#SproutChat Recap: How to Analyze, Interpret & Present Data From Social Media

As marketers we have access to a plethora of data. The landscape of tools that offer in-depth reporting is robust and the complimentary metrics that come directly from each social network are informative. This week at #SproutChat, we discussed which analytics are worth paying attention to and what to do with your social media data
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Prioritize Your Time

The first step in analyzing your data is prioritizing your time by understanding which metrics are worth looking at. Make sure you determine your objectives and figure out what type of data will help you reach your goals-then dive into the numbers. Depending on your goals, you won’t need to dissect every single measurement available, so be sure to highlight the key 3-5 that will prove to senior management that you’re reaching your goals. If you’re unable to objectively measure what you need set benchmarks to track progress.

A1: Referral traffic to our website, mentions, RT's, likes, follow-to-unfollow ratio #sproutchat

— ThinkTank (@Think_Tank_Mktg) July 27, 2016

A1. My personal opinion is you have to trend graph your time on site and new vs returning from social more than anything #sproutchat

— Chris Desadoy (@EliteYouTubePro) July 27, 2016

My top two are email addresses and traffic to my website as for me that's what creates clients 🙂 #SproutChat https://t.co/RPzk71x3iU

— Social Connection (@theSconnection) July 27, 2016

A1: if it's social as an entrance to a funnel, then the KPI is simple: website goal conversions originating from source #SproutChat

— David Kutcher (@confluentforms) July 27, 2016

A1: Always quality > quantity. Rather pay more for clicks to a targeted, niche audience. #SproutChat https://t.co/wJq9dWflZz

— AlexB (@AlexElizabeth90) July 27, 2016

Correlate Metrics With Achieved Goals

Frequently and consistently monitor metrics in comparison to your goals. Pay attention to alternate factors lending to success and pivot and adjust if necessary. Don’t be afraid to tap colleagues for additional measurements in order to paint a more holistic picture of your social data,. Take credit for the results from your efforts and collaborate to work towards 10x-ing those achievements.

A2: Twitter/Google Analytics goal trackers 🙂 #SproutChat https://t.co/OPgK8GVd0l

— Andrey Kozlov (@ISOAndrey) July 27, 2016

A2: Track KPIs and ROI through goals and actuals MOM, QOQ, YOY (for us that happens in a spreadsheet). #SproutChat

— Brooke B. Sellas (@madSMscientist) July 27, 2016

@sprout_sarah Woot! And it's pretty, too! ;-D #SproutChat http://pic.twitter.com/OKgd6zeEqG

— Brooke B. Sellas (@madSMscientist) July 27, 2016

A2: The metrics should correlate with your goals. If the metrics are low numbers, make adjustments and keep track of changes. #SproutChat

— Rachel Sprouse (@SprouseRachel) July 27, 2016

A2 (cont.) Excel & PPT can come in handy plus we & the NFL have lots of tools to show sales/partners how we stack up to league. #SproutChat

— Geoffrey Blosat (@GeoffTBlosat) July 27, 2016

A2: Analyze posts, review which posts drive traffic to website, monitor Google Analytics/Sprout & tweak future posts as needed #SproutChat

— Kevin Pack (@kevpack) July 27, 2016

A2 I define the KPIs I'm looking for in my content marketing plan, and show how they ladder up to biz goals. #SproutChat

— Erika Heald (@SFerika) July 27, 2016

Use Tools to Scale Your Efforts

Don’t go at it alone! Use social media reporting tools to easily collect and organize metrics. A software is worth the invest, as it will be able to find data much quicker than you or your team can. A software or tool may also help you figure out which metrics to watch in the first place. When your whole team has access to social data, it streamlines progress and allows all of you to achieve more.

