Data visualization: What it is and how it adds value to marketing

The abundance of data can be a bane as much as it is a boon. While marketers now have plenty of data to back up their campaigns and strategies, that also means they have to go through the tedious process of sifting through a sea of data to find what they need to measure performance and what can help them make a case for the value of their work. This could easily lead to analysis paralysis in which they get so overwhelmed with data that they end up not making any decision at all.

That’s where data visualization enters the picture. By showcasing the most critical data in a visual format, it makes the information easier to process and understand. In this post, we give you an in-depth look at data visualization, why you need it and how you can apply it in your organization.

What is data visualization?

Data visualization is the process of translating large and complex datasets and summarizing them in a visual format. This not only makes the data easier to understand but also pleasant to look at, which helps you get people’s attention more effectively.

Sprout Social regularly publishes data visualization examples with accompanying infographics in our content. This allows us to highlight the most important details at a glance, while the body of the article elaborates on the findings.

You’ll also find other data visualization examples throughout reports in the Sprout platform itself such as this report on Facebook competitors. The comparative line graph helps you quickly visualize how your Facebook page compares to your competitor in terms of audience growth by day.

Just a few of the most common types of data visualizations include:

• Area charts
• Line charts
• Bar charts
• Pie charts
• Scatter plots
• Histograms
• Heat maps

These can act as standalone visualizations in analysis reports, illustrate text content or even play a part in a larger data storytelling effort. It’s important to understand the best use cases for different types of data visualization so your imagery actually clarifies and highlights the takeaways for your data rather than confusing viewers further–read on for tips and best practices.

Advantages of data visualization

There are a lot of ways data visualization can fuel and strengthen your marketing efforts other than making the information easier to process. Let’s take a closer look at the advantages of data visualization so you can understand how it adds value to your organization:

1. Provide greater insight

The most obvious advantage is that it helps connect the dots between different datasets to uncover patterns and trends, thus enhancing comprehension. It adds more context and assigns meaning to your data, helping you understand its relevance in the real world and how you should apply it. Instead of just overwhelming you with information, data visualization puts together the most valuable bits in a way that makes sense for you or for the audience of your content.

Data visualization provides insights that you can’t get through traditional descriptive statistics, helping you visualize the variations between seemingly similar datasets. Anscombe’s Quartet serves as a classic example of this. This illustrates four datasets that share similar descriptive statistics such as the same numerical average or standard deviation, but when plotted in visual graphs, clearly tell four different stories.

2. Improve your decision-making process

With improved insight and better comprehension, data visualization helps improve the decision-making process. As critical decision-makers won’t have to go through the tedious process of sifting through data to uncover the insights they need, they can avoid analysis paralysis and make informed decisions much faster.

That’s exactly why you need data visualization for marketing, as it helps you develop powerful strategies and campaigns before your competitors can catch up with you.

3. Engage the audience

There’s no doubt that well-designed visuals are attractive and engaging. Data visualization combined with data storytelling can help you draw in your target audience and engage them. It can add more substance to the information you want to share and help you get your message across more effectively.

So it’s no surprise that even for publications like The Washington Post, the most-read story it ever published online is a visualization-driven story involving the coronavirus simulator. And for The New York Times, the most-read piece it published online during 2013 was a dialect map.

4. Easily repurposed

One of the best advantages of data visualization is its versatility, allowing you to repurpose it in different formats for various aspects of your business–from social media to content marketing. Since it helps translate the information into a format that’s easy to process, it improves the understanding of crucial metrics at every level. This makes it perfect for use in internal reporting and client reporting as well as content development.

The Sprout example given at the beginning showcases how data visualization serves as content for your organization. The addition of visualized data makes your content easier to consume and share, especially on social media where visual content dominates.

For example, see how the Content Marketing Institute tweets out one of the charts from its annual report and then invites followers to read the full report.

84% of B2B content marketers have use paid distribution channels in the last 12 months.

To learn more about what marketers had to say about distribution channels, including which generated the best results, read our report. https://t.co/HUl0n2Zs6U pic.twitter.com/7QGKKsxCRA

— Content Marketing Institute (@CMIContent) April 20, 2020

You can further communicate your data into other formats including:

• Annual reports
• Articles and blog posts
• Case studies
• Brochures
• Presentations
• Videos
• Infographics
• Internal reports

Data visualization tips

Before you rope in your design team for data visualization, there are a few essentials to take care of. You need to make sure you’re working on a subject that would appeal to your target audience and properly source the data you want to visualize. So use the following tips to nail your data visualization efforts:

1. Get specific with your subject

For your data visualization efforts to make an impact, the first step is to tackle a subject that’s relevant and interesting to the people you’re targeting. But even the most relevant data can be difficult to process if you overwhelm the audience with too much information. And your data can go all over the place if you don’t have a clear idea of what story you want to tell.

So, define a clear purpose for your visualized data to narrow down on the main subject you want to address. This will also help you put together the information in a logical flow for powerful and effective data storytelling.

2. Collect credible data

Make sure the data you’re using is solid and credible. Since data is easy to manipulate and misrepresented to serve one’s purpose, it’s crucial that you only trust unbiased sources. You may also conduct your own study through reliable and valid research methods.

3. Use design best practices

Of course, the visual elements are just as important as the information itself. The whole point of presenting your data in a visual format is to engage the audience and make your data more readable and digestible. Design best practices are essential here, which is why it’s ideal to work with team members that specialize in design rather than taking your best guess at layout and color decisions that can significantly impact how well a viewer understands your data.

These best practices include:

• Carefully choosing the type of chart to best translate your data
• Guiding the eye by highlighting the most critical details
• Using the right color palette that’s brand-consistent and pleasant to the eyes
• Using fonts that are brand-consistent and easy to read

Of course, having a brand style guide makes it a lot easier as you don’t have to go through the whole process of brainstorming what visual guidelines to follow down to the font and color every time.

