Data, Social Media, and You.

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How do YOU pronounce it? Day-ta or Dat-a?

What actually IS it? Encarta defines it as information, often in the form of facts or figures obtained from experiments or surveys, used as a basis for making calculations or drawing conclusions.

Surveys? Experiments? How does this apply to social media? And, you thought I was going to talk about ROI, didn’t you?

Ah, questionnaires. Good old fashioned quantitative market research; an excellent way to get some insight from your fans, followers or circlers. And plenty of free sources to use. But beware of bias and improper wording; I’ve seen lots of poorly written surveys in my time!
Find a market research professional, tell them what it is you’d like to learn from your clients, and let them do the rest. Great data starts from the best preparation, from defining the issue, including determining the possible actions that will be taken as a result of the findings, creating the questionnaire, testing, fielding, processing, analyzing and reporting.

What do you want to learn from your fans on Facebook for example? Some ideas include:

• Demographics, beyond the location, age group and gender that Facebook provides to page owners
• Gather ideas on what they’d like to see on your page
• Test out a new product concept
• Their opinions on a particular subject; perhaps something that you’d like to blog about at a later date
• Greater detail on their interests (psychographics in market research speak)
• How they feel about some of your current products and likelihood to buy
• What charity they’d like to see you make a donation to

And the other half of that definition, experiment?  How about trying something new with your posts? For example, my other endeavor, Groovy Reflections, offers products, namely hand tie-dyed t-shirts sporting the brand logo. Personally, I don’t enjoy getting in people’s faces touting these offerings.

So, instead, I’ll post something that’s more on the “softer side”, such as giving away a shirt instead (have been doing this every 500 new fans).  Discussion about the free shirt will be lively and some of the more curious folks may inquire more about the products while others will explore quietly on the website. It's both engaging and creating awareness.

Not exactly a focus group facility!

It’s not as good as having a focus group, but you’ll get some qualitative feedback. DO remember that this is a very informal way to gather information and it’s not representative of the population at large that has an interest in your brand or business.

Focus Groups, either in person or on-line would provide some concrete data on the respondents as well as their individual responses in conversation based on a well-planned out guide contain the question you’d like to have the respondents discuss.

Data is powerful if gathered wisely! Do learn from it to make your social media efforts even more successful!

For more data (ha!) on data, say hello on my Facebook or Google+ pages or tweet me.

This is "D" of the Blogging A to Z Challenge. Don't forget your A, B, C's!

‘Cause You’ve Got…Seasonality!

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Does anybody really know what time it is…does anybody really care?

Hope you do because we’re since most of us in the U.S. lost an hour from Saturday Night into Sunday. Wish I could be telling you that we are gaining an hour! On a brighter note, spring is coming (it’s in full force already where I am) and the days have been getting longer.

And they get even “longer” once we “spring forward”…so what will you do with all that extra daylight? Will you spend it at the computer, or will you be outside?

Have you thought about the popularity of your blog or the number of hits you’ll get on your Facebook or Google+ page during the warmer months?

• Are your fans or readers away from the computer when it’s warm out? If you’re blogging about hiking, canoeing, riding a bike, etc. chances are you’re not going to be seeing much of them if they can sneak in an hour after work doing something they truly love.

• Do your fans or readers have kids? They may be off to an outdoor adventure on the weekend, or rushing off to baseball practice after school. 

• Are your fans or readers sun worshipers? If they’re emerging from the blues of winter, being outdoors makes them feel good and that’s where they’ll be often.

• The time to start planting is soon here. People can get started when there’s more daylight to allow that.

Of course, these examples offer up a bigger can of worms. Questions to think about:

• Demographics. Who are they in regards to their age, income, and gender, where they live, occupation, etc.? How does that affect their behavior during the various seasons?

• Psychographics. How active are they and what do they do with their leisure time? Yeah, “leisure time” is pretty much non-existent, right? Surf the internet, surf the waves, indoor sports, outdoor sports, crafts, reading, cooking, going to movies; you get the idea. If their activities rely on the weather to any extent, you may see engagement levels go up and down, depending. 

Paying attention to the patterns in regards to blog hits and comments or activity on your page can help your business in the long run. Knowing when people are around (or aren't) allows you to plan more efficient strategies.

If there’s a reduced audience because of seasonality, there are options.

• Consider scaling back your posts for a short time; if you post 10 times a day, post 6 or 7 times instead and save some of that valuable material for when your audience is fuller (as long as it isn’t timely material).This holds true especially for Facebook if the number of fans “talking about this” has gone down. 

• Experiment with those who you haven’t been able to engage. Find some new ideas to post and coax those people out of the wood work! 

• Ask more questions to your fans and see what they are looking for from you.

• Make seasonality part of your page. Welcome the seasons (including weather related and sports), springing forward/falling back and holidays and weave them into your page. 

Not all of these thoughts will apply to your product or service. But I think I just saw you nodding your head up and down, so something clicked!

In closing, enjoy this tune by Carole King. Click here.