Social media is becoming increasingly important when it comes to your online strategy and as such, it’s paramount for businesses to realise that they need much more than a Facebook page.
There are several angles that have to be covered for social media to be an effective corporate tool. More and more businesses are realising that to be on top of social media it has to understand who’s viewing its profile and where those viewers are coming from. Analytics tools are necessary to monitor traffic and tweak performance according to the audience using it.
Analytics tools are increasing in their prevalence and in the high-speed, fast-paced, and constantly evolving social media world it becomes harder to maintain with each passing day. There are so many people reading and sharing such a wide range of content (in real time) that analysing social media data becomes a monstrous task. If you can cut down on some of this time and free up some headspace you can better plan future marketing strategies based on your findings from the data pulled.
Many companies will be working on similar product types and it’s often the company that makes it to market first that reaps the benefits. So saving time is not only productive, but it also has a financial imperative: don’t lose out to your competitors.
Here are a number of tools that you could use to help ensure better control over your social media accounts and the data that they generate.
33Across
This tool allows a business to combine its social media analytics within its marketing efforts. It does this by allowing a brand to get a more developed and complete picture of its online audience. 33Across analyses how customers interact with the brand’s social media output and this information is good for both companies and its customers. The service helps companies to determine the best focus for its marketing efforts and in turn develop more relevant advertisements for its audience.
Brandwatch
This tool is best for companies that span the international market. Brandwatch has support for 25 languages, making it a good application for companies with a varied language base.
Brandwatch watches and monitors conversations that take place across a number of social media websites and the company claims that its algorithms can cut through social spam. This apparently means that Brandwatch finds the most relevant conversations that really matter to your company. Hootsuite also partners with Brandwatch, ensuring some of best data gathering and collating tools online. Brandwatch currently has over 70 million data sources, meaning that users will never be out of the loop.
Google Analytics
Google seems to be everywhere these days and it has become a great resource for navigating the online world. It’s also offering an analytics service for social media web sites. In 2013, Google added a social report feature to its analytics services, which can be used to determine the conversation value of visitors from social sites. It also offers the ability to see how those visitors from different social sites act on your site. There is another feature that makes Google’s offering tempting and that’s the ‘Activity Stream.’ This functions to show users in real time which visitors are talking about your site, and what they’re saying about it on social networks.
Hootsuite
Perhaps one of the most popular social analytics tools, for good reason. Hootsuite offers a singular dashboard feature that serves as a place for users to manage all of their social media accounts in one location. This includes all of the big names like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn.
Users can also apply Hootsuite to schedule posts and manage social media content. The service can also dig into what your social media activity means through its own set of online analytics tools. As we mentioned above, Hootsuite has partnered with Brandwatch to extend its analytics reach. This is something that makes both services more tempting for enterprise customers.
Buffer
Buffer initially did exactly as it says on the tin: it was a buffer. For those who use social media heavily this service helped to space out social media posts and place them at times that were more optimum for the audience in question. Businesses could then pick a time of publication that maximises engagement and response.
This service has updated since its earlier versions and now Buffer offers plans for business and enterprise with detailed analytics. This can reveal to an organisation what’s working and what’s less successful. A business can have actual data then to support the times that work best for posting and the times that don’t. Rather than anecdotal evidence an organisation can now target, and know why it’s targeting, a specific time and audience.
Moz Analytics
This service has been around for a little bit but under a different name. Initially dubbed SEOMoz, Moz Analytics provides users with a singular dashboard to manage multiple social media accounts. It provides detailed information on your social stats, as well as other marketing efforts. You can also find out how your social media standing is impacting other areas such as search engine optimisation (SEO).
All of the data collected can be seen via a helpful and simple graph. The visualisation of data means that users can simply glance and find out the information they’re looking for. The service also provides information and insights on how you compare to your competitors and recommendations on how your business can improve its marketing efforts.
With social media being so saturated and the information being shared so consistent, it becomes harder to stand out. A thorough understanding of how the online world works can only be an advantage. Use the tools listed above to help you better grasp what’s working and what’s not. Then, tweak your service and make your online marketing attempts even more successful.