Many businesses invest time, energy and resources in social media marketing. It has become an essential aspect of most marketing plans and activity but a common mistake that some organisations make is not analysing and reporting on their social media activity.
The different social platforms all offer their own analytics and for those using scheduling software, such as Hootsuite or Sprout Social, these also offer analysis within the different packages. There is a wealth of information regarding views, engagement and performance available at the click of a mouse so accessing the data and reporting on it doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult.
Reporting is important for many different reasons. Here we take a look at just some of the reasons why you should be analysing and reporting on your social media marketing.
To gain a better understanding of your activity
Reporting on your social media will help you gain a better understanding of your activity and how it is delivering against your goals. It is also the best way to explain your activity to others and demonstrate what you’ve accomplished.
Depending on your role and the organisation you are marketing for it can be important to justify the effectiveness of the work that is being done. Reporting is the most tangible way to demonstrate to managers, directors and stakeholders the value that social media brings to an organisation’s brand, online presence and overall reputation.
To consolidate what you’ve learnt about your audience
Engaging with customers and your target audience via social media is a great way to build relationships and strengthen your brand. Reporting on this will help you to consolidate what you’ve learnt about your audience and help you to convey this information to others within your organisation so that it can be useful to them too.
For example, has feedback via your social media channels highlighted changes that customers would like to see to the service or products you offer? This could be invaluable to planning and future developments for your organisation.
Social media is often used by consumers as the first place they turn when dissatisfied, it’s worth noting that this may not be directly communicated through formal reviews on your organisation’s profiles. With this in mind social media should be monitored for mentions and conversations which involve your brand and your competitors even when the comments aren’t directed at your profile. Reporting on this can help those within your organisation to understand how it is perceived by an external audience.
To inform future activity
Reporting and analysing your social media are the best ways to inform future content plans. Gaining a clear understanding of the content, which has driven positive engagement, is the best way to create more successful, engaging content in the future. Consider the types of content which have been worked well but also the timing of posts and the differences between platforms. What has worked effectively on Facebook, for example, may not work on LinkedIn.
Demonstrating, through reporting, that activity is having a positive impact can help to justify the time needed to manage social media and to justify budgets allocated to it.
Gain an advantage over your competitors
Assessing and including information regarding competitor activity in reports can also be helpful. This can help to highlight gaps in your content or activity which could help your organisation to gain an advantage over your competition.
Improve your overall online presence
Doing all of the above will also help to you to improve your online presence. Many consumer decisions are based on impressions gained online and more often than not this is via social media rather than a company website. With this in mind your social media and overall online presence have never been more important.
If social media marketing and reporting on it is something which you need help with then get in touch to find out more about how we could support your social media management.