Running any form of social media efficiently requires a detailed social media analysis. A social media analysis provides you with the outline and details needed to achieve the specific goals you set for your social media accounts. It helps you identify the correct social media metrics and if those metrics are in your favor.

A social media analysis should be one of the first things you do in order to give yourself a better perspective on your brand/business. Conducting a social media analysis can be a daunting task so we decided to break it down into two simple steps.

Collect Data 

There are a number of areas where you can collect data for your analysis. For example, learning from your competitors is an extremely important area to explore. A great way to do this is by conducting a competitive analysis on the social media accounts of similar businesses. It will provide you with valuable insights on what is working what’s not. A simple Google search is an easy way to find your competitors and see what they are up to.

Another area to investigate would be your past social media results. For example, look at past campaigns and metrics as a way to generate a gage for future ones. If you are collecting data for more everyday activity, track the following weekly/monthly metrics:

• Number of posts
• Number of followers (gain and loss)
• Engagement (likes, comments and shares)
• Post reach
• Number of profile visits
• Number of clicks on post and bio links
• Number of story views
• Number of video views

Remember, the specific data you’ve collected should reflect the specific goals you have in place.

Analyze Data

Now that you’ve gathered the information look at it and identify any major takeaways that would benefit your accounts in the long run. Hopefully, the information you’ve found can answer questions like when is the best time to post and what channel seems to work best for a given campaign. The collecting data portion of the process is strictly numbers-oriented. The analysis portion is where you start making sense of them and putting together trends.