This is the third blog in our series on how you can use your business data more effectively. The first blog introducing the series can be found here and the second, which focused on identifying trends and opportunities through different ways of looking at your businesses information, can be found here. This blog will look at how you can leverage analytics from social media to grow your business.
Social media analytics
It goes without saying that social media is an incredibly powerful way to grow your business. Good use of social media can help small businesses reach out to potential customers in a way that was simply not possible before. However, there are ways that you can use social media beyond simply posting about your latest product or service.
Most social media platforms will offer some form of analytical tool to measure the reach and engagement of your published material. These can be fantastic ways to understand the type of content your audience is looking for, helping you to target both your social media strategy and the products you may want to focus your business on.
What tools are available?
Let’s take a closer look at some of the tools that are available. To begin with Facebook and Instagram provide a tool called ‘Insights’, which provides metrics such as reach, impressions, and demographic data. As well as helping you track how well your posts are performing, the data can give you deeper insight into the type of person engaging with your post, which can be valuable to understand who your audience is and how you might best engage with them.
X (formerly Twitter, formerly the artist known as Prince) Analytics offers insights into tweet engagement, follower growth, and audience interests. It can provide you with a monthly report card, a dashboard for individual posts and a dedicated video activity dashboard for any video content you post to the platform.
LinkedIn Analytics focuses on professional engagement, including profile views, post-performance, and industry-related demographics. This is similar to the metrics provided on Facebook and Instagram Insights, but with a focus on business themes. You can find out who has engaged with your content, providing information such as job titles, company names and industry information for the people who have engaged with your content.
For those of you who are big on video content, YouTube Analytics offers in-depth data on video performance, watch time, audience retention, and subscriber growth. And, for the young and on-brand amongst you, TikTok Analytics provides similar information on areas such as video performance, trends, and audience engagement with detailed age and location breakdowns.
It is worth remembering that these tools can often be linked to some sort of payment plan with the platform, so it is important to fully research the best platforms and tools for your business.
So, how does this help you grow a business?
Well, this will really depend on which platforms you use, the type of content you post and who your audience is. However, there are quite a few ways you can use information from social media to help grow your business. A few of these, such as tracking the performance of your posts and understanding who your target market is, have been touched on above. However, we’ve listed a few other potential uses below.
Cost-Effective Advertising
If you are running a small business, you’ve got to make the most out of your limited supply of time, energy and money. Social media advertising can offer a cost-effective way to target specific audiences. If you are running an ad campaign, analytics can help you evaluate the return on investment by tracking ad performance, including click-through rates, conversions, and cost-per-click (CPC). This data enables you to monitor your ad spend, ensuring that every pound is spent effectively to help grow your business.
Competitor Analysis
A number of social media analytic platforms provide tools to analyse competitor performance as well. By examining what your competitors are doing on social media - such as the type of content they post, how often they engage with their followers, and how their audience responds - you can gain valuable insights into industry trends and best practices. Understanding competitor strategies can also highlight gaps in the market, helping you to find unique opportunities to differentiate yourself and create your own niche.
Audience Engagement and Sentiment Analysis
Social media platforms are not just for broadcasting messages - they also offer an opportunity for direct interaction with customers (although, as with all customer-related interactions, we advise proceeding with caution!). Analytic tools can help you monitor customer feedback, sentiment, and engagement. By tracking ‘mentions’ of your business, comments, and reviews, small businesses can gauge public sentiment and respond proactively to negative feedback, fostering stronger relationships with your customers. This sentiment analysis can also help you identify emerging trends or issues in your industry, allowing you to adjust your offerings or marketing strategies accordingly.
What next?
There’s quite a bit to work through there, but that has hopefully been an interesting and insightful look into the world of social media analytics, and how you can use them to grow your business. This is by no means a comprehensive overview so, as always, if you would like to talk more about the specific needs of your business regarding this or any other topic (well, any other IT related topic at least), drop us a line at contact@mckeownscullin.com. You can find a list of the services we can offer your business on our Services page.
Comments