Do you know how much information you could have from your followers if you knew their behavior on social networks? Do you want to have guidelines to know why they act as they act and how that can affect the way you publish content and approach them?
Social networks are not only a means of communication for companies, but they are also a means of expression for many users. And that gives you a competitive advantage, because they allow you to actively listen and understand what they want.
Below I will explain in 3 steps how you can approach an interpretation of the behavior of users in social networks depending on the types of content they publish, their activity or the devices they use.
The goal of this post is to understand how important it is to have the right data to analyze the information that interests you about your followers.
To know the behavior of users, you just have to delve into the interpretation of the graphics on the content of social networks that you can obtain with many of the existing tools.
# 1. Content profile
You can classify the content in 3 profiles …
- Retuit or shared content.
- Answer or comment.
- Original content
The profile of the content is related to the 3 levels of user interaction with the brand.
Interaction Level # 1: Applause
Level 1 of interaction is applause. It classifies “likes” or “favorites” and indicates that the user is in favor but not willing to share with their community or give their opinion.
Interaction level # 2: Diffusion
Level 2 of interaction is diffusion. In it the “retuits” or “Shared content” are classified and it indicates that the user is willing to be a speaker of the own brand or of contents of other users.
Interaction level # 3: The conversation
Level 3 of interaction is conversation. In it the “Responses”, “Original Content” or “Comments” are classified, and this level of interaction indicates that the user is willing to convey his opinion to the brand.
This level is divided into 2 sub-levels …
- The answers that are generated when a brand makes a publication.
- The comments that the users publish voluntarily, without being a response to any publication of the brand.
Users do not always behave in the same way, that is, sometimes they applaud, in others they spread and at other times they generate conversation.
- The important thing in this case is that you notice what the majority behavior of the community is.
When we see a graph of this type, we talk about the content and not the user group.
There may be very few users generating a lot of noise, so you cannot always extrapolate the data that a publication corresponds to a user.
Crossing these two graphs will help you to know if the community is eminently diffusing or participative.
Finally, you should bear in mind that when the predominant profile is retweets or shared content, you must know the content that has been broadcast to know if the community is a speaker of a brand publication or a publication of a user, which may even generate a reputation crisis.
# 2. Device that uses
From what device do users post? Knowing if a user publishes from mobile or from PC will give you meaningful guidelines about what you may be doing while publishing.
Publication from the mobile
If the user publishes from mobile it is very likely that he is not in front of the PC and that he is watching television or away from home.
In addition, in this environment you must take into account the audience target that makes up the community; For example, young people publish more from mobile phones because they use smartphones more than PCs.
Publication from the PC
If the user publishes from the PC he will surely be at home or at work. In this case you could interpret it from 2 aspects …
- The first is that the brand has left its mark on the user, who did not have a mobile device at hand, and has published when he has been in front of the PC.
- The second is that the brand, the campaign or the action have reached the user while he was browsing the Internet from his PC.
Publications by hours
A graphic complementary to this is the graph of publications by hours.
The hours users post will help you know where you are from. If it is in the morning, you may be doing it from work or from your place of study. If it is in the afternoon, surely it is doing it from home (PC) or from the street (mobile).
A clear example of the double interpretation of these graphs and the importance of knowing the content is in cases like this:
A user who publishes at night time, in prime time, will surely be publishing from the sofa at home, while watching a television spot, or will be publishing from a restaurant, while he is having dinner. In both cases it can be done from a mobile phone; the difference is in the type of content you are publishing.
# 3. Content type
The type of content will tell you if the publication is only text, if it is accompanied by images, videos or links.
The analysis of this graph does not always correspond to the reality of the publications. The reason is that, in many cases, photographs or videos are shared as links and, therefore, the graphic classifies them as links and not as multimedia content.
What does each type of content say about user behavior?
The type of content can glimpse the engagement that a user has with the brand or with the community of users. A picture is worth a thousand words; this indicates that the user is willing to share their experience, for better or for worse: they want to make the brand or the community aware of a personal experience. The same happens with videos.
When a user shares a link, it can be interpreted from 2 perspectives …
- The first is that you want to disseminate content that interests you.
- The second one, that wants to reinforce your opinion with a source where you can find more information.
This graphic must be complemented with a list of shared links. This will help you to know if the shared links are photographs or are external sources that provide more information to the opinion of a user.
Conclusion
As you can see, you should never interpret the graphics in isolation; there are always other data that can help you correctly interpret how the user behaves while posting on social networks.
And, above all, it is very important that you know the content, since the words you use, the multimedia content that accompanies it and the links to which it refers, will facilitate that knowledge according to what we have analyzed above.
Be careful with interpretations
Even so, you should keep in mind that interpretations are not unilateral and you should be aware of most situations in which the user can meet while interacting. And I say interacts because the behavior is deduced from the analysis of the content, that is, the publications in social networks. If the user has not published, you will not be able to get to know their behavior.
Of these two aspects, in which social media can be analyzed, the first one is always the one that becomes more important. When analyzed from this perspective, it is studied …
- The effectiveness of the actions that are carried out.
- Know how the community interacts.
- Know the profile of the users.
- The strategies of other companies, which can be an inspiration source.
If you delve into the knowledge of the user community, you will complete this analysis much better.
Beyond knowing their sociodemographic profile, their behavior while publishing on social networks provides more information about the user’s profile. This behavior can help companies to know how they publish, from where or what kind of relationship they are willing to establish with brands and with other users.
Not only will you know if the content and actions are effective, but also you will know how your users act when they interact with your brand or when they post on social networks.
What are the most common user profiles in your activity? How do you work your communication in relation to its behavior?