A complete guide to social media analysis.

Let’s talk about social media analysis! I know some of you might shrug your shoulders when you hear the word “social media analysis” but it’s an essential part of your marketing strategy. Do you want to increase your ROI, reach new audiences, and promote your brand? Take a look at our complete guide to social media analysis. 

Social media has become one of the backbones of marketing. It’s hard to imagine any marketing campaign, even an offline one, without sparking some kind of social media involvement. 

As with everything, there are pros and cons when it comes to social media marketing. On the one hand, the development of social media channels presented opportunities for better-targeted, more creative, and interactive marketing campaigns. We can now address our marketing campaigns more precisely and reach our potential clients on the right platform, and at the most convenient time. On the other hand, social media marketing offers tons of data – some of them necessary for taking insightful decisions, and some useless vanity metrics. 

How do you find useful data in the sea of information? With a little help from social media analysis! The success of your online marketing campaign depends on many factors, for example, the right execution of an idea or understanding the needs of your audience. Still, one of the most crucial aspects is the correct analysis and interpretation of the data you’ve collected from your social media accounts. That’s where social media analysis shows its potential! In this blog post, I’ll explore the benefits of social media analysis and show you why you need social media analysis.

Here’s the plan of action:

What is social media analysis?

How to start social media analysis?

Which social media metrics should you follow?

What are the benefits of social media analysis?

What pieces of information will social media analysis provide?

Why is social media analysis a necessary part of your marketing strategy?

What is social media analysis?

Social media analysis is the process of collecting the most valuable data from your social media channels and drawing actionable conclusions. To get the most out of a social media marketing campaign, you need to analyze the data you’ve gathered during your previous activities. You don’t have to run test campaigns before your big opening. Social media analysis is based on the data you already have, from your previous posts, interactions with your followers, earlier social media campaigns, and so on. 

When it comes to social media analysis, you can base your data on two sources of information. As stated above, you can take a deeper look on your own social media channels and analyze the results. The second way to do a social media analysis is to analyze the social media presence of your competitors. That will allow you to prepare a benchmark dossier and you’ll have a general idea of what works and what doesn’t in your industry. Social media analysis will help you develop the most successful social media campaign. A campaign that will reach the right audience, at the right time, and on the right channel. 

To be fair, I have to admit – social media analysis is a time-consuming process. But the benefits of social media analysis are hard to miss. That’s why, I’d love to dig a little deeper convince you to perform it anyway.

How to start social media analysis?

Start your social media analysis with creating a social media listening project. Enter the keywords you want to monitor across different social media channels. I recommend creating at least couple of projects with these keywords: The name of your company – to monitor all the mentions about your company, even if the social media users don’t add the @ sign. Your branded hashtag – to keep an eye on the spread of your message across social media. Your campaign hashtag – to assess the performance of a social media marketing campaign within a specified timeframe. A term related to your business – to find all the conversations around the topics you’re interested in. For example, if I were an owner of a lipstick company, I would monitor keywords like “lip-gloss”; “gloss”; and “makeup”. 

Social media monitoring tools don’t collect historical data, so the analysis process starts at the moment you create a project. That’s why it’s vital to set up your project before you start a social media campaign. 

Which social media metrics should you follow?

Tracking the changes in brand awareness requires different set of metrics that measures the results of your brand awareness campaign. Another aspect you must keep in mind is the quality of the metrics. A good social media analysis provides very actionable social media insights. Focusing on vanity metrics won’t bring you far when it comes to your social media strategy. 

The volume of mentions

The volume of mentions will tell you how many times the name of your brand, your hashtag, or any other keyword was mentioned in a predefined time. This is your starting metric when it comes to social media analysis. The ultimate goal of your social media presence is to raise brand awareness — make your brand known across your existing and potential new audience. The more people talk about your brand, the higher the volume of mentions.

Sentiment

To correctly analyze the volume of mentions, you need some additional sets of data. One of them is the sentiment around your mentions. Social media sentiment analysis will tell you how social media users feel about your brand. If you see a sudden spike in negative mentions about your brand, product, or service, it might indicate a social media crisis in the making.

Social media and non-social media reach

You might wonder why you should take non-social media reach while talking about social media analysis. The reach of your posts, both social and non-social, will indicate where your audience is present and what type of content they expect to see from your brand. First, compare non-social reach to social reach, the comparison will tell you whether your audience reacts to social media content. Should you put more time and effort into establishing a robust social media presence or are there any lower hanging fruit?

If your social media accounts don’t generate social media buzz, you may want to consider two options. First, you can work on establishing your online presence. Create interesting content, interact with your followers, run social media marketing campaigns. These activities will bring, over time, dedicated followers. If time is of the essence, you could try working with social media influencers. The key to a successful cooperation with an influencer is to choose the right one. Ideally, this person will be able to reach audience similar to yours and will act as an authority figure.

The share of voice

The share of voice is one of the most important social media metrics. The share of voice tells you what percentage of the whole online discussion was initiated by a given social media account. The higher the share of voice, the more influential your social media account is. Your potential customers will consider your brand as an industry leader, which will, ultimately generate new leads.

What are the benefits of social media analysis?