The following infographic from MediPENSE nails all of these best practices. It uses bar graphs to showcase the various ways in which caregivers dealt with their highly demanding jobs. It highlights the crucial numbers to get key messages across.

Plus, the color palette remains consistent with the brand’s blue and green colors, while the white background ensures minimal strain on the eyes. And they use two or three font styles that are easy to read.

Data visualization tools

If you don’t have a background in design, it will be difficult to pull off a successful data visualization solo. So it’s ideal to collaborate with a dedicated design team if you want your data to have the desired impact. If you are crunched for time or resources, though, there are tools that can help you automatically generate visualized data or come with data visualization templates that you can easily customize.

Here are a few tools to help with your data visualization efforts:

1. Tableau

One of the best tools to visualize your analytics data, Tableau lets you connect to cloud databases to collect your data and turn it into visually-appealing charts and graphs. You can use bubble charts, word clouds and tree diagrams to add more context to your data and allow for easy comprehension.

2. Sprout Social

Sprout Social comes with a comprehensive reporting tool that automatically generates visual reports for your social media performance. You can easily track follower growth rate, measure post performance and compare yourself against the competition through these visual reports. It even lets you generate visuals for internal reports including task performance and team reports.

3. Venngage

Venngage can help you put together infographics to paint a bigger picture through data storytelling. It comes with many data visualization templates that you can customize with your own information, colors, charts and visuals.

Get ready for powerful data storytelling

With everything that you’ve seen and read so far, it’s clear that data visualization plays a major role in multiple aspects of your business. Not only do you need data visualization for marketing, but you also need it for better communication within the organization and faster decisions. Plus, it serves your content marketing efforts in so many ways with the versatility to adapt to various formats.

So if you’re still not using it to its full potential, it’s time to change that. Get our free social media toolkit to get a better picture of how data-fueled social strategies should look like.

This post Data visualization: What it is and how it adds value to marketing originally appeared on Sprout Social.

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Beginner’s Guide to Successful Facebook Ads

Thinking of diving into Facebook ads? Wondering what the common pitfalls are? In this article, you’ll discover three important considerations when starting your first Facebook ad campaign. #1: Commit to a Facebook Funnel Implementation All successful marketing starts with a clear strategy and Facebook advertising is no exception. With a strategy built around your available […]

The post Beginner’s Guide to Successful Facebook Ads appeared first on Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner.

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10 Facebook Live Tips to Follow Before, During & After Your Broadcast

What better way to display your brand’s human side to your customers than to showing the people behind your company? The arrival of Facebook Live changed the playing field for content development in the online world. More people than ever use live streaming, with Facebook video posts growing by around 94% a year in the US alone. If that wasn’t compelling enough, Facebook Live videos experience three times the engagement of typical videos shared on social media, with millions of users tuning in around the world.

If we look at the figures, Facebook Live currently generates more than 3,000 years of watch time every day. The question becomes how do you take advantage of that engagement for your brand?

Since Facebook Live is free and easy to use, any company can get involved. However, it’s critical to ensure your video strategy is in place before, during and after the broadcast. Here are 10 Facebook Live tips to follow:

1. Source content and themes from your community

Your community knows what they want and the easiest way for you to deliver high-value content to them is by asking them about what they want to learn. The easiest way to get people excited about a topic is by letting them pick the topic. Run polls, ask people directly what they want to see, or create themes based on questions and comments from the community.

2. Promote before you broadcast

While most of the content we post is followed up with consistent promotion, it’s important to remember live videos are more like an event than a blog post. In other words, you need to generate interest before the experience if you want to get that all-important viewership. The good news is Facebook lets you target certain events and groups with your promotions. This is perfect for a more focused advertising campaign.

A very simple way to do this is by creating an event. This way, you give people something that will create a reminder for the day of the event, as well.

Ultimately, you’ll want to push the upcoming announcement on your Facebook account as often as possible to start. Don’t just repeatedly tell your audience you’re going to stream. Every time you remind your audience, share something new of value. For instance, highlight a tip you’ll share, or what kind of information you’ll be covering.

Look at NASA Earth’s post for instance:

It’s full of value and even contains an image to spark additional visual interest. Keep in mind your Facebook efforts don’t exist in a silo either. Don’t be afraid to cross-promote across your blog, email campaigns and additional social networks too.

3. Prepare yourself by limiting distractions

Though Facebook Live is a more laid-back and natural experience than a standard television ad or YouTube production, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t plan ahead. Your activities on Live represent your brand, so you can’t afford to give a bad impression. This is particularly true since Live users watch videos three times longer than their counterparts.

Before you broadcast your video, take some time to prepare. Remember you can begin with a private broadcast for testing, and use that strategy to test your lighting, sound and other surrounding elements. Make sure you invest in a tripod to avoid the “shaky cam” experience. Also try to minimize any unwanted background noise and ambiance whether indoors or outside. When it comes to Facebook Live tips for preparation, a strong broadband connection can go a long way too.

In this video by Sephora, you’ll notice that the interview is held in front of a clean, non-distracting background, without any shaky cam in sight. All the while the colors and accessories present highlight the unique personality of the Sephora brand.

4. Make formatting decisions

While you’re prepping for your big debut, make sure you take the time to think about how you’ll shoot your video and when you’ll stream it. For instance, when using the Facebook Live app for iOS, you can choose between broadcasting horizontally or vertically–depending on what gives you the best view.

Try a little of both options in a test run to see how you look for your audience. Sometimes vertical shooting can make you seem too close to the camera, which might not be ideal for an interview-based video. On the other hand, if you want to have an intimate behind-the-scenes chat with your audience, that could be exactly the vibe you want. In the video below, Martha Stewart uses a horizontal portrait to show more of her surroundings, which are from her own Martha Stewart Home Depot collection.

Another decision you will need to make is around whether you’ll use third-party tools or not. Things like ECamm or Stage Ten help you create an experience and are easy to use. There are many tools out there, so be sure to research which one is best for you.

