Social Media / PR Archives | Page 17 of 27 | Bristol Creative Industries

As a marketer with 20+ years’ experience, I’m a big believer in using an array of tactics to get your message to market. People will argue for and against print heavy or social media dominant campaigns, but I believe that the more tactics you use, the wider you cast your net, and the more successful you’ll be. Of course, your messages and your approach need to be targeted within this net, but there is rarely a one size fits all solution, so the more ways you can reach your known target market, the better.

But are business blogs widely accepted as part of this marketing mix, or are they a nice add-on as and when marketing teams have the time? If blogging doesn’t have a regular spot in the marketing plan, should it be given a little more credence?

Some people may wonder whether blogging for business is as relevant in 2022 as it was in the mid 2000’s when blogs were the up and coming ‘fashionable’ thing to do. In an era of podcasts and video streaming, you could be forgiven for thinking written blogs have lost their way and are now irrelevant in the marketing mix.

In addition, according to DemandMetric 70% of people prefer to learn about a brand through articles, rather than through an advert.

As with most things in life, achieving success from business blogging is a changing phenomenon. What worked 20 years ago, might not work as well today, but that doesn’t mean we should throw away the potential that exists in blogs.

For example, it used to be the case that the more blogs you could produce, the better. But that is no longer the case. It’s still true that consistency matters – out of date blogs are not a good look on any website – but quality has risen in importance.

They want to conduct in-depth research before they buy, so if they can find everything they need from one website, they are more likely to trust that brand, revisit the site, and probably make their purchase. There are a couple of ways you can build this trust through quality blogging, and this might be through one or two longer blog posts, or it could be through a series of interlinked posts that cover different aspects of the same topic.

Whichever you choose, make sure you keep the customer in mind, because they are looking for more factual, helpful information and advice, than they are heavy handed sales and marketing messages.

Business blogging earns a spot at the marketing table for the content it generates for a company website and for the SEO benefits it brings, but it has also become increasingly useful for social media content too.

In 2022, more people are buying through social media channels. Accelerated by the Pandemic, more of us are opting to buy from brands we get to know online. So, the more information you can offer up online, the more trust you can build with your audience.

With longer, quality content being generated for blog posts, there is more to disseminate into smaller social media posts. These could be promotional posts to drive traffic to the blog, teasers about what’s to come, or multiple excerpts from the blog to continually drive the message to your target audience.

Building a relationship with your existing and potential customers is an ongoing process of give and take. Having more of a presence online via a business blog and the resulting additional social media content, allows you to interact with your audience and gather invaluable feedback about their likes, dislikes, and requirements.

Analyse the data you get back from each post. What have people responded well to and what hasn’t gone down so well? Create polls and ask direct questions in your posts to find out what your audience would like to hear more about. This can help you give them the advice that they need, and of course generate even more content for your business blog and social media channels.

Of course, it’s easy to say that blogging is a great element to add into your marketing mix, but who has the time to stay on top of regular, informative blogs? Blogs are like feature articles. They require time to think, plan and research. And unless self-imposed timelines are set, they are not deadline driven. Which is why they often slip down the priority list of marketing agencies that are managing entire campaigns, or busy team-members within the business who have been recruited to populate a business blog alongside their day job. If this sounds like you, don’t despair.

Believe it or not, many companies outsource the copywriting of their blog to external writers. Some people think it’s not a task that should be outsourced because it’s too personal. And if you hand over the reins of your business blog to a third party, it will no longer sound like you.

But a good blog writer will portray all the information you want to portray and more and ensure your blog sounds like it’s been written by you, but even better – read more about how we learn your voice here. Not necessarily because they are a better writer, although hopefully they do have more experience in writing if that’s their day job, but because they are able to give your business blog the time and attention it needs and deserves.

If you haven’t included a business blog in your marketing plan before, or you have and it’s continually slipping down the priority list, perhaps now is the time to start.

Every brand has an online reputation, and a quick Google search may reveal more about your business than you’d like.

Digital accessibility has made it easy for potential customers to find out more about a brand online. This is why your brand’s online reputation matters.

What is online brand reputation management?

Online reputation management is also known as ORM. It’s the process of monitoring and managing the public perception of your brand by taking control of online conversations.

You can do this in a variety of ways, from encouraging positive reviews to dealing professionally with negative feedback. Your brand’s reputation is not just manageable, but it’s also malleable and now your customers can do more than search for information, they can add to it.

