What should a social media analytics tool include?

So you’ve created a social media marketing strategy and now you’re ready to invest in a social media analytics tool. But what should you look for in a social media analytics tool? 

In this piece, we explore the differences in manual vs. automated reporting, core features to look for in a social media analytics tool, and how you can put one to work for your brand.

Let’s dive in.

Article Table Of Contents 

Reports and ways to manually pull data 

When you first think of compiling a social media analysis you may immediately reach for a simple report from each social platform. And that’s definitely an option. Social media platforms today offer their own analytics (we provide an overview and how-to breakdown of each platform here), and can give you a good level of insight into your brand’s performance.

Google Analytics is also a good supplementary source, providing tangible insights into your social media analytics. By taking a deep dive into Google Analytics’ reports, you can find out which social media platforms drive the most traffic to your website and understand metrics relating to landing pages, such as conversion rates. 

To get a full picture of your social media data, however, you will either need to export each platform’s analytics report, consolidate the data, and pull the results into a single spreadsheet, or view each individual data report and determine your key findings from there. 

But let’s be honest. Manual reporting processes like the ones just described are cumbersome, and because the data isn’t in one easy-to-view location, they often lead to missing important big picture insights that could help inform your marketing strategy and elevate your brand. Alternatively, an automated social media analytics tool is a quicker, more effective way to understand your social media performance, view it in a single location and make the necessary adjustments to reap ROI.

Social media analytics tools should include

The right social media analytics tool will work for your brand by consolidating data from your desired social media platforms, tracking customized metrics, providing multiple ways to view, understand, and share the data, and deliver instant insights that will empower your brand to make smarter marketing decisions. 

Analysis of multiple social media channels

An analysis of multiple social media channels is a crucial factor to consider when looking at a social media analytics tool. Why, you ask? The core benefit of an overall analysis is that you can view your earned, organic, and paid social media analytics in one place. Rather than taking a singular approach to your social media analysis, you should be able to analyze conversations and comments across all platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube, and more

A social media analytics tool can help you cut to the chase by instantly providing you with key takeaways from these platforms to further shape your marketing plan. 

Dashboards and visualization 

When it comes to consolidating data, a holistic social media dashboard is non-negotiable when picking the right analytics tool. 

A 2021 report, The Forrester Tech Tide™: Enterprise Business Insights And Analytics, spoke to the importance of “single click” capabilities in leading enterprise Business Intelligence (BI) platforms, and making analytics accessible to a wider audience. “Not only do these [augmented BI] platforms turn business users into citizen data scientists; many also democratize valuable insights to the broader enterprise via a conversational user interface.”

Keep this in mind when considering your social media analytics tool. A social media dashboard should allow you to create specific combinations of data to meet your team’s workflows. And data should be easy to see, intuitive to navigate, visualize, understand, and share.

Sentiment Analysis

Before the internet, customer feedback was usually conveyed over the phone or in brick and mortar stores. Today, the way your customers — and prospective customers — feel about your brand can be shared at any time of day via any social media platform or online review site. That’s why an important social media marketing goal for many brands is to positively change the way customers think and feel about their brand, or to enhance consumer sentiment

A social media analytics tool should allow your brand to understand at scale, sentiment analysis and how the social media audience feels about your brand.  This data can provide you with deep levels of consumer signals beyond just the positive, negative and neutral feeling. You should gain an understanding of trends around your brand or product so that you can better inform the content and tone of your social media campaign.

Emotion analysis and effort scoring

Building on sentiment analysis, it is also important to ask about emotion analysis and effort scoring when looking for your next social media analytics tool

The integration of emotional sentiment of earned social and comments on owned posts with organic and paid activity can supplement your sentiment analysis, giving you a fuller understanding of what your audiences care about and why, and provide important insights to change campaign strategies.

Around events, emotional sentiment can also challenge previous held assumptions and test how accurate they were. For example, around the Johnny Depp / Amber Heard defamation lawsuit, it was commonly assumed that the public became more negative towards Heard, as a result of the trial. However a ListenFirst analysis, found that the emotion of anger proportionally actually appeared less often in Tweets mentioning her after the trial  began.

