Implementing a social media campaign without using analytics would generally have about the same success rate as putting on a seal costume and swimming in white pointer infested waters and hoping to come out limbs intact. Okay, so maybe this is a pretty gruesome comparison, but I’m sure you get the picture of what I’m trying to say, and hopefully nobody interprets this as a dare!

Analytics are the key to making your social media campaign a success. It allows you to see the demographics of your audience, what posts your target market engage with, (through likes, shares and comments), as well as the posts that are unpopular. Through analytics you can also find out the days you are getting better audience reach, as well as what social media platforms are more effective when connecting with your target market. The data that you collate from analytics is invaluable for tailoring your social media campaigns, so that you not only reach, but grab and hold the focus of your target market in the long-term.

To make gathering analytical data from your social media campaigns a much simpler and streamlined process I’ve listed some analytical tools below that you can incorporate to monitor your social media campaigns. If you need help with social media or setting up and monitoring analytics, invest in a social media marketing specialist to handle this for you.

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Social media platforms provide their own analytics. You will find social media analytics in the account settings of all your social media platforms, although some will be more detailed than others. While you can monitor audience engagement and some demographics through your social media platforms, logging in to several platforms one after the other to check analytics can be time consuming.

GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Google Analytics allows you to track social media interaction through your website, as well as gives you options (social plugins) for your target market to share content to social media platforms directly from your site. If you’re having a website built, it is vital to have Google Analytics embedded, so that any interaction with your target market can be tracked. While Google Analytics does enable tracking of social media engagement and conversions, there are other tools that will provide more detailed information.

HOOTSUITE, SPROUT SOCIAL AND BUFFER

For the most detailed analytics from your social media campaigns I recommend Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Buffer. These social media monitoring tools not only collate analytics from all of your social media platforms in the one place, you can also publish posts to your platforms and schedule future posts.  All of these tools provide detailed reports on audience engagement, as well as distinguish which posts are more successful. They also offer trial options so you can test these out for yourself and see which you prefer.

Don’t have the time to manage your social media campaigns or analytics? Contact the social media management specialists at Ad On Digital on 1300 055 091. For further information on the digital and social media services they provide send them an email today!