Social media analytics is all about collecting the right data to see how your content’s actually performing. It helps marketers understand which posts hit the mark and which ones flop, so they can adjust their strategy and keep things fresh. With analytics, you get to make decisions based on facts, not guesswork—and that’s how you grow your business.

You can conduct social media analysis natively on platforms like Instagram, TikTok and X (formerly known as Twitter). You can also use social media management tools such as Buffer and Sprout to dive deeper into the numbers.

Importance of Social Media Analytics

Tracking social media analytics is like having a secret weapon up your sleeve. It’s not just about numbers, it’s about unlocking the secrets behind your strategy, campaign success, and content ideas. Here are 3 major perks of keeping an eye on your analytics:

1. Trendspotting

Trendspotting helps to track your analytics. You can spot trends before they become viral, giving you a head start. It’s all about catching those early signals, so you can jump on the next big thing before everyone else does.

2. Brand sentiment

Brand sentiment is like the pulse of your audience—it shows you how people feel about your brand, whether it’s positive, neutral, or negative. By diving into social media analytics and using sentiment analysis tools, you can gauge these emotions.

Tracking brand sentiment is key to keeping your audience happy and engaged. It lets you identify when things are going right (or wrong) and spot areas where you can step up your game. Plus, it gives you a heads-up to resolve any negative vibes before they turn into bigger issues. So, not only do you stay on top of your reputation, but you can also discover ways to improve and strengthen your brand overall.

3. Value perception

Value perception (or perceived value) is all about how customers view the worth of your product or service. It’s their take on whether it meets their needs and how it stacks up in terms of quality vs. price. If your product has a low perceived value, people won’t want to pay top dollar for it.

You can measure this perception using social listening tools and by keeping an eye on insights from platforms like Google Analytics. This helps you fine-tune your content strategy, highlighting the aspects of your product or service that resonate most with your audience’s pain points. With the right tweaks, you can boost the perceived value of what you’re offering and make sure your audience sees it as a must-have.

What are the types of social media analytics?

There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to social media analytics, and tracking the right data is key to fine-tuning your strategy. In your social media dashboard, you’ll want to keep an eye on several types of analytics that’ll not only guide your game plan but also reveal insights you may not have noticed before. Let’s break down the six main types you should be focusing on:

Performance analysis

First things first, you gotta measure how your social media game is actually performing. We’re talking about the key metrics that show whether you’re on track or need a little adjustment. These include things like:

1. Impressions
2. Reach
3. Likes
4. Comments
5. Shares
6. Views
7. Clicks
8. Sales

Audience analytics

Next up, you’ll want to peek at your audience analytics. This is where you figure out if your content is actually hitting the right crowd—or if you’re attracting a totally different bunch than you expected. If your content’s attracting the wrong people, it might be time to tweak that strategy to make sure it lines up with your ideal audience.

Here’s what you’ll typically find under audience analytics:

1. Age
2. Gender
3. Location
4. Device

Competitor analysis

Another key area to look into is how your competitors are performing on social media. Check out things like:

1. How many followers they have
2. Their engagement rate
3. How many people are interacting with each of their posts

By analyzing your competitors’ activity, you can get insights into what’s working in your industry and spot potential gaps in your own strategy. 

Paid social analytics

When you’re investing in paid social media ads, you want to ensure that your money is working for you. That means you need to pay close attention to your paid social analytics.

Here are the key metrics to track:

1. Total number of active ads
2. Clicks
3. Click-through rate
4. Cost-per-click
5. Cost-per-engagement
6. Cost-per-action
7. Conversion rate
8. Total ad spend

Each platform you run ads on will have its own dashboard with this info, but it’s also a good idea to set up your own spreadsheet to track your ads and spending. 

Influencer analysis

If you are into influencer marketing, measuring the success of your partnerships is key to understanding your ROI. A smart approach is using the five W’s + H (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How) to shape your strategy and track results throughout the buyer journey.

Here’s the type of data you’ll want to keep an eye on:

1. Number of posts created by each influencer
2. Total interactions on those posts
3. Audience size of each influencer
4. Hashtag performance and engagement

Sentiment analysis

The last major segment of social media analysis you’ll want to track is brand sentiment. We know how social media analytics tools can help you determine and measure sentiment analysis. It allows you to understand the mood and tone around your brand, helping you identify whether people are talking about you in a positive, neutral, or negative light. It’s all about gauging how your audience feels when they interact with your brand online.

Top Social Media Analytics Tools

Alright, so now that you know the key metrics, let’s talk about the tools you’ll use to track them. The good news? There are plenty of tools out there to make your life easier. Here are some of the best social media analytics tools for beginners:

Google Analytics

While not strictly for social media, Google Analytics can help you track traffic that comes from your social media accounts to your website. It gives you insight into how social media visitors behave on your site.

Hootsuite

This is a popular scheduling tool, but Hootsuite also has great analytics features. You can track engagement, reach, and more, across all your social media platforms in one place.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a social media management tool with an analytics powerhouse. It gives you deep insights into how your audience is interacting with your content, and it also includes competitor analysis.

Instagram Insights

For Instagram users, Instagram Insights is a built-in tool that provides a treasure trove of information. You can track engagement, follower demographics, impressions, reach, and more directly on the platform.

Facebook Insights

Similarly, if you’re using Facebook for business, Facebook Insights provides all the analytics you need to track the performance of your posts, stories, and ads.