It wasn’t too long ago that most webmasters and bloggers focused exclusively on search engine optimization in order to gain attention for their online creations. There was a point in which quality content mattered very little; it almost seems like a fairy tale when looking back on those days. As search engines have become more sophisticated and nuanced in how search results are displayed, other elements have become more sophisticated as well in order to keep up the pace. This is why we see such an emphasis now placed on marketing, which is more important than SEO in some cases. Social media is a huge driving factor behind this shift, so it only makes sense that we can learn from social data when we want to improve our marketing techniques. Below, we’ll discuss ways that you can boost your marketing prowess through the use and understanding of social data that is already available.

Targeting Specific Demographics

Just about every major social media network now offers some form of paid marketing through its interface. The future of marketing will continue to evolve toward a more organic format, but paid advertising will always have a role to play. With sites such as Facebook, you can quickly customize an audience based on age, gender, marital status, interests, geography and more. This can allow you to start pinging URLs to a target audience to a very specific demographic or element. If you are planning to release a new product or want to see how your content plays with a particular age group, then there is no better use of social data when it comes to time versus cost than the paid advertising features available to all.

Researching Specific Keywords

Several social networks have tools – whether they be on-site or third-party – that allow for scouring of social data to find trending topics and popular events. Keyword trends can be an invaluable tool at unlocking your true marketing potential. Whether you want to jump on short bursts of interest or find a more long-term managed interest, utilities such as Twitter Trends will give you ample ability to isolate what users are talking about and then run with it. Some of these findings will not be time-sensitive, which means you can create a long-term plan with various topics rather than looking for leads each time you need to publish or promote.

Testing Specific Messages

If you already have an established social presence, then you most likely have existing analytics available for your previous efforts. This information is helpful in determining what the limits are on your creativity – some topics will not be interesting to your audience, but the data may show which broader subjects are likely to gain traction. You can look at the number of shares, likes, retweets and other social signals recorded for each piece of published content, assess any common factors and then begin pinging URLs to users with similar themes. If it doesn’t work, then no big deal: this is a free way to test specific messages and figure out what works best within your own environment. The social data you have available on the account, however, can considerably help reduce the amount of time spent testing.