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The power of social media cannot be denied. It has become one of the most significant tools to promote small businesses. Within the past decade, social media has significantly evolved. It is no longer a group of platforms people use to interact with their friends. It has turned into a full-fledged marketplace that businesses use to reach out to their target audience.

However, to use social media to their advantage, small businesses need to create a solid social media marketing strategy. You cannot rely on your gut feeling to make business marketing decisions. These decisions should be based on consumer data acquired through social media analytics.

In this article, we will discuss how social media analytics should be integrated into a small business marketing strategy.

Why Leverage Social Media Analytics in Small Business Marketing Strategy?

When it comes to small business marketing, social media platforms have a lot to offer. You can achieve any sales and marketing goal you have set by carefully integrating social media analytics into your business operations. Every decision you make should be data-driven and carefully thought out.

Almost every social media platform has premium tools that help small businesses promote their products and grow. These tools include in-depth reports and social media insights, which are based on the way your intended audience interacts with your business. They are a goldmine of data for small businesses and should be used to their full potential.

Various small businesses are using social media analytics today. However, many still rely on traditional methods to market their business.

Ways to Leverage Social Media Analytics in Your Business Marketing Strategy:

Social media can be integrated into the marketing strategy of a small business in a variety of ways. Some of them are discussed below.

1. To acquire customer insights:

Businesses post content on social media for much more than likes, comments, and shares. The best way for a small business to use social media in its favor is to look for the right metrics and use them to acquire valuable customer insights.

You also need to identify which social media platforms are trending these days. For example, do a comparison of TikTok and Instagram and see which platform offers you better access to your target audience.

For that, you need to take a look at the Instagram and TikTok audience insights. You will get a clear idea of:

• The demographics of these platforms
• The interests of your intended audience
• The connections of the target audience
• Their online buying behavior
• The way they interact with your business

You can use the acquired information to divide your audience into different market segments. You can create a different marketing persona to target each of these segments.

Apart from the above-mentioned information, social media analytics also enable you to figure out what your audience is looking for and the way they respond to your products. You can also get an idea of which new products you should launch with your business.

2. Identification of top-performing social media channels:

With the advent of social media, various new platforms have come into being. Formerly, we had only Facebook and Twitter. Today, people have access to dozens of social media platforms. More social media platforms mean more opportunities to market your business.

However, before creating a social media strategy for your business, you should identify which platform your target audience uses most frequently. Is it Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, or TikTok?

• Focus only on relevant platforms:

You can join every social media channel. However, that is not ideal. You need to find out where you will find the right audience. By identifying the right social media channel for your business you can focus your efforts on creating relevant content for that particular platform. This can be achieved by looking at different social media analytics.

Social media analytics allow you to identify your top-performing social media channel. This allows you to develop a unique marketing strategy that caters to your intended audience.

3. Creation of relevant content:

You won’t convert your social media audience if you post content they cannot relate to. Your posts should strike a chord with your intended audience and should interest them. You can develop smarter content by diving into social media analytics. You can create focused content to fully target your desired audience.

Social media analytics give you an idea of the content your intended audience will better respond to. You can use the data acquired to optimize your social media marketing plan. It will help you create the type of content that resonates with your audience.

4. Tracking your competitors in the market:

You need to constantly track your competitors to grow your business. It is always good to keep an eye out for top-performing social media strategies they have been using. To learn from your competitors, you should make a list of five top-performing rivals in your field. You can use social media analytics tools to acquire your competitor’s data. You can also perform manual analysis of their social media pages.

See which platforms they are the most active on. Also, check the type of content they are posting and how people are responding to this content. You can rely on data visualization tools to improve the understanding of the acquired data.

5. Content that entices customer sentiments:

The way customers feel about your brand and what it delivers is referred to as “customer sentiments.” This includes keeping track of the conversations that take place on your social media platforms. You need to understand how your audience feels about your brand, products, and services you offer.

Monitoring customer sentiments allows you to:

• Decipher what your customers want from your brand
• Understand pain points or challenges customers face while interacting with your brand
• Prepare for the potential crisis and try to prevent it

The Takeaway

Don’t waste your time creating a social media marketing strategy based on gut feeling and guesswork. Social media analytics are an ideal resource that provide you with the data you need to create a well-planned and effectively thought-out social media marketing strategy.

Leveraging social media analytics in your marketing strategy helps you grow your social media presence. It allows you to create engaging content. By making consumer data an integral part of the planning process, you can create a marketing strategy that sells.

It serves as an ideal marketing tool for small businesses with a strict budget. These businesses can use low-cost or free social media analytics tools to track business performance and effectively leverage analytics data.