“Lead people with what they want. – Lead with what they’ve already said. – Lead people from where they’re at. – Lead them with the things that concern them.” – Sandi Krakowski

When you start a small business you often feel like a small fish in a big pond. You are surrounded by successful people who are making their mark and creating smart advertising campaigns that leave you wondering how to achieve the same thing.

It’s daunting to start with, especially when you come across all the expert terms like UX, SEO, and KPIs. As time goes on, all of these things start to make sense and you learn how to implement them effectively in your business. How can things like sentiment analysis and social media help you to build a strong and stable brand?

What You Will Learn

• There are a few interesting things that you can expect to see in this article including: 
• How sentiment analysis works
• Using sentiment analysis for business growth
• Using social media for business growth
• Social media marketing and brand boosting
• Tracking KPIs and metric monitoring

How Sentiment Analysis Works

Some of you may be familiar with sentiment analysis, and some of you may not have come across it before. Either way, a brief overview of what it is and how it works is needed before you can really dive into the rest of this piece.

Sentiment analysis is a form of social listening, and may also be referred to as opinion mining or emotional AI. Premium social media analytics tools packaged with sentiment analysis very often deploy machine learning, statistics, and natural language processing techniques to automate this process on extensive collection of texts. This includes websites, news, forums, reviews, blogs, and social media. But the way it works for marketers is actually pretty simple.

The sentiment analysis tool that you choose will scan the web for any mention of your business, you, or the products that you have. The results that come back will let you know how many comments have a positive, neutral, or negative sentiment.

This refers to the emotional tone used in the message so that you get a better understanding of what people are saying about you. Just remember that sarcasm and irony are difficult for the algorithm to detect much of the time, and the results may need to be looked over manually just to be certain.

Using Sentiment Analysis for Business Growth

How can you use sentiment analysis to make your business better though?

The top method is measuring whether you are engaging with your target market correctly. You can learn where your marketing and content is working with them, as well as the areas that could use a little extra attention and improvement. That way, you can tweak things accordingly for better engagement.

You can also filter the results so that you only see negative mentions, even setting up notifications for them. This is important because you will be able to see when people are making complaints in real time. Therefore, you can react quickly and professionally to address the issue before it snowballs out of control. For those in PR, sentiment analysis is an absolute Godsend.

Overall, it’s great for general monitoring and learning more about your target audience. An indispensable tool.

Using Social Media for Business Growth

If you want to use social media to help your business grow, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. You have to ensure that you stick to a strategic goal and follow your plan carefully to remain consistent and increase your chances of success. Here are my top tips for getting started with social media for business:

#1 Make wise choices

Don’t hop onto every social media channel at once, as it will become difficult to maintain. At first, stick with the big three; Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These have the largest presence and user count, with Instagram being top for business advertising at the moment. Over time, you can expand your platforms, but make sure to do this slowly and ensure that you can keep it up to date.

#2 Integrate social media

Content marketing and PR are also able to benefit from social media, and that is why all relevant departments should be integrated for better levels of success. Expose your content and placements to a wider audience and increase your followers as well as credibility as a result. Integration often creates better opportunities, so it is certainly worth the effort.

#3 Be consistent

The voice of your brand needs to remain the same, so thinking of a persona before you start is recommended. Think about what you want your brand to say about you and to customers, as well as how you want it to come across. Plan your communications carefully and remember to stick with your desired tone. Consistency is key to customer trust and a steady reputation.

BTW: Discover the right sizes for all your images on social media including LinkedIn, in our guide to Social Media Image Sizes.

Social Media Marketing and Brand Boosting

“Social media is not just an activity; it is an investment of valuable time and resources. Surround yourself with people who not just support you and stay with you, but inform your thinking about ways to WOW your online presence” –Sean Gardner 

Marketing is one of the most important parts of getting your business out there, and without it you are unlikely to reach large numbers of potential customers. But why use social marketing, and can it really boost your brand? The answer is yes, with key reasons below:

–        Social media spreads the word. It provides you with exposure, and things like reviews and recommendations are the ideal way to help word spread. There are so many different ways to share social media content that it becomes effective very quickly.

–        It’s popular and global. Social media also spreads across the world for a wider audience and customer base. The fact that it is popular and exists everywhere also makes it easier for people to find you, as well as advertising much simpler for you.

–        It reaches all your demographics. Finding your target market has never been easier, especially with carefully crafted marketing campaigns. Active on social media, these allow you to send your ads to people within your chosen demographic for more effective reach.

 Image: Courtesy of KeyHole

–        It’s a cost-effective form of advertising. (Most of the time) it is a lot cheaper than traditional advertising and it may even have a wider reach. In the long-run, it saves you a lot of time and money, which can prove very beneficial to your business.

–     It encourages communication from both parties. Your customers are able to offer you feedback and you can create posts that ask them for thoughts on products or services. It’s the ideal way to get a conversation started and really work on building a strong reputation.

–        You can share a lot about your business. The amount of information you can share is limitless and social media allows for longer and more frequent posts. There are also stories that you can add to throughout the day and it keeps customers updated regularly.

–        Customer service has never been easier. You can respond to comments quickly and easily, addressing praise and concerns alike in record speed. Whether it is a public comment or a private message, social media has things beautifully organised to make things easier. Happy customers lead to recommendations and better retention.

Metrics and KPIs You Should be Tracking and Monitoring

KPI stands for key performance indicator, which details the performance of your social media. The metrics that you are monitoring are essentially social interactions across social media platforms. It’s one thing to be engaging, respond to customers, and update regularly and another to track your progress. The metrics you need to watch are quite simple, but also vital to your success:

–        Volume: This is all about the size of the conversation about your brand. It is a great indicator of how interested people are in what you are saying. It shows you how the numbers change over time, which can be a great indicator of where you are going right and wrong, as well as how trends vary.

–        Reach: This is a measure of potential audience size and it will show you how many people you could be reaching as opposed to the ones that you are.

–       Engagement: This is a vital area because it explores how people are participating in the content published by your brand. You can also take a look and see how they are spreading your content to friends and family, as well as comparing it to past posts.

–       Influence: These are the people that talk about your brand and promote it to their followers in order to boost sales and popularity. There are tools like Brand24 that you can use to calculate an influencer score for each, because the follower count does not always equal good engagement.

–       Competitors: How does your social media progress compare to your competition? This is important to know because there is so much that you can learn from it. You can determine areas that need improvement, as well as the ones that customers are responding to. You may even find that their post templates and contents can be adapted for your own use.

To Conclude

Business growth is so much more than it looks on paper.

With a lot of what we do being conducted online and across social media instead of face to face, there is more to think about than before. Handy tools like sentiment analysis are able to help you better understand your customers in a world where tone and emotion are lost behind walls of text and bizarre emoji combinations that are forever changing.

Utilising sentiment analysis and social media are some of the best ways to boost your business and help it grow. You won’t believe the results. 

• About the Author...

Milosz Krasinski

https://miloszkrasinski.com

milosz@chillifruit.com

Throughout his career, Milosz has been consulting and devising growth sand tactics for small and start-up businesses, particularly within financial services. His focus areas include search, link building, page speed, and overall digital strategies. Prior to the acquisition of Chilli Fruit Web Consulting, Milosz has been involved in Plus Guidance (an early-stage UK tech start-up, now acquired) and Sigma Digital Marketing Agency based in Oxfordshire.