Interview: Quintly believe that the right analytics toolkit is key to delivering social KPIs in 2018
When social media analytics platform quintly was first conceived it was built as a one-off project for a single client. In the last few years, quintly has grown and now offers more than 500 different metrics to over 80,000 users worldwide. In the interview, co-founder Alexander Peiniger outlines the challenges facing marketers, and how analytics are key to optimising your social media activity.
As investments in social media activities continue to grow on a global scale, analytics becomes increasingly important. Digital Doughnut asked Alex, the CEO and Co-Founder of the social media analytics company quintly, a few questions.
Digital Doughnut: What have been the biggest changes in the social media landscape in the last years?
Alexander Peiniger: The most obvious change is the drastic move from organic to paid. Paid social gets increasingly important, which has forced marketers to be agile and adjust strategies regularly. Just recently, Mark Zuckerberg announced an upcoming change of the Facebook Newsfeed which will make it even harder for businesses to reach their audience.
Beyond that, the timelines are getting faster each and every day. More companies are learning how to be creative in the social space which has impacted the quality of content being created, which has risen comparatively. In order to better appreciate what worked and what didn't, companies need to be able to analyze the right numbers. Here pure fan metrics become less important, while the engagement metrics become crucial as they're the ones that will deliver meaningful insights.
The other key trend that everyone who's active in social has noticed is the increasing dominance of the Facebook ecosystem which also now includes both Instagram and Whatsapp. The consolidation of these three top social media platforms is something we need to keep an eye on, especially if it results in a problem for the other networks not part of this ecosystem, such as Twitter and Snapchat.
Digital Doughnut: What do you think has changed in the way that businesses are using social media?
Alexander Peiniger: Marketers from very different industries have become more and more active and consequently, investment in social media has increased significantly. More investment always brings up the question of ROI. From our experience, this conversation has become even more important for businesses, making it an even bigger imperative to find the answer.
As mentioned before, paid social takes more time and budget from marketing departments around the globe. Brands need to match paid-only campaigns with content solutions that are helpful, well-targeted and creative. Great content allows them to fight for a piece of organic reach and drive engagement, which are key elements in their social marketing mix.
Digital Doughnut: How do you think businesses will approach social analytics in the future?
Alexander Peiniger: Companies need to perceive social media no longer as “just” an additional marketing channel, but as something that underlies all major business areas such as marketing, sales, support and product. It is becoming a key part of delivering great customer experience. By doing this, social media needs far deeper integration into the businesses daily processes, and especially their analytics.
As marketing gets faster - and increasingly in real-time - analytics needs to do the same. Predictive analytics will play a crucial role in allowing is the know with some certainty what the outcomes might look like, or at least have a good guess at the results before starting the campaign.
The cornerstones for all that are the right metrics. Social media KPIs need to be selected wisely and adjusted once company goals change. In short, analytics will get faster and the teams using them need to be increasingly agile.
Digital Doughnut: What are the biggest challenges for companies in 2018 from a social media analytics standpoint?
Alexander Peiniger: Since day one, an ongoing challenge has been to understand the real value of social media. To do that, marketers need to be able to question their social strategies and tactics on an ongoing basis, which will allow them to develop and deliver content that truly benefits the whole community.
A framework for measurement is also incredibly important when it comes to optimizing your social media. We've created something we call the “Social Media Analytics Cycle” that helps marketers find the right approach that allows them to set the right priorities and is continuously updated. The importance lies in the word ‘Cycle’, because it's a process that needs to be constantly observed and adjusted.
The measurement process is never over and needs to be continually questioned. Part of the cycle is finding out what the right metrics are to deliver against your set goals, rather than simply trying to measure everything.
The right toolset is crucial. You need to research the different tools out there and make a decision based on criteria of which tool meets your business' needs best. You need to look for something that brings together all your customer data within your business to help you make better decisions.
Digital Doughnut: Which challenges do you face in 2018?
Alexander Peiniger: Our mission has always been to help our clients use their data to deliver the most effective outcomes. More precisely, this means that we're constantly working on features that support our clients going from a quantitative action to an analysis deriving actions. The basis for that was the launch of the new version of our tool, which we are very proud of.
We know, that working with a lot of data can be an overwhelming. That’s why our aim is to help clients identify notable events. This will make a marketers and analysts lives easier.
All other features we plan to launch in 2018 will help our users to redefine their social media strategy based on data.
For more about social media analytics check out the quintly blog here, and contact Alexander via LinkedIn.