@SproutSocial A4: With a fun platform called @SproutSocial! Puts everything in one spot. Love it 😇 #SproutChat

— Jordan Bath (@jbath13) July 27, 2016

Q4: @SproutSocial, Google Analytics, and old faithful (Excel). #SproutChat

— Brooke B. Sellas (@madSMscientist) July 27, 2016

a4: Google analytics; FB insights Sprout reports; Twitter analytics… just to name a few #Sproutchat

— Jessie Simms (@JSimmsSocial) July 27, 2016

A4) We track traffic with @AdobeBusiness Catalyst. Web traffic and any 'contact us' submissions for assistance. #sproutchat

— Kyle Murray (@TheKyleMurray) July 27, 2016

A4: Analytics. Analytics. Love Google and Facebook but Twitter also has some powerful insights. I like to log stats monthly. #SproutChat

— Rebecca Albert (@BeccaAtSocial) July 27, 2016

A4 Pull the data from online tools & consolidate into Excel. This allows weekly analysis & insights for the broader team #SproutChat

— Jeff Chinn (@jchinnJRT) July 27, 2016

A4. We also use a couple of local partners, @TrackMaven & @Zoomph, to give us real-time data as we get it. #SproutChat

— Geoffrey Blosat (@GeoffTBlosat) July 27, 2016

Present Your Data in a Way That Your Boss or Client Will Understand

Create an easily interpretable format and visualization of your data so that all stakeholders involved can quickly see the progress or opportunities for improvement. Feel free to get creative and distill the insight into its simplest format.

@SproutSocial A5: We do weekly emails to the office, but can't beat a poster where all can see. #SproutChat http://pic.twitter.com/YMQhRp14NF

— Tim Cigelske (@TeecycleTim) July 27, 2016

A5. Ask @randfishkin that, there is a wonderful video https://t.co/3uYZK5TdcA #sproutchat

— Chris Desadoy (@EliteYouTubePro) July 27, 2016

A5. Bonus points if you include insights/next steps derived from the data. #sproutchat

— pamelahughes (@pamelahughes) July 27, 2016

A5 Keep it simple for them. I like % data. We were at X but now we are at XX. A X% increase / decrease. Promote conversations. #SproutChat

— Ross Morrone (@rossmorrone) July 27, 2016

A5: clear, concise narrative! metrics / numbers mean nothing without context behind them. #sproutchat

— molly buccini (@mollybuccini) July 27, 2016

#SproutChat A5 – craft a narrative around goals. what conversation channels are performing well, and more importantly, why

— Andrew Peron (@andrew_peron) July 27, 2016

Join our #SproutChat Facebook community where we post the weekly topic and discussion questions. See you at the next chat on Wednesday, August 3 at 2 p.m. CDT.

This post #SproutChat Recap: How to Analyze, Interpret & Present Data From Social Media originally appeared on Sprout Social.

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Customer Data: The Solution to Lead Generation

More leads, please.

In most companies, it’s an ongoing process to generate interested buyers to your product and services.

We want qualified leads that move effortlessly throughout the sales cycle.

But the problem lies in our preparation. Some of us just don’t have enough information about our prospects.

The CSO Insight study reported that “42 percent of sales reps feel that they don’t have the right information before making a call.”

Use accurate customer data to prepare your team. Knowing key insights can make or break the deal.

Power up your data profile. Leverage it to produce more qualified leads.

Gathering Reliable Data

Based on a Ascend2 study, “35 percent of those surveyed said the biggest barrier to lead generation success is the lack of quality data.” Your data should tell a vivid story of your customer.

To gather reliable data, track anonymous users who visit your website. Watch leads interact with your content via session replays.

Ask for feedback from current customers. Monitor the trends of loyal consumers.

B2B marketers must also “embrace more third party and real-time data sets to really understand buyer’s across the entire customer journey.” For example, that may include using social logins to access a prospect’s profile information.

Data is widely available. Your team must decide which acquisition channels work for your company.

What’s the best way to collect email addresses? Or how can you quickly accumulate customer preferences?

“Understanding who your customers are and, in turn, what they like, will undoubtedly enable you to increase conversions and sales. Make it easy for your customers to share their data with you, and use that data to keep them engaged with your business,” says Josh George, a senior applications engineer at Lyons Consulting Group.