The last thing about formatting is in how you’ll deliver the content. Do you want to be a talking head, just one person alone? Do you want to invite guests? If you do bring on guests, is it an interview format or a conversation? Ask yourself as many questions as you can think of, and then start to answer them. If you can’t answer all of them clearly, the premise might not be strong enough.

5. Time it just right

Timing can be everything when it comes to making an impression on your audience. Just as there are tips for when to send out email campaigns for the best responses, there’s also guidelines for times to host your videos. During a live-streaming event, the last thing you want is to schedule your video to appear when everyone in your target audience is at work or asleep.

Make sure you think carefully about your target audience. Luckily, you can use Sprout Social’s Facebook reports to learn more about when your customers interact with you the most. Our Facebook Audience Growth report provides you with the tools you need to measure fan growth and post interactions.

6. Offer context constantly

You might naturally assume it’s a good idea to introduce yourself and any other speakers in the beginning of your video broadcast. After all, just like a blog post, your initial aim is to convince people to stick around. However, Facebook Live allows visitors to join the stream at any moment. So as more people come in, reflect on your introduction and let your audience know what’s happening. For instance, you may want to use lines such as:

“Hey, if you’re just joining us, welcome to our broadcast. We’re currently talking about [topic] and we’ve just covered [previous topic].”

You should also spend some time to set up the agenda and create an expectation for what they can expect. When people know what’s next, they’re more likely to stick around because there’s an interest in what’s about to be said.

One great example of Facebook Live that keeps its viewers on track is the video from the ASPCA. They launched a #31DaysofRescueDogs campaign to encourage adoption for their lovable furry companions. The Facebook Live video that promoted the campaign followed volunteers around New York as they took Pitbull puppies for a walk.

Throughout the entire broadcast, the host of the stream constantly reminded the people watching why the walk was happening and how they could get involved with the campaign. This helped to generate a huge number of donations from the ASPCA audience.

7. Be responsive and interactive

The live comments and reactions are part of what makes the experience so engaging to customers. It feels more like a two-way conversation when you’re responding directly to their questions in person. That’s why Facebook Live drives comments at 10 times the rate of non-live videos.

One of the most powerful ways to increase engagement online is to address the comments that appear live on air. This invites more people to share their opinions and thoughts as you go along. If you’re concerned that you might have too many comments to respond to in one stream, you can always get some help from someone off-camera to direct the most important comments your way.

Check out the video from Stephen Amell in his “Let’s Talk Arrow” post. He responds perfectly to the comments that come his way while keeping his audience engaged.

Remember, Facebook live is a window into your brand experience in real-time. Your responses to comments keep your audience in the moment. And with Sprout, you can manage Facebook messages all in one single-stream Smart Inbox.

Our tools help brands keep their messages in order across all platforms. However, with Facebook Live comments, it’s easy to track questions or respond to comments you might have missed–all within the same platform.

Another easy way to be interactive is to give shoutouts. Facebook Live videos are instantly archived after they’re finished. This means you can always call attention back to them if you want to share additional value with your audience. To help boost your viewership among people who didn’t join you for the live show, try sharing a quick post thanking people for watching.

You can also ask for new questions and comments to generate additional engagement. The people who view your videos like to feel appreciated, so show them some love wherever you can.

8. Connect authentically and build relationships

One of the most important Facebook Live tips to remember is this is your chance to really connect with your audience. In other words, you’re not trying to market yourself obnoxiously or sell a product. You’re trying to build relationships that lead to longer-lasting impressions. When you’re ready to broadcast, make sure you’re relaxed, smiling and feeling confident.

Of course, keep in mind that it can be useful to draw attention to your products or services from time to time, as long as you do it subtly. You can always end your video with a call to action or reference your services throughout the content. For instance, in a Trey Ratcliff video on Facebook Live, he talked his audience through choosing the perfect camera setup.

The idea was to allow Trey to build relationships, trust and thought leadership with his audience, while also pointing out his own incredible photography skills. The marketing was almost done on a subconscious level, which is what made it so effective.

If you do bring on guests, it’s a good idea to practice ahead of time so they’re more relaxed. Make sure you also spend some time directly ahead of going live with your guests. It will help get them into the mindset of being on camera and you’ll start from a great place immediately instead of warming up on the Live itself.

9. Use other channels to promote

Who said your Facebook Live video only had to be promoted on Facebook? You can easily promote across your other social channels to get users to tune into your video on Facebook. You’re not always going to get everyone from Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn to watch, but providing a link to the video will make it easier.

Tonight at 8pm ET: Join us for a Facebook Live where we'll answer your questions about @NASAHubble's Messier Catalog https://t.co/086Sh7QJMV pic.twitter.com/7uLbJRpyFj

— NASA (@NASA) October 19, 2017

Again, NASA does a great job cross promoting content for Facebook Live on Twitter. Feel free to post countdowns to your video or simply share afterward for more awareness.

Be careful not to overdo this, though. Your other social audiences might not be on Facebook and could come to resent your using a different platform to promote something they choose to not access.

10. Analyze your results

Finally, as with anything in the world of marketing, you should always learn from what you accomplish. Facebook has several metrics that you can measure with your live videos. For instance, you can check out how many people you’ve reached, how many unique viewers you have and so on.

The more you learn about your viewer preferences from your social media analytics, the likelier you are to design and publish stronger videos in the future. You can even go through your results to find out how many people were watching at specific times. This is a great way to figure out which moments had the most impact on your audience.

Once you’ve learned as much as you can, use the data gathered to experiment and optimize your next video. Then A/B test your results just as you would with any other content.

Living it up with Facebook Live

It’s hard to argue with the potential of live streaming in a world where customers constantly crave stronger, more human connections with their favorite brands. Since its launch in 2016, Facebook Live has seen its daily watch time grow by more than 400%.