Online reputation management strategies

Business owners are becoming increasingly aware that their brand is almost entirely shaped by the consumer. The best marketing and PR agencies understand that it’s not only important to include the consumer but to work with them to cultivate a positive brand image.

Online brand reputation management can help you deal with negative search results and strengthen a positive reputation for your brand. ORM can also modify the way you appear in search results.

Brand audit

The first step to boosting your reputation online should always be to conduct a brand audit. This involves conducting online research to help understand how your brand is perceived.

Search engine optimisation

ORM involves using tools to actively monitor your brand mentions, attempting to eliminate as much online criticism as possible. It broadly falls under the influence of search engine optimisation (SEO).

SEO attempts to build a strong portfolio of optimised content to increase the visibility of your brand on search results. Optimising your online content so that it appears on the first page of results is now a crucial requirement, 75% of searchers won’t look past the first page of Google search engine results for any queries.

Respond to online reviews

More customers than ever before are relying on online reviews, as a form of third-party endorsement, to help them make purchase decisions.

While it’s always great to receive positive customer feedback, negative reviews are an inevitable part of online visibility.

It’s always easy to become defensive but it’s always best practice to answer a negative comment quickly and professionally. 93% of customers read online reviews, and 89% of consumers read company responses to reviews.

Being seen as being responsive and proactive in the face of criticism is an excellent way of building endearment and loyalty towards your brand.

Monitoring social media

Social media channels and PR are based on communication and engagement. This is why they are so effective when used together. As social media presence grows, so does the opportunity to cultivate a persona that will satisfy target markets.

There are plenty of opportunities for online reputation management on social media. Simply cultivating social media interactions, and being present and visible, will allow you to create and grow your online visibility.

Leverage PR

ORM and public relations go hand in hand. While traditional media is still very much a part of Public Relations, PR’s remit very much covers online reputations.

Using a combination of methods, not dissimilar to digital marketing, PR utilises online platforms to manage your online reputation. Services include content marketing to improve ranking in search results, SEO, influencer marketing and crisis management.

PR’s central focus is the strategic planning of communications. Be it through media relations, social media and digital platforms, a strategic approach to PR can help develop better relationships and do more to protect your brand reputation online.

Monitor mentions

Brand monitoring is an incredibly effective way to manage your business online. By setting up alerts for your brand name, and related keywords, you can monitor any mentions as they happen.

Knowing where and how your brand is being mentioned online, allows you to react quickly and be responsive on social media, review sites, blog posts and forums.

The faster you can contain and respond to online negativity, the better. It’s perceived as more professional and more caring. But it isn’t all negative, monitoring brand mentions will also help you share and promote any positive content that might come through from third parties.

Get started with ORM

Online reputation management is constantly evolving as digital channels grow and change. To ensure business success, your online reputation must be cultivated, maintained and monitored constantly.

Tools of the trade

Executing your online brand reputation management strategy is far more straightforward when you have a host of tools to help.

Google Alerts, Buzzsumo, Brand Watch, Meltwater and Semrush are some of the tools used by ORM professionals for maximum results. Like any tools, of any trade, they are most effective when in the hands of an expert.

Online reputation management is constantly evolving as digital channels grow and change. To ensure business success, your online reputation has to be cultivated, maintained and monitored constantly.

There has been a lot of hubbub in the marketing world recently about the upcoming Government campaign encouraging businesses to cut their marketing spend to allow them to cut prices for consumers amidst the cost of living crisis. Is this a sensible move for any business, and should all marketing activity be treated equally in this scenario? How will business blogs fare in these discussions and how will you weigh up your options?

Yet again we find ourselves in an unprecedented situation – this time with the cost of living increasing exponentially. You hear about these things on the news and brace yourself for change, but when you go to the petrol pump and it costs almost £90 to fill up your family car with petrol, the pain is real! So, the fact that the Government is attempting to affect change for the masses is a necessary course of action. However, is cutting marketing spend really the best way to go?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t claim to be a political expert and I wouldn’t want to be making these decisions. But I do know marketing and anyone with any experience in the field will know that promotional activity has a lead time. If industry cuts marketing spend now, business won’t stop overnight, but gradually the pipeline will dry up. Conversely, more money spent on promotion now will result in more business further down the line. Many industries are still in very fragile states of recovery after the pandemic, so to pull back on marketing now, could be damaging to their future prospects.

Whether to cut back on marketing or not, is of course not just down to the Government either. Businesses always need to keep an eye on every line in the budget, and especially over the last two years will have wanted to make sure there is no wasted spend and every part of the business is as efficient as it can be. And of course, when making decisions about your marketing spend, it’s not necessarily an all or nothing scenario.