Know who you’re serving. Collect valid data for better results.

Enhancing Buyer Personas

Get inside your prospects’ minds. Map out your ideal customer to understand their reasons for buying.

But, what’s the point?

Buyer personas are roadmaps to navigating through your prospects’ interests, dislikes, and habits. If you’re aware of their behaviors, your team can create targeted solutions.

“By developing research-based buyer personas, you can create effective, highly targeted marketing campaigns. Each piece of communication ties back to your buyer personas so that every message addresses relevant pain points and positions your software as a viable solution,” states Brie Rangel, Account Strategist at IMPACT.

Knowing the basic demographics of your buyer is a given. Your team’s goal is to dive deeper. Learn your customers’ goals, challenges, and personal story.

Below is an example of a buyer persona for a specific startup founder. The story section offers a complete picture of the prospect, everything from the stage of his product to what he does for fun.

The role of customer data is to provide accurate information for your buyer personas. You don’t want to waste time selling enterprise-level B2B SaaS software to a B2C startup.

Moreover, inaccurate buyer preferences and habits will leave both the prospect and sales rep frustrated. So, double-check your personas.
Because in the end, your mission is to match your product with a qualified lead. That’s how you bring in sales.

“Use personas to spend more time with qualified leads, because they’re the ones who are most likely to turn into those long-term customers you’re looking for,” says Nicole Dieker, freelance writer and copywriter.

Enhance your buyer personas. Use data to add a face to the customer.

Segmenting Your Audience

After learning your customers distinct behaviors, it’s time to serve those individual needs.
It makes no sense to group everyone together.

If Sally specifically likes apples, why send her emails about oranges and grapefruits? Instead, educate her about the difference between gala apples and pink lady apples.

That’s a mental hurdle for most SaaS teams. We assume if our customers like X; they will definitely love Y. It isn’t always that simple.

Segmentation comes in many shapes and sizes. From geographical to behavioral differences, your customers vary. And it’s up to your team discover how to connect with them.

You might consider a city in a particular state or the buyer’s readiness to purchase. Work with your team to develop a goal.

Define your reason for segmentation. Experienced marketing and product leader Doug Goldstein offers the following common segmentation objectives:

• Create segmented ads & marketing communications
• Develop differentiated customer servicing & retention strategies
• Target prospects with the greatest profit potential
• Optimize your sales-channel mix

Segmentation is impossible without customer data. Add insights derived from analytics to guide how you group prospects.

And don’t be afraid to experiment. Testing is how you’ll discover the right messaging for your sales reps. Plus, it can help you market product information on your site.

“When practicing website optimization, leveraging customer segmentation provides a framework for running intentional, well-hypothesized experiments on your website that drive value,” writes Junan Pang, a solutions architect at Optimizely.

Segment your audience to deliver more personalized and timely experiences. With a segmented list, you’ll be able to target the right services to interested buyers.

Building The Relationship

You can collect the data, create the buyer personas, and segment your audience. But all that data can’t substitute customer relationships.

And that’s where most businesses miss their opportunity.

“[C]ompanies often manage relationships haphazardly and unprofitably, committing blunders that undermine their connections with customers,” states Jill Avery, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School.

Customer data is intended to facilitate the relationship between the sales rep and the buyer. However, research shows that companies without sophisticated data management tools “derive erroneous results that annoy customers, resulting in a 25 percent reduction in potential revenue gains.”

Don’t attempt to foster a customer relationship with poor-quality data. If you do, prospects will seek out your competitors.

TechTarget executive editor Lauren Horwitz and SearchCRM site editor Tim Ehrens agree:

“Customer data management often falls to the bottom of the priority list. Organizations get bogged down with more pressing issues, such as cutting costs or keeping daily operations running. But relying on poor-quality customer data almost always frustrates customers — and many of them take their business elsewhere.”

