The Role of Social Analytics

in Optimizing a Social Plan

Introduction | 01
Optimizing a Social Plan | 02
Why Marketers Need Social Analytics | 03
The Two Core Functions of Social Analytics | 04
Social Optimization: The Three Key Levels of Analysis | 05
Analyzing Brand Activities | 06
Analyzing Audience Engagement | 08
Analyzing Business Impact | 11
Turning Insight Into Action | 14
Conclusion | 15

Introduction
Optimization -- the process of making a system, opportunity, or
resource more efficient -- is a core competency for any marketer.
As Albert Einstein famously said, Insanity is doing the same
thing over and over and expecting different results.
In digital marketing, data and analytics are essential to the
process of optimization. Without measuring and optimizing
their tactics, such as a hashtag used in an integrated marketing
campaign or the impact of a new influencer on social shares
and sales, marketers continue to see the same results, and
fail to understand the impact their campaigns have with their
desired audience.
In this paper, well define the performance measurement and
optimization process as it exists within the context of an overall
social strategy, and what that means to marketers. Well explain
where marketers often miss an opportunity to improve their
tactical execution by looking back at their activities to identify
and analyze opportunities, trends, and mistakes.

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN OPTIMIZING A SOCIAL PLAN

Optimizing a Social Plan

Optimizing a social plan starts with analyzing tactics and
execution, as it would in any marketing channel. Modern
marketers dont have to make purely qualitative decisions.
The vast amount of data available for any digital channel arms
marketers with the ability to inform and quantify their entire
social marketing process.
Social marketers have three distinct needs to address in order to
develop effective programs and campaigns:
1. The ability to define and plan a social strategy.
2. The ability to execute on that strategy.
3. The ability to measure and optimize campaigns and tactics.
No marketing strategy is complete without coming full circle
from planning to measurement. In order to execute tactics,
marketers have to plan a strategy and, in order to plan, they
have to understand how their efforts make an impact on a
variety of factors.

PLAN
EXECUTE
MEASURE

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN OPTIMIZING A SOCIAL PLAN

Why Marketers Need Social Analytics

Social analytics is becoming a critical component in the social
marketing process, allowing marketers to plan and measure
the actions they take to execute on their social strategy. But,
creating an effective process for analysis remains a challenge.
According to a Demand Metric survey, 53% of social media
marketing professionals say linking measurement to objectives is
a major challenge. In addition, 48% say that defining meaningful
metrics is a major challenge, as well.

53%
48%
32%

of marketers say linking measurement to

objectives is a major challenge
of marketers say defining meaningful metrics
is a major challenge
of marketers say developing the skills necessary for
a social analytics strategy is a major challenge

A complete social analytics strategy fills in these knowledge

gaps. It gives marketers access to the information, analysis,
and insight necessary to plan their strategy, measure their
performance, optimize their tactics, and tie social activity to
larger business outcomes. In addition, it helps them understand
how to use that insight in constructive ways.

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN OPTIMIZING A SOCIAL PLAN

The Two Core Functions of Social Analytics

As the Demand Metric survey suggests, most marketers dont
have a well-defined approach to social analytics. They havent
had access to the information and insight needed to plan and
measure correctly on their social marketing tactics, so their
process has simply been to use whats readily available, or
ignore the process of analysis all together. This isnt optimal
and wouldnt be acceptable in other marketing channels.
As the category of social analytics has formalized, the
expectations of what the process should cover has grown to
include a wider set of needs and enable both the planning
and measuring components of the social marketing process
outlined above.
Social analytics informs the planning process with intelligence
from several different components of a brands social
ecosystem, and the measurement process by enabling a
brand to understand the impact of its own activities on its
audience and business objectives.
For the purposes of this paper, well focus on how a lack of
understanding in the measurement and optimization category
prevents marketers from developing campaigns that have the
highest impact possible.

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN OPTIMIZING A SOCIAL PLAN

Social Optimization:
The Three Key Levels of Analysis
Social analytics for measurement and optimization involves
developing a complete understanding of how brand tactics
impact audience engagement and business objectives, in order
to better serve the strategy and plan those tactics were a part of.
Optimization within social media marketing is composed of
three key types of analysis:

Brand
Activities

Audience
Engagement

Business
Results

Each area of measurement has a different objective, and will be

used in a different context.
The outcome of the measurement and optimization process,
when done effectively, is a complete understanding of how
brand tactics impact audience engagement and drive real
business value. This insight can then be used to alter, improve,
or change the tactics and execution decided upon during the
planning process.
When analyzing social execution, its important to start with what
the brand controls.

