Social media platforms are indispensable channels for disseminating promotions, sharing business updates and fostering connections that elevate brand loyalty. However, determining the impact and effectiveness of a social media strategy can be challenging. This is where the power of social media marketing analysis comes into play.
Carleton University recognizes the significance of this skill set and has integrated social analysis into its online Master of Business (MBA) concentration in Business Analytics program through the Sprott School of Business. The Social Analytics course, in particular, equips students with the tools and processes essential for attaining, cleaning and analyzing text and data generated across various social platforms.
Here, we delve into the applications of social analysis in business and explore how this knowledge can elevate your understanding of audience engagement and strategic decision-making.
What Is Social Analysis?
Businesses navigate a complex ecosystem of interactions and data in the social platform landscape. Social media marketing analysis refers to systematically examining and interpreting the vast pool of information generated across these social channels. Social analysis equips professionals with the skills to sift through the vast data generated on social platforms and transform raw information into actionable intelligence. Social analysis guides businesses, empowering them to harness the potential of digital interactions for strategic growth in the following ways:
- Beyond surface metrics: Social media analytics advances beyond traditional social metrics, including likes, follows, retweets and clicks. It delves into the nuances of user interactions, sentiments and trends that can significantly impact a business’s online presence.
- Social listening: An integral facet of social analysis is social listening, a process that extends beyond quantitative metrics. It involves actively monitoring social channels for both challenges and opportunities. By incorporating social listening into analysis, businesses gain a more comprehensive understanding of their social media performance, identifying areas for improvement and growth.
- Integration with business decision-making: Social media analytics supports strategic decision-making in businesses. By deciphering the data collected from social channels, organizations can refine their marketing strategies, enhance customer engagement and stay attuned to evolving trends in their respective industries.
Why Social Analysis Matters
Determining the value of a social media profile extends beyond surface-level evaluations of likes and retweets. Social media marketing analysis dives deeper, providing a comprehensive view of key metrics such as new followers, unfollows, post engagements, reach and mentions. Regular analysis reveals how audiences interact with social platforms so that professionals can make strategic tweaks and changes over time. This helps optimize post frequency, content and more based on desired metric improvements.
The importance of social media analytics lies in its ability to offer insights into audience behaviour and preferences. Through analysis, businesses can uncover:
- Demographic insights: Understand the demographics of the target audience.
- Platform preferences: Identify the social platforms where the target audience is most active.
- Content engagement: Understand the types of content that resonate with the audience.
These insights allow businesses to refine their social media strategy and tailor it to specific goals related to marketing, sales and service efforts. By leveraging social media analytics, companies can make informed decisions, optimize campaigns and enhance their online presence.
How Do Businesses Use Social Analysis?
Businesses leverage social analysis in the following ways to extract actionable insights that drive informed decision-making:
- Identifying objectives, analyzing and visualizing data, and reporting: Businesses identify key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with their goals. The analysis process involves gathering and analyzing relevant data using specialized tools and visualizing the results for easier interpretation. Reporting serves as the culmination, offering comprehensive insights that guide future strategies. This iterative cycle allows businesses to continually refine their social media approach.
- Performance analysis and audience analytics: Businesses utilize social analysis to gauge the performance of their social media strategies. This involves assessing metrics to understand content effectiveness. Audience analytics offer insights into the demographics, behaviors and preferences of the target audience. By understanding how different content resonates with specific segments, businesses can tailor their messaging for maximum impact.
- Competitor analysis and paid social analytics: Businesses monitor competitors’ social media activities to benchmark their own strategies and identify opportunities. Paid social analytics play a crucial role in assessing the effectiveness of paid advertising campaigns. This involves scrutinizing metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates and the overall return on investment for paid promotions.
- Sentiment analysis, co-occurrence analysis and influencer analysis: Sentiment analysis enables businesses to understand the tone and sentiment surrounding their brand or products. Co-occurrence analysis involves identifying patterns of keywords or topics that frequently appear together, providing insights into broader industry trends. Influencer analysis helps businesses identify and assess the impact of influencers within their niche, enabling strategic collaborations.
- Reporting for clicks, shares, impressions and new contacts analytics: Click analytics assess the effectiveness of links shared on social platforms. Shared analytics focus on content virality, measuring its performance across networks. Impressions analytics quantify the reach and visibility of content. New contacts analytics track the acquisition of new leads.
Tools and Techniques for Social Analysis
Hootsuite Analytics, Google Analytics and RivalIQ are popular tools that offer unique capabilities. Hootsuite Analytics provides a comprehensive dashboard for managing and measuring social media efforts, enabling users to monitor engagement, track key metrics and schedule content. Google Analytics tracks social interactions, offering insights into user behaviour, referral traffic and the impact of social campaigns on website performance. RivalIQ specializes in competitive analysis, allowing businesses to benchmark their social strategies against industry competitors, uncover trends and gain a competitive edge. Collectively, these tools empower businesses to maximize ROI with their social media profiles.
The growing number of applications of social analysis in business highlights the importance of acquiring advanced analytical skills — a core focus of Carleton’s online MBA concentration in Business Analytics program. Graduates of this program are well prepared to navigate the complexities of modern business, making strategic decisions informed by analytics and enhancing the digital footprint of the organizations they serve.
Learn more about Carleton University’s online MBA concentration in Business Analytics program.