Gathered in non-intrusive or intrusive ways from closed or open social media networks, social media intelligence provides businesses with the necessary information to make more informed business decisions. Here are four ways of using Social Media Intelligence
Audience Demographics
Knowing nothing about your audience is about as useful to your company’s social media campaigns as installing turnstiles in a hippo enclosure. In other words, it is vital to find out who your audience is and what they respond to/ engage with. Tools like Facebook Insight, for example, will help you to determine the age, gender, interests and more of your audience.
This information can then be used to create target specific campaigns. If, for example, your company is trying to promote a product or service suitable for males aged 18 to 30, but your Facebook Insights data shows the content is predominantly viewed and engaged with by women aged 40 and over, you know you are on the wrong track and can use this data to amend your content/ marketing initiatives to reach the right target audience.
Geo-locating Audiences
Before expanding a business into a specific region, it is advisable to research whether this transition will be worth the effort. Social media intelligence comes in helpful here, too. Link-shorteners, for instance, will make it possible to track each link’s click rates and where those clicks come from. The tracking data will aid in making a more informed decision.
Monitoring Sentiment
Social media gives consumers the oportunity to air their views on companies, their products, customer service, and so on. Keeping an eye on what your customers have to say about you will show you were improvements may be necessary to provide the kind of services your customers want to see.
Competitors
Staying ahead of the competition is vital, and social media intelligence helps here, too. Keeping an eye on what and how competitors are doing and how consumers are responding to their efforts will assist in making the right decisions to stay a step ahead.
Summary
Gathering social media intelligence enables you to learn all you can about your audience and competitors, giving you the necessary knowledge to make positive decisions and grow your business successfully.
