Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter have revolutionised the way we communicate and conduct business. With the constant influx of data, it’s essential for businesses and influencers to analyse and interpret their social media data to optimise their performance. Excel’s popularity and versatility make it an excellent data analysis tool for conducting social media analytics. This comprehensive guide covers the necessary steps to import, clean, analyse, and visualise social media data in Excel, using hands-on examples.
Advantages of Using Excel for Social Media Analytics
Excel is a popular software tool used to perform data analysis. Importantly it has the functionality to undertake in-depth social media analysis.
Here are some benefits of Excel for social media analytics:
- Excel is versatile and easy to use, making it accessible to businesses and influencers of any size.
- Excel has powerful analytical tools and a fast processing speed, which makes it an efficient platform for analysing large sets of social media data.
- Excel is compatible with various data formats, which makes it easier for businesses and influencers to import data from multiple sources into one centralised location.
- Excel provides extensive data visualisation tools, allowing businesses and influencers to create dynamic reports and visualisations from their social media data.
Prerequisites for this Guide
To follow this guide, you will need:
- Microsoft Excel (Version 2010 or later)
- An understanding of basic Excel functionalities such as data sorting, filtering and pivot tables
Social Media Analytics with Excel
In this section, we cover the process of importing, cleaning, analysing, and visualising social media data using Excel.
Importing Data
To import data on social media analytics in excel, you can conduct the following processes:
Data format requirements:
- Data must be in a tabular format with column headers
- Data must exclude all emojis, hashtags or symbols.
Importing CSV files into Excel:
- Select “Data” from Excel’s ribbon menu
- Select “From Text/CSV”
- Locate and select the CSV file you wish to import, and then select “Open.
- Ensure you select “Delimited” and give consideration to delimiter usage.
- Ensure you choose the appropriate data type for each column during import.
- Select where you would like to store the imported data
Importing data from online sources (Twitter API, Facebook Insights, etc.):
- Navigate to the social media platform API’s and set up an account
- Create API details for the service.
- Copy the generated API code to Excel to import and process the data
Data Cleaning & Wrangling
Before analysing and visualising the data, it’s necessary to clean and ensure that it is amenable to analysis.
Check for missing or inaccurate data:
- Identify any missing or inaccurate data
- Fix or remove data accordingly
- Ensure missing data cells are removed or data inputted.
Removing duplicates:
- Identify duplicated records.
- Delete duplicates and retain an original record.
Merging and splitting data:
- Merge relevant data from two or more CSV files into one spreadsheet or file
- Split data from one cell into separate cells.
Handling outliers:
- Identify any outlier data
- Check if the data is correct, then remove outliers as necessary.
Dealing with null values:
- Identify any null value recorded
- Remove null values or replace as appropriate
Analyzing Data
After cleaning the data set, it’s necessary to analyse data and extract insights through data visualisation and statistical tools to process and answer questionnaires. The following actions have to be taken:
Exploring data with charts and graphs:
- Select Excel’s chart and graph tools and choose the type of chart or graph that best displays your data
- Determine appropriate chart types with reference to the nature of the data.
Descriptive statistics:
- Highlight cells of interest for descriptive analysis
- Go to the “Data” tab on the Excel ribbon
- Select “Data Analysis”
- Identify appropriate statistical method and perform analysis
Correlation analysis:
Correlation analysis is an essential statistical tool for social media analytics. It determines the correlation between two or more variables.
- Highlight data sets of interest
- Go to the “Data” tab and select “data analysis”
- Select “correlation” and identify appropriate statistical measures
- Generate the correlation matrix
Regression analysis:
Regression analysis determines the strength of the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable.
- Identify dependent and independent variables
- Go to the “Data” tab and select “Data Analysis”
- Choose the appropriate regression analysis
- Generate regression statistics
Sentiment analysis:
Sentiment analysis is critical as it determines how posts and reviews affect a business or influencer’s brand reputation.
- Identify social media post or reviews of interest
- Use pre-trained NLP models or AI software
- Conduct sentiment analysis and extract overall sentiment score.
Predictive analysis:
Predictive analysis helps social media marketers identify potential trends, allowing them to develop winning strategies. To conduct predictive analysis in Excel:
- Identify relevant data to conduct predictions.
- Build prediction models
- Determine accuracy of prediction model and implement changes as necessary
Social Media Listening:
Social Media Listening is essential for brands and influencers to keep track of their online reputation. They can gain insights from online conversations about what consumers and audiences are saying about them on social media.
- Identify social media listening tools
- Import social media listening data in using the API
- Analyse and visualise the data feedback
Creating Reports
Creating reports presents analysed data visually for easy consumption and dissemination of the report’s readers. Follow the steps below to create reports in Excel:
- Organise data accordingly.
- Format data accordingly.
- Create charts, graphs and tables accordingly.
- Create a summary report highlighting pertinent details.
Best practices for data visualization:
- Use visualisation techniques such as charts, graphs and tables, which make it easy for business owners or marketers to interpret analysed data.
- Choose appropriate colours and fonts to enhance the report.
- Always keep data and report styles consistent.
Conclusion
Social media analytics is essential for businesses and influencers to make informed decisions by extracting valuable insights from social media data. Excel’s versatility has made it a valuable tool for social media analytics. This comprehensive guide has provided an overview of the critical steps to import, clean, analyse, and visualise social media data using Excel. By following this guide, businesses and influencers can effectively utilise social media analytics to improve their performance.
FAQs
Q. Why is social media analysis important?
Social media analysis provides valuable insights into social media content, audience behaviour, customer satisfaction, brand reputation and industry trends, allowing businesses and influencers to make data-driven decisions.
Q. What are the advantages of using Excel for social media analysis?
Excel provides a versatile, easy-to-use, powerful, and fast platform for analysing social media data. It can also import data from multiple sources and generate dynamic reports.
Q. How do I import data from social media platforms into Excel?
Data from social media platforms can be imported into Excel by CSV files or through a relevant API/API keys.
Q. What steps should I take to clean and wrangle my social media data in Excel?
Check for missing or inaccurate data, removing duplicates and cleaning up outliers, merging and splitting data, and handling null values as necessary.
Q. What kinds of social media analysis can I do with Excel?
From sentiment analysis to predictive analysis, Excel can perform many analyses for social media analysis, including correlation, regression, and social media listening.
Q. How should I visualize my social media data in Excel reports?
Choose appropriate colours and fonts to enhance the report. Always keep data and report styles consistent.
Q. Can Excel help me predict future trends in my social media performance?
Yes, Excel is equipped with predictive analytics techniques, enabling you to predict social media performance trends based on historical data.
