Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. We all know the definition of insanity. Then why are you doing social media marketing without checking your analytics and insights?
During the first week of each month, you should review the previous month’s analytics on your website, as well as the insights on your social media business pages. Here’s what you need to look for….
- Did you meet your goals? You actually have to set SMART goals each month. You want your website visitors to keep increasing and your social media following to keep growing.
- Did your marketing efforts accomplish what you wanted? Conversions? Sales? Bookings? New Leads?
- Are you ranking on Google or being cited by the AI Chatbots? Your SEO and AEO might need tweaking!
You should be checking your social media analytics and insights monthly. They tell you:
- The demographics of your fans and followers – this is important – are they your target market?
- Where they are located – if you’re local, you want a good majority in your local area. If they’re not, then you need to change your strategy and tactics to attract people closer to home.
- Age and gender – Do they represent your target? You “talk” differently to the various age groups, men, and women.
- Which posts got the most engagement? – Reach/Impressions are nice, but they tell you how many people had the potential to see your post. Engagement is likes, shares, clicks, and comments.
- Which types of posts got the most engagement – pictures, videos, text, links?
All these tell you what’s working and what’s not working. Therefore, if what you’re doing is not reaching your target, then you need to adjust your marketing plan accordingly. (You do have a marketing plan, right?)
Your Website’s Analytics and Statistics give you Valuable Information also:
- How many unique visitors have you had in any given time frame?
- New and returning visitors: This is important. Are your visitors converting?
- Which sites referred users to your site? Where are the visitors coming from? Social media, other sites, the AI chatbots, and the search engines. This helps you plan your social media strategy. You focus on the networks that are driving people to your website. Make sure your website is optimized for SEO AND AEO.
- Which are your most popular posts and pages? Give them more of what they like! Tweak and update these posts and pages.
- How many pages did each visitor view while they were on your site? Are you interlinking related posts and pages?
- Time viewing: This is a Google Analytics feature that measures how long someone stayed on your site. You want visitors to stay on your site as long as possible, reading other posts and looking through your information. The longer people stay on your site, the more likely they are to buy something.
- The Google Search Console tells you where you come up in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and how many people clicked to visit your website.
What about Social Media Analytics and Insights
Each of the major social media networks offers analytics/insights for business pages and accounts. On X (formerly Twitter), analytics is part of their advertising program now. On Facebook and Instagram, you need at least 100 likes/followers to start getting data. All website platforms have a place to connect them to Google Analytics. Furthermore, there’s a free Google Analytics plugin for WordPress sites called Site Kit. It’s 100% FREE. Not like others, where you need to upgrade to see data.
Oh, and don’t forget your email marketing reports!
If you send out a regular newsletter (at least monthly), you should track the open rate, the click-through rate, and take a look at which links got clicked on the most. You also want to see how many people on your list are actually actively opening and reading your emails. You may want to segment the list somehow to get better results. If you’re sending out the same old emails, you’re probably not going to be very effective.
In conclusion, when you’re armed with this data, you can then plan for the next month. Check out my monthly “What’s Trending” article to take advantage of what will be trending on social media to gain exposure. Your strategic and tactical plans should be adjusted each month based on your analytics. Related Article: ROI or KPI?
Related Content: What if Your Marketing Efforts Are Not Working?
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Why should you check analytics and insights every month for your social media marketing?
Because analytics show you what’s working and what isn’t, so you can adjust your marketing plan each month instead of guessing. Monthly review helps you see if you’re meeting SMART goals and whether your social following and website visitors are growing as planned.
What should you look for when reviewing your website analytics monthly?
Look at how many unique visitors you have, how many are new versus returning visitors, which sites referred traffic, which posts are most popular, how many pages each visitor views, and how long they stay on your site. These indicators help you understand engagement and potential conversions.
How do social media analytics and insights inform your strategy?
They tell you demographics, location, age and gender of your followers, and which types of posts generate the most engagement. This data helps you tailor your content to your target market and optimize where you focus your efforts.
What should you monitor in email marketing reports to improve effectiveness?
Track open rate, click-through rate, which links are clicked the most, and how many people actively read your emails. Consider segmenting your list to improve results and avoid sending the same old messages.
How can you use analytics to plan for the next month?
With data on visitors, engagement, referrals, and top-performing content, you can adjust your strategic and tactical plans monthly. Use insights to refine SMART goals, improve conversions, and align your marketing activities with what’s actually driving results.
