The Ultimate Guide to Social Media Analytics

There are billions of social media users across the globe – so it would seem just being present on the platforms would be enough to reach new people. However, that’s not the case. Simply existing on social won’t do much for you – you need to focus on the ROI of your strategy. One of the best ways to see how you’re doing and to improve is by using social media analytics. Social media reporting will give you a leg up in producing engaging content that actually has an impact on your bottom line. Here’s what law firms need to know about using social media analytics to improve their digital strategy. 

What are Social Media Analytics?

Social media analytics are the data and reports based on metrics from one or multiple social media accounts. Savvy digital marketers gather and analyze this information to gain insights that are directly tied to their social media and overall marketing efforts. Here are a few of the things that proper social media analytics can help you to do: 

• Obtain a more thorough understanding of who your target audience really is and where and how they spend their time. 
• Figure out which social platforms are the best for your firm. 
• Understand which types of content resonate with your audience, which can be applied to overall digital marketing activities. 
• See which topics resonate best with your audience and which social media posts drive engagement. 
• Learn more about what is and isn’t working in various campaigns and advertising. 
• Create a more robust strategy that is better aligned to the goals that are important to you. 

Types of Social Media Analytics Reports

As you can see, obtaining and studying this information has implications far beyond simply seeing which posts are most popular. However, which information should you be looking at? Here are some of the reports that we suggest generating monthly.

1. Audience analytics report – With this report, you can see the current number of followers for each social platform. You can also compare to a previous period so you can visualize trends over time. 
2. Published posts analytics report – This is simply the number of social posts published across your social accounts during a specific period.
3. Interactions analytics report – Here you can find the number of likes, reactions, and comments on your posts across multiple platforms. This is important for understanding engagement, especially over time. 
4. Click-through analytics report – This number refers to how many clicks you get on any social posts published through HubSpot. Note that this is a specific HubSpot report, but you can find similar reporting in other analytics platforms. This data is helpful in understanding whether or not your content is driving action. 
5. Share analytics report – Look at the number of posts your audience has shared if you want to gain an idea of how valuable they find your content. 
6. Impressions analytics report – Here you can see the number of views that posts on your LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram pages received.
7. Sessions analytics report – With this report you can see how many web sessions on your site took place within a given period driven by social media. This is really valuable in understanding how social actually drives web activity and potentially leads. 
8. New contacts analytics report – Another HubSpot-specific report, you can view this data to see how many new contacts have been created in HubSpot due to web sessions driven by social media within the selected period. 

The Best Social Media Analytics Tools

Just where does one find all of that handy reporting? There are a variety of platforms available to help dig deeper into your social media activity. The truth is that finding the right tools can actually feel overwhelming because there are so many. We’ve narrowed the list down to our favorites here. 

1. HubSpot Social Media Software – This platform aims to give insight into the customer journey through integrated analytics tools. They help you to better understand your overall marketing journey and how social media impacts the bottom line. Users also love the resources available, such as social media analytics report templates, free social media analytics tools, and social media courses.
2. TweetDeck – As the name implies, this tool is Twitter-specific. It works in real-time to support marketers in viewing and analyzing Twitter engagement, management, and tracking. If you are a frequent user of Twitter, this tool is worth a look. 
3. Buffer – The goal of this tool is to dig deeper into how you can grow your brand on social media. The software measures your performance on various social platforms, creating detailed reports about the data that matters to you, and offering ways to improve your reach, engagement, and more.
4. Hootsuite – This popular tool allows users to create customized social media reports using over 200 metrics across social channels and campaigns. Users love that the reports are shareable and support keeping your entire team on the same page. 
5. Sprout Social – With this tool, you can take a closer look at your potential clients’ needs through the conversations your audience is having on social media. You can also use it to measure your specific content and campaign efforts across various platforms and channels to determine what’s working best among audience members and what needs some work. 
6. Mention – Another social listening tool, this platform allows your firm to monitor, listen, and analyze your posts and interactions with (and among) audience members via different social media channels. 

An Effective Social Media Analytics Strategy

If these sorts of analytics have never really been part of your reporting, you might not be sure where to start. Follow this simple 5-step plan to start making the most of the social media analytics at your disposal. 

1. Create SMART social media goals – SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Here’s a cool template that can help you to create these SMART goals and work toward them. Start by thinking through what you really hope to learn from social media analytics, and how you will use the information. 
2. Choose which metrics to track – You can’t track every metric, and once you set your SMART goals, it won’t make sense to. The metrics you want will vary based on which platforms you use and what you hope to accomplish, but some examples of commonly tracked metrics are reach, engagement, mentions, social ROI, social listening, and shares. 
3. Pick the right social media analytics tools – Narrow down which tools you will invest in for these purposes. We’ve covered a few of our favorites, but by all means do your research and see which options align best with the way that your team works. Some important things to consider are whether or not you need the tool to track across multiple channels and platforms, and of course what your budget is. These two things are the main drivers for most digital marketer’s decisions on tools. Also take a close look at the goals you set, the metrics that align to them, and which tool makes it easiest to obtain that information. 
4. Start measuring – After you implement your social media analytics software, you can begin to measure the success of your efforts. Start pulling the metrics you care about, and depending on which tool you choose, you can create customized reports and dashboards or pull the specific details about data points you care most about. Additionally, on a quarterly basis, you may want to take a look at your overall goals and see whether the tool is helping you to meet them.
5. Make necessary adjustments – A crucial part of monitoring social media analytics is using the information that you obtain. Without this step, you’re wasting your time and investment. Take a look at how reporting has been going and whether or not you’re getting the full picture that you need. Do you have the metrics necessary to understand your performance compared to your goals? If not, adjustments need to be made and you may even need to try a different tool at some point. 

It’s worth noting that many marketers mix up steps 2 and 3, choosing tools before deciding which metrics need to be tracked. We strongly suggest making a list of goals and associated metrics, so that you have a robust list of requirements when shopping for an analytics tool. Only by having that information ready can you make an informed decision about which analytics platform is best for your firm over the long term. 

Takeaway:

There are many ways that tracking and acting on your social media analytics can help you to grow and reach your audience. By paying close attention to key metrics, you’re likely to end up seeing improvements in things that are tied to your ROI, like engagement, client loyalty, and more. Choose the right analytics tool to make sure your analytics really give you valuable insights based on your particular needs. For more insight into measurement and analytics that can inform your bottom line, check in with our experts. We help legal marketers to use analytics to make better, faster decisions that make a real impact on their bottom line.