Accelerate your Social Marketing Analysis | Travel Research Online

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Accelerate your Social Marketing Analysis

Knowing what to measure can be as baffling as sifting thru all the insights, analytics, and numbers.

Knowing why you’re measuring is key to your success.

Does your analysis give you a better idea of what action YOU can take? Do you better understand your marketing direction or what resonates with your fans?

We all love to see our fan base grow. Yet if those fans aren’t working hard for you by sharing, liking, or commenting on your content, are their growing numbers meaningful to you?

We all love to see our photos and videos being re-pinned and liked. Yet if those actions aren’t leading to an increase in brand awareness, is that a meaningful measurement?

Measuring new views and downloads are considered ‘Consumption Metrics’. While these are the easiest and most common analysis, they’re more likely to be similar to a popularity contest. Digging a little deeper, these insights will help you understand what’s important to your unique audience. That’s where the magic of relevant analytics happens.

When you want to measure strategically, you may want to consider measuring what actions your viewers and fans take after viewing your content. Do they phone you and book their next vacation? Do they sign-up for your newsletter? As Jay Baer says: “The end goal is action, not eyeballs.”

Let’s dive into some popular tools to measure and analyze.

 

Facebook

Novice: Page Insights, a free analytics tool right in your Facebook Business page toolbox, shows what days of the week and times your fans are most likely to be online. This will give you a better idea of when to post so they’re more likely to see your content.

Here’s where you’ll find Page Insights on your business page:

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Figure 1 – Facebook Page Insights

Intermediate: Uncover what type of content is working hard for you and reaching your fans by checking out Page Insights. Choose the Posts section and then click on Reach.  You can re-order the Reach column from high to low and better understand what your viewers find interesting. Then you can replicate your success. As you move into more complex analysis, you may consider some of the paid tools listed below.

  • Pro Tip: If you’ve set up “Pages to Watch” you’ll get a glimpse of what’s popular on the pages you’ve selected and you can then compare and contrast.

Advanced: When you study the Page Insights Video section, you’ll have a better understanding of how long people watch each of your videos. This will help you understand where they drop off and potentially how you can keep their attention even longer in your upcoming videos.

  • Pro Tip: Glean even more information from Audience Insights if you have an advertising account set up on Facebook.

 

Twitter

Novice: Cruise on over to your Twitter account and access the free analytics. You’ll see a snapshot of the number of Tweets from your account, Impressions, Visits, and Mentions. You can view recent Activity that shows re-tweets and likes. You’ll also have access to your top follower. This is a powerful way to see what’s working for your audience and potentially connect with top followers and establish a stronger relationship.

Here’s where you’ll find the Analytics section. Click on your thumbnail photo and select Analytics.

Figure 2 - Twitter Analytics
Figure 2 – Twitter Analytics

Intermediate: When you select the ‘Audience’ tab, you’ll find more details about the interest, buying styles, and demographics of your fans. This will come in handy when you’re ready to begin advertising.

Advanced: Check out Twitter cards as a method to measure your URL clicks. Understanding what links your followers click will combine nicely with your audience demographics so you can target your tweets and ads even more pointedly.

 

Pinterest

On your verified business account you’ll find the free tool called Pinterest analytics. In addition to graphs and charts about your fans, you’ll also find some reach analytics, repins, and board popularity here. This is an essential way to better understand what’s resonating with your fans and produce additional similar content.

Here’s where you’ll find Pinterest Analytics. Start by clicking on the gear box.

Figure 3-Pinterest Analytics
Figure 3-Pinterest Analytics

Tools to measure

Once you’ve decided what’s important to measure across each platform, it’s valuable to research what paid or free tools can best do the job for you. More in-depth analysis information here.
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Free tools

  • A simple spreadsheet that you create to measure quantifiable metrics. At the very least, keeping track of trends and successes is key to your future social calendar planning.
  • Facebook Page Insights is free for all business pages. Other minimally priced or free tools I’ve found useful include: CrowdBooster for Facebook and Twitter, plus Simply Measured.
  • Pinterest tools include Pinterest Analytics, free for all business accounts, which gives solid data on impressions and reach. Tailwind allows you to monitor, track, and compare.
  • Twitter can be measured and analyzed using Tweriod, CrowdBooster, and Simply Measured.
  • Twitonomy, TweetStats, and Twitter Analytics are helpful for a deeper dive.

 

Paid tools

  • Simply Measured has a more robust paid platform to dive deeper into your engagement across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Vine, Instagram, and your website. Many in our industry rave about the detailed data provided.
  • Salesforce Radian 6: Identifies and analyzes conversations about your company, products, and competitors with social media monitoring and engagement tools.
  • Sysmos: Provides a “comprehensive real-time monitoring dashboard to collect all relevant online conversations to gain insights with detailed metrics and intuitive graphics.”
  • Viral Heat: tracks Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Websites, Pinterest, and Videos.

These tools range in price based on your needs and amount of data provided. More details here. This is merely a sampling of the myriad of tools available.

Learning as much as possible about your audience, fans, and followers is essential to your successful social strategy. Sizing them up provides you with the tools to meet their needs with relevant, insightful content. Here are some additional tips and tools.

Regular assessments are essential to learning what you’re doing right, what needs tweaking, and how you can better serve your clients.

How will you use these metrics to your advantage?


Catherine Heeg, international speaker and trainer, focuses on social media marketing & communication for the travel and tourism industry. Join the conversation and connect with her at www.cmsspeaking.com and socially.

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