Social media is now old enough for us all to get nostalgic about the early days of metric tracking. Remember how limited and inaccurate social media metrics once were? Sentiment clouds threw up the most peculiar insights that had no practical applications, and measuring engagement was as simple as counting Facebook likes and retweets.
A lot has changed since then, but what has never wavered is the understanding that there is immense value in tracking and understanding audience interaction with brands on social media.
It revolutionised marketing as a two-way discussion, instead of a megaphone from brand to consumer.
But are you truly listening to your customers? Are they being heard? How much can vanity metrics such as engagement and reach tell you about how your customers feel towards your brand?
We’re setting the vanity metrics aside today to focus on the social media metrics you need to track to enable you to keep up with your customers and with the times.
1. Brand mentions
A great starting point is to track what percentage of the online conversation in your industry that your brand captures. Which of your competitors is sparking the most conversation online and are you missing a trick?
Brand mentions are a great way to ensure your relevancy, and spot spikes in conversation amongst competing brands to make sure you’re aware as soon as possible of any changing dynamics or notable PR and marketing campaigns within your industry.
2. Net sentiment
So now you know who people are talking about, the next question is: how do they feel towards them? They say any publicity is good publicity, but if cancel culture has taught us anything, it’s that that phrase is certainly not true.
Discover whether people are talking positively or negatively about your brand and how that compares against your competitors. Net sentiment is measured by subtracting the number of negative comments from the number of positive and neutral comments.
3. Topic and subtopic mentions
Discover what topics are dominating the conversation for better or for worse. Find out what resonates with your customers and easily compare if the same is true for your competitors. Break down topics into subtopics to delve deeper and help you identify conversations drivers more precisely.
Social media is an excellent source for identifying trends in consumer interests and priorities long before other media catches on. And it’s not just customer comments that reveal interesting insights. Look at the topics mentioned by the brands themselves as an indication of the direction of their strategies.
4. Sentiment drivers
Find out what’s influencing your net sentiment score. Which topics and subtopics are pain points for your customers, and which are considered the strengths of your brand or your product? Let your customers tell you in no uncertain terms.
Use this information to inform your marketing, product and customer care strategies going forward.
5. Location
Where are your most vocal customers from? Location information can help you target your paid advertisements more precisely. It’s also useful to find out whether users are mostly using mobile or desktop to access social media so that you can format your ads accordingly.
6. Psychographic Information
Your primary aim on social media is to understand and connect with your online audience. Find out exactly what kind of person you’re talking to. Most of us believe we are primarily driven by logic and reasoning. But this is only true of a fraction of us. Most of us are far more persuaded by emotional language or storytelling. Just think of any memorable Christmas ad from the past five years.
Find out whether your audience is rationally or emotionally driven, then use this information to refine your communications and connect with your audience in a more meaningful way.
7. Customer care triggers
Whether you like it or not, social media is an extension of your customer support service. Customers go to social media to share their experiences and air their grievances. Use natural language processing technology to parse out different types of customer service queries, and ensure they are responded to efficiently.
Emotion detection enables you to identify urgent requests from angry or frustrated customers. Automatically identify whether a comment is information seeking, or whether it requires action on the part of your customer service team.
Get started with Symanto
Symanto uses state-of-the-art natural language processing technology to structure and analyse text data accurately and with meaningful results. Forego vanity metrics and track social media metrics that give you the most insight into your customers’ drivers and behaviours.
Get actionable insights into what your customers are saying about you and your competitors using freely available and publicly accessible big data from sources including (but not limited to) social media.
Get in touch or book your free personalised demonstration to find out more.