Relationships are built on human-to-human contact. That means being genuinely interested in your buyer’s concerns.

How can you make their lives better? Where can you offer convenience?

And sometimes your product won’t be the solution. Yes, your SaaS service may not be the best option for that particular person.

Sales teams must recognize that it’s okay to remove unqualified prospects from the pipeline. This action should be commended, not frowned upon.

Use customer data as a tool to score leads. Then, gain insight on how to target prospects that matter to your company.

Data shouldn’t supplant the customer relationship. Make the human connection.

Go for the Data

Your team needs qualified leads. Focus on customer data as a solution.

Gather data from reliable sources. Use buyer personas to target your audience. Segment their behavior to create a personalized approach. And focus on building relationships throughout the sales cycle.

Want more leads? Go for the data.

About the Author: Shayla Price lives at the intersection of digital marketing, technology and social responsibility. Connect with her on Twitter @shaylaprice.

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Snapchat releases a massive selection of geofilters in Sydney

The theories that fueled the hysteria around YouTuber Marina Joyce

There is a bizarre internet conspiracy brewing and if you have not yet heard the name Marina Rose Joyce, we are here to enlighten you. 

Marina Rose Joyce is a YouTube celebrity from the UK, who kicked off her career at just 15 years old. The now 19-year-old is known for her upbeat videos about life, beauty and makeup. She suddenly hit the headlines this week, when her 1 million followers became increasingly concerned for her safety due to what they perceived as the declining state of Joyce in her videos. 

SEE ALSO: Fans of YouTube vlogger Marina Joyce fear for her safety after 'mysterious' tweet Read more...

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9 Ways For Marketers To Do Amazing Technical Things Without Knowing Code

As a marketer, you are always looking to do more with less. You may get the sense that technology can help you do better and you’re right. Follow along as I explain exactly how you can harness this force without writing a single line of code.

1. Do A/B Split Tests and Personalization

Visual Website Optimizer and Optimizely that allow you to drag and drop your changes across the website by simply copy and pasting a snippet of code across your website (or getting somebody technical to help you do that). Both tools allow you to customize your website for different types of visitors, and they’ll allow you to run controlled experiments to see which variations of your web pages perform best. Optimizely allows you to drag and drop different variations of your web page without any code.

2. Build Landing Pages

Maybe you don’t want to optimize your website: you want to build some new pages. Maybe it’s a new campaign announcing a new product launch, or maybe you’re running an event you want to collect an email waiting list for. Whatever it is, you’ll need a web page that describes what you’re doing, a landing page. Thankfully, you don’t have to build anything in HTML or CSS. You can use drag and drop editors in Unbounce or, if you’re really looking to maximize conversion, marketing-based solutions like Leadpages.

3. Build Entire Websites

Don’t want to stop at just building a web page? Maybe you want to look to build an entire website for a new product. Thankfully, you don’t have to call a web agency to do everything for you at a high price! You can use solutions like Squarespace or Wix to build everything in your website without a line of code. And if you want to get even more customized, grab a theme from Themeforest and learn the basics of WordPress! You’ll soon be building beautiful websites with layers of personalized complexity–without a line of code.

4. Scrape Links, Content and More with Python (but use with caution!)

By downloading Anaconda and using the iPython Notebook contained within, you can use Python scripts and copy + paste the outputs.

The easiest and most powerful use of this is to take links and data from other websites. Be careful though, a lot of websites will have terms of use that prohibit the use of their content. Nevertheless, it might be a good tool to use to get raw data, or to get useful links that point to certain resources. You might, for example, want to get all of the links of your competitors profiled in a certain blog post, or you might want to get all of the links of different services in a directory.

This script above will take all the links from a sample page (in this case the Wikipedia page for the Python language)

Here’s the raw script you can copy + paste in Python 3.5 mode:

from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import requests
r = requests.get(“http://ift.tt/2ajWVI2;)
soup = BeautifulSoup(r.text,”lxml”)
for link in soup.find_all(‘a’):
print(link.get(‘href’))

5. Send Newsletters and Automate Emails

Email is one of the most effective marketing channels out there, and the best for return on investment. If you can get people coming back by filling their inbox with valuable information, you’ve reached marketing nirvana.