The best marketing campaigns consist of a mix of marketing tactics including public relations, direct mail, telemarketing, advertising, and online campaigns. If you are committed to best practice and you are already measuring the success rate of each tactic, perhaps there is an area you can easily cut back on because you can clearly see in your metrics it’s not performing as well as other activities in your marketing mix. Or perhaps you need to review your mix to make sure you’re getting the most for your marketing spend.

If business blogs don’t yet form part of your marketing mix, now might be an excellent time to instigate one. Business blogs are a fantastic low-cost option to build and maintain a consistent presence online, while creating content to use on social media platforms. An increasing number of businesses are moving their marketing spend online anyway, so whether you need to cut, adjust, or increase your marketing budget in 2022, business blogs are a fantastic, cost-effective option to have in the mix.

National Awareness Days refer to a day to commemorate an occasion or place of importance for a particular cause and can include day, week or month long campaigns.

There are national awareness days for almost everything, from the serious to the hilarious. You can shape your content to be as fun and adventurous as you like.

Most of us are familiar with a few of these campaigns such as International Women’s Day, World Book Day, Pride Month. But did you know that there are awareness days for so many different occasions such as International Picnic Day… The list is endless, and this is where the fun begins…

Want to know how and why to inspire content using an awareness day calendar? Read on to find out more.

Having a list of awareness days at hand (I have a printed copy stuck to my wall), you should be able to generate many great content ideas. With a little sprinkling of imagination, some time set aside to plan and prepare your content calendar and dedication, there is no reason why you too can’t benefit from using these awareness days to shape great content.

How do awareness days help to inspire amazing content?

National Awareness Days have been used by PR’s and Marketing experts for a long time.

Why? Because the media love nothing more than well-timed, relevant stories. Using these relevant days to reach your target audience is a powerful tool. If you can identify a date that’s relevant to your business, then you’ve identified a potential PR angle!

Awareness days are brilliant for inspiring content for social media posts, blogs and newsletters so use them to your advantage and use them wisely. Just look for the relevant opportunities and piggyback off them

How to make your content unique when using awareness days

Take it from me, it’s entirely achievable to create unique material when using awareness days to shape content. You just need to think outside of the box, be creative and use them as prompts to come up with content. Make sure business tone is captured.

Selecting Awareness Days that are relevant to you or your business

It’s important to let your creative juices flow when selecting the dates for your content. There will be many that are relevant to your business sector but also try to get involved with days that don’t feel 100% relevant – be sure to start by plotting these dates out and adding them to your content planner. You need to think creatively to make them relevant to your brand. If you feel passionate and have something to say about them, or feel some affiliation for the cause associated with it, then do add it to your planner.

Here at Carnsight Communications, we use a platform called Planable to schedule our posts. This is then the start of your content plan.

Plotting these ideas into your planner will provide clarity and structure to the content to create each week. Using this template will enable you to add in other forms of content around the awareness days such as case studies, blogs, client testimonials or business updates.

It’s important to plan ahead with content and definitely take advantage of the awareness days available to you but make sure you don’t overdo it with these dates. It’s the same with everything, if there is too much of one specific type of content, it gets boring for the audience. Be sure to mix things up a little.

Drop these Awareness Days in your content every now and then. Obviously, this is dependent on whether you feel the topic is relevant to you or your business.

If you can embed them into your content, great… they can be a brilliant way of engaging with your audience and can really get you noticed.

What are commentary compilations?

We keep every comment our clients have given us on a range of topics, but rather than using our inboxes as files, we use Trello. This ensures that whichever team member you give comments to, they’re captured, by subject area.

What comments do we use?

Meeting notes, responses to feature requests, previous interviews – there’s a lot of content that we can use, even from our every day discussions. That’s why you’ll often see us scribbling during meetings! For more on the PR process at Carnsight, see our blog on the things every small business should know about PR.

How do we use the comments?

Mostly these are comments first written in response to a certain feature, but sometimes they’re around a theme or a new launch, or even a quote in a press release.

We use them for a number of reasons and in a number of ways:

To save you time – you’ve put thought and energy into creating these comments and we want to maximise them. We can often use the same comments slightly editing to respond to journalists without having to come to you each time. This will also avoid you feeling like you’re repeating yourself by commenting in the future.
To inspire features or thought pieces – sometimes a particular point of view will spark an idea for a wider piece, or a comment made six months ago works with the current news agenda. In which case, we’ll refer back. We check the compilations frequently as a team.
To get to know you better – our clients comment on a wide range of issues that could be industry-specific or general – such as comments on the workplace or recruitment. Your comments help us to understand who we should approach in future on similar pieces.

