Understanding your social media metrics and using them to your advantage

Understanding online consumer behaviour and effectively leveraging that information is one of the key reasons marketers are so successful today. Our behaviour online shapes our digital ‘persona’ and the data gathered through our habits can be compiled into a plethora of information that can be used to target consumers.

Social media platforms, alongside other forms of digital media are advancing in their ability to provide consumer insights, offering individuals and businesses further understanding of their audiences. Although not all platforms provide the same level of customer data, there is valuable information stored in the back-end of these platforms that can help shape your online marketing strategy.

Despite social platforms continuously changing, and algorithms altering what data we, as managers, can access, there still remain three crucial consumer insights you can leverage from your social media metrics:

1. Demographics

The most important metric you can gather from social media platforms is your audience demographics. Gender, age and location are all crucial sets of data that shape a business’ online consumer persona. Understanding how old your audience is and where they are geographically located can readily affect the marketing tools and strategies used to reach them on a specific social platform. This data is gathered from the individuals who interact with your social media accounts, and will vary from platform to platform. Such information creates a solid foundation for your marketing efforts and also helps predict other consumer information such as their online behaviours.

2. Behaviours

Consumer behaviour is what drives a business’ digital strategy and shapes how audiences are targeted online. Behaviours can consist of habits, interactions on your social accounts, visits to certain posts and engagement with specific types of content. Your audience’s behaviour determines what content you will share on your platform as well as when you will share it. Social media metrics are becoming so advanced you can narrow down time periods where your audiences are most engaged, allowing you to target them with selected content. Understanding consumer behaviour is essential when targeting your core audiences and establishing marketing strategies that deliver results.

3. Interests

Understanding what interests your consumers is key to creating engaging content. Your audience’s demographics and behaviours can indicate what interests they might have, determining the content you post on your social media pages. Interpreting this information will unveil their interests online and also helps shape your marketing strategy 

Combined, consumer demographics, behaviours and interests create a definable audience for businesses to target through social media. It’s essential for brands and businesses to leverage these powerful groups of data to effectively target their key audiences and implement successful social media marketing strategies.

If your brand or business is looking to grow your business through social media, contact the digital team at Elevate on 07 3180 3666 or info@elevatecom.com.au and see how we can revamp your social media marketing strategy today.