Instead of doing all the messy work coding up HTML-rich emails, you can use the drag & drop and email list capabilities of Mailchimp. If you want to automate emails a layer beyond, and take people through an in-depth series of automated emails, you could use a solution like Drip.

6. Get Data

Ever needed to take a quick look at certain data, like the demographic traits of a certain country? Need to source the latest financial data? Look no further than Quandl. You’ll be able to find all sorts of data, from the average age of first marriage for women to life expectancy at birth. Best of all, you can export that data directly in Excel, stepping away from all of the code if you needed.

7. Filter Through Data

Most people think of Google Apps as a great way to collaborate with others, but they don’t know about the full power of this suite of tools. Google built a way for you to add layers of functionality on top of their powerful software, allowing you to do so much more with different types of data. Best of all, you can copy + paste pre-made scripts and benefit from the effects without being technical!

Check to see if your website is online or save all tweets that match a certain hashtag to a spreadsheet. You can do that or a variety of other tasks through scripts that will save you time and money.

Use these scripts for good, not evil.

8. Building Popups and Other Interactive Elements on a Website

Sometimes, you want to add an additional layer of interactivity to a website, whether it’s a popup to highlight a brand new feature, or a walkthrough that will help guide users. Thankfully, with tools like Engage and HelloBar you can add different modals or elements to your website that can help you collect emails, direct traffic elsewhere, or dictate what users should look at in a web page.

9. Dig Deeper into Websites, and See How Your Website Looks in mobile

Most people don’t know about the handy Google Chrome Inspector or its equivalent Firebug on Firefox. While most of the time it is used by developers to spot errors or mock up certain changes in the code, you can use the Inspector to check into the exact URLs of images, and how your website displays on different screen sizes, from iPhones to tablets.

The responsive design tool in these inspector tools will allow you to simulate what your website looks like from device-to-device, a crucial need to see if your website is mobile-friendly. This is a factor that’s critically important for websites with mobile traffic, and one that Google uses to rank webpages.

Conclusion

By harnessing technology, you’ll be at the cutting-edge of digital marketing. You won’t even need to learn how to code to get an awesome array of new powers. Save yourself time and money, and make sure you use your new capabilities for good!

About the Author: Roger is a digital marketer who self-taught himself to code but recognizes when code is useful and when it isn’t. He manages Growth for edtech company Springboard, and will often write about new technologies at his own personal blog code(love). You can find him on Twitter.

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Facebook's new video feature will help you relive the best parts of your birthday

Facebook is giving users a new way to look back on their birthdays. 

The company is starting to roll out a new video tool that automatically creates a video the day after your birthday to highlight photos and messages from friends.

SEE ALSO: Facebook's live videos can now be twice as long

In the same vein as Facebook's 'Friend's Day' videos, the new birthday videos weave together birthday wishes from your friends, along with photos of the day.

The feature is rolling out now and users can expect to see it in the coming days. Once live, you'll see the video the day after your birthday at the top of your News Feed, where you can watch a preview of the 45-second clip. As with other personalized videos Facebook has created, you can edit the clips by adding or removing specific posts.  Read more...

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How images like #DonDaleKids let us 'perform' our shock and outrage

His head hangs forward, enclosed in a white bag known in rough prison parlance as a "spit hood." His young chest exposed, two black straps tie his shoulders to the chair.

The harrowing image of then-17-year-old Dylan Voller, taken from the ABC's investigation into the 'torture' of young people at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin, Australia, is just one of many instances of abuse detailed in the news program aired Monday. But it is the one that was chosen to lead a myriad news stories, and the one destined to be imprinted on the national conscience. 

SEE ALSO: Facebook takes down footage from child 'torture' report Read more...

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