You can do WHAT with Social Media?
- Web Messages Group
- May 22, 2019
- 9 min read
Updated: Oct 27, 2021
Social Media. What is it? Why do we use it? What’s so great about it? Well, whether that be through websites or applications, social media enables users like you and me to create and share content. More importantly, this vast platform allows you to participate in some sort of networking whether you know it or not. These online technological systems like Facebook, Instagram, or even Twitter mainly consist of user-generated content but for what purpose? Social media has been substantially diversified due to the people who now use it through this new notion of progress, it can be viewed as embracing a new sense of proficiency, which creates this notion that the technology we now have completes the jobs that were once required to be done by humans. Thus leading to businesses taking advantage of these new concepts and truly adapting them into a communication tool unlike any other. Not to mention by using these technologies it puts emphasis on the notion that they do not determine but they do matter, they are understood as mediators rather than as intermediaries by making available to us certain kinds of things and cannot deny certain affordances. With that being said, this blog post will take a deeper look into the actual conceptualizations of social media, monitoring it, as well as its metrics. The aim of this is to allow people like you and me to truly understand the how these technological creations work, the processes behind them, the importance of things like monitoring, using social media measurement strategies, and last but not least how to measure metrics accordingly. The blog will be segmented by two chapters;
The first chapter will focus on the monitoring of social media, the importance of this, the basics behind its working process, and finally the benefits.
The second chapter will introduce social media metrics, explain the importance of it, how it works, the purpose behind it, some challenges with it, and how to effectively develop a social measurement strategy to ensure a successful marketing journey.
Now, let’s dive in!
First Segment - Monitoring Social Media
Monitoring Social Media
A key company identified in the articles we analyzed was Brandwatch. Brandwatch is a social media monitoring company that defines social media monitoring as a tool to listen to what is being discussed across the internet. Due to the fact that social media is now a commonplace in our everyday lives it is THAT much easier to retrieve information about anyone, anywhere. The average user may not find this very useful or even relevant, but for businesses, they’ve hit the jackpot! Social media, especially in this day and age, is essential to any brand’s success. Ask yourself this, what is the first thing you do when you hear about a brand or company? Look them up! Whether that be through a website or social media, we do it all the time! With that being said, the most important use of social media monitoring is that not only does it help people manage the content being posted or displayed in terms of various brands or companies but it also gives the opportunity to engage more effectively with their users!
But, Why Should Brands Use Social Media Monitoring?
Now, monitoring is a continuous process, not to mention its far more complex than many may imagine. It all comes down not only how brands listen to their audience, but how the company collects and tracks data to better understand and address social media in relation to their business. As mentioned before, social media has allowed us to find new ways to process and collect information in ways that humans can literally no longer do. It’s so extensive to the point that analyzing this type of information as one single person is not only unrealistic but essentially impossible. The importance of these tools come from businesses creating plans to execute new kinds of marketing, products, and services. For instance if a brand has various social media platforms and people use hashtags, the brand name, key words or post a picture of their products, the monitoring allows businesses to track these mentions and more importantly analyze and compare to their competitors.
Patrick Liddy, a prominent individual in the analysis of media marketing includes in one of his Vendetta Blogs, 5 reasons companies should use this approach.
1. To gauge social sentiment, meaning to not only read customer’s reviews and comments, but engage with their admirations and concerns about the brand
Customer feedback enables businesses to make conclusions from public opinion about the brand or product and adjust the business plan accordingly.
2. Social media monitoring allows for the building of relationships to be done directly online
When monitoring a brand’s keyword or phrases, companies can reach out to people’s searches that pertain to a product or service they offer. For instance if I tweeted “I need a fresh pressed juice after that run!” a response could be an answer of my request by a business tagging juice shops in the area by looking at my geotagged location. (Important note: Brands who continuously interact online enable personal connections and invite new consumers.)
3. Companies should use social media monitoring is to stay on top of the trends in the niche
By closely monitoring the industry companies can identify various new trends and use them to make predictions about the future to aid in better marketing strategies.
4. Monitor social media is to perform competitor research
Analyzing the competitor will allow the company to identify successful strategies and alter them so they can apply them in their field of work. Not to mention, competitor research can give company’s advantages by identifying weaknesses.
5. Protect their brand
Being present, active, and consistent online embodies a good reputation which thus becomes apart of the core values of your business. Something Liddy mentioned was that companies that make a constant effort online have approximately "95% of unhappy customers return" to their business because it's the opinion of the company's character that matters most.
How Does Social Media Monitoring Work?
Businesses find tools that fit their specific needs, they start off by inputting keywords, phrases, or hashtags that they want to monitor. Following this the data is gathered from public conversation about their brand, through the eyes of their competitor, or even the industry in general. The monitoring system then collects relevant articles and messages from various social media platforms specified and arranges them in a way that is easier for digestion and action. For instance social activity can be filtered and grouped into categories such as: followers, comments, likes, dislikes, shares, and other metrics. Side note, this is also WAY faster than measuring, this is because monitoring is current and measuring focuses on the past. Monitoring is for the most up to date information.
