Now that artificial intelligence is everywhere around us, we can surely say that countless industries have been affected by it. What do we mean when we say this? Well, it is rather simple to understand that numerous processes will be handled by this technology from now on. Sure, we will need to wait for some […]
Top Influencers in 2023: Who to Watch and Why They’re Great
When it comes to social media, top influencers have cracked the code. They earn thousands or even millions per year for sharing branded content with their audience. This ability to turn content into cash? Frankly, we think it’s social success at its best.
Many of today’s most popular influencers get their start on another platform (Vine, YouTube, or TikTok) and migrate their followers over to Instagram as their popularity grows.
Today, we’re looking at the top 10 most popular influencers on Instagram. These influencers have cultivated their audience for years to build their brand on social media from the ground up.
In this article, we’ll cover who the top influencers are, how to work with them, and what makes someone a social mega-influencer.
Bonus: Get the influencer marketing strategy template to easily plan your next campaign and choose the best social media influencer to work with.
What makes someone a top influencer?
To pinpoint what makes someone a top influencer, we’ve broken it down into measurable data and intangible factors.
Measurable data
These quantifiable elements of a top influencer are pretty much indisputable.
Total number of followers. All of the influencers we’ve included are technically mega influencers since they have more than 1,000,000 followers.
Engagement metrics. We looked at likes, comments, and shares.
Brand status. How many brands do they work with? Are these brands well-known/respected?
Post frequency. How often do they work with a brand? Are they official brand ambassadors, or do they favor one-off posts?
Type of partnership. What kind of work do they do with a brand? Do they wear their pieces to events? Are they the face of an ad campaign? Have they collaborated on a line of products together?
This post announcing the Our Place x Selena Gomez collection has over 51,000 likes.
Intangible factors
The numbers are important, but reputation and authenticity are a little harder to measure. Here’s what we looked at:
Connection. Has the influencer fostered a strong relationship with their audience? Does their lifestyle feel aspirational or attainable?
Communication. Can this influencer communicate a product’s or brand’s value with their audience without it feeling like a sales pitch?
Values. Does the influencer work with brands that align with their lifestyle or values? Do they endorse things followers might view as scammy (weight-loss teas, “get-rich-quick” schemes, etc.)?
Authenticity. Do they endorse anything that would make a user stop and ask, “Does this person REALLY use this brand?”
Ski-Doo doesn’t seem like an obvious partner for celebrity chef Matty Matheson, but the resulting content is just weird enough to work.
Our list focuses on social-first influencers, so you’ll notice that our list of top Instagram influencers doesn’t include traditional celebrities — singers and actors who have giant followings on Instagram because of their Hollywood fame. We also left out well-known brands like Nike (264M followers) and National Geographic (257M followers).
Finally, our list only includes top influencers who currently partner with brands on Instagram. That’s why you won’t see well-known social media personalities like King Bach (23.6M followers) or James Charles (22.1M followers) because neither of them has any recent partnerships.
The top 10 influencers on Instagram
So, who are the top 10 influencers on Instagram in 2023? Let’s get into it.
1. Khaby Lame
Number of followers: 80M (@khaby00)
Genre: Comedy, Lifestyle
Where they got their start: TikTok
You might be surprised by our number one pick, but that just means that you don’t spend enough time on TikTok! Khaby Lame is a Senegalese-Italian content creator who also happens to be the most-followed person on the platform.
On Instagram, he makes videos with NBA players, hangs out with Snoop Dogg, and promotes Binance, Google Pixel, and Hugo Boss.
2. Huda Beauty
Number of followers: 51.9M (@hudabeauty brand account) + 2.6M (@huda personal account)
Genre: Beauty
Where they got their start: YouTube
Huda Kattan launched her beauty blog and YouTube channel in 2010, followed by her eponymous cosmetic line in 2013. In the past decade, she has grown the Huda Beauty brand into a billion-dollar global beauty empire.
Today, Kattan is the face (literally) of Huda Beauty, frequently posting “get ready with me”-style videos using only her brand’s products.
Turning her influencer work into a closed loop ensures maximum profit, which is why Huda Kattan ranks so high on our list of Instagram influencers this year.
3. Lele Pons
Number of followers: 50.5M (@lelepons)
Genre: Entertainment
Where they got their start: Vine
Lele Pons got her start as a Vine comedian and has since extended her success on the platform to other pursuits, including music, modeling and acting.
Her current Instagram content is a mix of modeling shots, “day in the life” content, and ads for brands such as the Sweat app.
4. Charli D’Amelio
Number of followers: 28.4M (@chiaraferragni)
Genre: Entertainment
Where they got their start: TikTok
18-year-old Charli D’Amelio got her start as a TikTok dancer in 2019. She was the highest-earning personality on the app in 2022. She has recorded music, sells her own perfume, and won Dancing With the Stars season 31.
On Instagram, she reps big-name brands, including Prada, Amazon, and Spotify.
5. Chiara Ferragni
Number of followers: 28.4M (@chiaraferragni)
Genre: Fashion
Where they got their start: Blogging
Italian fashion influencer Chiara Ferragni launched her blog, The Blonde Salad, in 2009, and she’s been a big deal ever since. Her Instagram features outfit inspo, mommy/parent blogger content, and brand partnerships.
The model, designer, and television presenter lends a touch of European glamor to brands like Nespresso, Fendi, and Prada Beauty.
6. Sommer Ray
Number of followers: 26.3M (@sommerray)
Genre: Fitness
Where they got their start: Vine
Sommer Ray got her start on Vine in the early 2010s. Today, she’s a fitness influencer who promotes her own fitness plans, clothing, and health & wellness brand on her Instagram.
Her brand partnerships include DraftKings, Quest Nutrition, and the James Hotel.
7. Cameron Dallas
Number of followers: 25.1M (@camerondallas)
Genre: Entertainment (Comedy)
Where they got their start: Vine
In 2012, Cameron Dallas started his internet career on – where else? – Vine, later turning his online fame into a stage and screen career.
In 2021, Dallas launched Fanfix, a subscription platform that allows creators to monetize their skills. The platform was sold to SuperOrdinary in 2022 in an 8-figure deal.
His recent brand deals include Swarovski and Fendi.
