Using social media data to power your brands growth

Using social media data to power your brands growth

Over the course of this quarter our social media team will be taking a look at some of the very best ways to use Social Media Data (including ones that you might have overlooked), to power the growth and success of your brand. In the first post of the series we look at getting back to basics.

According to a recent survey*, 56% of marketers use social media data to understand their target audience, but additional uses dwindle from there. Only 23% of marketers use their social media data to measure ROI and only 16% use it for competitive insights.

Now more than ever before is the time to use your social media data to power growth. Lets get started with getting back to basics using our 6 step approach.

1. Conduct a social media data audit

Before you can truly understand your audience and the way they interact with your brand on social, you need to know yourself. A social media audit of your data is a great way to set a baseline for performance and strategic plans. Review your engagement and publishing metrics, audience demographics, referral traffic and more to assess growth, opportunities and what you can do to improve your social media presence.

2. Track data to understand your follower growth

Follower growth doesn’t automatically translate to business growth; however, it’s an important metric to track, especially when you consider that 89%* of consumers will buy from brands they follow on social.

Follower count can also contextualise your data. If you’re a small business, you may not have the same following as a household-name brand. But instead of comparing your brand to others, focus on your own social data. Hone in on the rate at which your following is changing, rather than the total number alone, and use data visualisation to identify major surges of interest that align with specific campaigns.

3. Dig into demographic social media data

Millennials, Gen Zers (and all the others) all have different interests, cultural references, needs, experiences with social media and more. The same is true for people from different locations and genders. Using a social media analytics tool like will provide you with reports to deep dive this information. Generating an audience demographics report will give you a full breakdown of your fans across each social platform. And armed with this type of data, you can better understand your audience, craft more effective messaging and improve your content strategy.

4. Evaluate where your audience is spending their time on social and why

Each social media platform has its own unique user experience, features, content and audiences. If you’re not leveraging data to learn which platform your audience is most engaged on, your strategy will be about as good as a chocolate teapot. Use analytics to identify which of those platforms your audience is most engaged on. Then, you can more accurately target and reach the people that matter the most.

5. Cater to your audience’s interests

Demographic and performance data across platforms will help you understand your audience, but to paint an even clearer picture of who they are, investigate their interests, needs and intent. Identify top-performing posts and take note of patterns that you can use to influence content creation. So, if for example, posts focused on product updates consistently get the most link clicks, or thought leadership content gets the most shares and expands your reach, you might consider how you can double-down your efforts in those areas.

6. Look beyond your owned social media data

Social media platforms have unparalleled access to audience insights. Fortunately for marketers, many of them are more than willing to share. X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and YouTube all have resources that are full of business insights and audience data that marketers in all industries can use in conjunction with their own data when developing and evaluating their social media strategies.

Don’t forget to look out for our next instalment of – Using Social Media data to power your brands growth. Get this and more delivered to your inbox by subscribing to our email newsletter (scroll down to sign up). In the meantime If you need help with your social media strategy or management, contact us today.

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*Sprout Social report 2023