There are a number of different blogs, articles and ebooks that stress the importance of using social media for business. That’s old news. The larger question, posed yesterday in a controversial blog post on the 60 Second Marketer entitled Social Media Doesn’t Actually Work, is how to measure the effectiveness of a social media campaign.
If you’re interested in that topic, then exploring social media monitoring (SMM) tools should be at the top of your To Do list. These are tools that allow you to examine what’s working and what’s not working in your campaigns. By looking at the data — and deriving insights from them — you’ll be able to make course corrections and improve the effectiveness of your campaigns.
What kinds of data (and insights) can you gather with a good social media monitoring tool? Glad you asked — here are 5 different things you can analyze with a good platform.
1) Learn how your prospects and customers think
What is great about social media monitoring is that it can be tailored to track specific products, campaigns and advertisements. This means that if your demographic varies from product to product or your campaign was meant to reach a certain consumer, you can create searches which track these independently.
A characteristic that is of great importance when looking at customer demographics is gender. Knowing that your online consumers are women will change the focus of your marketing campaigns and the content that you release.
The amount of data that you receive via social listening is vast, and most importantly, is up-to-the-minute. This means that audience demographics can continue to be measured for any significant changes.
Of course, if you really want to take a deep dive into social media monitoring, you’ll use the data to understand how your customers think. Admittedly, this may mean that you’ll need to make some assumptions, but every insight you can glean from the data is an insight you can use to improve your products or services.
2) Understand which sites generate the most buzz
Where you post your content can determine how often your article is shared. Having your work in front of the right people will generate conversation about your brand.
When you use a social media monitoring tool, you can track whether your campaigns are resonating with the right audience. There are different ways that you can measure success when it comes to looking at buzz from your content. Firstly, it could be that you simply want to be mentioned as much as possible. Looking at volume through tracking will show you where you are spoken about frequently, but it may be that you want to connect with people who are influential. Quite a few platforms use the ranking system Mozrank. This system analyzes the importance of the site and its influence.
With this information you could approach the sites that have the most influence and are more likely to be interested in your next campaign. This allows your PR and marketing teams to focus their efforts and create strategies for future planning.
3) Learn which topics interest your consumer base
Another component available in SMM tools is the ability to analyze what topics are of interest within your industry. With this information you can now start to see any emerging trends that could be occurring within your sector. This will allow you to start planning the content which will attract potential consumers and generate buzz.
Within topics, you can further segment your data through filters which means you can be very precise. This is particularly useful for marketers who are wanting to create a campaign for different regions or are analyzing which keywords are related to a specific location or gender.
4) Analyze how prospects and customers feel about your brand
One of the main purposes of having a SMM tool is to listen to the conversation surrounding your own brand. People are constantly discussing their opinions online, and without being privy to the conversations, brands will be missing out on some essential information.
Creating a search on a brand will unearth some interesting data which will help not only the marketing team, but also other departments. Products, sales, PR and customer relations will all be all to adapt their processes and have a greater understanding of what a consumer needs and wants are.
Brand sentiment can be measured through analyzing the data collated by social media tools. By looking at the sentiment, companies can have a greater understanding of how online users feel about their brand and what issues need to be improved upon.
Any negative conversation that arises needs to be addressed to make sure that it does not taint the views of new customers. By answering in a public domain, brands are demonstrating their ability to be open and trustworthy while providing quick customer support.
5) Spy on your competitors
There are several reasons why companies should monitor their competitors and this applies to marketers, too.
It’s important to establish any weaknesses that the opposition may have. It could be that they are not present on a certain platform or they are not speaking about a certain area of importance within that sector.
Similarly, by looking at the opposition you can unearth any changes that you need to make within you own operations. Seeing what other may be doing differently will help you adapt and intensify your efforts.
By analyzing your competitors, you may also identify influencers who are present within your industry. For example, an influencer on Twitter may discuss their current disappointment with their supermarket provider. This would open an opportunity for another supermarket to connect with them and demonstrate how their services are superior.
A company can also monitor a variety of other activities that the competition is undertaking such as specific campaigns, where they are mentioned in the press and the top sites that they are mentioned on.
By undertaking these activities, you will be able to establish yourself and grow your own online presence. It is not so much about constantly tweeting or pushing out content, but being aware of where they should be placed. This is an ongoing process with searches and queries needing to be monitored regularly and updated to adapt to changes within the industry. However, when conducted correctly, these tips will certainly improve your visibility online and see you reaching the right people.
About the author: Chelsea Varney is a Community Manager at Brandwatch , a social media monitoring company. You can connect with Chelsea on Twitter or Linkedin.