Insights on Insights
INSIGHTS ON INSIGHTS
The analytics behind your social media posts are fascinating, but learning to leverage those numbers can send your success into overdrive! Before we dive into our Insights on Insights, let's go over some of the basics:
Engagement
Engagement is a huge buzz word in the world of social media marketing, but what does it mean for you and your brand? Social media engagement is a common metric used to evaluate performance, made up of a combination of shares, likes, and comments. Engagement doesn’t necessarily translate to sales, so we like to think of this as a means of brand consideration.
The Algorithm
In order to recommend new accounts and posts to users, social media networks are fueled by an elusive “algorithm” you’ve likely heard content creators refer to in vain. Users have different theories on what types of engagement fuel algorithms, and in turn, what type is most valuable in landing their content on the feeds of new audiences. Keep in mind that the exact science behind content algorithms isn’t totally known and always evolving, so many popular algorithm tactics developed by users are completely unfounded.
So, which social media metrics should you value most in terms of engagement and algorithm impact?
Reach: This metric refers to the number of unique accounts your content reached. You should aim to always increase your reach to find new customers and increase brand awareness.
Impressions: Impressions are similar to reach, but instead show how many times your content was viewed. This metric is typically going to be higher than reach, since one person could yield multiple impressions from the same piece of content.
Interactions: Interactions measure the activity that your content generated, including profile visits, website clicks, and emails. Track interactions to see if your content is intriguing enough for users to take next steps towards your products. If your goal is to drive customers to a particular landing page, this is a great metric to watch!
Audience: Audience metrics include age, location, gender and can help determine if your account is situated in the target audience you aim to be in. Follower growth patterns track everything right down to the days and hours you are most likely to gain more followers. Be sure to pay attention to audience metrics that show time frames of your follower’s activity- you can use this insight to schedule impactful social media posts.
Traffic Source: TikTok analytics allow you to see where users were most likely to discover your content: the for you page, current followers, or personal profile page. This can help you evaluate the success of your hashtags, the investment of your current following, and the appeal of your profile.
Watch Time: Like Traffic Source, this metric is also exclusive to TikTok and measures how long a user is entertained by your content. This can help guide future content creation by strategically timing your call to actions within a certain time frame, and can help predict how successful your videos would re-post to other platforms like Instagram’s Reels or IGTV.
Now that you understand the basic insight metrics, look at your existing posts as an opportunity for reverse A/B testing. How does your most popular post differ from your least popular? This can be as small as a single hashtag, the time of day it was uploaded, or the visuals and audio featured in the content.
When posting new content and putting your insights to the test, remember to be patient. Growth doesn’t happen overnight. We recommend analyzing the metrics behind each post to determine what is making certain pieces of content more successful than others, and then leveling up to bigger picture insights to determine your strategy. Insights are your secret weapon to social success, so don’t let them go unused!
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