Why Does Social Media Data Collection Matter?
Social media data collection is any type of data that can be gathered through social media. In general, the term refers to social media metrics and demographics collected through analytics tools on social platforms.
It can also refer to data collected from content people post publicly on social media. This type of social media data for marketing can be collected through social listening tools.
If you want to use social media to build brand awareness, you might be most interested in tracking engagement. If your goal is to create sales, you’ll likely want to track conversions.
Here is some of the most important raw data you can collect through social media:
- Engagement: Clicks, comments, shares, etc.
- Reach
- Impressions and video views
- Follower count and growth over time
- Profile visits
- Brand sentiment
- Social share of voice
- Demographic data: age, gender, location, language, behaviors, etc.
Why does Social Media Data Collection Matter?
Social media data helps you understand your audience better
One of the biggest reasons to collect social media data is that it helps you understand your audience better. A key component of your marketing success is marketing your business to the right people. By collecting social media data, you can understand how to adjust and improve your social media tactics to reach more of your target audience.
Social media data helps you figure out when to post content
Another benefit of harvesting social media data is that it lets you figure out when to post content. One of the trickiest components of social media marketing is figuring out the right time to post your content. You want to reach people when they’re likely to see what you post.
With that information in hand, you can adjust your social media marketing strategy to post valuable content during times when your audience is likely to see it and engage.
Social media data helps you figure out what content to post
Another great benefit of social media data is that it helps you figure out what content to post. When you develop your social media strategy, you can post numerous types of content, from text posts to images to videos. You may not know which content is best for your audience.
Social media data helps you refine your social media strategy
Harvesting social media data enables you to refine your social media strategy. If you launch your strategy and never look at it again, you won’t produce your desired results. You need to track your social media marketing campaigns to see how your content performs.
With social media data collection, you can track your marketing campaign performance and see what works for your business.
Know your goals and KPIs
Social media data is most useful when looked at in the context of real business goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). When you have goals in place, you can use social media data to track your progress and look for areas where you might need to improve.
Set up a social listening program
Social listening can provide another set of social media data for you to draw from. The data we’ve talked about so far comes in through your owned social properties. Social listening can help you discover data from social media users who have no existing relationship with your digital brand.
Ensure you comply with the rules
Data security on social media is not something to take lightly. More than a third of Internet users worldwide (33.1%) have concerns about misuse of their digital personal data online.
If you work in a regulated industry, there are specific data privacy and compliance concerns you need to manage. But privacy and data security are issues all social media managers should keep in mind.