SMBs don’t have to spend a fortune or employ a data scientist to master social media data.
In fact you may already have everything you need to glean a wealth of data insight. We’ve compiled a crib sheet of social data smarts from Entrepreneur that can help you move your integrated marketing to the front of the class.
Borrow From Competitors
96% of SMBs have a social media presence. You can compare how your competitor’s social media engagement stacks up next to yours by studying social data. Tools like Followerwonk for Twitter, show you who competitors follow, who follows them, what followers’ engagement rates are, and what content is generating the most buzz in your industry; invaluable insights for informing your own social media strategy.
Leverage Micro Influencers
Achieving engagement rates of up to 25%, micro influencers have emerged as the go to solution for brands seeking to extend content reach. Affordable tools like Klout, Kred, or BuzzSumo mine social data uncovering key influencers for your products. Identifying and recruiting a group of micro influencers adds authenticity, organic reach and engagement to all your social efforts.
Engage Around Events
Use social data to design a campaign around a targeted event. Twitter’s built-in event targeting calendar exposes social data you can research to connect directly with customers who are actively listening. Visualize major trending events to learn audience size, demographics, geography, and interests.
Milk Your Email Lists
The big social platforms all have native analytics to help you sift nuggets from their data. Cross-referencing an email list with demographics and behaviors pulled from a large platform’s social data improves your ability to successfully segment and target your campaigns.
Target a Single Platform
One of the easier and more efficient ways to leverage social data in your marketing is by running targeted ads on a single major platform. Facebook is a favorite of integrated marketers as it aggregates its platform data with data on consumer behavior from multiple outside sources. Organized categories let you pinpoint consumers such as “dog-owning, skiers shopping for a new car.” Marketing strategists recommend starting with a snapshot of your best customer based on demographic, interests, and behavior; then test by adding one category at a time to discover what works best.