Example of Social Media Monitoring Tools
A popular tool used by businesses today to monitor social media is Hootsuite. HootSuite is a social media management platform that allows for businesses to manage all of its social media in one place. Take a look here!
What to Do With the Findings of Social Media Monitoring
From what we have analyzed there are three essential actions for marketers to take once they have received the data collected by the monitoring tool used. Theses include but are not limited to
Building brand advocacy
Resolving complaints
Sending and receiving feedback
We think it is worth recognizing loyal customers who interact with the brand through social media. Showing appreciation for the customers creates a personal relationship and puts emphasis on brand loyalty and frequency.
What the Social Media Monitoring Insights Offer for the Company
Four steps the company can take after receiving their results is;
Shifting its social strategy
Developing relationships with influencers
Creating new products and services
Updating the customer service and policy process.
These steps can be easily implemented with other actions, depending on what the values, mission, and vision are for adjusting the strategy. Monitoring truly allows companies to reflect on their current social strategies and alter them for the better. Social trends evolve every year, every month, every week, every day, and to be quite honest literally every second! This is why it is important to be up-to-date on societal and consumer trends to ensure a successful social media presence!
Conclusion
In the final analysis social media monitoring results aid in the implementation of various products and services of a company. If the results are negative it helps persuade businesses to look into the issue and making solutions for the better. The same goes for if the results are positive this creates an opportunity to develop similar products or services and take the same approach. By taking these aspects into consideration and actually understanding the core concepts of social media monitoring it is evident that it is a pivotal component to any organization, their success, and their online presence.
Second Segment - Social Media Metrics
What is Social Media Metrics?
Social media metrics is the concept in which allows the companies to use data in order to gauge the impact of social media related activity in terms of their revenue. With that being said, the main goal is to confirm the success and investments made in regards to their social media marketing.
What are the Challenges Produced by Social Media Metrics?
Social media may seem fun and effective but the investment it takes are immeasurable! With all of these new technologies marketing departments are tasked with the challenge of finding a measurement strategy to identify the success rate of their approach. Some challenges include but are not limited to;
1. The difficulty of understanding the connection between social platforms and other channels
Social media is not an isolated channel, in order to be successful you need multiple components, for instance like digital channels on mobile devices. Add-ons like this make it that much easier for your consumers to engage with your content. But this is something people often forget to do, by forgetting this you are not focusing on the entire process of the interaction.
2. The inefficient ways of collecting and analyzing the intricate data
Social data is challenging in the sense that all of the aspects of the data can become too intricate for a typical spreadsheet analysis. This means you have to incorporate more aspects like text, images, location, device information, etc. Not to mention doing all this along with trying to collect, report and analyze all of the data required. This is not typically laid out for every company so this is something often overlooked.
3. The belief that social platforms cannot be measured
Because there is a false perception that company’s do not own the social platforms they are using they people think this means they cannot measure them. But what we realized through a quick analysis is by looking at the evolution of APIs, or application programming interfaces and understanding these concepts various opportunities are now available to allow the transfer of data of one site onto other apps or services, so these problems can be easily solved.
With the cohesion of social media and organizations comes the difficulty in realizing the relationship between social platforms and other channels.
How to Develop a Social Measurement Strategy?
With that being said all of these challenged can be fixed through the development of a social measurement strategy for the company. We included a six step process of creating a social media measurement in a company to effectively avoid these problems.
Understand how social fits into the particular company in question
Know what a company can measure
Decide on return of Investment vs. Correlation
Select the metrics
Develop a social measurement strategy is to share the data widely
Embrace and include anecdotes
With this in mind, this 6 step process of creating a social media measurement strategy is a very simplistic approach; however, it is easy to follow and has various advisable qualities.
What Social Media Metrics are the Most Essential?
We have identified five essential social media metrics that all companies should be measuring. These metrics include the following:
Volume
Reach
Engagement
Influence
Share of voice
Volume is perceived to be the easiest metric to measure because the metric is just analyzing the capacity of conversation the given company is receiving.
Reach can be defined as the measure of a company’s potential audience.
Engagement goes hand in hand with reach, because reach combined with interaction can produce engagement.
Influence is an outstanding metric to include in companies that use social media influencers, people, in their campaigns.
Voice focuses more on comparing the results of one’s company’s social media success to their competitors.
These steps are obviously not the only steps a company can use but they definitely create a foundation for the things businesses should consider. Not to mention, the most important aspect of this section is being consistent with the approaches you take. Once metrics are chosen ideally companies should keep them the same in order to track their success over time.
Conclusion
All things considered, social media monitoring and metrics of the fundamental elements for companies to consider in order to ensure brand success. Success is not limited to these two concepts but they serve as a foundation for the technological society we now live in. All the processes are complex and require extensive work, but if combined carefully and applied properly, this will surely ensure success in the long term.
Presentation
To view our presentation follow the link or click on the image below:
https://prezi.com/view/RTVPrM52IsPnXixOE48g/
Assignment PDF
https://static.wixstatic.com/ugd/4a6aba_ad56fe6ac6e3404eae4b8b1f54f9519d.pdf
Bibliography:
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Liddy, P. (2019, March 05). What Social Media Monitoring Can Teach You About Your
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