Meanwhile, Effort Score is a metric measuring customer satisfaction that a product or service is easy to use and is not data that can be collected from social media analytics tool. It requires customers to fill out a survey. After brand representatives resolve a customer issue that was brought up over social media, or responds to a social media request for information, email the customer an Effort Score survey to evaluate their satisfaction with the interaction.

Segmented data

An often overlooked feature when searching for a social media analytics tool is data segmentation. However, this simple ability can provide a deeper understanding of which tactics are driving audience interest. For example, when engagements and impressions of the same tweet are segmented by organic or promoted traffic, rather than lumped together, your brand gains clarity on how it’s connecting with audiences.

Understanding if impressions or engagements came from paid or organic traffic on a post is only possible through a social media analytics tool, if there’s the most up-to-date API integration. With the Twitter example, you’d need to make sure you have a solution that is using the v2 Twitter Engagement API.

Overlaying information across business areas 

Data is just data, without the right insight. That’s why it’s important to ensure your social media analytics tool can layer social analytic insights with critical business data points from other sources. 

That way, you can quickly and easily turn complex, multi-sourced data into easy-to-understand visualizations. Some social media analytics tools, like ListenFirst, have partnerships with Google Data Studio and Tableau, which make data visualization even easier to create and manage.

How you can use a social media analytics tool 

So now that you know what to look for in a social media analytics tool, let’s talk about how we can put those capabilities to work for your brand. 

Gather your social media statistics, operational data, and more 

The social media tool you’ve chosen should enable you to tap into data from all available and relevant sources. This helps eliminate manual operations and dependence across teams, and ensures you can make better business decisions with the most complete information. 

Set industry and business benchmarks

It’s a no-brainer. Benchmarking is critical to measuring the performance of social media campaigns (we outline four effective methods for doing so here). Set benchmarks within your social media analytics tool and monitor them regularly. This will lead you and your team to more engaging content and improved social ROI.  

Start with your business goals. How do those translate into social metrics or outcomes? For example, when you want to grow awareness, consider metrics related to audience growth. Are you set on increasing brand affinity and loyalty? Review engagement rates. If improving brand reputation is the focus, use a proprietary metric like Brand Reputation Index or examine how social sentiment changes for your brand over time. 

Download our report How to Maximize Social Media Analytics for more details on how to identify benchmarks that matter. 

Generate a social media analytics report

Your social media analytics tool should have multiple reporting options. Whether you need to generate a report for a specific campaign, gather instant insights on a configurable social media dashboard, or see how you stack up to industry competitors, generating a social media analytics report will give you a great starting point to tracking your goals.

Set up reports that will allow you to see the most important metrics, including your benchmarks and historical trends, at a glance.

Search for trends and customer behavior

Your social media analytics report should provide an in-depth look at trends in social data and customer behavior. Use your reports to find key insights so you can act quickly and course correct when needed. Remember to compare pre- and post-campaign performance, because data with context means everything.

Take action to improve your social media performance

Your social media analytics tool should provide reports that are concise and actionable. Because one of the biggest benefits to reporting is the action you can take as a result. 

Is your campaign engaging the right audience? For instance, if you’re trying to reach Generation Z with your social media posts, it would be important to know most of your followers are in the Generation X age group. Make changes if needed as you discover what inspires action. You can even focus on the elements such as color, product, talent or layout that perform best to create more fruitful campaigns.

Let the insights from your report help you optimize your messaging and visuals so your content always works to improve your performance.

Share and repeat your analysis

Once you have pulled your reports and measured against your goals, social media dashboards are a great way to communicate the story the data is telling to your key stakeholders. Your social media analytics tool should provide you with the ability to save analysis tiles to a shareable, configurable view, so that you can easily share your successes and lessons learned.

And finally, rinse, wash and repeat. One report or analysis is simply not enough. A social media marketing strategy, or social media campaign, must be measured regularly to ensure its success, with the ability to pivot at any point.

Try ListenFirst’s Social Media Analytics Solutions

Whether you’re just getting started or social media marketing veteran looking to upgrade your analytics, consider leveraging ListenFirst. Our centralized social media analytics solution makes analyzing paid, owned, and earned content across all social media platforms easy. Decide what insights matter most, we’ll configure it and export the comprehensive social media reports you crave. 

