Social Media Analytics – What Is It and Why Is It Important?

For every organization in today’s highly competitive digital world, social media analytics is an important process for studying the performance of your social media platforms. This is highly useful for social media marketers because it helps to understand the performance of their digital marketing campaigns. In this article, we are going to explain what social media analytics is, its importance, and key analytics areas to focus on. We will also discuss social media analytics tools you can use to improve your social media. 

What Is Social Media Analytics?

Social media analytics refers to the process of gathering, analyzing, and reporting on statistics related to a business or brand’s presence in online communities. Its purpose is to gain valuable insight into how customers interact with that brand. It can be used to measure things such as audience engagement, reach, and sentiment. It can, further, provide insight into the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaigns and help improve your social media strategy. 

Why Social Media Analytics are Essential?

Social media analytics are essential for businesses due to various uses. Here are some of the key advantages a business can get from analytics data.

Measure the ROI of Social Media Marketing Efforts

Businesses can use social media analytics to determine the ROI (return on investment) of their social media marketing efforts. This is done by tracking aspects such as how much money was spent on social media marketing, and how much revenue was generated as a result of that marketing. 

Improve Strategic Decision-Making

Businesses can use social media analytics to make strategic decisions about their online communities and how they interact with customers, based on the findings. These decisions might include whether or not to invest in a Facebook marketing campaign, for example, based on how many users engaged with that Facebook page.

Track the Efficiency of Marketing Teams

Businesses can use social media analytics to track the efficiency of their marketing teams. This is done by comparing the results of different marketing campaigns and seeing which ones were more successful. By doing so, businesses can determine the performance of different marketing teams, and make strategic decisions regarding resource allocation for future marketing campaigns.  

Key Areas to Use Social Media Analytics

Social media analytics can be used to track statistics in a number of different areas. Social media managers can use these analytics data for their future social media marketing campaigns. Here are the areas that we suggest paying more attention to. 

Audience Analytics

Social media does not work without its audience. Therefore an organization should learn what they can about their target audience. Analytics data will provide crucial information such as audience demographics and preferences to better understand your target audience. 

In addition, social media analytics can be used to measure things such as how many people saw a brand’s social media post, how long they engaged with it, and what type of content was most popular. This information can help businesses better understand their audiences, what type of content they prefer, which types of customers are most interested in their brand, enabling them to better tailor their messages for customers who may be interested in purchasing their products or services.

Performance Analytics

Social media analytics can be used to measure the performance of individual social media posts, as well as entire social media campaigns. It can measure the performance of different social media channels. This information can help businesses determine which social media posts are most successful, and adjust their strategies accordingly.

Competitive Analytics

Looking into your competitors is a great way to discover new social media marketing opportunities. Social media analytics can be used to track the performance of a business’s competitors. By doing so, businesses may discover new social media marketing strategies that have been successful for their competitors, and apply those strategies to their own company. 

Paid Social Media Analytics

Social media analytics can be used to measure the performance of paid social media campaigns, including sponsored ads on platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. This information will give you metrics such as the number of ads, total spendings, number of clicks, click-through rate, cost per click or engagement, and campaign ROI. It will help you to determine where the money goes, which investments make better conversions and which do not, then plan for the future accordingly. 

Customer Service and Community Management Analytics

Social media analytics can be used to measure the performance of customer service and community management teams. This information can help businesses determine how quickly customer service issues or questions are being resolved, and track the number of people who want to start a conversation with your brand.

Influencer Analytics

Social media analytics can be used to measure the performance of social media influencers. This information can help businesses find new social media influencers to work with and determine which ones are the most effective for their influencer campaigns..

Sentiment Analysis of Your Profiles and Ad Campaigns

The tone of customers’ social media posts about your brand can be measured by social analytics. This information can help businesses track consumer sentiment over time, and respond accordingly.

Sentiment Analysis for Customer Service

Unhappy customers may be more willing to reach out through social media, including using the “frown” emoji. This information can help businesses monitor for negative sentiment over time, and prepare appropriate responses. Employ sentiment analysis to provide better customer service.

