You have your social media data. Now what?

Sahail Ashraf posted on 4 June 2021

It’s easy to ‘have data’, but what should we do with it when we have it? Social media marketing data can be incredibly useful, here’s how you should make the best use of it.

Social media data is important. You know this. However, just having the data alone isn’t enough, and you can only go so far with saying you have lots of data. It’s impressive for a little while, and then it becomes kind of meaningless. The good news is that you can use your data in productive ways, and it can even boost your brand’s image and profits in the long run.

Here’s what to do with all of that data.

Segmentation

Right out of the gate, social media data is absolutely essential if you want to build up your audience segmentation. It’s obvious that not all of your audience members are the same, they have different interests and just different backgrounds. Some may live in France, others in Sweden, for example. You can’t just send them all the same message and hope for the best.

This is where segmentation comes in, and data has a huge part to play in that. Segmentation is where you take all your data, and then run it through a system where segments of the audience with similar interest and other demographic features are lumped together. Prior to using big data in this way with social it all had to be done manually or sometimes not at all. However, with the explosion in marketing software and platforms, it is easy to get it automated and done within minutes.

Why do it? Well, first of all, it’s a great way to use data. Manipulating data makes a lot more sense than just letting it sit there. In addition, you also get the chance to develop more intelligent marketing, or marketing that is data-informed. It’s going to get better results because you’ll be sending the right messages to the right people.

Lead nurturing

There is nothing new about lead nurturing, but the process of lead nurturing using social media data is still relatively fresh.

Brands are now using social media data to enhance their lead scoring and nurturing. They feed data into whatever marketing automation platform they have, and then can focus on:

• Social touches. Actions can be set up to occur if leads click on certain social media posts, for example. As part of a specific campaign, they can be scored higher than leads who perform other actions, such as clicking on your website
• Other activity can be tracked and trigger further action. For example, if a lead interacts with a social media post, this can trigger a whole email campaign based on the offer and messaging in the post
• On top of this, you can use social media data to ascertain which channels are working, and further fine-tune your social media lead capture efforts

Timing

One of the best things about having social media data at your fingertips is that you are able to fine-tune your posting schedule. It has become absolutely vital that brands post their social media content at the times when the audience is most likely to see it. This is possible with data, and once data is paired with a strong automation platform, the results come quickly.

Essentially, you’ll be able to ensure that your audience has the very best chance of seeing your content, by using data that tells you when they are ‘watching’. It simply optimises what you do, and gives your campaigns the best ROI.

Re-use

Data also offers one other benefit that some social media managers are not actually aware of (or don’t capitalise on). With good data behind you, you can identify the posts that are doing well. The posts that have the most likes and the most shares.

This high level of engagement should prioritise that kind of content, but you can go one better. A few weeks down the line, simply repurpose the posts that do exceptionally well, or even just repeat them. It just means you have a constant stream of content that takes less work than usual, and has a great impact on your audience. A proven impact.

Data is powerful, but use it in the ways discussed above and you’ll start to see a real return on your investment of time and money.

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