Businesses can use big data in many capacities, but those who use it for social media are at a huge advantage. It enables you as a social media marketer to get a closer look at your customer base, understand what drives purchasing decisions, and encourage consumers to pull the trigger.
Using big data to augment your social media strategy provides a wealth of opportunities simply because social media is such an integral part of people’s lives. According to statistics gathered by ConvinceandConvert.com, about 223 million Americans use social media, accounting for more than two thirds of the American population.
If you want to get an edge on your competitors and make waves in your industry, you should be combining the wealth of information provided through big data analytics and the power of social media. Here are seven advantageous ways to do so.
1. Focus on Instagram Insights
ConvinceandConvert.com research also indicated that social media usage, though vast, has remained largely unchanged over the last few years. The same number of people who use social media today used it four years ago as well with little growth.
The exception to that is Instagram, as its usage grew from 64 percent of social media users to 66 percent over the last year. Thanks to this research brought to you by big data, you now know the importance of using Instagram for your business.
Furthermore, you should focus on Instagram Insights to improve your social media campaign. The data will show you strengths in your campaign and areas of improvement based on things like follower count, post popularity, Instagram Stories views, and more.
For example, data surrounding your follower count might show that you’ve had little growth over the last few months and need a boost to get you going. You might find that you need to buy Instagram followers to boost your numbers and then use Insights to track the success of this venture.
You could also utilize third-party apps that will analyze your Instagram data in more detail. It doesn’t really matter which app you use if it provides actionable data that can help you make the most of the fastest-growing social media network out there.
2. Understand the Algorithm
The algorithms on social media are the dictators that determine if your content is worthy to be seen by potential customers. It factors in things like your follower count, the quality of your content, the engagement of your posts in the past, and more.
The algorithm often snubs some of your content and promotes other pieces. It’s impossible to determine why it favors some and ignores others unless you study the analytics of it all. With insights into your post performance, you can determine things like the best time of day to post, the types of content that get shared more often, the subjects that your target audience wants to see, and the advertisements that consumers like instead of ignoring.
3. Know Your Customers More Personally
The key to improving all social media campaigns lies with understanding your target audience. When you’ve developed a greater understanding of this group, you can develop fantastic content to bring them to your website.
Big data was designed to provide unique customer insights. Social media is one of the best places to learn about your customer base. You can see demographics, trending topics among your audience, content they’re most likely to “like,” and more.
4. Personalize Your Social Media Use Accordingly
You don’t have to “trick” consumers into following your brand if you know how to personalize your social media profiles. They’ll want to follow your brand if it’s fun, unique, informational, or otherwise valuable. They’ll also follow you if they like your products and services.
As you get to know your audience on a more personal level, learn to customize your content so that it answers their needs, wants, and questions. Any business owner can easily accomplish this by carefully going over the analytics provided from social media use.
5. Improve Customer Acquisition and Retention
Social media is commonly used to both acquire and retain customers, and big data makes this endeavor simple.
One of the best ways to improve the customer acquisition landscape is to focus on influencing customers’ decision-making. You can identify trends that have encouraged purchases in the past, target customers that would benefit most from marketing emails, and create a greater sense of urgency to inspire impulse purchases.
To retain customers, you can maximize on your social media presence. Consumers love to follow engaging brands who offer real value on social media. Use post insights to help you curate content that will be useful, entertaining, and/or educational for your target customers.
6. Solve Social Media Advertising Problems
Nobody wants to think about all the money they’ve lost in their business trying to run advertisements that yield no returns. There’s a lot that goes into creating a successful advertisement, but the primary reason these ventures fail is a lack of proper research.
There was once rampant skepticism regarding the role big data played in crafting advertisements, but now, it’s recognized as the best way to get the most out of your campaigns. The more you’re able to gain insights into customer behavior, the more you’ll learn about targeting and retargeting your advertisements.
7. Gain Product Insights
According to the Instagram service ViralRace, data gained through social media can also provide insightful facts about your products. You can learn a great deal about their popularity, performance, and customer satisfaction. It especially helps you identify which products your customers want, when they want it, how they want it, and if you need to make more.
Conclusion
Much of this data comes from raw sales numbers and traffic driven to your website through Facebook. Other data comes from customer complaints and ratings. Their personalized feedback provides you a wealth of information to help you identify strengths and weaknesses of your products and brand so that you can fix problems and avoid negative repetitions.
