The Best Metric For The Job
Picture this, you just launched a new skincare brand, focusing on natural and organic ingredients that are beneficial for the environment. Your goal for the business is to generate a following and make an establishment for yourself. You turn to social media unknowing where to start or how to create content. Here are answers to the top six questions you may have when trying to reach your goal using social media.
Who is my audience?
When posting on any social platform, it is key to identify your audience. Your audience consists of the people who you want to appeal to and are most likely to be interested in your product or service. Considering your new skincare brand, your audience could be identified as environmentalists, estheticians, or even just skincare enthusiasts. While you may have an idea of who your audience is in your head, the engagement and awareness metrics found on social platforms will help you identify your exact audience. Engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares, and clicks) illustrate what profiles are interacting with your account and how often. Awareness metrics such as your reach can identify who your content is being delivered to.
Am I doing better than my competitors? What are people saying about my brand?
Like any business owner, you are concerned with how your company is performing amongst its competitors. When looking to understand the competition analysis you look to the share of voice in volume and sentiment. Share of voice allows you to indicate how often people are talking about your brand online compared to your competitors. This type of metric is meant to be looked at over time as it should be an ongoing goal of improvement. You can also use this metric feature to see what people are saying about your brand. If you were to use a social media management system like SproutSocial, there are listening features that allow you to search custom keywords to view how people are talking about your brand even if they don’t @mention you. SproutSocial’s social listening templates, listed in the image below, allows users to maximize their insight around five key areas while also including a blank custom template for you to personalize. It is also important to monitor the comment section of your posts to see what your audience is saying directly.
Photo Credits: SproutSocial
When is the best time to publish?
The best time to publish is based on your audience and when they are actively on each platform. As you are growing your skincare business, you may notice that since your followers are on the older side and may have full-time jobs that the best times to reach them are in the morning/evening before or after work and possibly during lunchtime for when they are on their break. It's important to understand that your audience will identify different times for activity based on different platforms. The image below reflects SproutSocial’s data analysis of the best time to post on Instagram for consumer goods engagement.
Photo Credits: SproutSocial
Which content does my audience enjoy the most?
You will know what your audience enjoys the most based on your engagement rates and competitor analysis. Your engagement rates will illustrate what your audience identifies with when you post content. As a skincare brand maybe your audience will identify more with images of your products and reviews rather than pictures of clear skin. To create good and engaging content it is also important to research your competitors to see what they are doing that is attracting your similar audience.
Which social media network is the best for my brand?
The best social media network for you is based on the content that you will be posting. Considering your startup skincare brand, it would be best if you grow your brand on Instagram. Instagram allows you to show images and videos and is widely used by your target audience. It is also important to take into consideration what platforms your competitors are on and how you can compete against them.
How can I have a better performance on social media?
Creating a better performance on social media can be challenging. The best way to create a better performance is to know your brand and target audience. Knowing this will allow you to create better content that keeps your clientele engaged as well as happy with your content. The tips, tricks, and metrics mentioned above are great tools for businesses that are starting out. Metrics are an important factor in bettering your performance as it will tell you if your current strategy is working or not for your brand. Depending on your goal, you choose the metric(s) that best fits.