Is there something wrong with your company’s social media marketing? You may have spent a ton of time crafting updates and still, no fish are biting. Maybe you just can’t put your finger on what the problem is. It’s time to study your data. Social media analytics may reveal the weak links in your content or strategy so you can adapt to what your audience is responding to the most.

Every week, gather up your social media marketing team to study your analytics. Whether you use Hootsuite, Buffer, or just analyze the native numbers on the platform of choice, you need to review your data.

We always recommend posting 1-2 times a day on your social media accounts. Because of this constant stream of content, your company’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other accounts should have a decent amount of posts to study. Which updates rocked? Which flopped? Did a particular hashtag gather in the readers? Perhaps an image or video got people talking? What advertising efforts really struck a cord? All of these questions need to be answered. Since most successful social media marketers write for the upcoming week, you have the opportunity to change your formula ahead of time to make things work.

On top of your weekly analytics, you should also have an in-depth monthly review. Study the past weeks of your campaign on a macro level. How have your numbers risen or fallen? This data should help you set up goals for the next month, and reveal areas you need to improve.

It’s important to work on things when you notice them, don’t push them off. Otherwise, these problems have a tendency to compound and worsen.

Of course, data isn’t all about you. When you are planning the month ahead, you should speak with your team and come up with a game plan based on projected trending topics. What holidays are coming up? What season are you entering? Perhaps the upcoming month tends to be a slow time for business, or maybe it’s the beginning of an annual rush. Planning ahead is essential for your content calendar and the success of your marketing efforts.

As you can see, you should get excited over charts and graphs! If you are stumped as to why your social media marketing strategy is a dud, you are in luck thanks to all the analytics available to study. The right marketer knows how to harness this data and fine-tune a strategy to social media excellence.

Does your team know how to study analytics and data metrics? We do! We can help your business hit the spot on social media.