8. Zach King
Number of followers: 24.6M (@zachking)
Genre: Entertainment (Magic)
Where they got their start: YouTube/Vine
Zach King is a skilled video editor who focuses on what he calls “digital sleight of hand.” He currently holds the Guinness World Records title for the most-watched TikTok video (2.2 billion views).
On Instagram, this influencer creates magical content for brands like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Kinetic Sand, and Turkish Airlines. The resulting ads blend in seamlessly with his own personal brand.
9. Amanda Cerny
Number of followers: 23.3M (@amandacerny)
Genre: Entertainment (Comedy)
Where they got their start: Vine
Amanda Cerny started her career as a model, appearing in Playboy in 2011. She created comedy content on Vine alongside frequent collaborator Lele Pons (#3 on our list!).
Her Instagram grid is a mix of sexy aspirational content, comedy videos, and brand partnerships with Playboy and Glamira.
10. MrBeast
Number of followers: 22.7M (@mrbeast)
Genres: Entertainment, Philanthropy
Where they got their start: YouTube
24-year-old MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) is the most-followed individual creator on YouTube with 128M subscribers.
His flashy high-concept videos garner millions of views, and he has leveraged his huge viewership to raise money for environmental causes including the Arbor Day Foundation and the Ocean Conservancy.
His Instagram partnerships with Magic: The Gathering, Nerf, and DraftKings align with his high-energy “cool/nerdy” persona.
How to work with top social media influencers
Top influencers can get millions of eyes on your brand with a single post, but this comes with its own challenge – how do you get their attention when dozens of other brands compete to work with them?
Step 1: Do your research
The influencers on our list have their pick of endorsements and don’t necessarily need your ad dollars. You’ll need to do some research to find the right influencer partnership.
Top influencers select brands based on shared goals and values, so focus on targeting creators who are a natural fit for your brand. Review their current endorsements and figure out how your brand fits in.
Don’t forget to compare the creator’s audience demographics with your own ideal customer profile to determine whether their followers would be likely to buy your product.
Step 2: Finalize your pitch
Once you’ve identified the right influencer, craft your pitch. Find all the connection points and make sure to articulate them clearly throughout your pitch. Make sure to lay out the timelines, metrics, and expectations for your campaign.
Make sure to prepare a budget for the campaign and do a cost-benefit analysis before you proceed. Top influencers come at a price, so the end result needs to be worth your time and money!
Step 3: Reach out via the correct channel
As tempting as it is to slide into an influencer’s DMs, don’t bother – they receive a huge amount of direct messages on Instagram and yours will be buried immediately. You can try, but don’t be surprised if they never respond to your message!
Some influencers have a management company listed on their website or Instagram bio. If you’re emailing their manager, make sure to personalize your email and keep it short and sweet. Include a clear description of your proposed campaign and refer to some of their other brand partnerships to show that you’ve done your research.
If you don’t have a clear way to reach your influencer of choice, consider using a platform that connects influencers and brands.
Step 4: Collaborate to create effective content
When working with top influencers, remember: collaboration is key!
Influencers have often spent years cultivating their audience in order to build their brand on social media from the ground up. You’re not just buying access to a large audience — you’re collaborating with a social expert. They will expect to be able to show off their unique skills as part of the campaign with your brand.
For more tips, check out our blog on how to work with influencers.
Frequently asked questions about top influencers
Who is the top Instagram influencer?
Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has 531M followers, making him the top Instagram influencer. He represents brands including Nike, Herbalife, TAG Heuer, Jacob & Co. Jewelry, and Louis Vuitton. His LV partnership with Lionel Messi in November 2022 garnered 8.4M likes on Instagram.
Who has the most followers on Instagram?
The top 5 most followed Instagram celebrity influencers are:
1. Cristiano Ronaldo @cristiano (537M followers)
2. Lionel Messi @leomessi (422M followers)
3. Kylie Jenner @kyliejenner (378M followers)
4. Selena Gomez @selenagomez (372M followers)
5. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson @therock (359M followers)
Other celebrities who just missed the top 5 include Ariana Grande (351M), Kim Kardashian (341M), and Beyoncé (291M).
How much do top influencers make?
According to some sources, top celebrity influencers can make up to $1,000,000 for a single Instagram post. Exact rates aren’t necessarily public, though, and it can be hard to find concrete information about influencer fees.
The social media influencer market was valued at $16.4 billion in 2022, so it’s safe to assume that top-ranking celebs are getting a huge windfall per post.
How much does influencer marketing cost?
The unspoken industry standard is $100 per 10,000 followers + extras for type of post (x # of posts) + additional factors = total rate. For more detail, check out our blog on influencer marketing costs.
Make influencer marketing easier with Hootsuite. Schedule posts, research and engage with influencers in your industry, and measure the success of your campaigns. Try it free today.
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The post Top Influencers in 2023: Who to Watch and Why They’re Great appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.
Originally posted on February 14, 2023 @ 3:41 pm
The 12 Top Benefits of Chatbots in 2023
The benefits of chatbots for businesses are well documented. These robot sidekicks do wonders for customer service, sales, and brand loyalty. And they’re just getting started.
The size of the chatbot market worldwide is expected to hit a whopping $1.25 billion in 2025. And Gartner predicts that they’re going to be a primary customer service aid for 25% of organizations not long after that.
Haven’t jumped on the chatbot bandwagon yet? Or still on the fence about their awesomeness? Here are 12 chatbot benefits that we hope will change your mind.
Bonus: Learn how to sell more products on social media with our free Social Commerce 101 guide. Delight your customers and improve conversion rates.
12 benefits of chatbots for businesses
Chatbot advantages vary depending on the type you use and how you deploy them. There are three types of chatbots that you should know:
Smart chatbots that use artificial intelligence (AI)
Simple, rule-based chatbots
Hybrid models that use a mix of both
Not all chatbots can do everything. If you’re looking for an unbeatable sidekick—the Robin to your Batman—then we recommend an AI chatbot like Heyday.
This list looks primarily at the benefits of AI chatbots. Let’s dig in!
1. Provide customer support 24/7
The thing about robots is they don’t need to sleep. Ever. People need to sleep, which is why we’re not great at providing 24/7 customer support.
