Social Media Data Collection – Part 2: Practical Tips for Measuring Social Media Results
Over the past decade or so, there has been a steady rise in social media usage in marketing. One of its most significant advantages is capturing social media data in real-time and using it to gauge the success of your campaign within hours of the launch.
With time, social media has provided more detailed insights into how businesses and industries operate. Thus, allowing entrepreneurs to make the most of the resources and time they invest in social media marketing.
Measuring social media results also offers you a deeper insight into your audience, who they are, what type of content they like, when they like seeing it, and where they spend a lot of their time online. Measuring your social activities allows you to learn what's successful, what's not, and how to improve.
In part 1 of this series, we talked about the importance of collecting social media data. In this blog, we will talk about using that data to measure social media results. We will also offer tips on effectively measuring social media results to give your campaign the juice it needs.
Tips for Measuring Social Media Results
Have Goals and Key Performance Indicators
Before setting out to measure every post your audience makes about your brand, you need to analyze your goals with social media. Ask yourself what you'd like to gain or accomplish from the social media platforms and which channels are most relevant to your goals.
Generate a list of what you want to achieve from your efforts. Social media serves several purposes, from broadcasting information and news to engaging with a community and answering your audience's questions. The next step is to think about what you want your audiences to do with the content you put out.
Do you want them to read, share, reply, buy or engage with the content? Also, ensure you have key performance indicators to help you determine your strategic, financial, and operational goals. The key performance indicators will help you gauge how well you're doing against other companies in your industry.
Get Granular by Tracking Your Data from Specific Platforms
Once you have a clear, detailed list of goals you want to achieve, you need to track the social media data from specific platforms. If your goal is to boost your brand's awareness, you may benefit most from monitoring engagement. If your goal is to increase sales, you may want to track conversions.
In some situations, some social media platforms will offer some form of analytics. In other scenarios, you'll need to use third-party analytics tools to get the job done. Some popular analytics tools that can help you keep track of your social media include Google Analytics, Hubspot, and Sprout Social.
The best analytical tool needs to have a user-friendly result presentation system, link authentication for security, optimal customization, as well as comprehensive data collection.
Start Social Listening
Social listening refers to understanding the buzz and conversations audiences have about your brand and its products or services. Social media listening can help your brand gather and analyze data from various platforms to improve marketing and business metrics. If your brand isn't already social listening, you're creating a strategy with blinders on.
People actively talk about your brand online. It is, therefore, in your best interest to know what they are saying. Caring about your customers means understanding what they like or don't like about your brand, and if you listen to what they have to say, you may get helpful insights from them.
Social listening also lets you know what your competitors are up to in real-time. You'll be able to tell if they launch a new product or develop a new marketing campaign that's performing well. It promotes product intelligence by uncovering great insights about what's working and what's not for existing customers. You'll also learn about your customers' frustration and be able to address their concerns.
Be a Rule Follower
Data security in today's world shouldn't be taken lightly. Nearly 34% of internet users have concerns about how companies use their personal data. Every industry has specific data privacy and compliance rules and regulations which need to be followed.
A Facebook Pixel is great for collecting social media data as it monitors all conversations about your brand. It also tracks how people behave after they click on your website. Facebook Pixels uses cookies to gather all this information.
This comes in handy when measuring social media results and analyzing social media trends for 2022. Therefore, if you use it, you have to include a disclosure informing your audience on how you use cookies to share the data you collect.
Personalize Ads but Not Too Far
As a business, collecting user data can make or break your company. Doing it right can help you serve relevant ads to your audience. Ad personalization refers to data usage to predict who a consumer is to offer them personalized ads based on their searches, geolocation, interest, and intent.
Personalized ads usually have a high conversion and click-through rate since you've tailored the offer to the individual and not the audience. Consumers also love companies that go the extra mile to personalize ads. A study shows that 72% of consumers claimed to only engage with ads that have some form of personalization.
While ad personalization is an effective strategy, it should be done with caution as too much of it becomes creepy. To get started, select the ad platform you'd like to leverage and ensure you have the necessary tracking pixels on your site. This helps you collect the data you need to personalize your ads. Make sure to add a Privacy Policy to your website if you plan to use personalized ads, as any personal information stored needs to have a Privacy Policy and disclosure.
The next step is to ensure the data meets the minimum audience size requirements then start serving your personalized ads to repeat and potential customers.
We Can Help
If you're on social media, it's crucial to understand how your brand is doing. Does your content have the impact you'd like it to? Are you achieving your organization's goals with social media?
Measuring social media results is so important. You need to be reliable and have consistent analytics tools like Google Analytics that can help you measure your success on various social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
Whether you have a small company or run a Fortune 500, for your business to excel in the social media space and data collection, you have to track your success on social media. At Viral Solutions, we are committed to seeing your business succeed on all fronts.
We have the resources and strategies backed up by data to help your business grow. Sign up today to start your free audit!
At Viral Solutions we are committed to seeing YOU succeed. It is our goal to grow your business with proven digital marketing strategies that will help your business for the long haul.
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