Why Social Media Data is Important to Businesses Today
This is the age of data and nearly every organizational decision made these days is based on solid data. Businesses rely heavily on data, not only to have a look at how they’ve fared in the past, but also to gain insights on what’s in store for the future. More and more companies have begun investing time in looking at analytics, insights and big-data, all of which have helped them exponentially to reach their business goals faster and more efficiently. Like every other segment of a business, social media marketing relies on data too and those indulging in the same must crunch numbers as often as possible. So what makes social media data so important and how does it positively affect a business?
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1. Why social media data is important Without sufficient data, it isn’t advisable to make decisions on social platforms. Simply put, before you go about publishing a post on your company’s Facebook page, look at the numbers, check when your audience is online, understand the type of content that is interacted with most often and don’t overlook the demographic insights of your page. Social media platforms today offer marketers substantial amounts of data which can be used to make marketing decisions in the future. Be it Facebook, Youtube or even Twitter, each of these platforms offer analytics that point out key insights. As more and more companies pour social media into their marketing mixes, social media intelligence is also turning tremendously popular.
2. How social media data helps businesses While collecting social media data is important, it’s equally vital to understand all of this and use it to draw meaningful insights. Well-determined business goals help streamline the process better. “Some typical goals are the improvement of customer service, instant feedback on products and services through sentiment analysis, target group discovery and modification, and measurement of social media strategy ROI. You can use different metrics to reach different goals, but it’s also possible to conduct a single analysis to inform several of these objectives,” states a blog post by Olsy Sorokina, a Blog Writer and Coordinator at Hootsuite. While converting you social media data into social media intelligence, do keep a mind on the limitations of the same as these can drastically influence your understanding of what’s working and what isn’t for your business, online.
3. The best ways to collect social media data Before you go about looking for social media data related to your business, make sure you know exactly what information you need. When you’ve finally figured out what information is required for you to inform your business goals, pick out a tool that’ll help you do this. There currently are more than a dozen analytical tools that’ll give you various insights and tons of data on every social media platform your business has a presence on. Many of these tools offer data related to the growth of an account, sentiment analysis, demographics, rates of engagement and more. “If you choose to focus on a single KPI and have it inform multiple goals, it would be wise to invest in tools with detailed functions dedicated to mining that kind of data,” explains Sorokina.
