How Analytics Can Inform Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

Law firms face complexities when developing a marketing strategy. Just as you would not travel to a new destination without a map or GPS guiding you, you cannot achieve a worthwhile marketing strategy without social media analytics. Like a GPS, analytics can guide you in defining success through data driven decision-making. 

Social media analytics provide hard data on your successes and failures. When a marketer examines the context surrounding these numbers, they can determine the opportunities and obstacles that influence a marketing strategy. When it comes to law firms, content can fall into a number of categories like thought leadership, awards, client testimonials, events and firm culture. In addition, content can fall into  multiple categories, including static images, GIFs and videos. With the help of analytics, marketers can narrow down what content outperforms others based on audience engagement, impressions and click-through rate. However, understanding what content is successful is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to outlining your strategy. There are many more elements that work together to give marketers the ability to apply analytics to strategy.

Data Visualization

Data visualization helps marketers understand and interpret data points. With the help of charts and graphs, marketers can see where trends and patterns exist across content types, timelines and audiences. Social media channels, like LinkedIn, give marketers access to basic functions of data visualization so they can see overall post performance across campaigns and even among competitors. Platforms such as Dash Hudson and Sprout Social allow marketers to dive even deeper into analytics through their data visualization capabilities. For instance, these applications give marketers the opportunity to see side-by-side comparisons of metrics between months, days and even years across channels or on an individual channel basis. Total customization and filtering abilities allow marketers to do more with their data to improve future performance. 

Tailored Content and Timelines

Marketers can gather analytics across any period of time based on their needs. For instance, during months like November and December, engagement may shift as people are gearing up for the holidays. Referencing analytical tools to understand historical and real-time data helps marketers make an informed decision on how to approach what content is most impactful at a given time. For example, marketers may opt to share office holiday party images to showcase their firm culture, rather than pushing out content purely related to thought leadership. Content that requires more clicks may be less relevant and too time-consuming for those on the go and trying to close out the year. Regardless of what success may look like for your firm, having access to this data gives you a look at what resources and energy can be used to maximize the impact of your content.

Understanding your Audience Segments

Just as a firm’s content type varies, so do its audience segments. As a result, leveraging audience data like gender, location and related industries gives greater value to analytics. Having such information allows marketers to thoughtfully craft relevant and timely content and messaging to improve conversion rates. Interestingly enough, one of the most valuable segments a firm has is its own people. As brand champions, targeting employees in hopes of them resharing content provides a great opportunity for you to expand the reach a post may have.

Platform Differentiation

Comparing data across platforms has left marketers with an understanding that a blanket approach to pushing out content across apps like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter is no longer effective. Instead, each social media channel has a unique set of audience demographics, behaviors and expectations. As a result, tailoring content to the platform goes hand-in-hand with understanding the audience on that platform. For example, content related to firm culture often outperforms on Facebook rather than LinkedIn. This is because Facebook is a space where audience members more commonly interact in a casual manner by connecting with friends and pages. Meanwhile, industry news seems to earn significantly more engagement on LinkedIn than Facebook, showing that audience members go to LinkedIn for content that offers insight and promotes overall professional development. This is not to say that some types of content (like awards) can’t live on both platforms. As a result, it is worthwhile for marketers to dive into what content is outperforming, and where. With this in mind, you can better tailor your content to the platform to more effectively communicate, strengthen engagement and boost performance for a greater overall marketing strategy.

Conclusion

Each of these components related to social media analytics is not isolated. Rather, each piece comes together to give you a solid marketing strategy. While immersing yourself in the world of data-driven decision-making may seem overwhelming, it opens a world of opportunity to tailor your strategy and reach a marketer’s ultimate destination: success. 

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