To understand how your audience uses social media, you will need to do a social network analysis of various social media platforms.

In the cycling industry, it is beneficial for businesses to integrate into the biking community because of the passion associated with cycling. To integrate with the biking community as a business, you will have to do research to understand how the community is using social media and how they are engaging with your competitors.

We are living in a digital age where social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are growing in popularity and are also becoming primary places for people to advertise their products, websites and content. Missing out or ignoring the importance of social media in advertising and site promotion will result in a lack of sales, lack of traffic and lack of engagement from your user base.

Today, most people are getting their news, information, and products online and through social media. In order to stay ahead of the game and understand how to market your website, you have to analyze how the biking community is using social media. This will show you how to properly use your own social media to drive engagement and traffic to your website.

There are certain ways you should analyse social media for your business and it is important that you understand how to analyse this data to help you make business decisions which will drive traffic to your website and increase your sales.

Define Your Purpose

First, you need to determine why and how you will be approaching social media analysis. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What kind of insights, if any, do you already have?
• What insights do you hope to gain?
• What social media platforms will you analyse?
• How do you approach the analysis?
• What is the purpose of your research?
• What is the purpose of your business and your brand?

There are many different reasons businesses perform social media analysis, including but not limited to:

• Competitor research
• Learning from and about customers
• Learning about the audience and demographic
• Improving/enhancing products
• Improving marketing efforts

Do Your Keyword Research

Keyword research will help you understand what words and phrases your audience is using. Keywords will also help drive traffic to your website, which is why it is important to know what keywords your audience is using in social media as well as on search engines.

How Does the Biking Community Engage on Social Media?

You will have to be diligent in your social media research and find out what platforms the biking community is using. Once you find that, you have to research how community members are engaging with each other. One of the most important things in niche industries like cycling is building a sense of community that brings enthusiastic cyclists together.

Do social media pages dedicated to cycling host competitions or events to attract involvement? You should also research what big events social media pages are taking advantage of (i.e. bike to work day, national bike day, etc.).

Do these social media pages encourage users to engage? This is also a huge part of building a sense of community and should not be overlooked! You should also look into the opportunities your competitors take to promote their cause and what types of events people are attending.

Analysis of follower growth on different social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram in particular) is also important to see what drives user and follower growth.

What Metrics Should You Focus On?

Metrics you should focus on in your social media analysis include:

• Likes
• Shares
• Retweets
• Engagement
• Comments
• Acquisition
• Activity
• Follower Growth
• Responses

Engagement

There are all sorts of tools you can use that perform social media analytics. However you decide to do your social media analytics research, you’ll need to understand how users are engaging with biking content.

What are users engaging with? What do they find most interesting? Try to find out why these posts are the most engaging. What makes them different from other posts?

Using social media analysis tools, find the other most engaging posts and see how they are similar. If the most engaging posts all have similar patterns and similar content, you will know what type of content you should post. You will also learn what posts you should avoid from posts that don’t have much engagement.

Building relationships with customers is another huge part of building a social media following. This is why comments on social media are so important. See how major competitors in the industry are using their social media and how they respond to customers. You will likely notice that the most popular social media pages are the ones that engage with their followers.

It’s no lie when people say that social media engagement creates traffic and boosts followers. This is something you have to incorporate into your own social media, which is why you should research how your successful competitors are engaging with their customers.

The Importance of Social Media Analysis

Social media analysis is an essential part of every marketing strategy because it helps identify the social media platforms and metrics that work for your industry. It will help you understand how you can increase your brand awareness and how to identify the best course your brand should take for social media. Social media analysis takes an understanding of what posts are bringing engagement and how this engagement is being fulfilled. It is important that you stay on top of what your competitors are doing and what people are engaging with, liking and sharing.

In order to gain popularity in the digital space, the simple fact is that you must be on social media. Not only do you have to be on social media, but you also have to be active and to increase your following by posting relevant content and engaging with your customers.

Social media analysis is about researching key metrics, monitoring follower growth and engagement and knowing what works and doesn’t work with your competitors. This will set you and your brand up for success.