Why your brand should harness social media analytics

This week, we yield our column to our resource persons on social media analytics. Here’s their take on an increasingly important topic.

Data is not just a buzzword—it drives value for the business. It helps companies understand their customers better. It unlocks untapped or undertapped opportunities. It fuels customer delight.

In a digitally-inclined country like ours, data can be harnessed from social media. While many companies and brands use social media for advertising, there’s so much more than just likes and engagement. With proper data gathering, we can measure business results.

So how do we make our social media initiatives performance-oriented?

By learning how to make the most out of social media analytics to tap the right audience, engage with this target market through what’s relevant to them, and measure conversion.

1. Social media is getting bigger and bigger in the Philippines

The Filipinos are not just sociable beings, we are also the most social in the internet.

We spend around three to four hours on social networks every day (Source: We Are Social 2018 Report).

More than 66 million Filipinos visit Facebook each month and 50 million of those Pinoys are connected to a business page on Facebook.

This reveals an opportunity to engage with your customers where they are.

Another interesting fact is that 95 percent of Filipinos discover new brands in the same social media platform (Source: Entrepreneur.com’s “Digital Bayanihan” and “Conversational Commerce” Alive and Well on Facebook)

While Facebook is the most accessed social media platform, YouTube is a strong second and it’s seen by many brands as an engagement channel, driving video views and building interest in certain products.

Instagram is also an important social media channel, especially with millennials and younger.

With all of these social media platforms, Filipinos are finding it easier to discover and connect with their favorite brands online.

2. Both big and small companies can mine their own data

Having a social-first marketing strategy doesn’t always entail spending on millions for third-party tools or databases. Though there are paid tools available for social listening or for obtaining and measuring specific metrics, starting entrepreneurs or smaller firms should not be disheartened. There are ways to acquire and analyze social data from your company’s own resources and social media channels, as long as you know where to look.

You can also tap your own customer base in Facebook to communicate with them, where they are.

Think big, act small.

3. Data > Content

They say that content is king but data still triumphs over it. You cannot create a proper social media strategy that uses content without taking into account the data from your previous engagement with your audience or target, as well as data from previous initiatives.

Creating content should not be a hit-or-miss game all the time.

Testing the engagement potential of a content is good, but social media analytics can tell you what to do better next time. Even if you have the most creative minds on your team, you will be working blindly with your content strategy if you don’t have a basis.

And that basis should be previous data.

4. Marketing metrics are measurable

When starting a data-driven social media campaign, the first thing you have to consider is your marketing objective.

Without a proper objective, you cannot determine whether your initiative worked.

Do you want them to go to your website? Do you want potential customers to sign up? Do you want leads? Do you want them to purchase from your online store?

Linking your business objective to your social media marketing is the first step, but how do you know if your campaign is working for you?

The good thing about digital campaigns is that each step of the consumer journey is measurable.

Your ROI could be calculated easily. What you have to focus on is how to make the data and metrics work for you. And how it fuels better strategy and campaign optimization.

Our resource persons for this article are Wence Wenceslao and Nicai de Guzman. Wenceslao is the assistant vice president for digital marketing at SM Investments Corp. She has over eight years of experience in digital and mobile marketing, product management and strategy development, having been the former group head at Rising Tide Inc. and director for digital strategy and Governance at Globe. De Guzman was the creative strategy head of Rising Tide.

Wenceslao will conduct a one-day course titled “Social Media Analytics: Drive results to your business through a data-driven approach” on Nov. 15.

The Inquirer Academy is at 4168 Don Chino Roces Ave. corner Ponte St., Makati City. For more information about the workshops or if you would like to add your input on the article, you may email [email protected], call (632) 834-1557 or 771-2715 and look for Jerald Miguel.