In addition to providing a centralized platform, ListenFirst helps you quickly understand key takeaways that are meaningful to you with Instant Insights, a single-click feature that leverages machine learning for easy access.

And while some say comparison is the thief of joy, when it comes to social media, it’s the opposite. ListenFirst reviews your brand’s performance across various social media platforms to provide analytics that support apples-to-apples comparison. You can review analytics at the enterprise, brand, product, and individual-post level.

Lastly, context is everything. ListenFirst’s social listening capabilities provide insights around a topic, brand, or product. Measure cross-platform trends and shifts in viewing habits over time to find out what works, what doesn’t, and why. A sentiment analysis helps you understand how your audience feels towards a topic or theme. So you can use those insights to tailor content, plan campaign strategies, and allocate spend.

Ready to uncover key takeaways, put insights into action, and easily share findings with your team? Try your free ListenFirst demo today.

6 Insights You Need To Know About Streaming Brands On Social Media

TikTok has become the social network generating the most engagement for streaming brands in 2021.

Streaming services may hold viewership numbers as a closely guarded secret, but when it comes to understanding performance on social media, ListenFirst has an objective view of which streaming brands are succeeding and why. From our internal study of Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, Showtime and Starz, here are the 6 insights you need to know about streaming brands and social media.   

#1. Fan Growth in 2021 has slowed for streaming brands 

Streaming BrandNew Fans
Jan – Aug 2018
New Fans 
Jan – Aug 2019
New Fans
Jan – Aug 2020
New Fans
Jan – Aug 2021
Netflix15,974,23317,686,19817,278,64312,975,618
Disney+945,0662,986,7212,606,911
Apple TV+2,4538,80634,235
HBO679,5382,334,240809,106376,989
HBO Max931,3402,063,760
Hulu552,231559,670511,737509,917
Peacock220,687615,798
Amazon Prime Video621,1236,349,3172,703,6911,855,889
Showtime236,788141,654131,181173,465
Starz223,373143,645215,953173,009
Total18,287,28628,162,24325,797,86521,385,591

Looking at the streaming brands between January – August 2021, the number of new fans they generated on social media decreased by -17% compared to January – August 2020, and decreased by -24% compared to January – August 2019. 

What’s happening is while streaming brands are still growing their audience on social media, the rate of growth, which peaked in 2019, has slowed as the streaming video space becomes more crowded. For example, while Netflix got nearly 13 million new fans on social media between January – August 2021, with newer services like Peacock and HBO Max now in the space, that’s still 4.7 million less new fans than Netflix got in the same time period in 2019. 

Additionally, emerging social platforms such as TikTok and Depop are likely eating away at the traditional social channels, especially among younger users, likely contributing to the significant decrease in growth this year. Streaming brands have to experiment with establishing a presence on these newer platforms, to keep pace with shifting audience preferences. 

#2. TikTok Has Become The Most Important Platform For Content Responses 

Streaming brands got 59% of their content responses on TikTok between January – August 2021, with 33% of their responses coming from content they posted on Instagram. Meanwhile during those 8 months, 3% of responses for streaming brands came from Facebook, 3% from YouTube, and 2% from Twitter. For streaming services looking to lift their social engagement, treating TikTok as a focal point is an absolute must. 

Is the popularity of TikTok leading to streamers getting less engagement on other social media platforms? Possibly, but not in the way you’d necessarily expect.  Comparing January – August in 2021 to 2020, the number of responses for streaming brands increased by 27% on YouTube. However, during the same time streaming brands got -7% responses on Twitter, -5% responses on Facebook, and -2% responses on Instagram.      

Even as audience preferences around social networks evolve over time, video-first platforms like YouTube will continue to be strategically important for streaming brands.  

#3. The Audience Was Most Interested In Binging During The Beginning Of The Pandemic 

6 Insights You Need To Know About Streaming Brands On Social Media

When people were stuck at home quarantining with nothing else to do, it appeared that binging TV shows was never more popular. But was that level of interest sustainable? 

Based on Twitter audience data, the answer is no. During Q1 2020 there were 1,190,036 Binge related Tweets which was a 24% increase compared to the previous quarter. In Q2 2020 that number even rose to 1,356,841 Binge related Tweets. However in the 4 subsequent quarters, there were on average -20% less Binge related Tweets compared to that Q2 2020 peak. 

