Monitoring Social Media Performance: Strategies For Success

Social media monitoring is a process of listening out for conversations about your brand on social media. It is an important tool for businesses to connect with their customers, provide customer support, measure their social media reach and understand social media trends. There are several social media monitoring tools available that can help you track and analyse your social media performance. These tools can monitor everything about user behaviour and can track keywords, hashtags, URLs and more. Some of the popular social media monitoring tools include Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Google Analytics, Sociality.io, Keyhole, Iconosquare, and more. These tools can help you gain valuable insights into your social media performance and make informed decisions to improve engagement and sales.

Monitor multiple social media profiles

Monitoring multiple social media profiles can be a challenging task, but there are several tools and strategies that can help you stay on top of things. Here are some tips to help you monitor multiple social media profiles effectively:

Use a Social Media Management Tool

A social media management tool like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Agorapulse can be invaluable for monitoring multiple social media profiles. These tools allow you to access all your accounts in one place, making it easier to stay organised and save time. You can also schedule and publish content, respond to messages and comments, and view detailed analytics for all your accounts together.

Create a Social Media Strategy

Having a well-defined social media strategy is essential for effective monitoring. Your strategy should include clear goals, a defined target audience, an analysis of your competitors, frameworks for content creation, and a plan for tracking performance. This will help you stay focused and ensure that your efforts are aligned with your business objectives.

Automate and Curate Content

Automate as many tasks as possible to streamline your workflow. Use scheduling tools to plan and publish content at optimal times, and consider curating and repurposing content to fill your content calendar. About half of your content should be original and tailored to each platform, but you can also mix things up by sharing posts from others and repurposing content across platforms.

Engage with Your Audience

Engaging with your audience is crucial for building relationships and attracting new followers. Dedicate time each day to reply to messages and comments, and use social listening tools to identify posts you can comment on and opportunities for new partnerships.

Track Relevant Metrics

Not all social media metrics are created equal. Focus on tracking metrics that are directly related to your marketing campaign goals. For example, if you want to increase brand awareness, track post reach and shares. If you're aiming for conversions, track click-through rates and sales.

Collaborate and Approve Content

If you're working with a team, establish a collaboration and approval process for content creation. This ensures that all content is on-brand and optimised for each social network. Use a social media management platform that allows you to contribute content, view the content calendar, and assign roles and responsibilities in a shared dashboard.

Connect Social Media to Other Business Tools

Integrate your social media marketing with your other business processes. For example, you can use project management tools, image and video editing apps, and automation tools to enhance your social media efforts. Hootsuite, for instance, offers over 250 apps in its App Directory to help you connect your social media with other aspects of your business.

By following these tips and utilising the right tools, you can effectively monitor multiple social media profiles and make data-driven decisions to optimise your social media performance.

Track keywords, hashtags, and URLs

Tracking keywords, hashtags, and URLs is an essential part of monitoring your social media performance. It helps you understand what your audience is interested in and how they engage with your content. Here are some tips and tools to help you track keywords, hashtags, and URLs across various social media platforms:

• Identify relevant keywords and hashtags: Use tools like Google Analytics, Sprout Social, and Sociality.io to identify the keywords and hashtags that are relevant to your brand and industry. These tools can help you discover what topics and conversations your audience is interested in.
• Monitor hashtag performance: Use hashtag tracking tools like BrandMentions, RiteTag, and Talkwalker to monitor the performance of specific hashtags. These tools provide analytics on engagement, reach, and sentiment associated with hashtags. They can also help you identify top influencers and track historical data to understand patterns in hashtag performance.
• Track URLs: Utilize tools such as Google Analytics and Keyhole to track the performance of your URLs. These tools can show you how your content is shared on social media and provide data on referral platforms and social share buttons. Additionally, Keyhole offers near-live insights and real-time social media analysis to help you understand the impact of your URLs.
• Create custom reports: Tools like Sendible allow you to create custom reports and set up notifications for all your social channels. This helps you stay informed about the performance of your keywords, hashtags, and URLs across different platforms.
• Discover trending topics: Stay up to date with trending topics and hashtags by using tools that offer real-time monitoring and alerts, such as Sprout Social and Talkwalker. This enables you to join relevant conversations and increase your visibility.
• Analyze competitor hashtags: Keep an eye on your competitors' hashtags to understand what works for them and apply those insights to your strategy. Tools like Sociality.io and Socialinsider offer competitor analysis features to help you compare your performance and identify areas for improvement.

By utilizing these tips and tools, you can effectively track keywords, hashtags, and URLs to optimize your social media performance and better engage with your target audience.

Measure social media reach

Measuring your social media reach is an important part of understanding your audience and improving your marketing strategy. Here are some ways to do it:

Track your social media profiles and posts

Monitor what is being said about your brand, products, or services. This includes feedback forums, blogs, and your social media profiles and posts. You can use social media monitoring tools like Unbox Social, Mention, Hootsuite, or Keyhole to get real-time insights and analytics. These tools can also help you track specific keywords or monitor your competitors' activities.

Measure the impact of your social media posts

This includes tracking engagement metrics such as likes, comments, and shares. These metrics indicate that your audience is interested in your content and is taking some form of social action. High engagement rates also send positive signals to social media algorithms, which can help expand your reach.

Analyze your click-through rate (CTR)

The CTR indicates how often people click on a link in your post to access additional content. It gives you an idea of how many people found your content interesting enough to want to know more. You can calculate CTR by dividing the total number of clicks for a post by the total number of impressions and multiplying by 100.

