Social media for business can be difficult to master, especially for small business owners that do not necessarily have lots of time to invest in this area. Many find themselves wondering if social media postings are just a waste of time, but without being sure do not know what to do about it. Others find it hard to develop a strategy that attracts the attention that they seek. Ever wondered how you could really monitor and understand the effectiveness of social media campaigns? Well, there’s an excellent solution out there that is definitely worth reviewing, and that is Socialbakers.
Socialbakers is an innovative organisation founded in 2008 in the Czech Republic with a remit to help companies to be able to monitor the overall effectiveness of their social media campaigns. The organisation provides analytical services to offer their customers with insights to help them to be able to improve their social media usage for their businesses. This includes the ability to review rates of engagement, track the most important influencers in their field, compare themselves against those performing to a high level on social media, follow competitors and optimise their presence on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Socialbakers describes itself as:
“A user friendly social media analytics platform which provides a leading global solution that allows brands to measure, compare and contrast the success of their social media campaigns with competitive intelligence”.
The company has grown rapidly due to the popularity of its ground breaking services, and as of the end of 2013 it had 230 employees that offered services in 100 countries to more than 1,800 clients. One of the features of its success that has allowed it to grow so rapidly has been the fact that its analytics platform has been continually innovated and it is described as easy to use. This is considered to be particularly true with regard to the graphical reporting, making it easy for businesses to be able to monitor their success or otherwise. The company has major clients that include Vodafone, Avea, the BBC and McDonalds, to name just a few.
The Socialbakers PRO Suite in particular offers a number of different benefits for businesses. Its Builder component provides organisations with real-time competitive analysis that allows them to see what their social media is doing as it is happening. There is performance reporting and a collaborative work flow. Socialbakers argues that this aspect of the tool is a content management platform that allows businesses to be able to spend less time on the administrative tasks associated with social media, and more time creating compelling posts and other content. There is also a Listening feature as a part of the PRO Suite and this provides Socialbakers users with the ability to monitor conversations in real time on Twitter and Facebook. Not only that, but it can provide analysis that is exportable by keywords, allowing organisations to be able to pinpoint ways of improving. The Ad Analytics component of the PRO Suite provides an opportunity to see how the company performs with its social ads. This compares companies with their competitors to enable companies to be able to devise campaigns that cost less and save time while allowing the managing of a greater number of advertisements. All of this provides organisations with the ability to make more effective decisions about what they are doing on social media to be able to drive improved performance on these platforms.
Socialbakers may not be considered to be particularly cheap for some bootstrapping organisations. Its cheapest, most basic plan comes at a monthly fee of $120, and this allows the monitoring of up to three profiles or pages. There is an advanced plan at $240 a month where this rises to 7 pages, and a premium plan whose subscribers pay $480 monthly for 20 pages to be monitored. The enterprise solution costs $1,000 per month or more (depending on custom features to the solution); though more than 20 pages or profiles can be monitored. Luckily organisations can benefit from a free trial that allows them to decide whether or not it will be worthwhile for them to take the plunge. Perhaps the main question for some businesses is whether they can afford not to invest, given that determining return on investment for social media campaigns is so difficult.
Paula Newton is a business writer, editor and management consultant with extensive experience writing and consulting for both start-ups and long established companies. She has ten years management and leadership experience gained at BSkyB in London and Viva Travel Guides in Quito, Ecuador, giving her a depth of insight into innovation in international business. With an MBA from the University of Hull and many years of experience running her own business consultancy, Paula’s background allows her to connect with a diverse range of clients, including cutting edge technology and web-based start-ups but also multinationals in need of assistance. Paula has played a defining role in shaping organizational strategy for a wide range of different organizations, including for-profit, NGOs and charities. Paula has also served on the Board of Directors for the South American Explorers Club in Quito, Ecuador.
