How Do Social Media Analytics Impact Your Brand Awareness Strategy?
In the dynamic world of digital marketing, social media analytics can be a game-changer for brand awareness strategies. We've gathered insights from six marketing and branding experts, including CEOs and Marketing Directors, on pivotal moments when data drove their decisions. From leveraging shorter LinkedIn posts to the power of video content, discover how analytics informed their successful strategy pivots.
- Shorter LinkedIn Posts Increase Engagement
- Benchmarking Social Media for Brand Health
- Broadening Audience and Simplifying Messaging
- Humor Boosts Social Media Engagement
- Pivoting to Apartment-Moving Market
- Video Content Elevates Brand Engagement
Shorter LinkedIn Posts Increase Engagement
For a client offering communication services, we found that our long-form posts on LinkedIn were not performing as well as expected. Social media analytics revealed that shorter, more frequent updates were getting better engagement. We pivoted our strategy to include quick tips, industry news, and brief case studies—with very appealing banners. This change led to higher interaction rates and a more active follower base, highlighting how critical it is to tailor content length and format to audience preferences.
Benchmarking Social Media for Brand Health
We've been using our social media brand tracking framework to assess campaign performance, with benchmarks being crucial for any evaluation. In our experience, applying our brand tracking framework specifically to social media has proven to be an effective way to measure the impact of our campaigns on brand health metrics.
We maintain a regular brand health tracking setup based on social media data. It's advisable to establish an initial benchmark covering three to six months before launching any campaign. The benefit of using social media for this purpose is that most analytics tools provide instant access to historical data. Examining the volume of social media conversations before launching a campaign is also a critical benchmark. As I mentioned, these volumes serve as a proxy measure of brand awareness, and they can reveal whether our campaign has successfully influenced awareness levels.
Broadening Audience and Simplifying Messaging
At Innovate, we once had to pivot our brand awareness strategy based on insights from social media analytics. Initially, our social media campaigns targeted a niche audience within the web design and digital marketing sectors. However, analytics revealed that although our content was well-engaged, it did not effectively translate into website visits or inquiries, which were our primary goals.
To address this, we broadened our target audience and simplified our messaging to make it more accessible. We also began incorporating more client testimonials and case studies, which helped illustrate our services' tangible benefits. This strategic pivot, informed by data from social media analytics, led to increased engagement and, more importantly, conversions.
This experience underscored the importance of continuously monitoring and responding to social media metrics to align our marketing efforts more closely with our overall business objectives.
Humor Boosts Social Media Engagement
There was this one time when our team was knee-deep in analyzing social-media metrics, and we discovered something rather unexpected: Our witty GIFs were getting more traction than our carefully crafted infographics. It was like realizing your sidekick stole the show at the superhero convention! So, we decided to lean into the humor and interactive content, steering away from the more serious tone we had initially planned. Lo and behold, engagement skyrocketed faster than a cat meme on a Monday morning. It taught us that sometimes, letting your brand's hair down (figuratively speaking) can make it stand out in a sea of corporate seriousness.
Pivoting to Apartment-Moving Market
One of the biggest revelations that came to us through social media analytics was the rising market for apartment-moving services. Our initial business model was laser-focused on homeowners since they tend to have the amount of stuff and disposable income that we're looking for, but we started noticing a distinct uptick in social media interactions localized in urban ZIP codes, and some comments and questions directly geared towards apartment moving. We've since pivoted hard into this niche, especially in large metro areas, and it's our fastest-growing segment by far.
Video Content Elevates Brand Engagement
I remember a time when our social media analytics showed that our target audience was more engaged with video content rather than written posts. This insight led us to pivot our brand-awareness strategy to focus more on creating engaging video content that resonated with our audience. The result? A significant increase in brand visibility and engagement across all social media platforms. It just goes to show the power of listening to your audience and adapting your strategy accordingly.
