In today’s digital age, social media is a marketing arena where businesses compete for attention. Brands strive to stand out by crafting brilliant, distinct, compelling posts.
Yet, success on this battlefield is actually a matter of criteria. You must use social media analytics to assess whether you’re “winning” or “losing” on these platforms.
Think of social media marketing as a sports event. To win a sport, you must have the highest score. But instead of "scores," social media analytics uses reports, tools, and metrics to evaluate if you’re leading the game.
In this article, we’ll discuss what you need to know about social media analytics and how to leverage it for social media success.
What is Social Media Analytics?
Social media analytics pertains to the use of data obtained from social media channels (e.g., Facebook, YouTube, Twitter) to measure social media performance. Insights extracted from this data are helpful in making informed marketing decisions.
If that definition sounds too technical, let’s simplify it with an example.
Let’s say it’s Valentine’s Day. We know this sounds cheesy to some, but it’s a great event and opportunity for brands to flex their marketing muscles. To stay relevant, businesses can post “couple gift” guides, date night ideas, appreciation posts, or reasons to celebrate Hearts Day.
You can use social media analytics to measure the success of your Valentine’s Day posts. Check your posts’ impressions, likes, comments, shares, and reach. You can also analyze the demographics of those who engaged with your content. These insights will be invaluable for planning your next Valentine’s Day marketing campaign.
What are the Benefits of Social Media Analytics?
Plainly speaking, social media analytics (SMA) requires effort and money. Yet, businesses still put this endeavor on top of their operations. Why?
Here are some key reasons:
1. Measures Audience Sentiment
Without social media analytics, you're in the dark about how people perceive your brand. You’re never certain whether your posts are compelling or not.
SMA uses metrics such as likes and comments to gauge people’s overall sentiment. Based on these metrics, you can assess whether your audience views your brand in a positive, neutral, or negative light.
Let’s say your recent Valentine’s Day post prompted people to tag their SOs in the comments section. This suggests that people liked your post enough to share it with their loved ones.
Audience sentiment also helps you estimate customers’ value perceptions of your brand. If people view your brand positively, chances are they’ll also support your products.
2. Identifies Relevant Trends
Social media analytics can scrape data from social media channels and across the internet to identify future trends that can be leveraged.
For instance, if your SMA found “best gift for Valentine’s Day” as a popular search query among your target audience, you can post content that addresses this query to drive engagement.
Another example is hashtag tracking, which allows you to spot emerging “hashtags” or topics that currently interest many people.
3. Monitors Real-Time Performance
SMA gives you a comprehensive view of your social media performance in real-time. If you notice a decline in new followers over time, it could be a sign that you need to improve the quality of your content.
4. Evaluate Relative Performance to Competitors
Social media analytics can compare your engagement levels to assess how you fare against competitors. It can also give you insights about your competitors’ strategies that you can also adopt to succeed.
Common Reports for Social Media Analytics
A report is a compilation of information that forms a cohesive narrative of your social media performance. There’s plenty of reports you can use for social media analytics, but the most common ones include:
Audience Demographics Report
Even on social media, it’s impossible to impress everyone. So, you must focus on your target audience or people whose attributes and interests align with your brand and content.
The Audience Demographics Report lets you identify key information about the people who engage with your content. This includes details like gender, age, nationality, location, and device used. From here, you’ll get an idea of what your target audience should be.
For instance, Highperformr analytics provide insights into accounts that engage with your posts across channels like Twitter and LinkedIn. It also tracks their recent interactions and the time they joined your platform.
Top Posts Report
This report is a curated list of your top-performing posts across various channels over a specific period. It includes essential details such as total likes, reposts, and comments.
Knowing which posts perform best will give you an idea of the type of content that works the most for your brand.
Competitor Analysis Report
To assess your current online performance, use your competitor’s data and metrics as a benchmark. A competitor analysis report summarizes your competitor’s relevant KPIs to gauge how you fare against them. This report usually has a line graph that compares your performance to your competitors over time.
Social Media Campaign Report
This report evaluates the results of a specific campaign executed on single or multiple platforms. It summarizes all relevant performance metrics to provide a complete picture of the campaign’s success.
For instance, a Twitter report consolidates metrics such as hashtag reach, tweet engagements, and new followers to assess your campaign’s performance on the platform.
Social AI Insights Report
Some reports also use AI to offer suggestions for improving social media performance. For example, HighPerformr social AI provides practical recommendations for your current performance, such as “improve post consistency” or “engage with followers more frequently.”
Best Metrics for Social Media Analytics
If social media analytics is a sport, metrics are the stats that measure your chances of winning. Simply put, metrics are quantifiable measures used to monitor and evaluate social media performance.
Here are some metrics to consider:
1. Engagement Metrics
Likes, shares, retweets, reposts, or comments on a post reflect its level of engagement. The higher these numbers are, the more engaging your post will be.
However, engagement metrics mainly indicate the performance of individual posts and don't always reflect the overall brand image. For example, a post from a lesser-known brand can still garner hundreds of likes if unique and engaging.
2. Follower Growth Metrics
Around 90% of users follow a brand on social media. This means that there's always potential to grow your following.
To assess the growth of your follower base over time, you can use the Net Follower Growth (NFG) metric. This measures the number of new followers gained during a specific period.
Mathematically, monthly NFG is calculated as:
(New followers at the end of month 1 / Total followers at the start of month 1) x 100.
So, if you gained 50 new followers by the end of June and had 1,000 followers at the start of June, your monthly NFG would be (50/1000) x 100 = 5%.
3. Reach
Reach indicates how many people have seen your post. For example, if 500 people have viewed your Instagram post, then its reach is 500.
This metric is important for assessing your brand’s awareness among your target audience. Needless to say, even a well-made post is useless if it has a minimal reach.
Understanding each social media platform’s algorithm is essential to maximizing your post reach. For instance, leveraging popular hashtags on Twitter (or X) can significantly boost a tweet’s reach.
4. Conversion Rate
Every post serves a purpose that can benefit your business. For example, an inspiring LinkedIn post might aim to invite people to sign up for a webinar.
The conversion rate measures how “successful” your post prompts people to take action. For instance, if 100 out of 500 people who saw your LinkedIn post signed up for the webinar, the conversion rate would be (100/500) × 100 = 20%.
If your current conversion rates are low, you can up the numbers using compelling call-to-actions (CTAs). However, avoid being too forceful in your approach—often, a subtle invitation is more effective.
Top-Notch Social Media Analytics Tool for Your Business
Now that you know which reports and metrics to use for social media analytics, it's time to choose the right tool for automated analysis.
Highperformr offers leading-edge analytics tools to help you maximize your social media ROI. With Highperformr, you'll have the guidance needed to formulate data-driven strategies for guaranteed success.
Explore these easy-to-use and comprehensive analytics features to enhance your social media performance:
- Competitor watchlist
- Media Engagement Data
- Growth Funnel Analysis
- Social AI Insights
- Recent Post Insights
- Engagement Trend
Aside from its analytics capabilities, Highperformr can help you write, schedule, and post content across multiple social media channels at scale. Use our innovative AI to produce outlines or enhance your writing in no time.
The best part? You can try Highperformr for free to see if it aligns with your social media goals and vision. Sign up today!