Facebook Live broadcast makes it inherently compelling to users who check out social media for the latest updates and trends. We’ve even seen other social media platforms begin to adopt the same solution to take advantage of the growing popularity of live streaming.

Fortunately, with the Facebook Live tips above in mind, you should have everything you need to start your broadcast on the right track. Live streaming offers a flexible and immediate way to connect with your audience as part of your overall Facebook marketing strategy.

This post 10 Facebook Live Tips to Follow Before, During & After Your Broadcast originally appeared on Sprout Social.

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What to do when your content stalls

Just like life, social media strategies have ups and downs. If you’ve been chugging along, outperforming benchmarks, garnering high engagement and reaching all your goals, but then hit a bump in the road, don’t panic. When your content or campaigns stall out, it’s time to put your thinking cap on.

There are a lot of reasons why you might not be seeing the return on your social content that you’d like. When you hit a plateau, it may be time to rethink your approach, look at your reports with fresh eyes, create tests, or make the case for new and different content.

Consider what might have changed

One thing every marketer knows is that things are always changing on social media. New trends emerge every second, consumer needs evolve with the times and social media platforms change their features, algorithms or other standards. It can be difficult to keep up, but if you noticed a plateau or dip in followers, impressions, engagement or other metrics you use to measure success, it’s important that your strategy accounts for any changes that have taken effect. Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself if you’re looking to reinvigorate your followers:

Are you checking your demographics?

Social media practitioners are hyper-focused on understanding their audience, but if you’re not using data to confirm who your audience actually is, it’s difficult to craft effective content.

For example, if you’re tailoring your Tweets for a Gen Z audience, but the majority of your followers are actually 35-44, it’s time to mix up your messaging. Or perhaps, your audience is made up of mostly women, but your goal is to engage with a more gender-diverse crowd. Having a better grasp on your demographics and marketing personas, and how they evolve, can help revamp your strategy.

Are you publishing content at the right time of day?

If engagement or simply getting eyeballs on your content has been a challenge lately, knowing when to post might help. In addition to Sprout’s comprehensive list of the best times to post, our ViralPost® technology takes the guesswork out of scheduling by automatically calculating the optimal send times for your content.

Have any social platforms recently changed their algorithms?

If you’re not seeing the engagement you’re used to, or your followers took a dive overnight, you might not alone. Social platforms make changes to their algorithms and standards frequently which can change how paid and organic content are prioritized in your target audience’s feed. Now, on nearly all platforms, chronology has fallen by the wayside and relevancy is king.

We have not made any recent changes to feed ranking, and we never hide posts from people you're following – if you keep scrolling, you will see them all. Again, your feed is personalized to you and evolves over time based on how you use Instagram.✌️

— Instagram (@instagram) January 22, 2019

A lot of platforms will update users about these changes, but it’s not always immediately clear how marketers can crack through the algorithm. When Facebook announced that it was making changes so personal moments don’t get lost in the noise created by brands and businesses, it became clear that marketers would need to prioritize content that leads us to connect more with one another.

Even if a social media platform doesn’t come right out and give you the keys to the algorithm changes, it’s clear that relevance is important, but so are authenticity and human connection. There’s no surefire way to make sure your posts are at the top of every feed, but you can create content that is hyper-relevant and tailored to your target audience.

Is it just a sign of the times?

During COVID-19 consumer behavior has changed dramatically, which is a common occurrence during national or global crises. The same was true following 9/11, the 2008 recession, etc. In those instances when tensions and emotions run high, your content might not resonate in the same way.

If your audience has disengaged, think critically about how current events might be affecting them and what content they might be sensitive to. When life throws curveballs, human connection is the most valuable thing a brand can offer its community.

That's why we're offering 30-minute one-on-one consultations with our shop managers to help discover the best products for your skin, hair and body, along with tips on how to use them for best results.

— Lush North America (@lushcosmetics) April 17, 2020

While you might want to find ways to immediately improve those KPIs, instead focus on one-to-one engagement and building real relationships with your followers that will last into the new normal—whatever that means.

Social data tells a story

When you’ve hit a plateau, your month-over-month changes are stagnant, you’ve lost followers, website traffic has stalled or whatever the case may be, your social data tells a story that will help answer why and how to bounce back.

Take a look back at your reports and try to pinpoint specific moments where your content didn’t perform as you’d hoped and where it outperformed your expectations. Sprout’s reports visualize activity in a digestible way that makes peaks and valleys easy to spot.

On the days where you notice peaks, hone in on what content or campaign was fueling that fire. Dig deeper in Post Performance Reports, which break down each post’s impressions, reach, engagements, engagement rate and more. Sort your messages by the metric that’s your top goal and compare the most successful content to the low performers.

What worked for those top posts? Did the lower-performing posts lack a strong CTA? How do the language and creative elements compare? What feedback did your audience give on those posts? Ask yourselves these questions and apply your findings to your next wave of content.

Listen to stay ahead of the curve

Listening to your audience is always important, especially when you’re noticing a dip in your KPIs. According to the Sprout Social Index: Empower and Elevate, 43% percent of all social marketers say a major challenge is identifying and understanding their target audience. Creating content that supports your goals is pretty tough when you don’t understand who you’re talking to. To address this concern, marketers should turn to social listening.

Social listening tools analyze trends in overall discussion about your brand, industry, competitors and more. If you’re struggling to understand what your audience really wants, this can show you what they are talking about, sentiment, keywords and trending topics. Tapping into those conversations is a great way to get a sense of how you can tailor your content to the specific wants and needs of your audience. If you’re already sold on the value of listening, download this cheat sheet to build a listening strategy.

Make a case for using paid ads

If you’re struggling to reach your target audiences through organic social posts, it might be time to introduce a paid strategy. On Facebook, organic posts only reach about 6.4% of your followers so it’s easy to get lost in the noise. Paid social can help brands to break through and connect with audiences that might have missed out on their content otherwise.