The long term trend remains that the social audience is talking more and more about streaming TV shows in binge mode. However, now that the majority of adults are vaccinated and have more options with what to do with their time, in the short term, the audience interest in binging has actually decreased.   

#4. Shifting to releasing episodic programs weekly can help on social 

Netflix has long been synonymous with the binge release model, which they first popularized in 2013 when they released the entire first season of House of Cards at once. However, even Netflix is now experimenting with different release models, for instance releasing reality shows like The Circle and Too Hot to Handle in batches

The reason for the return to weekly episodes for streamers is largely to extend the social media conversation around their shows.  For example, ​​The Boys switched from a binge release in Season 1 to episodic weekly releases in Season 2, which helped the longevity of its social engagement and interest.  Season 2 didn’t see peaks in engagement until the finale, while interest popped at both premiere and finale. 

Meanwhile, The Mandalorian changed it’s release schedule to alternating between Wednesdays and Fridays to every Friday, leading to a higher conversation volume in Season 2 per episode despite overall interest remaining lower than Season 1. 

How do you know when a streaming show is better off coming out at once or weekly? Content that lends itself to being dissected, such as reality competitions, or regularly recapped on entertainment websites, should be released on a weekly cadence. After all, audiences would have more to reflect on in social media. 

#5.  Frequently posting about large IP’s consistently drives engagement

For streaming brands, leaning into intellectual property that’s already familiar and has a pre-existing fanbase is a proven strategy for lifting social media engagement. For example, 4 out of the 5 most shared HBO Max posts so far in 2021 were about either the Friends reunion or Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Meanwhile, Amazon Prime Video’s two most shared posts between January – August 2021 were Facebook and TikTok videos promoting Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, based on the novel set in Clancy’s Ryanverse. 

#6. Foreign Language Content Now Among Most Popular Content For Streamers 

Streaming brands now produce original programming for local regions across the world and a lot of those shows are clearly connecting with the English language audience on social media as well. For instance, Netflix’s top post in April 2020 with 1,917,159 responses was an Instagram post featuring Úrsula Corberó using a filter that matches her with a character on Money Heist. Additional foreign content shows such as Dark and Elite are also among the most buzzed programs for Netflix on social media. 

For streaming brands with popular foreign language originals, give the English speaking audience the benefit of the doubt that they’ll also embrace those shows on social media. 

Looking for more insights about streaming brands on social media? Request a ListenFirst Demo today! 

Dashboards, Machine Learning and Modern Design

Over the last year the ListenFirst team has taken a deep look at user workflows and closely collaborated with customers to understand their biggest needs. As a result, we’ve invested in many enhancements that will help users save time and uncover more relevant insights in fewer steps.  

Starting in September 2021, ListenFirst users will have access to a new platform experience. Notable features now available in the new ListenFirst experience include the ability to:

  • quickly find the data you need
  • build configurable dashboards
  • uncover key takeaways automatically
  • create brand roll-ups on the fly
  • dive into the analytics and share meaningful visuals quickly

We breakdown our most exciting enhancements below.

Configurable Dashboards

Enjoy more flexibility by creating easy-to-update dashboards tailored to your KPIs.

When you first log in to your ListenFirst account, you’ll get a quick glimpse at the performance metrics most important to you. Configurable Dashboards make this all possible. Our new dashboard feature allows customers to create specific combinations of ListenFirst data to match their team’s unique use cases and workflows. 

It’s easy to add an analysis tile to your favorite dashboard, or to multiple dashboards. It’s your choice. From there you have easy-to-understand, beautiful reports to share with other ListenFirst users.

You’re in Control with Instant Insights

Quickly understand how your brand performs on social media using simple visuals and easy-to-understand language.

Tired of burning precious hours attempting the work of a trained data analyst? Instant Insights, is a new analytics feature that quickly shows how brands perform across social media. It’s all in a single view! 

Leveraging years of intelligence gathered from working with the largest brands in the world, Instant Insights utilizes machine learning to deliver analysis like no other. Users can benchmark performance and uncover valuable takeaways in natural language. Even configure multiple brands and content filters on the fly. 

