Making Data-Driven Decisions on Social Media
There is an immense amount of noise on social media. Ads. Political diatribes. Asks for nanny recommendations. Solicitations for gifts to charity. You name it, it’s on social media.
So what does this mean for you and your business? How can you cut through the clutter and deliver your message to those whom you want to reach?
For starters, identifying the parameters of your target audience(s) is essential, primarily because not all demographic segments are on every social channel. You aren’t going to be targeting Gen Z on Facebook. Or Boomers on TikTok.
Your content should be tailored for each channel to which you are posting. It’s highly likely, for example, that Facebook will be your catch-all audience. It is also the channel where you have the most real estate to post. It’s also highly likely that your Instagram audience are mostly Gen Z and millennials. You also have a character limit, a lower tolerance for text, an inability to hyperlink a URL in a caption, and an opportunity to engage with your inner and outer circles through hashtags. This does not equate to posting content verbatim across these two channels. There might be isolated instances where cross-posting is appropriate, but should be an exception and not a rule.
Social media insights are your friend. Establish a cadence by which you want to analyze your metrics. I recommend a quarterly glance at a minimum. You don’t want to wait until every January to do a deep dive and then make snap decisions for the coming year.
Pay attention to the following:
What posts are getting the most engagement? Likes are nice, but what about comments, shares, and saves?
Is there a common thread between the aforementioned posts? If so, that’s your cue to post more of that type of content.
Is there more resonance with one media type (i.e. video, link, image, etc.) over another? This will likely be video, but I don’t want to make grand assumptions.
What actions are users taking as a result of your posts? Are they doing what you want them to do? Actions might include visiting your website, registering for an event, making a donation, downloading a thought leadership piece, and others.
If there is a clear call to action (CTA) in your posts and you are not seeing those conversions, revisit your content. Perhaps your message isn’t compelling. Perhaps there is another reason why users “don’t want to do the thing.”
Social media is continually a marketing disruptor. It’s cheap and wide reaching, and there are many ways to leverage it. There is a caveat. A strategy around social media is critical. Posting as much content as you can whenever you have/get it is NOT a strategy. It could even hurt your engagement. An intentional strategy includes the channels you are using, why you are using them, who you are reaching, your content pillars, how often you will post, when you will draft content, and how you will measure success.
The good news is, you don’t have to be everywhere. And do you not have to be everything to everyone. The key is investing the proper time and resources to do it right.