If you’re not ready for a full-blown paid strategy, boosting is a cost-efficient way to dip your toes in the paid pool. “If you have an organic post that’s working really well, you don’t even need to create a new ad. You can just put $50 behind it and see how reaching a wider audience impacts your goals and hypotheses,” said Shelby Cunningham, Sprout’s Digital Marketing Lead, in a recent interview. With a little boost, your content could see big gains.

Get creative

If you’ve exhausted yourself trying to think of ways to repurpose your content or reinvigorate your strategy, it might be time to try something new. Creative testing can help your brand enhance ad campaigns before they launch, create more impactful creative assets and understand which concepts your audience is loving and which they aren’t.

If your company gives you a bit of freedom to explore new creative avenues, go for it!

• Have you been wanting to dip into video? Try it out! Not everything needs to be Oscar-worthy to be engaging.
• Use GIFs in your Tweets to entertain your followers.
• Try capitalizing on cultural engagement opportunities that are relevant to your brand, like Gillete’s stay-home style timeline or MoonPie’s response to the first supermoon of the year.

You vs. the moon she told you not to worry about https://t.co/FN4WacuT44

— MoonPie (@MoonPie) March 9, 2020

• If Instagram is a major part of your strategy, consider incorporating more carousel posts into your feed. Carousels lead to high engagement across all industries because they get re-served to users who don’t engage the first time. As a result, they earn more impressions and opportunities for engagement than a standard post.
• If you want to know what kind of content your audience wants to see more of, sometimes it’s best to just ask. Post community questions or use polls in Instagram Stories, Twitter, Facebook and other social platforms to drum up new content ideas.

If you could tweet for us, what would you say?

— Stouffer’s (@stouffers) April 14, 2020

Keep your head up when your data is down

As a social media practitioner, it’s easy to get emotionally invested in your strategy, wrapped up in your social data and begin equating KPIs to your own personal success. It’s important to remind yourself that social media is fickle and a tricky thing to master.

Month-over-month comparisons of raw data don’t tell the full story. If you’re feeling down when you see a drop in impressions, followers or other metrics take a look back at how far you’ve come. Celebrate your successes. If you put a lot of work into a campaign that didn’t convert as expected, that doesn’t mean you are a failure. Rather than internalize that, focus on what you can learn from that experience.

i remember thinking “no way i’ll ever top this viral thread” 1.5 years ago but somehow the steak stars aligned again. i’m simultaneously grateful for the outcome and troubled at myself for perpetuating the personification of a meat corporation

save me, cognitive dissonance https://t.co/As8lmVudgY

— Nathan Allebach (@nathanallebach) April 9, 2020

Trends might emerge overnight, but a strong strategy and flawlessly functioning team do not. If you’ve recently restructured and your social media team has either shrunk or grown, be patient as you adjust.

If you’re flat out feeling overwhelmed, you’re not alone. Taking care of your mental health while working in social media can be challenging when it feels like you have to constantly be plugged in. Consider reaching out to other social marketers directly or joining an online community where you can ask how others have dealt with mental stress or burnout.

Times change, people change and social media data, trends and platforms definitely change. When that affects your content, look at it as an opportunity for professional growth. With a little investigating, some fresh content and a pivot to your approach, you can jumpstart your metrics and get them moving in the right direction.

 

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Why you need to share social media reports, even if no one’s asking for them

For some social media managers, reporting comes with the job. For others, leadership may have a more hands-off approach, expecting the social team to “just put this on social.”

But making social media work is work, and measuring whether it’s happening requires at least a little analysis. Performing this analysis, and sharing it with managers, colleagues and leadership via a social media reporting system helps gauge the success of social marketing efforts and demonstrate that success to stakeholders.

Social media managers have much to gain from reporting, even in organizations where it isn’t expected. In fact, establishing a social media reporting cadence can help you overcome some of your biggest challenges.

A social media reporting system closes the gap

According to The Sprout Social Index XV, social marketers by a long shot wish they could influence sales teams more than any other. Fifty-nine percent want to influence sales, double the number who want to influence either HR or lead generation teams.

In addition to craving more influence, social marketers also struggle to secure the budget and resources they need. Sprout’s research reveals that 33% of social media practitioners and 31% of social media leaders have this issue.

To resolve these shortages of influence, budget and resources, social media managers need data on their side. They also need to know how to present that data in a digestible way for others. Translating likes and shares into desired outcomes is the difference between an organization knowing they have a social media presence, and knowing that presence produces measurable results.

That translation requires a social media reporting system. A solid system is comprised of:

• Which people/groups you’ll report to
• What goals or areas each of those groups needs information on
• The social metrics you’ll report on
• The tools you’ll use
• What your reporting cadence will be

Your social media reporting cadence is your frequency; do you want to report weekly? Monthly? Quarterly? Perhaps different audiences—yourself, the team, management, leadership—benefit from different cadences. How often will you do a deep dive into reports? How often will you “spot check” for major swings? When do key metrics need to shift? We’ll suggest some tools to help figure all this out further down.

Social media managers have a unique understanding of how social marketing works. With a social media reporting system, you can foster understanding among other teams and stakeholders.

Social media reporting: extra work, but extra worth it

Is it worth taking on regular reporting if no one’s asking for it?

We think so. At minimum, a social media reporting cadence reveals what’s working and what isn’t on an ongoing basis so that you can make informed decisions. An uninformed social media strategy, after all, is a shot in the dark. Regular reporting sheds light on where your energy is best spent.

For example, the moment you see that a particular type of content performs better than others, you can begin leveraging that information and tailoring future content to maximize results. Then, you can track those results to make sure the pivot is paying off.

Additionally, a social media reporting system can help secure buy-in from decision-makers. Think hiring a video intern or increasing the budget for boosting posts would be a game-changer? You’ll need to convince leadership, and that’s best done with data.

