How has social media data analytics influenced your approach to content creation and audience engagement?

One of the most significant ways that social media analytics have influenced our approach to content creation and audience engagement is by giving us the tools we need to demonstrate to management that their messaging priorities are not always aligned with what our audience WANTS in terms of content, particularly because our upper management team is so inactive on social media. Those analytics help us make our case for proposed directions and strategies we are looking to implement and later build confidence with management in us and our recommendations when we can show our successes in those endeavors through post analytics.

Social media data analytics have allowed me to understand what type of content our audience resonates with the most and what is not working at all for us. As a new team member at The Masiello Group, these analytics have been invaluable in understanding past successes and shortcomings. It has been extremely helpful for me to refine our content strategy and make more informed decisions for future planning.

We plan content and strategy around what’s working on each channel. We post content topics based on the audience (professional, older, younger, etc.) and content types based on channel performance (are graphics better than links on one channel, but photos or video better on another?). 

It helps us in deciding what content to produce when we start creating our next batch! We started using more status-only posts on Facebook because engagement is through the roof! 

Our team reviews metrics on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis with the intention of mapping out consistent patterns of high-performing content. I use these insights to inform our strategy when it comes to cadence, platform-specific content, and future creative that may resonate with our audience. I love to use Sprout’s tag reporting to know what type of content is performing the best, that way we can improve our strategy at a high level and advocate for more support with different initiatives. Audience engagement is always top of mind so we use metrics to gauge where our audience is at so we can meet them with content we know they’ll love!

Social media has influenced my approach to content creation and audience engagement by offering more insight to the posts that are being made. Optimal posting time is one that has been very helpful and effective. Data for when the audience is most active helps in scheduling posts for maximum visibility and interaction. 

On one hand social media is about communicating to clients, but on the other hand it’s about communicating with them. Those analytics and insights into what our audience really want to see (and how they want to see it) is a game changer. We not only better serve our audiences, but we get an opportunity to truly engage and build loyalty. 

I’ve put a fair amount of weight into performance analytics on social posts and campaigns before. It’s been helpful in A/B testing outreach and determining the best approaches (from content to platform choice to asset type used) from an outcome-based perspective. 

We use social data and social listening to inform our social strategy, A/B test new content types, discover emerging trends, learn what resonates the most with our audience, and so much more!  We regularly use Sprout’s reporting features to look over our social data. Social data also helps us explain to other departments why we do what we do in the social realm.

I have consistently needed to measure what type of video performs best on a particular platform.  To do this, I’ve really depended on creating a batch of 5 or 6 videos to run over a certain period of time. Once done, I look at the metrics - particularly CTR since we mostly aim at driving traffic to our site. Doing this allows me to compare apples to apples and see what content style really works vs. ones that are just mediocre.