Social Media Analytics: Driving Better Marketing Decisions Insights Into Customer Behavior Introduction Influenced by Economic, Social, Or Political Happenings

White Paper

Social Media Analytics: Driving Better Marketing Decisions Insights into Customer Behavior Introduction influenced by economic, social, or political happenings. Hence, the customers’’ approach Social media is growing rapidly and it offers towards these trends will also be periodical. something for everyone. With the growth In such a scenario, marketers can use of mobile technologies, the impact of these trends to form a strategy to increase social media is instant. This development awareness about their products or services. has compelled marketers to take social However, without the data the analysis of media seriously and initiate strategies real customer behavior is impossible. This is around it. However, without proper backing where social media analytics come into the of data, no strategy is complete. Data picture. The process of social media analytics insights drive better and smart business begins by aligning the available data with decisions. Now, marketers are finding ways the business goals. Marketers need to use to de-code actions-in terms of customer the data appropriately to make smarter engagement, content popularity, website business decisions. visits, and conversions-happening on social media platforms. Social media analytics is a powerful tool that helps marketers find The Social Platform customers’ sentiments across the online Social media offers customers a bigger and channels. It is useful in understanding better platform to collaborate, and exchange customers in Three important ways. information and opinion. The shared information often plays an influential role in forming molding consumers’ behavioral patterns across social media platforms. The rise of mobile technologies has taken this Sentiments growth to the next level where information is exchanged in real-time. Also, customers demand dedicated platforms to meet their requirements. The emergence of platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, Social and Vine reflects customers’ sentiments Media towards niche platforms. This growth is also Analytics compelling marketers to adapt to these new trends and attract customers with dedicated Behavior Trends offerings. Through social media platforms, information is shared in several formats such as Tweets, Facebook (FB) posts, videos, and visuals. A universal strategy cannot be applied across these social media platforms. However, a Customer sentiments are often useful in dedicated strategy requires sufficient data understanding customer opinion about and deeper customer insights. This is where the brand and its products and services. social media analytics come into play. Social Social media marketing is more about media analytics enable collection, analysis, influence marketing. Social media trends and interpretation of conversational data are temporary l. These trends are largely across these sites.

02 Interpret

Analyze

Collect

Social media platforms enable marketers Twitter to dive into the details that can help them design a long-term marketing strategy. • Twitter Analytics Social data is often different from the data Pinterest derived from traditional marketing sources. With social media, marketers have access to: • Pinterest Analytics • User information across social platforms LinkedIn • Brand popularity and loyalty • Analytics for individual users and business owners • Emerging business trends The list of third-party tools includes: • Understanding behavioral patterns of customers • Hootsuite

The Analytics Tools • Buffer In social media, every platform has its own • SproutSocial way of measuring trends. Some platforms • ViralWoot have in-built analytics or marketers can capitalize on third-party analytics tools. The • Quintly list includes: • Cyfe Facebook • Klout • Page Insights • HowSociable • Adverts Reporting • TweetReach

03 The Strategy

With vast information scattered across Reaching relevance in real-time is the key to platforms in various formats, a right social media marketing activities. The right combination of platform and strategy combination of relevance and influence is needed. It is very important from the is what drives successful social media marketer’s perspective to know what works marketing campaigns. Marketers will only be on which platform. However, gaining this able to influence their target audience if they knowledge is not possible without accurate are relevant in their marketing techniques. data. With social media analytics, marketers However, to get the right combination, they can have data, which can be converted into need the right information in terms of data; actionable insights. These actionable insights hence, social media analytics is of utmost form a strong foundation for a robust importance for marketers. marketing strategy. Choosing the right analytics strategy for Social media marketing is revamping the way social media activities is very important. To organizations connect and engage with their do this, marketers need to adopt the right customers. With social media, the ability to analytics strategy that comprises: target audience based on specific interests and demographics further augments the • Alignment of social media campaigns marketers’ capabilities to converse and to business goals; social media activities engage with their target audience. Here, cannot work in isolation without any the goal is to convert these conversations definite goal and engagements into monetary business • Focus on the right kind of outcome growth. (more on business growth in terms of conversion value)

04 • Identification of useful and actionable social media efforts. A conflict could arise insights; the right combination of what, in identifying the appropriate metrics and when, and how is important-what kind aligning them with business performance. of data is to be measured and when and how to use this data Social media metrics differ from those of the traditional media. Social media metrics • Understanding of the basic insights are mostly connected to the users’ reactions before migrating to advanced analytics to a particular marketing message. These metrics are often measured in likes, dislikes, • Consideration of several factors-platform followers, fans, pins, re-tweets, and shares. and users-based on the outcome Through social media analytics, these metrics • Differentiation between priorities and can be linked to brand awareness, customer goals engagement, lead generation, and brand loyalty. The Key Performance Indicators By understanding these metrics or KPIs, (KPIs) marketers will be able to determine the success of their campaigns and the Using social media, marketers can measure improvements needed to garner better many aspects of customer behavior. customer attention. However, to pinpoint However, these KPIs may differ from these metrics, marketers need to assess marketer to marketer. Sometimes, it their social media efforts in various ways. becomes difficult for marketers to decide This assessment primarily indicates the what they really want to measure with their magnitude of their social media marketing efforts.

Objective Frequency

Content Response

Target Audience

05 the content. Through social media analytics, marketers can understand what kind of • Do marketers have clarity about the content is driving customer engagement and objective of their social media marketing how customers are reacting to it. Sometimes activities? through reach or sometimes through likes, • What kind of content do they create for social media analytics enable marketers to sharing on social media? design stable content strategies. Making the right impression at the right time with the • What is the frequency to share their right content is an essential outcome of a content successful social media campaign; however, without social media analytics, marketers • What type of audience are they cannot define what is right and what is targeting on social media? wrong. Apart from engagement, analytics • How responsive are marketers on social also measure the content’s effectiveness in media platforms? How much turnaround driving users to the website and converting time is taken to respond to customers? them into long-term customers. Answers to these queries will help marketers Traditional marketing channels always lacked uncover the following data: the ability to measure the exact Return on Investment (RoI). This inability often • Reach resulted in huge advertising budgets and minimal returns. Compared to the traditional • Demographics channels, social media marketing offers an extensive coverage of analytics that helps • Engagement marketers achieve better marketing RoI. • Brand popularity (likes, re-tweets, and When marketers know what is working for mentions) them and what is not, they are in a better • Website traffic position to maneuver their efforts in the right direction. This enables marketers to Identification of the right KPIs is of manage time, resources, and costs in a paramount importance while using social productive manner. The optimization of media analytics. Unless the KPIs are clear, these important factors results in enhanced marketers cannot capitalize on their social marketing returns. media analytics activities. The objective is to use these KPIs in defining a better marketing Whether the organization is big or small, strategy. social media analytics is compulsory for doing business using social media. Marketers The Conclusion are investing time, money, and efforts in social media, and hence, they need to get a Social media marketing comes as an clear picture of their marketing efforts and influential platform for marketers to the outcome of these efforts. Social media disseminate marketing messages. The analytics is the right medium to get into the larger part of this extension is occupied by psyche of customers and deliver what they engagement, which is, in turn, driven by want at the right time with optimized efforts.

06 When users access information across social marketers advanced knowledge about their customers’ interpretation of their brand, products, and services; hence, marketers With the help of social media analytics, can use the available data to make smarter marketers can implement platform-based strategies for better results. With social media analytics, marketers can

plans and outcomes. analytics gives marketers an edge over their competition. Social media analytics gives

[An ISO 27001 Company]