Earning influence with data

For many social media managers, sharing data with sales is already a part of the job. In fact, sixty-five percent reported sharing data with sales in the Sprout Social Index.

Despite this, social marketers still crave more influence with sales teams. To close the gap, we need thoughtful data storytelling focused on audiences’ desired outcomes.

Not every stakeholder has the insight you have for interpreting social data. Churning out a spreadsheet every month or quarter and expecting others to decipher it isn’t likely to go far. Your reporting will need to go a little deeper, telling a story with the data to foster understanding and providing clarity around next steps that both your team and the reader can take. You’ll also want to use reports to document your wins and accomplishments along the way.

An interpretive social media reporting system will have a much greater impact than providing numbers without context, and increase your odds of garnering the influence and budget you need. Down the line, this reporting and documentation will also come in handy for conversations about things like career advancement.

Sharing data with team members, managers and leadership

Let’s explore an example of what social media reporting might look like.

While you may understand the value of engagement metrics, sales team members are more familiar with tracking things like win rates and deal size. You can meet these team members where they’re at by focusing on the places where social and sales collide. Ultimately, your common goal is serving your customers. Social data overwhelmingly tells you what is important to your audience. Your sales team needs to know that in order to make their offerings, outreach and conversations as valuable as possible.

For example, perhaps highlighting an advanced service on social platforms resulted in a measurable uptick in social messages from enterprise-level leads requesting more information. Once you have team members’ attention with a number that speaks to their goals, it’s easier to delve more deeply into how your specific  social strategy fuels these successes and why intentional collaboration is important. It also begins to reveal the person “behind the curtain,” you, pulling the levers and turning the knobs that produce these results.

We can complain internal stakeholders “don’t get social” or we can bring them along

A few tactics our team deploys:

Daily huddles w emailed report out
Monthly creative brainstorms
Quarterly calls: lessons & wins
Agency-led webinars
Data Data Data
Preach
Preach
Preach

— Jen Hartmann (@jenalyson) March 5, 2020

This same approach can be applied to managers and your organization’s leadership. Consider your internal audience’s perspective, and what your social strategy does for them. Highlighting your accomplishments and contribution to the organization’s success earns the influence so many social marketers seek. In turn, it becomes easier to ask for more of what you need or to suggest big changes, like a new direction for content.

At the end of the day, your organization’s leadership has the final say on big decisions. A social media reporting system creates a cadence for conversations with managers and leaders alike about valuable information.

Social media reporting systems don’t have to be complicated

If the idea of creating a social media reporting system seems overwhelming, fear not. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Some of the ways we share social media reports at Sprout include:

• Weekly updates in Slack: Every week, one of our content and communications team members curates a Slack post featuring our progress to goal for the month as well as timely insights from our social, content, PR and internal communications teams.
• Results updates in Slack project channels: We create Slack channels for big projects, like our Always On series, so that marketing and creative team members can collaborate. We’ll share data more in an ad hoc way here; for example, one week after we launch a project, we’ll share initial social results and feedback.
• Monthly reports: Our entire team updates our dashboard monthly and shares overall insights to our VP of content and communications.
• Quarterly data pulls with insights to the full marketing and creative team: Typically these include performance reports from social on big marketing team efforts, like our Sprout Sessions Digital event, as well as social listening insights and analysis about our brand, industry and content.
• Roadshows: We’ve used roadshows to share a new, larger initiative and the results with different departments. For example, Olivia and I hosted a social listening roadshow last year where we presented social listening data tailored for our product, sales, marketing and general team audiences.

Here’s an example of one of our project results updates in Slack. Olivia is a Social Media Specialist here and shared this in our Always On project channel so the video, design, copy and marketing team members who worked on this project could see the initial reception. As you can see, sharing data doesn’t always have to be formal! Think about your audience and what they need to know before determining whether a quick Slack message or a formal social media presentation is the best way to catch their attention.

Put social reporting into practice

To learn more about the types of reporting and insights you can share, and formats you can use to present them, check out Sprout’s toolkit, Reach a Higher State of Marketing with Data. In it, you’ll find interactive worksheets for social media audits and competitive analysis, and even a cheat sheet for the best times to post on social.

With the right tools and a little time, reporting on social media can become like second nature. As data informs and improves upon social marketing decisions, social media managers can gain the influence and resources needed to double down on strategies and grow professionally, setting the stage for everyone’s future success.

This post Why you need to share social media reports, even if no one’s asking for them originally appeared on Sprout Social.

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How to Use LinkedIn Events to Promote Online or In-Person Events

Wondering how to get the word out on LinkedIn about an event you’re hosting? Have you heard of LinkedIn Events? In this article, you’ll discover how to use LinkedIn to promote your next online workshop, product launch, or in-person event. What Is the LinkedIn Events Feature? This feature allows you to create an event on […]

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How COVID-19 has changed social media engagement

How to Create Instagram Stories Polling Sticker Ads

Want interactivity in your Instagram Stories ads? Have you considered adding interactive polls to your ads? In this article, you’ll discover how to create an Instagram Stories ad poll for the best engagement. Why Use Polls in Your Instagram Stories Ads? Instagram polls give you a chance to interact with your customers and prospects, find […]

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Facebook Ad Updates: New Metrics and More

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Social Media Marketing Talk Show, a news show for marketers who want to stay on the leading edge of social media. On this week’s Social Media Marketing Talk Show, we explore Facebook pulling back its mandated use of Campaign Budget Optimization for ads and the addition of new […]

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Social Spotlight: Michigan State University and creating community in this ‘new normal’

Welcome to the Social Spotlight, where we dive deep into what we love about a brand’s approach to a specific social campaign. From strategy through execution and results, we’ll examine what makes the best brands on social tick — and leave you with some key takeaways to consider for your own brand’s social strategy.