What if I don’t have time to comment?

If commenting doesn’t come easily, or you never seem to find the time, don’t worry. We have a range of techniques for busy business owners including taking notes over a 15 minute phone call, working from a brain dump or bullet points or pulling content from existing presentations, blogs or social media post.

We’ve worked with over 50 different founder-run businesses over the last six years and we are a small business ourselves, so we know the challenges involved and how to overcome them.

There’s more on where to start with content for PR in our blog.

Originally posted on: www.carnsight.com

Writing is a skill that has to be honed over time, but today, Carnsight Communications Account Manager, Leigh-Ann, is sharing seven quick tips to take your writing to the next level.

1. Always say what you want in the least number of words possible

I’m a chronic rambler in real life. I used to ramble a lot in my writing as well (still do sometimes). But the reality is, the quicker and simpler you can say it, the better.

And don’t worry if you find this difficult. Ramble all you want in the first draft and then be brutal and cut, cut cut! A writing mentor of mine used to call it ‘changing up the gears’. Read through your writing and see if you can spot where you were changing up the gears and when you hit full speed. Cut the gears part. (Thanks, CJ Skuse!)

2. Consider planning what points you want to make ahead of time

Sometimes it can be helpful to jot down the points you want to make before you start writing. That’s what I did to write this article. This will help you focus on what it is you want to say without having to work your way up to it through writing waffle.

3. Interrogate your use of adverbs and adjectives

As a general rule, think no adverbs, few adjectives. You can definitely break this rule. In fact, I would encourage you to eventually. But remember you have to learn the rules to break them.

If you’re using too many adverbs and adjectives, chances are you just aren’t picking strong enough words. Rather than saying ‘he said loudly’, perhaps ‘he shouted’ works better. Again, it comes down to conveying meaning in the most concise and considered way.

4. Avoid overusing exclamation marks

Exclamation marks are very useful but like any device, when overused they can really bring down the tone of a piece of writing. Exclamation marks are used for emphasis. But don’t overemphasise!

If you overemphasise too much then it becomes meaningless! It can even feel like you’re being shouted at!

5. Learn your literary devices

I know it may remind you of dreaded English classes at school, but having a few literary devices in your toolbox can be a really great way to take your writing to the next level.

You may think that these literary devices are only present in novels or pieces of fiction, but the reality is that these devices are used to engage the reader in all types of writing; including non-fiction. These techniques are present in the great classic pieces of literature because they work. Try using a few in your own pieces of writing and see what a difference it makes.

6. Avoid staccato sentences

Staccato sentences are short sentences written back to back. When used appropriately they can create tension and build pace within a piece of writing. When used incorrectly and too often, they make a piece of writing feel bland and monotonous.

Avoiding staccato sentences is all about understanding the rhythm of your writing. Rhythm in writing is about varying your sentence length. Think about how we talk. We don’t use sentences repeatedly with the same syllables and sounds. The rhythm of our sentences changes. Let me show you what I mean…

7. Really think about tone and how word choice impacts this

Tone and voice are all about how a piece of writing sounds and feels. What vibe or feeling does the piece of writing give off? Your word choice will massively impact the tone of your writing and so it’s always important to take extra care when it comes to choosing the right words. It’s not just about conveying meaning, it’s about how you convey that meaning.

Use too much industry jargon and waffle and your tone will be pretentious and condescending. Use over-simplistic language and you run the risk of insulting the intelligence of your reader. It’s all about striking the right balance.

Most of us will alter our tone and word choice appropriately automatically when in conversation, but it can be harder to get it right when writing things down. I’d advise reading your work aloud. Imagine you’re reading it to the very audience you’re trying to reach. Does the tone feel right?

Bonus tip! Tools like Grammarly are a lifesaver.

You don’t want to be reliant on these kinds of tools, but they can be incredibly helpful, particularly when you’re starting out. We’re not affiliated with Grammarly in any way, but it’s a tool I use myself and recommend to anyone trying to tighten up their writing.

You have probably heard of branding in relation to business branding. But what is personal branding and is it really necessary? Personal branding is all about you. It’s how you present yourself to the outside world and how the outside world perceives you. Your personal branding should showcase your skills and experience as well as your personality, which is the most unique thing about you. If done correctly, personal branding has the power to shine a positive spotlight over you. It can help you stand out from the crowd and give you the professional boost you need.

