Don’t Ignore the Data When Planning Your Social Media Strategy

The uncertainties and unpredictability of search algorithms causes many to adopt incorrect or even superstitious views of their internet marketing. This is a tendency I see all the time among small business owners. Also, since the digital marketing world evolves at breakneck speed, what worked even a few years ago may now be ineffective or, worse, detrimental to your business growth.

Take for example the important area of social media content and strategy. Despite the availability of analytics tools that provide insights into user engagement, demographics, and content performance, many businesses still post content based on intuition, guesswork or personal preference without analyzing the data to guide their decisions.

Here’s why intuition-based decision-making can be problematic in social media marketing:

1. Content Creation: Businesses might create content they assume will resonate with their audience without looking at past performance data or engagement metrics. This approach can lead to a mismatch between what the audience wants and what the business posts.
2. Posting Schedule: Some marketers rely on gut feelings to decide when to post on social media, ignoring the best times to post based on when their audience is most active and engaged online.
3. Platform Selection: Companies sometimes choose to focus on specific social media platforms based on assumptions about where their target audience spends their time, rather than analyzing user behavior data across different platforms.
4. Ad Spend Allocation: Without data, businesses may not allocate their social media advertising budget effectively, spending money on campaigns or platforms that do not yield the best return on investment.
5. Trend Adoption: Jumping on the latest social media trends without analyzing their relevance or potential impact on the target audience can lead to wasted effort and resources.

Using data to inform these aspects of social media marketing can lead to more effective strategies, better audience engagement, and improved ROI. Analytics tools available on most social media platforms can provide valuable insights into these areas, helping businesses make informed decisions based on actual user behavior and content performance.

Small businesses can use data to their advantage by focusing on performance metrics, optimal scheduling, and content variety. By analyzing which posts get the most likes, shares, and comments, businesses can identify what content resonates with their audience. This data-driven approach helps in crafting more engaging posts and eliminates guesswork, ensuring that efforts are concentrated on what really works.

Also, data can reveal the best times to post, so you can align your content delivery with when your audience is most active, increasing the likelihood of engagement. Diversifying content types, from videos and images to polls and articles, can also keep the audience interested and engaged. By continually adjusting these elements based on data insights, small businesses can create a dynamic and effective social media presence that grows their audience and enhances their brand’s appeal.