of your leads is typically consuming, so you can customize your content to serve specific prospects or customers. The more information you have about them, the better your chances are at tailoring your content according to their preferences.
For example, you notice a specific customer clicking on content under XYZ topic and converts from there. In that case, you can customize their experience by making similar content visible to that particular customer. The more personalized the content you offer to your leads, the more engaged they will be with your brand.
Start Planning Your Data-Driven Social Media Plan Now!
As more and more people get into social media these days, there’s no perfect time than now to revisit your social media strategies. Using the data you collected, you’ll be able to make more informed decisions and skip all the second-guessing. With a data-driven social media plan, it will be easier to reach your audience, give them what they need, and convert them into your brand’s loyalists.
About the Author
Rumzz is a digital strategist and content marketer at SMB Compass. She enjoys spending time with her family. She loves to go out and experience new moments whenever they came to light. Rumzz discovers satisfaction in investigating new subjects that help to extend her points of view. You can frequently locate her immersed in a good book or out searching for a new experience.
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