Social Media Behavioral Data Really Is Rocket Science

Less Talk + More Actions = Better Results

That should be every social media marketers’ mantra. Getting it in, is not just a saying the hip-hop element uses. Getting it in refers to using your behavioral data from social media marketing to your advantage. It’s really a fallacy to believe that social media marketing is data measure resistant. Not so, say the lovers of Google Ripples which graphically illustrates connections and shares of content you, the marketer create. You can link social media metrics to tangible business results, and here are a few ideas to make it happen.

With 750 million active users on Facebook, 140 million unique visitors to the site each month, 200 million registered Twitter users, and more than 100 million professionals on LinkedIn, your target audience is somewhere among these numbers. You just have to send out a smoke signal and find them. Once you find your audience, open shop, let them know you’re there, and give them a reason to visit you. Create relevant content, coupons, discounts, whatever it takes to get your audience to your social networking door. I have a Wine Lovers page on Facebook, and my over 700 members love talking about wine. Thanks to Facebook Insights, if you’re a Page Administrator, you have access to some valuable marketing information. Using that information will open the door to behavioral marketing strategies that will grow your audience. Take a look at these recent demographics from Wine Lovers on Facebook.

I like these ready-made demographics because it shows the number of members who are represented by each country, city and the language spoken. In addition, take a look at the break down between males and females. Female members outweigh male members by almost 2:1. The largest age demo represented is 35-44 at 21% female and 8.5% male in this age segment. Ages 45-54 has a 16% share for females and 6.2% share for males. Baby boomer females are more likely to be a member of this page than their male counterparts. Pre-boomers make up the largest chunk of the Wine Lovers audience (35-44) at 21%. But, look at this piece of data below. It shows the reach or the ‘ripple’ effect of the actual social sharing—content that was posted on the page shared by members to their friends.

There were 791 Likes during this time period of Feb. 7 – Feb. 28, up 3.67% over last month; Friends of Fans is the number of unique people who were friends of fans who liked the Wine Lovers page, this increase of 1.98% is on the upswing and gives weight to the 791 fans who like the page. Those 791 fans were responsible for reaching 474,265 other people on Facebook who might be interested in Wine Lovers. These are people who I couldn’t find on my own, I just wouldn’t have the time to literally go knocking on the Facebook door of people, finding out what they like, and then sending out a friend invite. Facebook might think I was spamming and close my account! However, lots of outbound marketing can be done using this data.

Still most marketers are not convinced how social media marketing can drive revenue results. With all this data, the problem is not that data exists, it is how to interpret the data and turn those interpretations into dollars. Evolving from dormant numbers to monetary results in social media requires businesses to
Target these three audience to business behaviors:

LISTEN—When fans of Wine Lovers talk, I listen. Subscribing to SMS updates on my smartphone, I am always online and able to respond quickly to comments and conversations around content
IMPACT—No matter how relevant the conversation, I try to respond to each fan engagement when possible. People need to know you’re real, and if you’re able to communicate in a way that brings life to your words, then you’re bound to get the audience you’re seeking.
JUST DO IT!—Get in there, don’t stand on the sidelines with your fans. Update your page status frequently with usable, relevant content. People love graphics, pictures and videos. Incorporate those things onto your page, they are more likely to get shared.


Finally, social media marketing is like traditional marketing, you’ve got to know what you want to get out of it before you get started with it. Don’t go in blindly, setting up Facebook pages, Google Plus business pages, etc. without having a plan. What is your motivation for setting these networking tools in action? Is it create brand awareness, generate sales, promote a new product? Whatever the reason, let the ‘R’ in ROI define your purpose for any social media marketing objective. Define your point of satisfaction. Meaning, if sales were $67 per customer in 2011, would $97 per customer satisfy your executive level management team? Set reachable, realistic goals so as not to g into any meeting afraid that your lack of production will cost your job. This is not a good economy to get fired in. It’s important to go where the fish are because you can’t bring home dinner if the fish aren’t biting.

What are your thoughts, have you jumped the social media marketing behavioral data hurdle? How? Share with us please, we’d love to know.