With chatbots, businesses can guarantee that someone is on the other end of a support window at all times. This lets them offer assistance outside of normal business hours. Answering FAQs, helping with order tracking, product recommendations, and various other types of support are available at all hours.
This lets retailers confidently service customers globally, regardless of their time zone. And, it gives customers what they want most: speed of service. 90% of consumers say the quick resolution of their questions is their most important customer service requirement.
What are the benefits of providing customer support 24/7? Increased customer satisfaction, strong brand affinity, and increased lifetime value from your customers. Oh, and a nearly empty inbox every morning for your support team.
2. Answer your customer FAQs automatically
Raise your hand if you’re sick of answering the same four questions over and over (and over) again. If your hand is up, then you’ll love this second benefit of AI chatbots.
The best chatbots can be programmed to answer the most frequently asked questions from your customers using natural and friendly language. They are always available to take those questions (24/7 support, remember), and they never get tired of answering them.
Even better, chatbots can be programmed to answer FAQs and steer visitors toward the next stage in their user journey. So not only do you provide an upfront answer, you increase the likelihood of a purchase or conversion.
Needless to say, this is a major time saver for retailers. It outsources routine tasks to an affordable robotic sidekick, freeing your team to tackle more personalized conversations.
Here’s an example. Major Tom uses an FAQ chatbot to start a conversation with the visitor and quickly steers them toward the desired information or next step.
3. Give your team valuable time back
Customer service teams are running on fumes these days. According to McKinsey, 61% of customer care leaders reported a growth in support calls this year. This is putting strain on contact and help centers. And, more importantly, strain on support staff.
Nearly 50% of those same leaders reported increased employee attrition over the past year. Why? The top reasons for leaving were employee burnout, dissatisfaction with the job, and poor work-life balance.
Front-line customer support is a tough gig. Chatbots can help ease that burden by giving individuals and teams the gift of time. They remove routine queries and requests from the support queue, resulting in lower call or chat volumes. This, in turn, frees the support team to focus more of their time on the conversations that drive the biggest impact.
And when people aren’t stretched thin and can make a demonstrable impact, that’s a key to employee retention.
4. Make sales directly in DMs
Social commerce is booming. In 2022, sales through social media platforms hit an estimated $992 billion. That’s expected to hit $2.9 trillion by 2026.
This means that online retailers cannot ignore social media as a sales platform. But they also need to make sure they can scale customer support to these channels.
Enter chatbots. Many of these robot friends plug into Instagram and Facebook to provide the same automated support offered on an ecommerce website.
The benefits of this are many. First, it lets you provide a true omnichannel experience with scalable customer support. Second, it engages with your audience where they are. And third, it lets you drive sales and offer support in multiple locations on the web.
Here’s another chatbot example. Garage Clothing uses an AI chatbot to offer always-on support through Facebook Messenger. In the example below, it’s walking the user through the buyer flow until they land on a relevant product to buy.
5. Set up integrations with your Shopify store
Shopify businesses benefit from a wide range of AI chatbots that are available through the Shopify App Store. These tools let you scale customer service for your Shopify store without the need for a live agent.
Heyday is one of those AI chatbots. It takes just 10 minutes to integrate into Shopify, and offers powerful AI-driven support out of the box.
Some highlights of using Heyday on Shopify include:
Communications in English and French
Seamless handoff to live agents, as needed
Automated FAQ responses using quick reply templates or scripts
Product suggestions and searches
24/7 support with automated welcome messages and wait times
Heyday is available with a 14-day trial, so Shopify users can take it for a spin before buying.
Here’s an example. David’s Tea uses an AI-powered Shopify chatbot for a variety of use cases. Here, the user gets quick information about their order and delivery time.
6. Make your customer journey as smooth as possible
Customers expect a smooth buying process. And they expect it to be seamless across multiple channels.
One of the major benefits of chatbots in ecommerce is their ability to reduce friction and eliminate reasons that potential buyers drop off.
They accomplish this by providing:
Always-on support so users don’t get frustrated
Product recommendations so people can find what they want
Automated prompts so users can easily go to the next step in the process
Premium content and tips that shows the product in action
Relevant discount codes and promotions based on product selection
Together, these features create a seamless user experience that eliminates many of the reasons that users say no to a purchase.
7. Reduce abandoned shopping carts
Drop-off is a major issue in ecommerce. According to the Baymard Institute, 69.82% of online shopping carts are abandoned. That results in a whopping $18 billion in lost sales per year.
Smoothing out the customer journey—as mentioned above—helps to eliminate the top reasons for cart abandonment.
Many of the issues mentioned in the image above come back to poor user experience. Users don’t get important information until the very last stage—checkout—and drop off. Chatbots are one way to ensure that all of the most important information is communicated to the buyer before they hit that critical last step.
8. Eliminate stress for employees and customers
As McKinsey noted, the top reasons for churn among support staff are burnout, dissatisfaction, and poor work-life balance.
These all have a direct line to too much work and not enough impact. Employees that are forced to juggle many chats simultaneously and answer the same queries day in and day out are likely to experience all of the above emotions.
This is one of the most important benefits of AI chatbots. All of the features and functionalities mentioned so far have two ultimate effects:
They bring overall call and chat volume down
They let support staff focus on the most impactful conversations
Together, this reduces stress and makes support feel like they are having more of an impact. In turn, this improves job satisfaction.
The same is true for customers. Nobody wants to get frustrated when dealing with customer support. And customer expectations are higher than ever.
In fact, 39% of consumers say they have less patience when shopping online than they did before the pandemic. 30% say they will wait for a maximum of two minutes for an agent on chat. And 43% say that long wait times are the most frustrating part of customer service.
Consumers want a seamless and fast customer service experience. And that puts stress on employees. This is where chatbots can step in to benefit both parties.
9. Allow customers to book in-store appointments
Booking in-store appointments from online stores was all the rage in 2022. According to Shopify’s Future of Commerce report, 50% of consumers say this type of shopping experience interests them. And 34% are likely to participate in appointment shopping this year and beyond.
Chatbots are a great way to handle appointment requests at scale. Many of them let users request and book in-store appointments directly within the chat window.
This is where true omnichannel shopping begins. With this feature, users can shop online for products they like. Then they can book an appointment on their computer or mobile device. And finally, they can test and buy the products in-store. All made possible through interactions with a chatbot.
