Kseniya I. Content Marketing Expert

The 3 most important skills for social media content analytics

Most often, I meet 2 reactions to the word "analytics" in the SMM environment. The first is fear for some reason, until now, novice SMM specialists are afraid of analytics. This can be explained as follows: SMM courses often teach mechanical work i.e. how to post, what formats, rules, restrictions, services. People master photoshops and parsers, but there are no services for analytics as such. More precisely, for analytics, we are offered services for collecting statistics. What to do with it? So beginners try to avoid this topic.

The second reaction is a whole set of attitudes that can be described by the thesis “first the result, then the analysis”. That is, the understanding that analytics is applied after the fact, which is not true. And the mantra fits well here: “Analytics is for marketers and targetologists, content creators don’t need it.” But come on, guys!

In the article I will explain why content developers need analytics, why it needs to be applied at all stages of work, and what is the profit of it.

Analytics at the start: asking the right questions

So, let's see why analytics is a somewhat more complex process than it is commonly thought. It is worth starting by asking questions.

Every time you receive a content task, a new client comes in, you need to adapt the content plan or just write a post, you need to ask a few important questions:

What for? A universal question that gives an understanding of the task and saves from unnecessary gestures and fuss.

What is the true goal? You will understand exactly what they want from you. For example, a manager says, "Let's post more links to our products." You can silently accept the task and add links to products to all the upcoming posts… but why were you asked about this? In fact it suddenly turns out to be that the manager does not need links, but sales.

And then you give your expertise: if you insert links into FB posts, the posts will remain without coverage; to increase sales, we will amend the content plan and add more posts about our advantages and now is the time to remember the loyalty system, which was not done a year ago.

Feel the difference? Just one question radically changes not only understanding, but the very essence of the task, thereby opening up opportunities for correct solutions.

Why do they need it? You will understand what this audience content is for. More precisely, there will be food for thought for both you and the manager. For example, a marketer wants you to publish a themed selection of books. Why do they need it? It turns out that the marketer read a post with a selection of books in Telegram and decided that this would appeal to our audience. So the marketer wants to increase the number of reposts.

You give your assessment: we are developing a FB page, our audience does not really like collections of useful items and supports them with likes. But once you made a post with pictures-cards, and it scattered on personal pages many reposts. Therefore, it makes sense to invest in the design of cards and reposts will grow, because the target audience loves such content.

Who is our audience? Without understanding the audience, work in principle does not make sense. Before you write posts, find out whom you write to.

What result do we want to get? Indirectly, this question may intersect with the first, in different situations. The fundamental difference is that here we immediately understand the global result that is expected of us. Why is a tactical question, but here it turns out the overall strategy.

It is also worth knowing what the budget is, who is responsible, what is considered the result. For example, they want to get a lot of subscribers. This is the goal, and the result will be +100 subscribers per month. I think you understand the train of thought and then you can decide for yourself what exactly to ask in order to conduct analytics.

An example of the opposite: asking about your boss's favorite tea is unlikely to help.

For many, it will be a discovery, but all these questions are part of the analytics, code-named “data collection”, which will directly affect further work. You haven’t posted anything yet, but you’re already doing analytics… cool, right?

Generating ideas - how to make a lot out of nothing

Great, you asked all the right questions, found out what needs to be done and for whom. Now let's start preparing the content.

Before releasing a post, you need to study the interests of the target audience, competitors and the posts that were best visited in the profile that you are going to maintain, if they are currently available.

Collecting all this texture is the second analytical part of your work on content. All this collection of pictures and screenshots in moodboards, reading comments, even posts on the personal pages of the target audience, discussions, all this will help you create exactly the content that:

- will be of interest to the audience.

- will reach the set goals.

When you include analytics in your work and start looking for ideas for posts, you will find that content can be made literally from nothing and spend no more than 20 minutes on a post.

For example, you can brainstorm and generate new ideas. Or you can repackage already finished content and get a new one.

We look at the results, adapt to the new content

The posts are out, the results are in, but your work with the content is not over. Rather, she moved to a new circle, like the hand of a clock. What data do you get at this stage:

You have published posts, study the reaction: what went well and what did not. See who comments when and how, what questions they ask, what reactions they leave. Gather the core of the audience and study these people: what unites them, why are they involved more often?

This is very valuable data and an essential part of the work that will help make new content better.

You have tried out new ideas and formats so do not rush to abandon those that did not work the first time. And even the third time.

Here's a secret for you: to accurately put an end to the content format or category, you need at least 5 posts. The more posts you make in a format that didn't work the first time, the more data you'll get for analysis. And, quite possibly, you will find how to make this format desirable for the audience.

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