Information is power. The more actionable insights you can collect, the better campaign and general social media presence you’ll be able to develop. Therefore, social media analysis should be an incremental part of your marketing planning. What exactly are the benefits of social media analysis? Measure the social media ROI, that’s one of the biggest challenges awaiting social media managers.

How should you calculate the ROI of your social media marketing presence? Which social media metrics you want to focus on, depends on your social media goal. Identifying sales from your social media channel requires different metric than measuring brand awareness. Nevertheless, in every case, it’s necessary to assess the impact of your marketing activities. Estimating the social media reach, analyzing the number and type of interactions, assessing the sentiment around your content, tells you whether you’ve reached the right audience. If the results of your social media analysis aren’t satisfactory, you should implement changes to your marketing tactics. 

A thorough social media analysis of your marketing activities is not a mumbo jumbo but solid data you could base actionable actions upon. The figures will indicate the effectiveness of your social media marketing campaign and provide insights into how to improve your social media presence. 

Improve your social media strategy - Analyzing the results of social media activities can also have a positive impact on enhancing your social media strategy. The results of social media analysis indicate which social media channels will bear the fruit and deliver your social media ROI. After all, there is no point in investing your time and effort into channels where your message won’t be heard. 

Another benefit of social media analysis is the ability to create better content. And by better content, I mean content that is attractive and engaging to your audience. Content that will bring you new leads. Social media algorithms favor content that sparks interactions. The more likes, shares, or comments your photos, films, or posts generate, the better. Social media analysis will tell you which type of content should you focus on. Social media analysis numbers will help you get an understanding on how your company is seen on social media and what can you do to refine your image. 

Understand your audience - To build a healthy social media presence you need to reach the right people on the right platform. Without compelling content, it will be hard to engage your audience. Part of building your content strategy is understanding your audience. Once you know who you are talking to, preparing attractive content will be a piece of cake. By performing social media analysis you will know who interacts with your content. 

You will be able to prepare content, for example, photos, films, gifs, ebooks, reports, (the sky is the limit in that case) that engages your audience. That will not only look good on your social media analysis graphs but will also have a positive effect on your social media goals. Social media users leave a ton of information on social media, conducting a social media analysis will provide all the data you need legally and ethically. 

Spy on your competitors - Being one step ahead of your competitors isn’t always easy. One of the vital steps in becoming an industry leader is knowing what your opponents are up to. Social media competitors’ analysis highlights any differences between you and your main competitors. The analysis pinpoints both your advantages and disadvantages. You can leverage your position by emphasizing your strengths and trying to exploit your opponent's weaknesses. Imagine the situation where your competitors could ignite a conversation on one of their channels or consistently post content that users gladly engage with. 

Compare marketing results to get the most out of social media analysis. Social media analysis will help identify the posts that generate the most interactions. By studying the posts, you can try to emulate the results or even adjust them to improve the results. Moreover, if you take a step back, social media analysis will help you identify social channels that are the most efficient for your business. It will save a lot of experimenting as you will be able to develop a more thoughtful and detailed social media strategy. 

Prepare a benchmarking dossier - Benchmark dossier is directly related to social media competitor analysis. In order to know whether your campaign is performing well, you need a point of reference. Analyzing in-depth the social media presence of your competitors will provide all the necessary data. Analyze the average social media metrics on which you want to base your campaign. The median will give you a general idea on how your social media campaign stands in your industry. 

Establish the direction in which your industry is headed - Social media analysis will not only provide insights into the current state of your industry but could also pinpoint the direction in which your industry is headed. How can you do that? By analyzing the general talk around your business niche, monitoring what your customers need and what improvements they would add to your product or service. The customers shape your industry. If your product doesn’t meet their needs, they will look for alternative. Customers suggestions will give you a general idea where your industry is headed. Picking them up before your competitors will make you an industry leader and could increase your market share. 

What pieces of information will social media analysis provide?

That’s a lot when it comes to the benefits of social media analysis but what information exactly should you look for? Social media analysis should give you answers to these questions: 

Who is your desired audience? Think about the demographic information, such as gender, education, employment information, age, place of residence, hobbies, and interests. 

What are their preferred social media channels? Is it wise to invest in a TikTok marketing strategy? Maybe the majority of your audience is active on Twitter? Social media analysis will provide answers to these questions. 

What type of content resonates best with your target audience? Are they interacting more with photos or videos? What type of content your audience shares most often? 

Who are industry influencers you should keep an eye on? Influencer marketing is one of the most powerful form of marketing campaigns. The key to a successful influencer marketing campaign is choosing the right person to work with. Take a look at people who already are talking about your business niche and determine the right fit for you. 

What is the social media reach of posts?

Answering this question will not only help you determine the success of your posts. By analyzing the social media reach of your competitors’ posts you’ll be able to assess the marketing efforts of your competitors. 

Why is social media analysis a necessary part of your marketing strategy?

If you can measure your marketing activities, you can improve them. Since the social media landscape is constantly changing, it’s important to keep up-to-date. Even slightest changes in social media algorithms could have tremendous impact on your social media presence. Analyzing the effects of your social media activities could help you prevent drops in social media engagement. 

You will be able to spot seasonal changes and identify them from real problems with social media strategy. In the constantly changing social media world, keeping your finger on the pulse will help you reach your marketing goals. Social media analysis will help you be the industry leader.