10. Expand your brand voice
Omnichannel retail is quickly becoming non-negotiable. According to Shopify’s research, half of consumers say they like to shop online and buy in-store. And another half said they like to do the reverse.
This is another one of the primary chatbot advantages. With these tools, you can set and deploy your brand voice and personal style across many different touch points online. Shoppers will get the same brand experience and support whether they’re on your site or your social media accounts.
Here’s an example from Decathlon UK. They’ve got some flair to their messaging that relates to their personality as a business. With an AI chatbot, they can deliver that personality through Facebook Messenger—as shown below—and on their website.
11. Offer multilingual customer support
We mentioned 24/7 support as a key benefit of chatbots earlier. That lets you serve a global audience. But that doesn’t help a whole lot if you can’t speak to those customers in their own language.
Chatbots let you do just that. Most AI chatbots offer support in multiple languages. This lets you expand globally with confidence, and ensure that you’re providing the same level of support regardless of language.
Here’s an example of a chatbot conversation in which Merci Handy is able to provide seamless support in English and French.
12. Reduce support team costs
Lastly, AI chatbots are scalable at a fraction of the cost of customer support teams. While 24/7 support would require full- or part-time salary for multiple support staff working round the clock, chatbots can do this for a monthly subscription fee.
Heyday, for example, starts at just $49/month for Shopify Merchants. That’s a fraction of what it would cost to employ a team of customer service agents.
Chabots advantages vs. disadvantages
Like anything, chatbots aren’t the perfect solution for everyone (and everything). Here are four of the most important chatbot advantages and disadvantages you should know.
Advantage: no more answering the same question over and over
Chatbots reply quickly and automatically to the most frequently asked questions. They don’t get tired of doing it, and they can field multiple chats at the same time without breaking a sweat.
Humans can’t do that. At least not indefinitely. Because of that, chatbots are the perfect sidekick for full-time support teams. They focus on easy, high-volume questions so that support can focus on complex and high-priority questions.
Disadvantage: it takes time to gather and program FAQs
AI chatbots are only as good as the information you feed them. That means that there’s a lot of upfront and ongoing work required to program and finetune answers to FAQs.
Companies must regularly monitor chat logs to audit how well the chatbot is answering questions. They also need to stay on top of new questions that pop up.
This is an ongoing and iterative process that requires internal effort and resources.
Advantage: promotes conversational marketing and easy navigation
Everyone shops and uses websites differently. Chatbots give users an option to interact with a part of the website to learn new information and find products.
This offers a more dynamic and interactive way for businesses to deliver their message to customers. It captures their attention in real time and leverages that attention to optimize for sales.
This real-time interaction is simply not possible with static content or website navigation.
Disadvantage: they’re personalized, but may not be personable
Lastly, AI chatbots are designed to mimic human speech. And they’re designed to respond to inputs. They are not personable, and they cannot deliver the same level of human interaction that a person could.
Because of that, users may feel uneasy about communicating with a chatbot. They may receive generic answers, and there is a heightened risk of misunderstanding.
Because of this, it is critical that chatbots are used as a tool to support customer service. They shouldn’t be your entire customer service department. Ideally, you should be able to offer a smooth transition between AI chat and real-person support as needed.
Engage with shoppers on social media and turn customer conversations into sales with Heyday, our dedicated conversational AI chatbot for social commerce retailers. Deliver 5-star customer experiences — at scale.
Turn customer service conversations into sales with Heyday. Improve response times and sell more products. See it in action.
The post The 12 Top Benefits of Chatbots in 2023 appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.
Originally posted on February 14, 2023 @ 7:41 pm
2023 Guide to Social Media Competitor Analysis [Free Template]
How can you stay ahead of the competition and win on social media? Start with a social media competitive analysis.
It will tell you how you stack up against others in your industry, and surface new opportunities and potential threats.
This guide will teach you how to conduct your own competitive analysis for social media. We’ll also list the best social media competitive analysis tools and give you a free template to help you get started.
Bonus: Get a free, customizable competitive analysis template to easily size up the competition and identify opportunities for your brand to pull ahead.
What is a social media competitor analysis?
A social media competitor analysis is an analysis of your competition on social media to find out what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how those strengths and weaknesses compare to your own.
It’s a process of benchmarking your own results against the heavy-hitters in your industry, so you can identify opportunities for growth as well as strategies that aren’t performing as well as they should.
A social media competitive analysis, specifically, will help you:
Identify who your competitors are on social media
Know which social platforms they’re on
Know how they’re using those platforms
Understand how well their social strategy is working
Benchmark your social results against the competition
Identify social threats to your business
Find gaps in your own social media marketing strategy
The benefits of running a competitor analysis on social media
Learning about your competitors is not the only reason to do a competitor analysis on social media. It will also give you insights into your own business and your audience (which likely overlaps with your competitors’ audiences).
Here are some surprising insights a social media competitive analysis can give you:
Performance benchmarks for your own business, such as average followers, engagement rates, and share of voice
Ideas for the best times to post on social media (since your audience is likely online at a similar time)
An understanding of the potential customer pain points
New (and better) ideas for content that may resonate with your audience (or that, conversely, does NOT resonate with your audience, and which you might want to avoid)
An understanding of how to communicate with your audience on certain platforms (i.e., casually or formally)
Ideas for ways to differentiate your brand
And more!
Ultimately, a social media competitive analysis will give you as much as you put into it. You may choose to do a one-off social media competitor report or hire someone on your team whose sole job it is to keep track of your competitors. Most businesses do something in-between: a quarterly or monthly report.
Whatever you level of analysis you choose, the insights will be invaluable.
How to do a social media competitor analysis in 4 steps
We’ve broken the process of conducting a competitive analysis on social media into four steps that will work for any brand.
Before your start, download this free social media competitor analysis template to keep track of your efforts.
Bonus: Get a free, customizable competitive analysis template to easily size up the competition and identify opportunities for your brand to pull ahead.
Step 1. Find your competitors
Identify your competitive keywords
You probably already know some of the keywords your business is trying to rank for in the search engines. For example, if you work for a Manhattan-based hotel, you’re likely focused on keyword such as “New York hotels,” and “best places to stay in Manhattan.”