Overview

One of the indelible experiences of college is the sense of community–often the first community you get to choose for yourself. Shared experiences and memories from this formative time extend deep into adulthood and seem to shape the way we view the world for the rest of our lives. For instance, I still can’t drink tequila. But that’s a story for a different time.

Creating that sense of community comes naturally when you’re living, playing and learning together on campus. But what about now, when students and faculty are dispersed, e-learning is the primary shared experience and so much of college life has been rendered obsolete? Now that students, staff and faculty are scattered across the globe, Michigan State University is leaning on the social strategy it’s created to keep those who have left campus–its alumni–connected to the mission, experience and community of MSU.

What you can learn

1. Highlight the wide impact your community is having during the current global situation.

One bright spot in the closing of university campuses has been the dispersal of thousands of like-minded, passionate individuals to communities far and wide. The values they shared on campus now extend to their local communities, and those stories can keep your campus community united from afar. Since the closing of campus in March, MSU has relied on user-generated content (UGC) to share the stories of its now-geographically dispersed students and alumni. Among the most engaging is content that shares the stories of Michigan State Spartans as they work on the frontlines of the pandemic, raise money for underserved groups and generally care for the communities around them.

• Getting started: The network of ‘helpers’ connected to your institution is likely as wide and varied as the effects of COVID-19, and using social to find and share their stories is a great way to remind your audience of the profound impact of your university community on their local communities.

View this post on Instagram

To all the Spartan heroes out there: Thank you. 📷: @dinhpete

A post shared by Michigan State University (@michiganstateu) on Apr 8, 2020 at 2:06pm PDT

2. Draw attention to your institution’s contributions to the global understanding of the crisis.

Universities are hotbeds of research and advancement, and yours is likely no exception. The world’s smartest science and health minds are focused on diagnosing, fighting and protecting the population from COVID-19, and sharing the stories of how your institution is contributing to our shared knowledge base will inspire pride, hope and connectedness among your university community.

• Getting started: Check in regularly with the communications representatives from each academic department to identify any new research initiatives or results connected to the coronavirus pandemic. While many of these will come from medicine or science, there may also be stories to tell from the work being done in your sociology, history or business schools, among many others.

An @MSU_Osteopathic researcher developed a potential COVID-19 test that delivers results in less than 10 minutes. https://t.co/MblEHD6fa9 pic.twitter.com/bNEhzyauWQ

— Proud of you, Class of 2020 (@michiganstateu) April 10, 2020

3. Share university resources that are available off campus.

Like many organizations and businesses, institutions of higher ed have spent the first several weeks of the pandemic reacting to the constraints of shelter-in-place and developing new resources to support its communities from a distance. Often those resources are available to everyone in the university community, but also to a wider community served by your institution. Making all communities aware of the resources available should be a priority in your social planning. To wit: using Sprout’s COVID-19 Featured Listening Topic, we found that the most engaged content for the overall higher ed industry is links (a 135% increase over Q4 2019), showing that there’s a need for relevant content from trusted institutions.

• Getting started: Like the research mentioned above, new community resources are being developed across your campus, by many different departments affiliated with the school. Set up a method to find those resources, either through a content aggregation tool or by reaching out to campus groups, and establish a cadence of sharing them cohesively and clearly with the audiences who need to see them.

Spartan Caregiver Support, a new MSU program, is providing free support and resources to autism caregivers across Michigan. https://t.co/lPQ8osqwBR pic.twitter.com/EuJnXskOvz

— Proud of you, Class of 2020 (@michiganstateu) April 20, 2020

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Organic Social: Content Marketing Ideas From a Pro

Wondering if publishing organic social is worth your time? Looking for tips to improve your organic social content? To explore the power of organic content marketing, I interview Larry Kim on the Social Media Marketing Podcast. Larry Kim is the founder of WordStream and Mobile Monkey. He’s a content marketing pro and a top writer […]

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15 Facebook post ideas to increase engagement

If you’re looking to revamp you Facebook strategy, you must ensure you’re posting engaging content that your audience enjoys. Engaging content the key to increasing reach and interaction with your Facebook Page.

If you’re curious about what you should post on your business Facebook Page that will resonate with your audience, we’ve put together a list of 15 different Facebook post ideas that are guaranteed to help increase engagement.

1. Ask questions

One great way to start conversations with your audience is by simply asking questions. It seems so basic, and you shouldn’t use this for every post, but it’s still a powerful strategy.

Think creatively about the types of questions you can ask. You can work to get genuine audience and customer input on business decisions. Or you can ask random questions that are relevant to your industry in an attempt to get more engagement on your post.

Here’s a great example of Scholastic asking their followers a relevant question to their industry: “What are you reading today?”

Consider how you can also ask your audience relevant questions that are fun and easy to respond to. You may even generate future content ideas from their responses.

2. Behind-the-Scenes

Another great Facebook content idea is sharing behind-the-scenes (BTS) photos of your business. There are many ways to do this. Show how products are made, introduce your employees, or include bloopers of other videos or campaigns.

We’re loving Typeform’s way of going BTS for National Pet Day by showing off some of their employees’ furry friends!

Consider ways that your business can get on a more personal level to share unique content and behind-the-scenes photos or stories with your Facebook audience.

3. Trending topics

One great way to increase reach and engagement is to post about trending topics people are talking about. Not only can this increase your chances of appearing in feeds, but people will be more likely to comment on and share your posts as well.

Our example here is a post by Dr. Seuss’s Facebook Page jumping on the trending topic of the age, staying home and social distancing.

The words “STAY HOME” are spelled out with little tokens from various Dr. Seuss books, staying relevant both to the brand and to the topic at hand.

4. Branded graphics

Another great post idea – that honestly is perfect for every single online platform – is creating branded graphics with your company’s logo, fonts and colors incorporated.

These are perfect because they’re so versatile! Share quotes, memes, motivational sayings, relevant tips and more all in various branded graphics.

And these don’t all have to have the same style, either. Bring various shades of your brand colors into the graphics to help them all look unique, add shapes and even use icons or illustrations to help visualize what your text says.

