Tag: Analytics

The use of statistics to find insights and patterns in data.

It’s all about the numbers

Every decision we make about our digital marketing campaign has to be based on numbers. What to post, when to post, on what platform, should it be boosted, or should it be a paid ad; all these questions have to be answered based on statistics.

Where do we get these numbers? That is also a very important aspect that we have to resolve before anything else. We need to pick a tool that helps us gather these numbers and help us make all those other important decisions.

There are free tools and there are paid tools. Every platform has its own set of free tools that give you basic information about your content, interactions, followers, and every other relevant aspect of your social media.

If you want to stay on budget and don’t mind having to do a lot of things manually, like generating a report, then the free analytics tools should be enough for you. There is no need to pay that extra money, especially if you know your way around Excel or any other similar tool.

But if you feel that you need extra information or that you don’t have the time to create manual reports, then you can choose from a wide set of tools that a lot of companies are offering. It depends on your budget and what kind of information you need to get.

Photo by Lukas on Pexels.com

One tool may work wonders for one brand and not work at all for another. That’s why I’m not recommending any tool to anybody. For that, you will have to make your own research. Don’t pick the first one that shows up on the results page of a Google search. Compare tools and prices. Really, do it.

Of course, I have my favorite, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to impose that tool on all my clients. Depending on the information needed, that’s the tool I’m going to use with that account. The larger the account, the more expensive tool we are going to need.

But let’s say that is not the case. A small business doesn’t need a lot of accounts for a whole team of data analysts. A basic report should be more than enough to support our decisions. So any of the paid tools should be more than enough.

It’s a matter of personal taste, to be honest. Because all of them are very similar. They have very similar interfaces and they give you basically the same information. The difference is the way they look and the templates they use for the reports. And that’s pretty much it.

So, do your research, pick a tool, make sure you configure it to get the information you want and start using it. You will have to learn how to interpret those numbers, but once you have enough data, things will get easier. It will be worth it.

26 de March de 2023
The Big Temptation

When a brand starts posting content to its social media profiles it is very common to make the mistake of sharing too much. They post ten times a day on every possible platform they can. This is wrong!

Think about it as a user, a follower, and not a brand. You start following your favorite car company, or whatever you like, and suddenly they start flooding your news feed with their posts and stories. One week later, you unfollow them.

You don’t need to post ten times a day. That will get you nothing. You are not going to get more followers and, very possibly, you will lose the ones you have. Don’t do it.

We have already discussed the fact that you don’t need to be on every social media platform that there is, especially if you don’t have enough content or the strategy to do it. The same thing happens with your post frequency.

You can start by posting two times a week on Facebook and Instagram and work from there depending on how many followers you have and the interactions that you get. For LinkedIn, make it once a week.

If you are using Twitter, you can make between two and five tweets a day, but make sure to stay in topic and don’t repeat the same content too much. Try different days and times.

It is very hard to resist temptation, but in the same way, we avoid eating too much dessert, we have to resist posting too much. Photo by Giorgia Licini on Pexels.com.

Like we said before, it is a great idea to boost your posts when starting on social media. Once you have a reasonable audience, try paid ads. They are really helpful when you’re trying to attract more followers to your profiles.

Remember to keep an eye on your metrics and make adjustments based on what they’re telling you. Resist the temptation of posting too much and having a profile on every social media platform. You don’t need that.

What you need to do is to have a strategy, stick to your plan of content, and build a community. Of course, you can try new things, new formats, and new topics, but you have to make it in a planned manner.

Your numbers will tell you when to start posting more frequently. And even then, make it gradually. You don’t want to overwhelm your followers. Remember you are an intruder on social media. They were not meant for you to advertise there. We use it that way because it works, but that’s not their main purpose.

8 de January de 2023
Keep track of your success

One of the best things about social media is that you can measure almost every aspect of them. You can track who is visiting your profile, which posts they are reading, from where and when they are visiting, and much more.

There are a lot of tools to do this, some of them are free and some of them are paid. Of course, paid tools do a better job than free tools, because they offer some functionality that free tools don’t have. Which one to use will only be determined by your budget.

Social metrics, as they are called, are key to every strategy, because they let you see how well yours is performing. The data you get from them helps you make better decisions when making adjustments.

If you notice that one post performs really well, you should check what is going on, so you can do it again. But if you see that some content is performing poorly, you should consider changing it for something else.

Sometimes brands notice that the posts that talk about their products are the ones that don’t perform well. This doesn’t mean that they should stop making them, it means they should try different formats, tones, etc.

Every adjustment that you make to your digital marketing strategy should be backed by the statistics that your analytics tools are reporting. Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com

Which metrics to track will depend on your business goals. You shouldn’t measure something because you found an article on the internet about “the best metrics for 2022”, or something like that.

There are awareness, engagement, customer experience, ROI, sentiment metrics, and a lot more. There are even video-specific metrics, so make sure that the tool you are using measures what you need to know.

Without metrics, there’s no way to know what’s going on or how well you’re doing with your marketing efforts. At least, you should use the native analytics tool that each social media platform provides.

Analytics tools also help you with report generation. You can find all the numbers that are important to you concentrated in one place, instead of jumping back and forth between accounts.

Rounding up, analytics are key to any social media strategy, because they help you tie your business goals to social metrics, generate reports, and prove your success. All your decisions should be backed by metrics.

22 de October de 2022
There is no magic recipe

A few weeks ago, I was talking to somebody who wanted me to give him the solution to all his problems with Social Media, just by looking at the ads manager data that he had on his computer screen. “What do you see then?”, he insisted.

I explained to him that I had to take a closer look at the numbers and the content that he was posting, so I could tell him something significant that could help him generate more leads, which he had already explained that it was what he wanted.

He looked at me and said that he didn’t want me to do that, he just needed me to give him a general formula that could help him. He wanted the magic recipe that would take him to the next level on Social Media.

Of course, my answer was that there is no magic recipe and no secret formula. Every brand is different and every account needs different things. Some things might work wonders for one brand, but be the worst to ever happen for another.

Analytics and statistics should be your main source of information when defining your social media strategy. Don’t be afraid to experiment but always measure everything. Photo by Lukas on Pexels.com

Social Media and Digital Marketing have been around for some years now, but the science behind them is still developing. Just take into consideration all the changes that all social media platforms are still making to their policies and the new functions and formats they are adding.

Whichever analytics tool you decide to use, should be your main source of information. All the adjustments that you make to your digital marketing strategy must be based on statistics. This doesn’t mean that you can’t experiment, of course you can, but always measure everything.

There are no rules, so feel free to try new things. There are however some best practices and you should follow them. There’s a reason why they exist. They are general things, but very important and you can read about them here.

For example, posts don’t need to be that long. A few characters and a great image are better. Video content is king, but try different formats, because you don’t want to bore your followers. Don’t post too frequently also. Think about what you would like to see as a follower and start from there.

The only thing you can be sure of is something we have discussed already: listen to your audience. They will tell you what to post, when to post, how often, and everything you need to know.

2 de October de 2022