But if your property is a boutique hotel with evening wine tastings and local art, you’re not necessarily competing directly with the Holiday Inn. Having a thorough understanding of your keyword inventory will help you develop a clear picture of who you’re really competing against online.
The Google Adwords Keyword Planner is a great place to identify the keywords most relevant to your brand. Even if you don’t advertise with Google Adwords, this tool is free to use.
To start, use the tool to analyze your website. You’ll get a list of relevant keywords, along with the average monthly searches and estimated level of competition.
Or, you can enter your known target keywords into the tool. Again, you’ll get a list of related keywords with data on search volume and competition. Use these related keywords to help you narrow your definition of your competitors, so you can make sure you’re analyzing businesses that are truly competing with your own.
Check who’s ranking for those keywords in Google
Choose the top five or 10 keywords that have the most relevance to your business, and plug them into Google. You’ll soon get a sense of who your top competition is online.
Pay special attention to the brands in your industry that are paying for Google ads to get their names above the organic search results, as they’re putting their money where their marketing ambitions are. Even if they don’t have great organic search rankings (yet), it’s worth checking out how they’re performing on social media.
Click through to the websites of any brands that appear to be potential competitors. Most businesses link to their social channels in the header or the footer of their website. Enter the links to their social profiles in your competitive analysis spreadsheet.
Check who appears in social searches for those keywords
The brands that rank for your keywords in Google are not necessarily the same ones that rank well within the social networks themselves. Since this is a social media competitive analysis, you need to see who comes up tops in social search results, too.
For example, head to Facebook and enter your keyword in the search box. Then click on Pages in the top menu.
For more tips on searching the various social networks, check out our post on the best ways to research online.
Find out what similar brands your audience follows
Facebook Audience Insights and Twitter Analytics can give you some good insights into which other brands your audience follows on these social networks. If these brands are similar to yours, it’s worth considering them as potential competitors.
To find which brands your audience follows on Facebook:
Open Facebook Audience Insights
Use the left column to enter the demographics of your target audience OR scroll down to Pages in the left column and enter your existing Facebook Page under People Connected to
In the top menu, click Page Likes
Want to dive deeper? We’ve got a whole post with more tips on how to use Facebook Audience insights for customer research.
You may find that none of the Pages identified are relevant to your industry, but if they are, add them to your competitors list.
On Twitter, rather than checking on your whole audience, you can check to see who your top followers are connected to.
Open Twitter Analytics.
Scroll down to each of your Top Followers for the last several months
Click View profile for each Top Follower
Click Following on their profile to see the full list of accounts they’re following, or click Tweets & replies to see which accounts they interact with
Choose up to 5 competitors to focus on
By now you’ve got a huge list of potential competitors — far more than you could reasonably include in a thorough competitive analysis. It’s time to narrow down your list to the top three to five brands who you are most closely competing with on social media. Choose the brands that have the closest fit to your target niche.
Bonus: Get a free, customizable competitive analysis template to easily size up the competition and identify opportunities for your brand to pull ahead.
Step 2. Gather intel
Now that you know who your competition is, you need to learn what they’re up to on social media.
Click through to the social networks of each of the brands you’ve identified as top competitors. As mentioned above, you can usually find these links in the header or footer of their website. In your social media competitive analysis template, make note of the following:
What social networks are they on?
How large is their following and how fast is it growing?
Who are their top followers?
How often do they post?
What is their engagement rate?
What is their social share of voice?
What hashtags do they use most often?
How many hashtags do they use?
You can find much of this information just by clicking around your competition’s social profiles. For more streamlined data gathering, check out the analytics tools mentioned below.
Don’t forget to track all of these things for your own social channels as well. This will help you with your analysis in the next step.
Step 3. Do a SWOT analysis
Now that you’ve gathered all that data, it’s time to analyze it in a way that helps you understand where you stand compared to the competition. As part of this analysis, you’ll also look for potential ways to improve your strategy, and potential hazards to watch out for along the way.
A SWOT analysis is a great tool to help you think clearly about all of this information. In a SWOT analysis, you take a hard look at your business and the competition to identify:
S – Strengths
W – Weaknesses
O – Opportunities
T – Threats
The important thing to know is that strengths and weaknesses involve factors internal to your brand. Basically, these are things you’re doing right, and areas where you could stand to improve.
Opportunities and threats are based on external factors: things happening in your competitive environment that you need to be aware of.
Here are some items to list in each quadrant of the SWOT template.
Strengths
List metrics for which your numbers are higher than the competition.
Weaknesses
List metrics for which your numbers are lagging behind the competition. These are areas you’ll want to focus on improving through testing and tweaks to your social media strategy.
Keep in mind that you could have both strengths and weaknesses for each social network. For example, maybe your Facebook follower count is higher than your competitors, but they have better follower growth. Or maybe you have fewer Instagram followers but higher engagement.
Get quite specific here, because these distinctions will help you identify your opportunities and threats.
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Opportunities
Now that you can see at a glance where you stand compared to the competition, you can identify potential opportunities to take advantage of.
These opportunities might be areas where you think you could improve compared to your competition based on information you’ve already gathered, or they could be based on anticipated or recent changes in the social media world.
For example, if you pay attention to the Hootsuite Weekly Rundown on Instagram, you’ll know that byte just launched a new video platform that’s essentially a successor to Vine. Considering the strengths and weaknesses you’ve identified, could this present a potential opportunity for your brand to outshine the competition?
Threats
Like opportunities, threats come from outside your organization. To get a keen sense of upcoming threats, take a good look at numbers related to growth, or anything that signifies change over time.
For example, a competitor that is small but has a high follower growth rate might present a bigger threat that a large competitor with stagnant growth.
This is another area where you need to keep an eye on the broader industry for upcoming changes that could affect your position compared to your competitors. The Hootsuite State of Digital Reports are a great source of industry information to consider.
Step 4. Incorporate the latest data with social media monitoring
You’ll need to revisit your social media competitive analysis regularly to keep it current. Make this a regular part of your quarterly or annual reporting and review. That means you’ll need a constant supply of up-to-date information.
Putting a solid social media monitoring strategy in place will equip you with that real-time data to incorporate in your next analysis. This is an especially useful strategy for identifying potential opportunities and threats.
We’ll go over some tools you can use for social media monitoring below. Basically, it’s all about being aware of social conversations involving your brand, your competitors, and your industry.