But why is personal branding important?

In today’s world, where everything is shared and discussed on social media, it’s more important than ever to mould your public persona in ways that work for you. Personal branding allows you to communicate exactly who you are and what it is that you do. Ignoring your personal branding may lead to you unnecessarily missing out on opportunities relating to employment, partnerships and/or even networking. According to CareerBuilder (link here), more than half of employers won’t hire potential candidates without some sort of online presence.

The good news about personal branding is that, for the most part, you can be in control of it. You have the ability to mould your image to whatever it is you are wanting to project to the public. It does take time and patience. Always remember that you are leaving an online footprint that might be tricky to get rid of in the future, so always be mindful of what you decide to share.

How to get started on your personal branding journey

Developing your personal brand is hard work but essential to your online presence. Luckily, due to the increase in social media platforms, it has never been easier to get started. Here are some important tips to remember when considering your personal branding journey.

Be genuine

The difference between branding a business and branding yourself as a person is that it is easier for people to build trust with actual human beings than with other businesses. This means it is easier for authentic relationships to be built via personal branding. By sharing stories, you can better build connections and allow others to create bonds through similarities they have or have experienced. Be authentic by always matching your actions to the way you are branding yourself, and most importantly, aim to provide others with some sort of value.

Have a plan

Note down what it is you aim to achieve. Now decide on how you plan to get there. Be aware of what your strengths are and use them to your advantage! Be proud of the skills and experience that set you apart from the rest and let this knowledge guide you. Believe in yourself but remember that it is equally important to be aware of your weaknesses to allow for further growth.

Consistency is key

Be sure to have a presence and to post consistently across all social media platforms. Keep the theme unified as this establishes your personal branding amongst a variety of audiences. You will likely find that different platforms will bring you different opportunities and have different benefits, so it’s important to be a part of them all.

Remember, it doesn’t happen overnight! So be patient and most importantly, have fun with it.

In a recent blog post, we shared our top tips on what you should avoid when pitching to journalists. There we talked about the common errors PR professionals or companies can make when pitching to a journalist, and gave some advice on what to avoid to ensure your news is featured by the target publication. Today we wanted to delve even deeper and teach you how to craft the perfect pitch.

In today’s world, securing the PR you desire can be tricky; journalists are busy with endless press releases flooding their inboxes making it hard to stand out from the crowd. We’re going to make your life a little easier by teaching you how to find and connect with the right publication for your business, and how to write the perfect pitch.

Finding the perfect publication for your business!

You’re about to start your PR campaign but you find yourself stuck on the first hurdle; Where do I pitch my news? Well, this is where we can help you! You’re going to need to do your research to find publications, journalists and relevant websites or bloggers to pitch to. To make sure this publication is right for you, you’ll need to have a thorough understanding of your ‘ideal‘ target market and identify the publishers who match your needs. Remember to keep track of these as they can stack up quickly.

The five W’s

A great place to start when creating your perfect pitch is with the five w’s: who, what, where, when and why. Ask yourself; what is it that you want to achieve through this PR push?

When you have set yourself a clear objective, you will find it much easier to identify your target audience and craft the key message you are looking to communicate.

List out the themes or topics and then begin your research on specific publications that cover your key themes – make sure you fit your story around what they would typically write about!

Research, Research, Research!

When you are happy you have identified your target audience, start researching other industry-specific journalists. Familiarise yourself with the stories they cover, keep a note of journalists’ contact details who cover relevant topics and research them before reaching out. Taking some time out to network with these key people will prove key to the success of your campaign.

If you find yourself at a loss at this stage, try looking into what publications your competitors are featured in. Detail these publications along with the specific journalist contact information for that story. This will help you get a feel for the news they feature whilst providing details of target publications.

Keep a detailed and up-to-date media list

Once you are happy you have identified your target publications, you will need to ensure you keep track of them. Keep the key information stored within a document that allows you to update and amend regularly (such as an Excel doc). At Carnsight Communications, we do just this with our media lists.

Within this tracker, the basics are needed such as publication title, journalist contact details and key themes or topics they cover etc. Never be afraid of targeting the bigger titles either. Often, smaller businesses feel they aren’t as interesting as the larger organisations out there, but this is not true. If you have a fresh perspective or a new idea – make sure you do your research and then reach out!

Engage and build on the relationships

OK, so you now have your list of target publications to pitch to (media list). What’s the best way to get in touch?