Monitor your social share of voice (SSoV)

SSoV measures how many people are talking about your brand on social media compared to your competitors. It's a way to gauge your brand's visibility and relevance in the market. You can calculate SSoV by adding up mentions of your brand and your competitors, then dividing your brand mentions by the total and multiplying by 100.

Understand your audience demographics and sentiment

Metrics like follower count and demographics provide valuable insights into who your audience is. Additionally, social media sentiment analysis tracks the feelings and attitudes behind the conversation. Are people saying positive or negative things about your brand? You can use tools like Hootsuite's Social Media Management and Listening Tool or Talkwalker to monitor brand mentions and sentiment.

Compare performance across platforms

Comparing performance across different social media platforms is essential to understanding what works best for your business. Each platform has its own unique features and user base, so it's important to analyse which one suits your needs and goals. Here are some tools and strategies to help you compare performance across different social media platforms:

Choose the Right Tools

Sprout Social is a popular choice for monitoring social media performance as it offers cross-channel listening features. This means you can track and analyse topics, hashtags, and keywords relevant to your business across major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. With Sprout Social, you can also monitor your content's performance and gain insights on audience engagement and mentions. Another tool with similar capabilities is Hootsuite, which is also renowned for its user-friendliness.

If you're looking for a more comprehensive analysis, Socialbakers offers a range of analytics tools to track multiple profiles, manage KPIs, build reports, and even identify potential influencers. Sendible is another great option if you want to track what people are saying about your brand and receive notifications for all your social channels through a central dashboard.

For those interested in tracking performance on specific platforms, Facebook Pixel is a great choice for monitoring Facebook and Instagram. It provides valuable data and insights to improve your performance. Meanwhile, for Instagram and Twitter, Keyhole offers in-depth analysis by tracking keywords, hashtags, and usernames.

Define Your Metrics

When comparing performance, it's crucial to define the metrics that matter for your business. These can include engagement metrics such as likes, comments, shares, and retweets. Additionally, audience metrics are important to understand if your target audience is engaging with your content. Are you reaching the right demographic? Are bots inflating your engagement numbers? These are important questions to answer.

Timing metrics are also key—understanding the best times and days to post can help optimise your content's reach and engagement. It's also beneficial to track your social media management metrics, such as the size of your social media team and the frequency of reporting.

Analyse and Optimise

Once you've gathered data from your chosen platforms and defined your key metrics, it's time to analyse and optimise your social media strategy. Compare the performance of each platform and identify patterns. For example, you might find that image-based posts perform better than video-based ones, or that your audience engages more during certain times of the day.

Additionally, don't forget to analyse your competitors' strategies. Take note of the content they share, the frequency of their posts, and any advanced tactics they employ, such as working with influencers. However, remember that their strategies may not work for your business, so use these insights to generate new ideas tailored to your goals.

By utilising the right tools, defining your key metrics, and regularly analysing and optimising your strategy, you can effectively compare performance across different social media platforms and improve your social media presence.

Identify trends and top-performing content

Identifying trends and top-performing content is a crucial aspect of social media monitoring. Here are some strategies and tools to help you with this process:

Assess Each Channel

Begin by evaluating the performance of each social media channel you utilise. Analyse key metrics such as engagement, reach, impressions, and website clicks. Google Analytics can be a valuable tool for this step, as it allows you to track data like referral platforms and content sharing. This information will help you understand which platforms are driving the most traffic and engagement.

Identify Core Channels and Content

After assessing each channel, determine your top-performing platforms and the content that resonates most with your audience. For example, if YouTube is your best-performing channel, analyse whether your audience prefers long-form or short-form content, tutorials, or quick tips. This insight will guide you in creating content that meets their needs and interests.

Track Content Types

Examine the types of content you share on social media. For instance, you may find that 75% of your posts are image-based, while only 25% are videos. Evaluate whether this approach aligns with your goals and make adjustments as needed. Tools like BuzzSumo and Agorapulse can automatically generate content breakdown reports to simplify this process.

Monitor Timing

Analyse the timing of your posts to determine the best times and days to publish content. Identify patterns in your posting frequency and assess whether you are consistent in your posting schedule. Consider using tools like Hootsuite and Sprout Social, which offer scheduling features and insights into optimal posting times.

Analyse Competitors

Keeping an eye on your competitors' social media strategies can provide valuable insights. Follow their accounts, take note of their content types, and observe if they are utilising specific influencers or advanced strategies. Tools like Likealyzer, Phlanx, SEMrush, and BuzzSumo can offer a more in-depth analysis of your competitors' activities.

Track Engagement

Engagement metrics are essential for understanding the performance of your social media content. Monitor metrics such as retweets, likes, comments, link clicks, shares, and direct messages. Social media scheduling tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Agorapulse can help streamline this process by providing engagement data in one place.

Identify Trends and Influencers

Staying up-to-date with social media trends and influencers in your industry is crucial. Tools like Sprout Social and Keyhole enable you to track keywords, hashtags, and prominent influencers on platforms like Instagram and Twitter. This information can help you create relevant, trending content and connect with key opinion leaders.

By implementing these strategies and utilising the mentioned tools, you can effectively identify trends and top-performing content, allowing you to optimise your social media presence and better connect with your target audience.

Frequently asked questions