Record any important information or events you uncover through social media monitoring in the Notes column of your competitive analysis template, and incorporate them into your revised opportunities and threats during your next review.
7 top social media competitor analysis tools
In step 2, we talked about how to gather intelligence directly from the social networks. Here are some of the best social media competitive analysis tools to help you get started.
1. Competitive Analysis in Hootsuite Analytics
Whether you’re running a full competitive analysis or just browsing for inspiration, look no further. Hootsuite Analytics does Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter competitive analysis for you. You can track up to 20 competitors per network and get a clear view of your strengths and weaknesses — plus actionable insights on the top posts, hashtags, and content formats in your niche.
Follow these 4 simple steps to track competitors with Hootsuite:
Sign in to your Hootsuite account and pick Analytics from the main menu on the left side of the dashboard.
Then, click on Competitive analysis in the Benchmarking section.
At the top of the page, use the dropdown list of your social profiles to select the one you want to compare to competitors.
Then, pick the competitors you want to measure your performance against. To do that, go into the second dropdown list and check the boxes next to the competitors you want to view. To add competitors, click Manage competitors at the bottom of the dropdown box.
Then, type the name of a competitor into the search bar and select the correct profile from the dropdown list. You can add up to 20 social accounts per network (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) to your watchlist.
And that’s it! Now you can browse several competitive reports, including:
Overview, where you can see the number of posts you and your competitors posted in the selected timeframe (that can be adjusted in the top right corner of the dashboard) as well as every account’s posting frequency, average engagement, number of followers, and audience growth rate.
Post performance, where you can review your and your competitors’ top posts and sort results by likes, comments, and engagement — and quickly fetch inspiration for what to publish next.
Performance by post type, where you can find out what types of posts — photos, videos, carousels, or Reels — are most popular with each brand’s audience. Results can be sorted to show which post types get the most likes, comments, or engagement.
Post performance (by comments, likes, or estimated engagement), where you can see how you and your competitors did every day within the specified timeframe — all in one easy-to-read graph. You can drill down results by post type, or stick to the overall view.
Trending hashtags… which speaks for itself.
Post length, where you can find out how many characters and hashtags, on average, your competitors use in their posts.
Learn more about competitive analysis in Hootsuite Analytics. The feature is available in all paid plans.
2. Industry benchmarking in Hootsuite Analytics
If you want to see how your results shape up against your industry as a whole (rather than individual competitors), this is the perfect tool for you.
With Hootsuite’s social media benchmarking, you can find out how others in your industry are doing on social and compare your results with just a few clicks.
To get industry benchmarks, follow these steps:
Sign in to your Hootsuite dashboard and head to Analytics.
In the menu on the left side of the screen, scroll to Benchmarking and click Industry.
Pick an industry that best describes your business.
That’s it! Now you can see how your results compare to average performance stats within your industry. You can set up custom timeframes, switch between networks — Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok — and look up benchmarks for the following metrics:
Profile impressions
Profile reach
Followers
Audience growth rate
Engagement rate
Video plays
Posting frequency
Clicks
Shares
… and more.
You will also find resources to improve your performance right in the summary section:
And, if you need to present your results to your team, boss, or other stakeholders, you can easily download your comparison report as a PDF file.
3. Hootsuite Streams
Hootsuite Streams is a powerful tool that allows you to track keywords, competitors, and hashtags across every social network—all from one easy-to-use dashboard. The simplest use case? Add all your competitors accounts to one Stream and check on it whenever you want. But you can do much more than that.
4. Brandwatch
Brandwatch offers some powerful competitive analysis tools. One of the most important is its easy-to-understand graphic showing your brand’s social share of voice.
Social share of voice is a measure of how much people talk about your brand online compared to how much they talk about your competitors. This is one of the metrics you should track in your social media competitive analysis template.
Brandwatch integrates with Hootsuite. Here’s a video showing how the two applications work together to provide key competitive analysis information.
5. Synapview
Ready to go beyond social media competitive analysis? Synapview is an app that lets you monitor competitors and hashtags on Reddit and blogs too.
6. Mentionlytics
Mentionlytics is a social media monitoring tool that is also great for doing a social media competitive analysis. You can discover everything that is being said about your brand, your competitors, or any keyword on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest and all web sources (news, blogs, etc.).
Plus, it has a handy “sentiment analysis” feature, so you can see not only what is being said about your competitors but how it is being said.
PS: Mentionlytics integrates with Hootsuite so you can see everything it pulls in your Streams.
7. Talkwalker
Talkwalker is primarily known as a social listening tool with a huge library of insights – competitive or otherwise – of over 150 million sources, including blogs, forums, videos, news, reviews, and social networks.
Use it if you want to spy on your competitors beyond just social media, and if you want to keep tabs on what the entire industry is saying in general. It’s great for high level overviews as well as detailed analyses.
Free social media competitive analysis template
You could create your own spreadsheet to keep track of all the information you gather during your social media competitive analysis.
But if you’d rather get straight to work collecting data and putting it to use, download our free social media competitive analysis template and just start plugging in the information you collect. There’s a tab for your SWOT analysis, too.
Use Hootsuite to crush the competition on social media. From a single dashboard you can manage all your profiles, track competitors and relevant conversations, improve performance, and much more. Try it free today.
Beat the competition
See how you perform against competitors, get actionable insights, and become the best in your space with Hootsuite Analytics.
The post 2023 Guide to Social Media Competitor Analysis [Free Template] appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.
Originally posted on February 15, 2023 @ 6:41 pm
YouTube Analytics: How to Use Data to Grow Your Channel in 2023
Are you trying to make sense of your YouTube analytics but feel like you’ve been tossed an advanced calculus textbook with no teacher? If you’ve resorted to throwing spaghetti at the wall just to see what sticks (or purely out of frustration), we can help.
To all marketers, content creators, and YouTube stars, bookmark this post. We’re going to demystify metrics, explain which reports do what, and show you how to use YouTube analytics to your advantage.
We’ve even got can’t-miss expert insights from Paige Cooper, Hootsuite’s own Inbound YouTube Lead and all-around digital savant. Buckle up!