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN OPTIMIZING A SOCIAL PLAN

Analysis of Brand Activities

Brand activities include the actions your brand takes, like
publishing content, responding to users, and promoting brand
campaigns or initiatives.
Social analytics needs to fulfill a specific use case here, helping
marketers measure, compare, and optimize the tactics being used.
There are many types of brand activity analyses.
Campaign Execution
Analyzing each action taken as part of a specific campaign,
marketers can benchmark against other campaigns, compare
tactics, and adjust time and resources when necessary.
Posting Volume and Frequency
By analyzing the volume and frequency of social content
being published, marketers are able to establish baselines for
engagement analysis, helping them understand the impact of
their tactical investment.
Content Type
By analyzing the types of content theyre publishing (photos,
videos, links, etc.), marketers are able to bucket content types
and gain intelligence around which types are most used, most
valuable, and most successful.

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN OPTIMIZING A SOCIAL PLAN

Content Attributes
In addition to analyzing content types, marketers must identify
and analyze specific attributes of the content being published,
including hashtags, caption length, visual characteristics of
photos and videos, locations and users tagged, and much more.
Network Distribution
By analyzing which networks need and get the most attention,
marketers are able to identify the best way to allocate time and
resources, as well as identify areas that can be scaled back.
Audience Targeting
By analyzing which audiences are being targeted with specific
content, marketers can further develop content categories,
giving them the foundation needed for thorough audience
engagement analysis, which is the next step.
The goal of analyzing brand activities is to help marketers answer
several specific directional questions:
Are they executing to plan?
Are time and resources being dedicated to areas that are
aligned with the insight and intelligence gathered during
the planning process?
Can they bring these activity metrics into their audience
engagement analysis as tactical baselines?
If the answers to these questions are clear, and a strong
understanding of what theyre looking for when analyzing brand
activity is developed, marketers are ready to introduce the next
component of measurement.

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN OPTIMIZING A SOCIAL PLAN

Analysis of Audience Engagement

Audience engagement in the social analytics framework is the
analysis of how your brand activities are received, interacted
with, and amplified by your audience, both at a content-specific
level and a brand level.
Social analytics allows users to gain insights about how
their audience has interacted with their brand message,
benchmark against other companies and time periods, and gain
understanding about their tactics and content performance.
The types of analysis done and the metrics used will depend on
the goals a brand has. Engagement for the sake of engagement
isnt in itself a goal; its a signal that can help marketers achieve
their goals. In a recent article, Simply Measured CEO Adam
Schoenfeld cautioned marketers to not make engagement the
basis for their social programs.

Engagement is not a standalone success metric, and

absolutely cant be treated as such. That said, it is a signal
that gives us quantitative data about our social strategy,
marketing performance, and earned media. Engagement
data can help optimize content and social marketing tactics.

- Adam Schoenfeld,
CEO Simply Measured

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN OPTIMIZING A SOCIAL PLAN

When engagement analysis is used a KPI (key performance

indicator) for a successful tactic in concert with analysis of brand
activities, it can provide valuable insight in several areas.
Content and Campaign Performance
Engagement analysis of campaign content allows marketers to
benchmark against other campaigns, measure the viability of
specific messaging or tactics, and optimize programs based on
insight founded in data.
Amplification and Reach
Engagement metrics offer insight into the exposure of
your brands message across digital channels. By analyzing
amplification metrics like Retweets, shares, pins, etc., social
marketers are able to understand the potential of their social
programs and do so in a language that traditional marketers are
used to.
Sentiment
Sentiment analysis helps marketers identify whether content with
high levels of engagement is received positively or negatively
by their audience, giving them insight into what makes their
audience tick.
Network Performance
Engagement analysis helps marketers identify opportunities and
weaknesses of specific channels based on the engagement with
network-specific tactics.
Volume and Frequency
By tying engagement back to brand tactics, marketers are able
to understand the effectiveness of their posting cadence and
optimize based on audience interest.

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN OPTIMIZING A SOCIAL PLAN

The goal of analyzing engagement is to help marketers answer

several specific directional questions:
Are specific brand tactics working less effectively than
anticipated?
What can we change to increase audience engagement?
What are we doing well, that our audience is responding
positively to?
Are time and resources being spent on the right content,
networks, and audiences? Does the strategic approach
need to be adjusted?
The answers to these questions should tie back to the overall
social plan, and engagement metrics should act as KPIs that the
tactics and campaigns are either working or not.

