How to get more from your social presence with competitor analytics

Jamie Riddell – Co-Founder BirdSong Analytics

May 2015

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Who is Jamie Riddell?

• Formerly: – One of the first UK buyers of ‘online ads’ 1996/1997– Co-Founder of Digital Agency ‘Cheeze’ 1999 – 2009– Director/Significant Shareholder Jaywing PLC – National Media Museum Advisor, Internet – Writer for TheNextWeb, Archant, Global Marketing Alliance

• Now:– Co-Founder BirdSong Analytics– Co-Founder/CEO Digital Tomorrow Today– Director – V4 Technical

Google “Jamie Riddell” for more…

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Just don’t do an image search…

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What is BirdSong?

• On demand social media analytics tool for any brand on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and shortly, YouTube

• We deliver insights on the who, what and when of a brands’ activity on social media

• Brand activity & results is our focus. Brand mentions & sentiment are well catered for in this industry

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3 Areas to make improvements

• We believe success comes from focusing on three areas of a strategy:

• The Right Audience• At The Right Time • With The Right Message

• Throughout this presentation we will take examples of brand activity across Twitter & Facebook

• All this data is available from and analysed with BirdSong

• BirdSong does not administer any of these Facebook pages or manage their Twitter/Instagram accountswww.birdsonganalytics.com

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1. THE RIGHT AUDIENCE

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Are we talking to the right people?

• The number of fans/followers is of no use if we are not talking to the right audience.

• With Facebook & Instagram a third party can only see the active users of any page – those that engage with the page/account.

• With Twitter we can see a lot more about the followers for much deeper analysis…

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Understanding Twitter Followers

• Every follower can provide more information about themselves including:– Name– Biography/Interests– Location

• And more about themselves with:– Accounts they follow– Frequency of Tweeting– Tools they use

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The AudienceTwitter will tell us how many followers and following any account has

But what else can we learn about our followers?

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Active Followers?• How many followers are active?• How many followers are ‘real’?

Are these new or experienced users?

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Gender & Location

First Name Lookup

Biography Location, if Provided

Understanding gender & locationIs a first step to knowing more about our audience

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Interests/ActivityHow do the followers define their interests?

If we understand more of their interests can we create more relevant content?

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Interests/Activity

CIM may not tell us much so let’s look at someone else..

• Cycling, Fan, Bike, Sports – all obvious • Husband, Dad, Father shows these are family men • Should we be creating content to further reflect their status?

Analysis of all Twitter followers from @TeamSKY

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Interests/Activity

What can we learn from @Selfridges ?

• Fashion, Beauty, Designer all obvious• Student, Blogger, Food, Instagram • Can we learn any more about their potential purchasing intent?

Analysis of all Twitter followers from @selfridges

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Location – Are they in your target catchment?

• Location becomes important when you have selling boundaries.. – Retail, Drive Time, Country Rules

Research from AutoTrader suggests 1 in 5 car buyers are willing to travel anywhere in the UK to view a car.

The average is 60 miles.

How does this match your Twitter audience?

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Take it Further

• Twitter follower data is publicly available • We can see your followers AND your

competitors• www.birdsonganalytics.com/export-twitter-followers-

2015/

• Export and analyse your followers competitors• Create an engagement strategy for your target

followers – – Follow Back– Create Lists– Advertise with Tailored Audiences

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2. THE RIGHT TIME

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When is the Right Time on Twitter?

• When is the best time to tweet?• Is it based on your tweet activity? – That will only highlight what you’ve already

done

• Is it based on when you’re in the office? – Assuming no-one tweets evenings &

weekends

• Or is it based on when your audience is active?

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When does Sky tweet?

Tweets from @skyHD based on the latest 3,200 tweets

• Tweet volume focused on office hours with evening extension • Largest volume of tweets at 13:00 and 15:00

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When is the audience most active?

Tweets from @skyHD based on the latest 3,200 tweets

• Followers most active in the evening • Focusing more resource later in the evening could provide better engagement

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What about Facebook?

• Improving your timing on Facebook could make a real difference

• We know organic reach is low but it’s not a conspiracy to push paid ads

• It’s because Facebook has so many other stories they could show a user at any one time

• Why would they share yours?

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Herd Mentality?• Here is the posting schedule for 64 of the UK’s

largest retailers

• Heavy focus on office hours – peaking at 9am and 5pm• All the brands want your attention at the same time!

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Everyone at once?• Here is the daypart posting schedule for 4 of the

biggest supermarkets

• Slight variations in volume but a steady pattern of presence

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Is Facebook closed at weekends?• Here is the weekday posting schedule for 4 of the

biggest supermarkets

All brands decrease weekend activity www.birdsonganalytics.com

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Why is this a problem?

• All brands are competing with each other• If a user followed more than one

Supermarket brand (or any brand), Facebook will have to choose which ones to promote

• That’s assuming the audience is active during office hours

• The smarter marketer would find some clearer air for greater engagement potential

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When can we achieve better engagement?

Average number of likes per post is lower in the day than posts in the eveningIn part due to the lower volume but consider when you are on Facebook?

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Finding the right time

• Finding a better time to post can help improve engagement rates, provide greater potential reach and achieve more results

• By analysing brand activity we can better understand when our competitors are active, how well they perform and when our potential audience is active

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The Right Time & Right Audience

• We now know who our audience is, and (on Twitter) who our competitor’s audience are –We can better target our own messages,

engage or advertise to our competitors’ followers

• We also know more about when our audience is active and when we should be posting better

• We know this for our competitors too.. • Use these opportunities to trial new

messages or ‘go fishing’ when your competitors are sleeping!

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3. THE RIGHT MESSAGE

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Tailor the Message to the Audience

• If we know about our audience on Twitter we can better tailor a message.

• If they define themselves as husbands or fathers, try some more content focused around these elements.

• If the followers are interested primarily in digital marketing, ensure a good volume of digital marketing content.

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What Content do we share?

• What works well for our competitors?

• Can we learn from what other brands are posting?

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Is it on brand?

An old example from Confused.com and Money Supermarket Facebook posts

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What Format on works best on Facebook?

• Photos work well for engagement• Videos are starting to achieve even higher

engagement• Check your weighting for post type – push

more of the engaging types

Average Engagements on Facebook Averages across 94,138 UK retail posts

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Call to action – Like for Likes• If you want engagement, ask for it!

• Based on the analysis of 94,138 UK retail posts on Facebook – Posts without a call to action averaged – 430 likes– 86 shares– 54 comments

• Posts with a ‘Like This’ call to action averaged– 6,295 likes– 544 shares– 653 comments

• Posts with a simple call to action increase engagement across all metrics

• Is that so hard to achieve?

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Want increased reach? Ask for it!

• Don’t expect people to share if you don’t ask

• Based on the analysis of 94,138 UK retail posts on Facebook – Posts without a call to action averaged – 430 likes– 54 comments– 86 shares

• Posts with a ‘Share This’ call to action averaged– 1,368 likes– 985 shares– 260 comments

• Asking to share could double your reach. For Free!! • Is that so hard to achieve?

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Right Audience, Right Time, Right Message

1. Understanding your audience & competitor audience can help improve your connection.

2. Improving your timing can provide better chance for reach or engagement.

3. Identifying competitor content performance can help shape/improve your own work. Asking for engagement can more than double it.

3 simple processes you could do before we’ve discussed advertising budgets…

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Insights from BirdSong Analytics

• All insights were provided from BirdSong

• We provide insights for any brand• No monthly fees

BirdSong is wholly owned by Digital Tomorrow Today Ltd.

Visit www.birdsonganalytics.com to find out more