How to use YouTube analytics
Before you can start using YouTube analytics for video and channel refinement, you need to figure out where to find the data in the first place. Here’s where to get all the numbers you need.
How to find YouTube analytics on desktop
Step 1. Log in to your YouTube account and click on your profile icon in the top right corner.
Step 2. Select YouTube Studio.
Step 3. You will have basic YouTube marketing analytics on your dashboard and an option to see more in-depth analytics in the menu on the left of your screen. Click on the analytics icon on the menu.
Step 4. You can access an overview of your analytics here or dive into areas like content, audience, and research.
Step 5. Select Advanced Mode in the upper right corner. This gives you a detailed breakdown of your YouTube channel metrics, metrics for individual videos, and sophisticated analytics.
Step 6. To download a report, choose the parameters you want to track in Advanced Mode. Then, click the downward pointing arrow in the upper right corner. Choose Google Sheets or .csv file to generate your report.
From Advanced Mode, you can also click Compare To in the upper right corner. This allows you to compare year-over-year channel growth, first 24-hour video performance, and how individual videos perform against your overall channel stats.
How to find YouTube analytics on mobile
Your YouTube analytics can’t be accessed from the app. You first need to have YouTube Studio installed on your phone. If you don’t, download the appropriate version for iPhone or Android.
Step 1. Open YouTube Studio and sign in to your account.
Step 2. You’ll see a few summary metrics on the main dashboard. At the bottom of your screen, hit Analytics for more.
Step 3. You can toggle between Research, Overview, Content, and Audience at the top of your screen, depending on the information you’re looking for.
Essential YouTube analytics metrics and reports
We’re going to break down the essential YouTube analytics metrics and reports by the primary tabs on your dashboard:
Overview
Content
Audience
Research is more of a proactive tab that can influence your reports and metrics. Revenue only pertains to those in the YouTube Partner Program.
Overview
Your Overview tab shows YouTube metrics like the amount of views overall, watch time, subscribers, and estimated revenue, if you’re a part of the YouTube Partner Program. You may see a report that shows a comparison of performances.
In the Overview tab, you will see:
Typical performance: This shows your channel’s typical performance at either the channel or video level. This gives you a snapshot of how your channel or videos are performing.
Realtime: Realtime gives you a performance report for the last 48 hours or 60 minutes. If you’ve just launched a video, you can see how it’s performing or affecting your overall channel performance. You can also find out when your YouTube channel views peak, giving you insight into your best time to post.
Stories: Stories gives you a performance report from your latest Stories.
Top remixed: This is the amount of your content remixed or used in Shorts and the number of remix views. Remixes are great since they include tags that credit your content and drive traffic back to your channel. Remixes can help to improve your channel visibility and video views.
Your top content in this period: This ranked list shows you exactly what’s working and what’s not. If you adjust the date range to your channel’s lifetime, you can see your all-time best-performing videos.
Content
Your Content tab will show you metrics like views, impressions, impression click-through rates, and average view duration. In this tab, you can view this information broken down by content types, like all content, videos, Shorts, and posts.
This tab gives you an idea of how your content is performing, allowing you to adjust or improve your strategy.
In the Content tab, you will see:
Views: This metric shows you the number of views your content has received. This is helpful to know where your content stands overall.
Impressions: This is how many times your thumbnail was shown to viewers. If this is low, you may want to re-think your YouTube SEO strategy and look at YouTube’s algorithm again.
Impression click-through rate: This is how often your thumbnail results in a click. If your impressions are high but this number is low, you may want to reconsider your thumbnail content and design.
Average view duration: This is how long viewers watched your content. If this is low, but everything else seems to be high, you may have an issue engaging your viewers.
Key moments for audience retention: This metric shows you which moments grabbed your audiences’ attention. If you have issues with your average view duration, review this to see what is working.
How viewers found your content: This can be helpful to see where your viewers are coming from. Then, you can double down on efforts within these journeys or re-think your strategy to get viewers from other channels.
Subscribers: This shows you the subscribers who came from each of your content types. This can help you know whether your videos, Shorts, live streams, or posts gain the most loyal viewers.
Top videos/Shorts/posts: Your most popular videos, Shorts, and posts. This shows you what’s working well, so you can rinse and repeat.
Top remixed: Your most popular remix views, total remixes, and top remixed content. This shows you what’s working for your remixes or which content pieces people are remixing. Double down on the videos that are working for you here.
Post impressions: Much like Impressions above, this is how often your post was shown to people. You can use the same strategy here.
Audience
Your Audience tab tells you all about your viewers. This includes returning or new viewers, unique viewers, subscribers, and total members.
You’ll see demographic information, including subtitle language, so you can customize your content to who they are. It also shows you when your viewers are on YouTube so you can tailor your publishing schedule to meet them when they’re on the app.
Pro tip: Keep an eye on what your subscribers are doing — they’ll watch and engage with more of your content than any other viewer type. When you gain more YouTube subscribers the right way, your organic marketing efforts will bloom.
In the Audience tab, you will find:
Videos growing your audience: This data shows you which videos are actively growing your audience. This helps you to know what new viewers are looking for. Pay attention to metrics like new viewers or returning viewers here.
When your viewers are on YouTube: This report tells you when people are online and watching. Use it to base your publishing schedule on and to plan when to do a live stream. Is your audience online when you’re not? Don’t worry; you can schedule your YouTube videos with Hootsuite.
Content your audience watches: Find out what your audience is watching when they’re not on your channel. Use this report to find inspiration for your own channel, collaboration opportunities, or ideas for your thumbnails. Then, compile that information with these 30 YouTube promotional tactics.
Channels your audience watches: Much like the above content your audience watches, this report shows you the channels your audience is interested in. The same strategy as above applies here.
Top geographies: This shows you where your viewers are watching from, which can give you insight into how to tailor your channel to them.
Age and gender: This shows you the age and gender your audience identifies with. Like top geographies, the more you know who your audience is, the more you can tailor your content to them.
Top subtitle/cc languages: This shows you which languages your audience is watching subtitles in and, again, offers an opportunity to customize your content. See a spike in Spanish subtitles? Maybe it’s time to collaborate with a Spanish-speaking person on a Live Stream.
Advanced YouTube analytics metrics
Within your analytics on YouTube, you can click Advanced Mode in the top right corner to drill down into data, compare content performance, and export data. Sophisticated marketers and marketing teams will find this mode a veritable treasure trove of information.
