Why You Should Be Using Social Media Analytics

You generate content for your website, that content gets shared to social media, you track the referrals through Google Analytics. Done and done, right? Not so fast. Let’s think a minute. Are you really doing everything in your power to ensure you’ve implemented a successful social media strategy that’s going to help you drive traffic to your site and ultimately grow your blog and/or business?

We live in a very plugged in and digital age, an age where 74% of online adults are utilizing social networking sites. But with all the talk and hype surrounding Google Analytics, social media often times get pushed aside as not being as important. This is where marketers go wrong. It is no great secret that Google Analytics essentially rules the world of web analytics software. Everyone from bloggers to major ecommerce sites have utilized the popular analytics tools to track the success of their websites, the demographics of their users, and even consumer behavior. But Google Analytics is not the only web analytics tool you should be employing in your marketing strategy.

So why should you monitor social media analytics? For one thing, social media analytics tools can give you an even more in depth look at audience demographics, interests, and behaviors that can help you better understand them. A key element in running a successful website, blog, or ecommerce site.

Pinterest

Pinterest is one of the most heavily used social media sites, with over 70 million users globally. No matter where it ranks among other power players such as Facebook and Twitter, there’s no doubt that a successful social media marketing strategy will incorporate Pinterest into its focus. But what does that have to do with analytics?

Pinterest, like Facebook and Twitter which I’ll talk about later, has its own analytics tool for Verified Business Accounts (find out more here). While the original Pinterest analytics tool only shared information on how images directly from your site were doing, they have since expanded to include information about your Pinterest profile, audience insights, and activity to your own website. The Pinterest analytics tool gives insight to your most popular boards as well as pins. Another great feature of the Pinterest analytics tool is the Brands feature under audience interests. This section shows you what other brands, businesses, etc. your audience interacts with. Brand information can be key when searching for other companies to work with and even content creation.

Facebook

If your blog or business has a Facebook page (which it should) then you also have access to Facebook’s analytics tool also known as Insights. One of the most useful tools provided by Facebook Insights is the Reach metric. Reach essentially tells you how much of your content is actually reaching your audience among other things like, who is talking about your page, are people sharing your page, etc. It is similar to Google Analytics in that Reach will show you where your traffic is coming from (organic searches, paid and viral) among other useful tools.

One of my personal favorite features of Facebook Insights is the Post Type break down. Not only does it show you which post type gets you the most interaction, but you can also see other information such as post clicks, likes, comments & shares, etc.

Twitter.

Twitter’s internal analytics functions similarly to Facebook’s in that it tracks how much of your content that your target audience is actually seeing. On Twitter, this is known as Impressions. While Impressions tracks how much of your content your Followers are seeing, one of the most useful tools from Twitter Analytics is Audience Interests. While Google Analytics also provides a look into your audience interests, it is a more useful analytic tool if you’re trying to boost engagement with your Twitter followers. Why? Twitter is all about information. For example, the top interest of my followers appears to be Marketing. So if I wanted to really boost engagement, I could schedule some informative posts about marketing which should tempt my audience into engaging with the tweet.

Another really amazing feature of Twitter analytics is the “Top Follower” feature. This feature shows you the Top Follower you have for the month based on their reach. This can be an amazing tool if you’re seeking out a business partnership or trying to find a way to reach a larger audience. Additionally, according to Twitter’s blog, you can also see “whose Tweet mentioning your handle drove the most engagements” which can also be used for generating future partnerships.

Where Do I Start?

Take a few moments to familiarize yourself with each of these social media analytics tools. Are there trends you see that are positive? What are the commonalities between them? Now look again. Are there any negatives reflected in your social media analytics? What can you do to improve those negatives?

What do your social media analytics say about your audience? Are they similar across all sites? If they’re different, what is causing this? You may be able to tap into additional audiences that you had not considered before. Using social media analytics can really shape the way you market your brand, blog, and/or business.