It might not sound like it, but these days, data science can provide you with the information you need regarding the performance of your marketing efforts. It lets you know where you’re doing great, but most important, it lets you know where you’re lacking.
This way, you can formulate a strategy that can address the issue and even refine it as you go forward.
With data science, you can also customize your strategy when it comes to promoting your business on social media.
That said, there are four proven methods that you can use to effectively apply data science to your social media marketing efforts. These are the following:
Learn Your Customers’ Interests
This may sound intrusive, but one of the key applications of data science in any social media marketing is learning what customers care about the most.
According to SiriusDecisions, a buyer has already confirmed 67% of his buying decision even before he makes a purchase. In other words, they have already made up their minds right before they contact you to purchase something.
This might sound too good to be true, but it’s something that a lot of businesses have experienced during their long years of operation.
With data science, you can learn more about your customers’ interests without them even knowing about it. You don’t even have to bother them with the ever-annoying customer satisfaction survey.
You just have to look at the statistics and even use an algorithm to know what your target audience is talking about on social media. This way, you can push social media posts that target those topics and capture your customers’ attention.
Analyze User Sentiments
The process of sentiment analysis revolves around analyzing any underlying emotion within a piece of text. It’s yet another key application of data science not just in social media marketing but in marketing as a whole.
With sentiment analysis, you’ll be able to figure out the main reasons why some of your customers might be dissatisfied with your business. It could be due to poor customer service, a product that failed to deliver on its promises, or perhaps a hefty price.
By learning how your customers feel about your business, you’ll be able to come up with a solution that will increase your customers’ satisfaction. It not only improves the product or service that your business offers, but it also helps you outdo your competitors.
However, sentiment analysis isn’t just limited to that aspect. You can also use it to research the current market, analyze your product, and even for user review mining purposes.
Pick the Right Influencer
Influencer marketing is a pretty effective tool in promoting a business these days. But due to how lucrative an influencer is, it seems that everyone and their mother are also doing it.
Sadly, with almost everyone claiming to be an influencer, it can be tough to pick the right one these days. This is where data science comes in. It works by helping you pick the right influencer for your business, which significantly decreases your chances of hiring an ineffective one.
With data science, you can identify influencers as well as opinion leaders within your market so you can contact them for potential partnership deals. This can potentially increase the sales that you make as your chosen influencer can easily sway their followers using their opinions.
Segment Your Customers
You can also use data science to segment your customers and divide them into separate sub-groups based on certain characteristics.
For example, you can have a group consisting of customers who value quality over price, and another group consisting of customers who prefer the use of discounts and coupons before buying.
By using data science for customer segmentation, you can then target those groups of customers with various offers and promotions depending on their specific characteristics. Let’s have a look at this example:
“Let’s say that you have a user who browses your website regularly but only makes a purchase when a certain product has a discount. You can then classify this customer as a “promotion hunter”.
You have now created a specific group, and you can then send members of that group an email notifying them of an ongoing discount at your store.
Meanwhile, you’ll also have customers who are willing to purchase an item even if it doesn’t have any discount since they believe that quality matters more than price. You then put customers with such behavior under a different group.
Then, just like the previous group, you send them an email. This time, however, that email will instead focus on promoting your high-end items that are related to the products that they were interested in.”
As you can see from the above example, customers who prefer affordability will be more inclined to purchase when promotions are ongoing. Meanwhile, customers who value quality will be encouraged to spend more on high-end products.
Boost Engagement Metrics
Lastly, you can use data to boost the engagement metrics of your social media posts with the help of social media graphics. By looking at your engagement metrics, you can get an idea of what your audience likes, allowing you to create social media graphics based on their behavior.
On platforms such as Facebook, you will be able to learn how your post interacted with your followers depending on their reactions. You can use that to your advantage by making social media graphics that resonate with them.
You can even check the comment section of your posts to have an idea of what people are saying.
Keep in mind that the engagement of your social media posts is a measure of your content’s relevance. It’s also a way to learn how people actively interact with that content.
Final Thoughts
Data science might not sound that big of a deal, but with the right applications, you can use it to increase the overall sales that your business is making.
As much as you can, do your best to leverage the power of data science to learn more about your customers and use that knowledge for your promotions.