A Modern and User-Friendly Design

Introducing a complete re-imagining and redesign of navigation, data visualization, and analysis in the platform.   

We worked hand-in-hand with ListenFirst customers to ensure the new interface would provide easy access to the data needed most. This resulted in a more streamlined workflow paired with modern design. Save time with more intuitive navigation, clean data visuals and more ways to share key metrics and insightful takeaways with others.

Experience the Enhancements for Yourself

Throughout the month of September, users will be given the opportunity to switch between the new and legacy UI. So, the next time you log into your ListenFirst account, look for the toggle button at the top right.

Don’t be shy. Dive into the upgraded experience for more flexibility, faster insights and access to powerful dashboards. New feature walk-thrus will be available as you explore the platform, but for a deeper understanding of the new workflows, check out the knowledge base dedicated to the Platform Redesign found in the Help Center. 

Is your brand ready for the privacy policy changes ahead?

Create a relevant advertising strategy as technologies ramp up consumer privacy controls

With new changes sweeping the martech industry, it’s no wonder brands are struggling to understand what it means for their future marketing strategy. 

First, it was Google. Now it’s Apple. 

Brands are announcing significant changes to their end-user experience. These are changes that will limit advertisers who are retargeting ads or collecting consumer data to manage their digital marketing campaigns.

The Fate Of Digital Advertising

While the fate of some common advertising tactics remain unclear, there are still many avenues that can drive strong returns for savvy digital  marketers.  

Hear what Jason Klein, co-founder of ListenFirst, had to say on the topic. In Jason’s LinkedIn post, he shares a few tips to help brands reach their ideal audience today and in the future.

Discover Jason’s tips.

Share of Voice – How to Measure and Increase vs Industry Competitors

Watch this webinar to learn how to measure Share of Voice (SOV), a cornerstone metric that helps you understand your brand’s health and awareness in the market as it relates to your competition.

SOV gives you the overall positioning of your brand at a high level and, when done well, it also provides the details at an individual campaign, product, or release level – across all social channels. This insight is invaluable when determining performance and strategy going forward.

3 Ways To Optimize Your Digital Marketing Without Third-Party Cookies

Just like with the expression “you can attract more bees with honey than with vinegar”, the disappearance of third-party cookies from browsers is actually an opportunity for brands. Third-party cookies were never popular with consumers and now that they’ll be going away as a retargeting tool, marketers can focus on connecting with digital audiences using content they do want. 

Let social media marketing extend your reach

Social media is a far more welcoming context for the audience to interact with brand content. For example, on social media the audience actually opts into following their favorite brands. With third-party cookies, companies are doing the following, and behind people’s backs.   

Plus, with the right analytics, you can build a strong marketing strategy that extends beyond the audience you reach with third-party cookies. Below are three ways you can use social media to more effectively target your marketing to the right audience, and with the right content. 

#1 Understand what content is actually moving the needle and engaging users.

Third-party cookies track what users have viewed online, which is valuable in terms of retargeting but provides a narrow understanding of your audience. Gain extensive insights into your owned and competitive audience demographics to craft the most tailored content strategies possible. This will help you make informed decisions before spending your limited marketing dollars. 

#2 Expand your reach by partnering with the right influencers

Let’s face it, some people just have it. There are personalities across social media that have a loyal community of followers that are always eager to engage with their latest post. These influencers often attract very niche audiences. When their audience looks a lot like your target customer, there’s incredible opportunities for everyone. Check out a recent webinar from ListenFirst on Measuring the Impact of Influencers to understand how this strategy can work for you. 

#3 Review marketing content from your competitors and see how it performed

Combine historical campaign performance with competitor intel and a clear understanding of trending topics and you have the elements you need to build a successful campaign. When you have access to this data on an ongoing basis, team creativity flourishes. Watch our webinar on Using Competitive Information to Plan Seasonal Campaigns to learn more. 

As you beef up your social media strategy, you’ll notice it’s more effective and not so intimidating. Plus, a data-driven social strategy will be more engaging, and your audience will appreciate that you catered to their interests without infringing on their privacy.

Ready to see how ListenFirst can help you leverage social media to its full potential? Request a demo today.