Quick answer: Effective social media analysis follows a clear sequence: set measurable goals, listen to what your audience is saying, analyse engagement with your own and competitors’ content, study competitors, audit your own profiles, and then act on what you find and measure again. NetBase, the social analytics company this guide was originally based on, merged with Quid in January 2020 and now operates as Quid.
Over the past decade, social media has changed how brands market their products and services. With almost every brand now active on social platforms, the hard part is knowing whether a social media campaign is working. Social media analysis answers that question, and it works best in stages.
This article was first written around steps recommended by NetBase. We have kept those steps, updated the company details and added what has changed in social data since then.
Step 1: Set goals
A brand should define what it wants from social media from the very start. Social media analysis goals could include increasing brand awareness, increasing sales, reaching new customers or providing customer support.
Make each goal measurable and match it to a metric. Awareness might be tracked through reach and mentions, sales through clicks and conversions, and customer support through response time and the share of complaints resolved.
Step 2: Social listening
Social listening means paying attention to what people are saying about your brand, your competitors and your industry, and focusing on their needs rather than on what the company wants to say. It often leads a brand to define, or redefine, its target market by age, gender, location, interests and attitudes.
Breaking a market into segments helps a company understand each group’s behaviour, opinions and attitudes towards its products and services, and towards competitors’ products. Done well, listening also catches complaints and emerging issues early, before they grow into a crisis.
Step 3: Engagement analysis
Once a company understands its audience segments, it should look at how people engage with its content and compare that with how they engage with competitors’ content.
The number of posts a brand publishes tells you little on its own. A look at the most engaging content shows how people interact with a brand through likes, shares, comments and saves. Engagement rate (engagement relative to reach or followers) is usually more useful than raw totals, because it lets you compare accounts of different sizes.
With this knowledge, a company can dig into the psychographics of each segment (their values, interests and lifestyles) and create content for each group. Looking at competitors’ engagement also shows what audiences respond to best.
Step 4: Competitor analysis
Every brand should know what is being said in its industry. Looking at what competitors are doing helps a company build a better strategy, see what customers respond to and decide where to focus its marketing effort.
In competitor analysis, look at:
- what competitors post, and how often;
- how many followers they gain over time;
- how their audience engages with each type of post;
- what people say about them, including complaints you could address better.
Step 5: Social media audit
An audit shows how a company’s current social media presence is working, for or against the brand. A simple audit spreadsheet lists every profile, its audience, posting frequency, engagement and whether it is still active. This shows whether the brand sends the same consistent message across all platforms, and which accounts should be merged or retired.
A SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) is useful at this point. It helps a brand decide which platforms and tools to use to amplify its messages or increase engagement, and can reveal a niche audience the brand can target.
Step 6: Act, report and repeat
Analysis is only useful if it changes what you do. Turn findings into specific changes, such as new content formats, different posting times or faster customer replies. Then report results against the goals from Step 1 and repeat the cycle on a regular schedule.
What has changed in social media data
Access to social data has narrowed for many users. For example, Meta shut down CrowdTangle, its public tool for exploring public content on Facebook and Instagram, on 14 August 2024, and now points researchers to its Meta Content Library instead. Commercial social listening platforms license data from the networks they cover, so before you buy one, ask which platforms it covers and how far back its data goes.
About NetBase, now Quid
NetBase was a social analytics company that used artificial intelligence to analyse customer conversations online. In January 2020 it merged with Quid, an AI company founded by Bob Goodson, and the combined business now operates as Quid (netbase.com now redirects to quid.com). Quid’s website describes it as a consumer and market intelligence platform. For social listening, Quid says it works with licensed data from TikTok, Reddit, X, Instagram, YouTube and other platforms, and groups posts into themes and audiences.
The original article listed companies such as Edelman, Coca-Cola, Ogilvy, Cuisinart and Lloyds Bank as NetBase clients. We could not confirm that list on Quid’s current website, so we have removed it, along with promotional claims about “maximum ROI”. We found no price list on Quid’s website, which offers a trial on request, so contact the company for pricing.
For related reading, see our guides to managing your business’s online reputation, brand management software and marketing a small business online.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between social listening and social monitoring?
Monitoring tracks direct mentions of your brand so you can reply. Listening looks at the wider conversation about your brand, competitors and industry to find trends and insights that shape strategy.
Which metrics matter most in social media analysis?
The ones tied to your goals. Common choices are reach, engagement rate, share of voice compared with competitors, sentiment, click-throughs and conversions.
Is NetBase still available?
Not under that name. NetBase merged with Quid in 2020, and the business now operates as Quid, which offers social listening as part of its consumer and market intelligence platform.
How often should a brand audit its social media?
Many brands review performance monthly and do a fuller audit once or twice a year, or before a major campaign or rebrand. Choose a schedule you can keep.
Checked in October 2026 against Quid’s company and social listening pages and Meta’s Transparency Center notice on CrowdTangle. Platform data access changes often, so confirm coverage with any vendor before you buy.
