Photo by Georgia de Lotz

The best part about your research and analytics is finding out what you have learned. As a social media professional, figuring out what you need to do better and how to improve your work is stressful. Research and analytics make this part of your job easier because they provide insights into what is performing best and what is not. You can use your findings to advance your efforts and reconstruct your strategy. Knowing what your data tells you is the first step; the next step is acting on it. After you find your data, the question is when, why, and how you should respond.

 

Understand the Why and Figure Out the When

The challenge of responding to your findings is knowing the when and why behind the data. Most professionals tend to rush to repeat actions that have worked best in the past, but it’s essential to be mindful of why it worked so well. If you posted something that performed well but only did so because of its popularity at the time and chose to repeat that post without finding out more, then you have wasted time and energy on a campaign that won’t perform half as well. Similarly, if you give up on the initiative too soon, you miss out on a fantastic opportunity to grow your brand. How can you decide?

Understand the Story Behind Your Data

Before you take your next steps, it is crucial to understand the story behind your research and analytics. In other words, make sure you know the stories about your audience, content, and overall strategy. 

What is consistent? 

Identify what is consistently performing well. Is it something in particular that always performs better than others? Is it the specific content that always performs best or the time of day that explains the better performance?

What is the context?

Numbers can be misleading. You need to take into account external factors behind your numbers. For example, if your numbers drop on a particular day, was it a holiday, or was something important happening that may have caused your audience to be offline? Consider the context of why your numbers look the way they do before assuming it is the content itself.

What is the cause? 

Dig deeper into the problem. Instead of focusing on the surface-level metrics, investigate possible reasons for these metrics. What if your page is taking too long to load? What if your ad is misleading about what you’re selling? What if your ad is confusing your audience about what to do? Ask your audience questions and view your content as an outsider to fully understand what is happening. 

 

How Do You Respond?

How do you respond to your findings? Change your strategy or optimize your efforts when needed. You do not have to stick to your initial plan, especially if you find ways to improve along the way. 

Adjust Current Activities

Be prepared to change your strategy when your data suggests it. It is alright to change course during a campaign. For instance, if you notice something small like the font is too hard to read or a competitor’s post is performing better because their ads look better, adjust where it is needed. The how can be easy once you understand what, when, and why. 

Adjust Future Activities 

Too often, social media professionals are so busy coming up with their next campaign that they forget to take the time to reflect on what was a success and what they can learn from their past campaigns. Use the failures from your last campaign as learning opportunities. It is understandable to have anxiety about keeping up with competitors and falling behind on trends when you take these breaks to reflect. Still, it is a necessary setback in order to learn what to do right in the next strategy. Use this time to also analyze your competitor’s efforts to see what worked for them and what didn’t. 

Optimize Your Efforts with Your Insights

To ensure your data-driven strategy is implemented appropriately, you should take the time to document your findings and share them with your team. This might seem like an obvious step, but saying it once in a meeting and not giving it the attention it needs can lead to overlooking your findings. A good way to avoid this is by summarizing your findings in a clear and concise report, prioritizing your takeaways, and recommending actions. You can use charts and graphs to give you and your team a visual and make data analysis a part of your strategy building. 

 

What to Remember

Analytics and research are powerful tools to use when you are trying to improve your efforts. By understanding the when, why, and how to respond to your findings, you can easily navigate through creating your data-driven strategy. Remember that the goal isn’t to collect the data but to create meaningful takeaways and use the data to grow your brand.

 

 

Author: Taylor Munghia

Social Media Strategist 

Taylor Munghia was an Intern for the National Institute for Social Media, who successfully achieved the Social Media Strategist Certification last year. She has a bachelor’s degree in business with an emphasis in marketing. She is also educated in social media content and strategy.