There are tons of features in Advanced Mode that you don’t want to sleep on. Google Support created a very useful map of the available features; check it out to ensure you’re not missing anything.
Source: Google Support
Compare with Groups
Advanced Mode can show you how your individual video stats compare to your overall channel performance. Then, you can use that information to create better-performing content and gain more views on YouTube.
One easy way to achieve these comparison reports is to use Groups. You can Group similar videos to compare themes, styles, and lengths to help you look for larger themes and potential series opportunities.
We spoke to Paige Cooper, Hootsuite’s Inbound YouTube Lead and all-around digital expert, and asked her what she thought of YouTube Groups.
“Comparing groups of videos against each other is SO HELPFUL for experimenting with new ideas and finding out what your audience wants,” Cooper says.
“For instance, we compared the performance of videos that had thumbnails with our SEO keywords, versus thumbnails that are just visuals with no text, versus thumbnails with slightly unhinged text to see how thumbnail copywriting affected our click-through rates and view times.”
In doing so, Cooper was able to better understand and optimize Hootsuite’s YouTube SEO strategy.
“Groups also tells us a lot about the performance of videos with professional subtitles versus the auto-generated captions in any given language, or the kind of topics we go after,” Cooper says. “You can slice the data in so many ways.”
To group videos together:
From the Analytics dashboard, click Advanced Mode
Click Compare To
Click Groups
Click Create Group
Name your group and add the videos you want to include
This gives you a digestible chart showing whatever metrics you want to hold your content up against; just click the drop-down menu in the top left of your chart for options. You can even add a secondary metric to compare using the drop-down menu to the right.
External Traffic Sources
External traffic sources are from websites or apps that have one or more of your videos embedded or linked to. Paige Cooper says this is one YouTube analytics feature you don’t want to miss.
“[External traffic sources are] the best way to measure the effectiveness of your channel promotion,” says Cooper.
This tab tells us where viewers are coming from if they aren’t already on YouTube. From “Google searches, social media, your blog, or even ‘dark social’ like people sharing your video on WhatsApp, Gmail, or Facebook Messenger,” Cooper tells us. “Plus, you can see all the websites that have embedded your video, which is a great way to find new partners or potential collaborators.”
New viewers who returned
This Advanced feature highlights new viewers who returned to your channel to watch another video. This means that they watched one of your videos and liked it enough to become a repeat customer.
“This graph blew my mind when I first saw it (I found it embarrassingly late in the game), but you can see which videos are growing your audience the most. And not just based on so-called vanity metrics like view count or sub count,” Cooper states.
“You can see which of your videos were so good that people watched another video on your channel within 24 hours, 7 days, or 28 days,” she continues.
“I think of it as a list of videos that have some kind of magic sparkle dust that turns viewers into fans.”
Keyword research
The keyword research function shows you the volume of search terms on YouTube. This feature is invaluable when it comes to knowing what your audience actually wants to see.
“Thank God YouTube rolled this feature out in 2022 because, as far as I can tell, it’s the only source of truth anyone has for search behavior on the platform,” Cooper states.
“Knowing whether a high-volume, medium-volume, or low-volume of people are looking for a topic is important as you decide what videos to make. Even if you aren’t an SEO-first channel, it will give you ideas—especially when you see what your viewers are searching for.”
YouTube analytics tools
Beyond YouTube Studio, you can use these YouTube analytics tools to see how your channel performs within your broader marketing efforts.
Hootsuite
Add YouTube analytics insights to your Hootsuite dashboard with the Channelview Insights App.
This integration allows you to analyze your YouTube video and channel performance alongside your other social media channels. You can also schedule automatic, regular reports.
Source: Hootsuite
Google Analytics
One thing Google and YouTube have in common (besides a parent company) is that they’re all about search and traffic.
You can set up YouTube tracking in Google Analytics for a more detailed look at how people reach your channel. Learn more in our post on how to use Google Analytics for social tracking. Plus, if you use Hootsuite Impact, you can connect Google Analytics to Impact and keep an even closer eye on your reports.
VidIQ
VidIQ is a third-party tool that scrapes data to get metrics you can’t get natively. This app will let you see views per hour and pull data from your competitors, so you can access YouTube analytics for other channels. VidIQ has plenty of features that can better your channel, like recommendations to improve your YouTube SEO in areas such as your title and description.
Source: VidIQ
Tubebuddy
Tubebuddy is another third-party tool designed to help you boost your YouTube channel by helping you rank better on YouTube’s algorithm. It has a ton of useful features you wish YouTube did. For example, Tubebuddy actually lets you A/B test thumbnails!
Source: Tubebuddy
Frequently asked questions about YouTube analytics
What does unique viewers mean on YouTube?
Unique viewer data estimates the total number of people who watched your videos over a given period.
Note: Channel views are a tally of all your views, but this is a tally of actual viewers. So, if one person watches the same video three times, it will only count once for unique viewers but three times for channel views.
How do you track YouTube videos in Google Analytics?
You can track YouTube videos in Google Analytics in one of two ways. You can use Google’s Enhanced Measurement, which automatically tracks video engagement. Or you can configure your YouTube tracking via Google Tag Manager.
How long does it take for YouTube analytics to update?
YouTube updates your analytics data as soon as new information is collected. However, it can take 24 hours for that data to be processed and attributed to your account. The exception to this rule is the real-time reports, which can update every 60 minutes.
Can you see YouTube analytics for different channels?
You cannot see YouTube analytics for different channels through YouTube. You will need third-party software to track multiple accounts of your own or to give you a peek into your competitors’ analytics.
For example, VidIQ’s competitor report lets you track your performance against any other public YouTube channel you select. You can compare by metrics like views, subscribers, average daily views, average daily subscribers, and video publishing volume.
Grow your YouTube audience faster with Hootsuite. It’s simple to manage and schedule YouTube videos as well as quickly publish your videos to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter—all from one dashboard. Try it free today.
Grow your YouTube channel faster with Hootsuite. Easily moderate comments, schedule video, and publish to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post YouTube Analytics: How to Use Data to Grow Your Channel in 2023 appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.
Originally posted on February 15, 2023 @ 8:40 pm
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