Where does your brand rank in the very distinct worlds of marketing and consumer approval? Social media reporting answers these questions and many more, ensuring that your company is heading in the right direction.
In this article, we will define in more detail what a social media report should include and how brands use it to stay on top, focusing on these points:
- Understanding what should be in today’s social media report
- Why social media reports are essential for understanding brand perception, consumer trends, and beating out your competition
And these valuable stats provide context to our intel surrounding the importance of understanding your audience, and the value of social media reporting:
- 86% of consumers crave authenticity from the brands they chose to support
- 2 billion people globally use social media
- 86% of marketers cited that social media lead to an increased exposure for their brand
Social Media Reporting in 2021
Social media reporting is your benchmark and is the best consumer analytics tool your company can have to gauge their success. It tells a brand where they’re winning and where they need to try a bit harder. However, as the market evolves so has social media reporting. Just understanding your share of voice, consumers common demographics and ROI isn’t enough. Today with the growth of social media and its importance in the lives of consumers, you need to know much more in order to make your brands voice heard.
Today’s social media report should include netnography. And if you’re not familiar with that term, it essentially means the whole kit and kaboodle of online consumer intel. And this includes:
- Sentiment – how your brand measures up
- Likes, shares and engagements of your brand’s social posts
- Reach and resonance – how many people your company is actually reaching with individual posts and how your messaging is resonating
- Consumer interests outside of your brand for better connection opportunities
- Possible emerging trends and ways to invest your time and money to stay current in your category
- A variety of other benchmarking metrics
And then of course, you need to include data from wherever consumers are interacting most – TikTok, Discord, Snapchat, Reddit, or any other popular channel that comes up. If you don’t know where they are, you can’t properly target them.
For instance, if they are chatting on Discord, social media reporting should show this. Discord is growing in popularity as a consumer intelligence resource. Consumers today crave more authenticity and can connect there – a place where genuine conversation takes place and where likes and number of followers do not matter. It’s an authentic experience minus the trolls and spam. And we know that consumer behavior research indicates that 86% of consumers crave authenticity from the brands they chose to support. Discord is a social platform to keep an eye on for future marketing endeavors, specifically for influencer marketing strategies. If Discord isn’t on your social media reporting, you’ll miss out entirely on an emerging opportunity to connect to a whole new audience.
But there are other critical aspects to consider as well – let’s explore.
Why Social Media Reporting is Essential for Brands & Businesses
2020 was filled with challenges for many brands. Companies found themselves judged for not saying anything or saying too much/the wrong things during a year of woes and lows brought on by the pandemic and social unrest. Social media reporting shed light on the path brands could take to step dexterously through the minefield and win consumer applause. But brands had to be paying attention to their social analytics to do so, and many were not.
Of those that were: 86% of marketers reported that by using social analytics in 2020 they saw an increase in exposure, followed by improved traffic, lead generation and growing fan loyalty. And social media reporting reveals how these increases, or even decreases, play out for your brand specifically. And this provides you a starting place to create a marketing plan.
Achieving specific goals like planning a new campaign, audience targeting, beating out your competition or increasing share of voice are achieved with the help of social media reporting. First, you have to understand your place in the conversation. Next, you must track your brand over time, investigating the reasons behind any highs and lows. It’s one thing to know that your brand is struggling or succeeding, but it’s quite another to know why. Especially when the unexpected hits, it’s the why that brings understanding, and social media reporting which guides that understanding with solid benchmarks.
Let’s look at a few ways social media reporting can enhance your business strategies.
Using Social Media Reporting to Beat the Competition
Keeping your competition close so you can monitor their movements and their campaign effectiveness is essential. You can see where they have succeeded and apply those steps to your own strategy. Or if they fail, you now have a blueprint of what not to do and an opportunity to swoop in on their consumers!
Below, we have a competitor comparison that highlights top sources where each brands’ consumers can be found. Both Brand A and Brand B show a large amount of talk coming from Twitter. Brand C shows a more even distribution of chatter between Twitter, Tumblr, blogs, forums, and even news. A savvy brand might see this distribution and realize they have the opportunity to increase their share of voice on these other platforms, instead of putting all of their eggs in Twitter’s basket.
Social media reporting reveals where your competitor is earning mentions and helps identify consumer trends in the process.
Social Media Reporting Helps Identify Consumer Trends
Consumer trends come and go quickly, social media reporting brings them to you in real time. This is important, as something as simple as identifying and acting on top trending hashtags first can catapult you into consumer fandom.
Take TikTok for example, hashtag challenges are the ‘in’ thing to do. Social media reporting can locate top trending hashtags that your consumers are already using to help you get in on their conversation, leveraging your own brand and campaign.
If we explore the Beauty industry, for example, we see lots of popular trending hashtags. One that pops out and should be of industry to brands is the #enhypen hashtag that’s gaining momentum. What’s that about? It’s the newest K-Pop boy band sensation and one that will offer viral sponsorship opportunities:
And even if your brand isn’t able to afford a sponsorship with the latest K-Pop crew, it can be knowledgeable of the space and create fan opportunities with followers. Ways to interact and create ‘looks’ that relate to this group (for example) is just one avenue to explore. A beauty brand could create a contest around that concept, which could create user generated content for weeks and show how authentic and relevant your brand can be.
Which brings us to tracking your brand perception . . .
Track Brand Perception with Social Media Reporting
Your success boils down to brand perception. Our metrics below gives us a small window into a larger world which can be explored using advanced social media reporting. Here Coca-Cola’s net sentiment is rising – and quickly. From April 12 to May 12 – a signal that they’re doing something right even though they may not be getting mentioned as much lately. This is a good starting point to begin your dive into deeper metrics such as what’s driving the sentiments and why there is a drop in mentions. Social media reporting can reveal this and more.
A savvy brand will track their perception along with the many other vital metrics provided by a good social media report. This, more than anything else, helps ensure brand success. Word-of-mouth has always been important and it’s so much more so these days with online!
Do you have the tools you need to deliver a solid social media report?
If you feel your social media analytics software is lacking in any way be sure to reach out for a best-in-class demo. We’re always happy to create a tailored example that speaks to your category.