Here’s a great example of a basic branded graphic from Chewy that any marketer can create using a DIY graphic design program.

Create your own branded graphics to share all across social media. Don’t forget to optimize your graphics based on each platform’s optimal image sizes.

5. Tell stories

Get personal with your audience. Telling stories is a great way to connect with your Facebook followers on a different level. And your story will depend on how small your business is.

This is a great example of a story told by a solopreneur, whose business surrounds her personal brand. While these types of businesses do make it easier to get personal with storytelling, there are other ways to make this work for nearly any brand.

Tell your own stories of how your business came to be, share hard parts of being a business owner or even allow your social media manager to have fun with their role and be real about their own jobs (to a point).

6. Videos

Facebook loves when users post videos, and they even have an entire “Watch” section dedicated to video alone.

This is why videos are great Facebook post ideas to improve your strategy. Create and share them often, whether they’re basic stop motion videos, informational videos, educational videos or another type altogether.

Here’s a good example of a fun stop motion video from Campbell’s that helps  engage users and create good feelings around their brand.

Open Up Possibilities with Condensed Tomato Soup

From classic grilled cheese to a dollop of sour cream, Campbell’s Tomato soup has so many perfect pairings. What’s your fave? 🥫🍅

Posted by Campbell's on Tuesday, November 13, 2018

You don’t need a whole video production crew to create video for Facebook either, and it’s important to start using video marketing in your regular strategy.

7. Product photos

This one probably seems obvious. Of course you want to share your product photos on your business Facebook post.

But highlight your products in creative ways in order to have effective Facebook posts.

How can you showcase your products with or without someone modeling them? Think about flatlays, themes related to upcoming holidays, or use or application shots and more.

Here’s a fun example by OREO showing off their product in a visually appealing way.

Come up with beautiful ways to share your own product photos to make them as enticing as possible, increasing both engagement and conversions.

8. Infographics

Infographics are historically known for long data visualizations that can take up your entire screen, especially on a platform like Pinterest.

But infographics are sharable on every social media platform, so long as you size them appropriately.

Here’s a great example from infographic creation platform Visme, sharing an infographic alongside their Facebook post.

Share your own informational charts and graphs on Facebook to help educate your audience of industry trends.

9. Show your personality

Your business Facebook Page doesn’t have to be all business all the time. In fact, it’s a great idea to show some brand personality off throughout your posts and post captions.

Here’s a great example of Lucky Brand letting their brand personality show through (while also remaining relevant on a widely trending topic – a twofer, if you will).

The best way to honor this content idea while posting on Facebook is to ensure you have brand voice guidelines created so that everyone putting together social media content for your company knows how far they’re able to go in terms of personality.

10. Blog posts

A tried and true Facebook post idea that will never go away: sharing your company’s blog posts.

Why? First of all, content marketing is just as important as social media marketing, so you’re probably already creating both types of content. And second, this means you have free content to share on social media that can lead to even more clicks to your content.

Content and social media just work together.

DigitalMarketer shows off how seamlessly content and social media come together in their Facebook post.

Be just as informative by sharing your company’s blog content all across social media – but in a happy mixture with the rest of these Facebook content ideas as well.

11. Industry tips

Sharing tips and tricks of the trade is a great way to increase engagement and reach with your audience. They’re likely always after more intel, so the more you can provide, the better.

Here’s an example of a Sprout Social Facebook post sans any other type of media. It’s a text-only tips post (albeit including some emoji for visual effects) that still does a great job informing and grabbing the attention of Facebook users.

Share your own industry tips and tricks, and decide whether you want to share text-only statuses (something we should probably all consider every once in awhile) or create branded graphics or videos to accompany them.

12. Contests and giveaways

Want a surefire way to grab user attention and increase engagement? Host a contest or giveaway prize that your target audience would be interested in. It’s a great way to increase reach, brand awareness, engagement and overall followers.

We say relevant to your target audience because if you give something like an iPad away, literally anyone could be interested in entering. Instead, if you’re a bodybuilding-focused gym, you might want to select a prize that’s much more niche, like an entry into a local competition or year’s supply of protein powder.

Here’s a great example of a relevant Facebook giveaway that DiGiorno did on Pi Day (although most people love pizza, it works out perfectly if their actual product is pizza).

The best prize for a contest or giveaway is product or a subscription to your service, but if your business runs a bit differently, consider what else only your specific audience would be interested in.

13. Discounts and sales

In the same vein, share any major sales or offering discounts you may be running. This can be especially fun if you create flash sales or Facebook-only discounts for your followers. It’s a great way to reward people for liking your Facebook Page.

Here’s an example from Anthropologie sharing a big sale they had going on for Facebook followers.

Because this type of content also converts well, discount and sale alert posts are great ideas for promoting on Facebook as well.

14. Post at optimal times

While this is less of a content idea, it’s still a good Facebook posting tip in general. Make sure your share your Facebook posts at times when your audience is online and engaged, or you could miss out on a lot of interaction.

Sprout Social gives you the opportunity to select optimal sending times when publishing your Facebook content, helping you reach the most people possible.

15. Test various posting frequencies

What I love most about social media marketing is that there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for every business.

While there may be some overarching best practices, there will always be some content ideas and tactics that work better in some industries over others.

This is why it’s a good idea to test different posting frequencies to see what works for your business and your audience.

Many media companies find that they have enough content and demand that they post to their Facebook Page every hour or so, while other B2B companies might only post new content once a week.

It’s a good idea to try out different frequencies until you find your happy medium of content creation and audience engagement.

Create Your Own Awesome Facebook Posts

Ready to put these Facebook post ideas to the test? Start creating and scheduling content to your own business Facebook page. Learn even more about optimizing your social media strategies with our free social media toolkit.

This post 15 Facebook post ideas to increase engagement originally appeared on Sprout Social.

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