Top Practices in Social Media Analytics

Businesses can use social media analytics to improve their marketing strategies. We have listed the top practices in social media analytics.

Data Centralization for Social Media

By consolidating all of a business’s social media data into a single platform, social media analytics can provide a more holistic view of the brand’s social media performance across all channels. Doing so can help businesses track the performance of every post to understand which content resonates best with customers.

Identify the Right Metrics

While tracking a variety of social media metrics can give businesses a more complete picture of their brand’s performance, it is important to choose the right ones. For example, while “the total number of website clicks” may be an interesting data point in and of itself, it may not tell the entire story about how effective a social media post was at driving traffic to a business’s website.

Choose the Right Social Media Analytics Tool

Not all social media analytics tools are created equal. It is important to find one that meets the specific needs of a business’s marketing strategy. For example, a tool that specializes in sentiment analysis may be more useful for a business that wants to track customer feedback over time.

Use a Simple Social Media Analysis Report Template

When creating social media reports, it is important to use a template that is easy to understand. This will help business owners and stakeholders quickly and easily glean insights from the data.

Implement Changes Based on Analytics

Once a business has analyzed its social media data and identified areas for improvement, it is important to take action. Simply understanding which posts generated the most engagement or which demographics are most interested in the brand is not enough. Businesses must act on this information to improve their marketing strategies.

Best Social Media Analytics Tools

The most important thing to remember is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, so businesses should choose the tool that best suits their needs. There are a number of social media analytics tools available on the market.

The tools mentioned in this article are just a few of the many options available. Businesses should explore all of their options and find the tool that provides the most insights into their social media performance. Some of the most popular ones are included here.

Google Analytics

This is a free web-based analytics tool that businesses can use to measure website traffic, including social media traffic.

Hootsuite Analytics

Hootsuite Analytics is a paid social media analytics tool that businesses can use to measure the performance of their social media campaigns.

Brandwatch

Brandwatch is another paid social media monitoring and analytics tool that businesses can use to track mentions of their brand online.

Talkwalker

Talkwalker Alerts is a social media analytics tool that allows users to track specific topics online.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is an enterprise social media management platform with advanced analytics features for measuring engagement across multiple social networks. Businesses can also use it to manage their teams’ performance on these channels.

Social Networks’ Own Analytics Toolkit

The following social networks also provide their own analytics tools. Most of the key features are available for free and premium packages offer advanced analytics and other services.

Facebook Analytics

Facebook Analytics is a free analytics tool that businesses can use to measure, track and benchmark the performance of their Facebook page. It provides insights into audience demographics, page views, engagement, and more.

Twitter Analytics

Twitter Analytics is a free analytics tool that businesses can use to measure the performance of their Twitter account. It provides insights into tweet impressions, engagements, followers, and more.

Instagram Insights

Instagram Insights is a free analytics tool that businesses can use to measure the performance of their Instagram account. It provides insights into post reach, impressions, and engagement.

YouTube Analytics

YouTube Analytics is a free analytics tool that businesses can use to measure the performance of their YouTube channel. It provides insights into watch time, traffic sources, and audience retention.

Pinterest Analytics

Pinterest Analytics is a free analytics tool that businesses can use to measure the performance of their Pinterest account. It provides insights into pin impressions, repins, and clicks.

LinkedIn Page Analytics

LinkedIn Page Analytics is a free analytics tool that businesses can use to measure the performance of their LinkedIn page. It provides insights into page views, followers, demographics, and reach.

Snapchat Insights

Snapchat for business is a free analytics tool that businesses can use to measure the performance of their Story views on Snapchat. It also provides insights into reach, impressions, gender split, and devices used on Snapchat.

Conclusion

Social media analytics is an essential part of any social media strategy. It allows businesses to measure the performance of their social media accounts and identify areas for improvement. The different features of social media networks will affect the overall performance of your marketing efforts, and an in-depth analysis will provide you with crucial data points to act on. As a social media marketer, you should know how well your social media campaigns worked, whether they are paid ads, influencer marketing, or others. We hope this article gave you information on what social media analytics is and how you can use it for your business.