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN OPTIMIZING A SOCIAL PLAN

Analysis of Business Results

The most difficult and most valuable component of social
analytics is the ability to measure socials impact on both direct
outcomes like engagement and traffic, broader marketing
outcomes like brand loyalty and customer lifetime value, and
business outcomes like revenue and sales.
In this regard, social analytics needs to integrate social data with
different channels, tying social media activities directly to other
marketing workflows and sales metrics.
The topic of Social ROI has been a hot button issue for some
time now. Marketers feel unequipped to define the ROI of their
social programs, but the ability to integrate social data with
other channels is growing and, while social marketing at many
companies may not equate directly to a revenue figure, there
are many ways to tie social programs to business results.

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN OPTIMIZING A SOCIAL PLAN

Website Traffic
Perhaps the easiest way to tie social programs to business
results is by measuring website traffic from social programs. By
identifying and analyzing the impact of various social campaigns
and programs, marketers are able to measure the value of those
programs in context with established conversion baselines and
other website success metrics.
Foot Traffic
Marketers with brick-and-mortar stores might track foot traffic
driven or influenced by social media in a similar way to web traffic.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
Social media gives marketers the ability to not only interact with
potential customers, but maintain a relationship with current
ones. By analyzing and understanding the current customers
who engage on social, marketers are able to identify the impact
social programs have on the CLTV for their company.
Brand Loyalty
In addition to CLTV, many marketers are working to tie their social
programs to brand loyalty metrics. This analysis allows them to
understand the value of impressions and engagement as they
relate to user retention, recall, and perception of their brand.
Brand Awareness and Reputation
Social media is not used exclusively for driving traffic and sales.
Many companies will focus on driving brand awareness and
protecting their reputation via social channels.

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN OPTIMIZING A SOCIAL PLAN

Customer Support
Increasingly, companies use social as a customer support
channel, and may measure success based on metrics like the
number of issues resolved, response rate/time, or conversations
taken offline.
Sales Metrics
In the end, the goal of any marketing program is to aid revenue
generation. By tying social programs to sales metrics like leads,
marketing teams are able to tie social programs directly to dollar
figures, and identify revenue-driving opportunities.
The goal of analyzing business impact is to help marketers
answer several specific questions:
What tactics and campaigns are most effective for the
business?
Does the business see the right return on the investment of
these tactics and campaigns?
Can we prove the value of social media to the organization,
and how does it stack up compared to other marketing
channels and tactics?
Is our strategy the right one for the impact were trying to
make?

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN OPTIMIZING A SOCIAL PLAN

Turning Insight into Action

Armed with insight about their brand activities, audience
engagement, and business impact, a social marketer is able
to understand the impact of their brands social programs,
simply by organizing the information gleaned through their
analysis. Social marketers are now ready to use this insight in
a variety of ways:
Prove Success
Both within the social team, and to the broader marketing
department and organization, social marketers are now able
to quantifiably state whether or not their social programs are
successful.
Discover What Works
By analyzing audience engagement and business impact,
marketers are able to identify successful tactics so they can
invest more in specific areas.
Discover What Doesnt Work
On the other side of that coin, this analysis allows marketers
to understand what isnt working so they can abandon those
tactics and focus on other areas of their social plan.
Develop Additional Hypotheses
When something hasnt worked, the data and insight now
available gives marketers the ability to develop and test new
tactics and actions.
Modify and Execute Again
Above all, this process allows marketers to make the necessary
changes and execute the plan again so they can measure it
once more and continue to optimize.

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN OPTIMIZING A SOCIAL PLAN

Conclusion
To set the framework for optimization, social marketers need
to undergo regular analysis of their brand activities, audience
engagement, and business impact. With this data they can
optimize their social media plan with the confidence that solid
data provides.
The social measurement and optimization process allows
marketers to make the changes necessary to their tactics and
campaigns by giving a complete picture of how their actions
impact their audience and, in turn, their business goals.
When this optimization process is built on a solid foundation
from the planning and strategic development process, the
marketer has a complete social analytics strategy, enabling
end-to-end social marketing, founded in real insight instead of
guesses or instinct.

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THE ROLE OF SOCIAL ANALYTICS IN OPTIMIZING A SOCIAL PLAN

About Simply Measured

Simply Measured is the most complete social analytics solution,
empowering marketers with unmatched access to their social data
to more clearly define their social strategy and to optimize their
tactics for maximum impact.

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