At Carnsight Communications, we’re all about building relationships with you, our clients and also with journalists. Building and maintaining these key relationships is a huge part of what we do and the results we achieve.

When you have found your target publications and journalists – look them up on social media, follow them and engage regularly. Never underestimate the importance of this. It’s vital to expand your network.

You will often find a link to the reporter’s contact information within their social media bio. This allows you to pitch to them directly or just to introduce yourself. Being present and engaging often will have many benefits.

Start crafting your perfect pitch

Now you have researched and sourced the target publications for your business, and you’ve started networking with these contacts – you’re ready to start crafting the perfect pitch!

Keep in mind the five w’s (who, what, where, when and why)

It’s all in the storytelling. What is the news you’re sharing about? Remember to always keep your target audience in mind.

Provide all the information that makes the story. By providing all the information, reporters are more likely to feature because they have less work to do.
Make sure to clearly define your purpose: What problem does your product or service solve? Who is your audience and who has that problem?
Why you’re the expert in this field? What experience do you have on this specific topic and what sets you apart from others in your field of work?

Present the perfect pitch; professional and concise.

Some other great tips for reaching out to target journalists are:

Check out where that journalist is most active online (such as Twitter or LinkedIn) and keep a note on your media list.
Draft out a personalised and detailed pitch. Remember to keep it short and sweet.
Use a subject line that grabs attention – don’t leave it to chance! Now is the time to be noticed.
Include a ‘boiler plate’ of your ancillary materials in case these are needed. These include a short company bio, links to the website and social channels alongside a folder of different sized images. Ensure these images are labelled to support the journalist.
Respond quickly – don’t leave them hanging. If you send out a release, make sure you keep an eye on communications and respond as quickly as you can. Don’t leave the journalist hanging on for days as they will not want to work with you again.
Get to the point – bullet points are often preferred.
Be polite and personalised. Remember journalists are people and we all like to be greeted nicely, try to research a little about them as individuals. Do they share details of their personal lives on social media such as likes or interests? If so, tailor your greeting around these details.

Keep it consistent!

Last but by no means least – let’s look at how you’re going to make the above happen!

It may seem difficult to get time in your diary to get pitching but our best advice to you is for you to schedule an hour or so every couple of weeks that is solely dedicated to researching your target publications, cultivating your existing contacts, and staying in regular contact.

Remember to regularly update your media lists and engage often on social platforms. Get involved with those conversations online, add your valuable input and stay fresh in your target audience and journalist’s mind. Be consistent with this and the results will speak for themselves.

We hope you have enjoyed reading through these tips on crafting your perfect pitch. If you need more advice on what a pitch is and how to craft a winning pitch, MuckRack has outlined some great pointers here.

Social media analytics allows you to improve your business strategy and optimise engagement via the collection of data. This data will help you and your team better understand your audience and learn what is working for you and what isn’t. It also allows you to set benchmarks to compare against the future performance of your brand.

Although it is possible to collect basic data manually, social media analytic tools allow for quick collection of data that is easy to understand. With just a few clicks your business will be given a data-driven plan for the future of your social media channels, allowing you to monitor metrics and data trends ensuring your business won’t fall behind.

1. Measure your performance

I think we can all agree that the main objective of a brand having a social media presence is to improve business. Social media analytics provides instant feedback on business performance. This means that you can quickly pick up on strategies that are not working for your brand and improve them before it’s too late. Social Media analytics not only works to measure how your social media pages are performing in terms of likes, shares and follower growth but many other aspects as well, such as click-through rate which is traffic that has been directed from your social media channels to your webpage.

2. Teaches you more about your audience

Do not underestimate the power of your audience. Your followers are a big part of how well your business performs, so be sure to encourage engagement across all your channels. By using social media analytics, you can monitor the rates of engagement by what posts attract the most views, likes, comments, shares and click-throughs, allowing you to constantly post effective material. Make sure your content evolves with your audience and stays in line with trends that are relevant to your industry.

3. Shows you where you rank amongst competitors

Doing well as a business is great. But not when your competitors are miles ahead and are doing better. Social media analytics allows you to compare your performance with competitors and show you where you rank amongst average industry performance. This data will help your business figure out how much it needs to improve to be one of the best businesses in the market. Your business can also monitor accounts of competitors, taking note of their strengths and any weaknesses that your business may be able to fill in.

Although social media analytics can seem a little scary to those who are new to it, it really isn’t that complex once you get the hang of it. Keep an eye on our blogs for more on social media analytics in the coming weeks.