17 Apr Why Benchmarking is the Bedrock of a Winning Social Strategy
Never underestimate the power of competitive analysis when shaping your social media strategy.
Back in 2011, while crafting the social media strategy for the Carolina Panthers, I would organize bookmark folders for the social profiles of EVERY pro sports team. Granted, it was only Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Foursquare then.
Not a very fancy and tech-savvy workflow – but the time spent absorbing was incredibly valuable.
Several times a day, I would open every bookmark and take comprehensive written or mental notes, observing items like:
- What was the goal of the social post?
- What was the format of the content? Was it a graphic? A photo? A video? Was the video highly produced or raw footage from a mobile device?
- How was the typography on the graphic?
- Did the post drive traffic to the website?
- Was the content sponsored?
- Was the copy overly wordy, or was it concise?
- Did a post perform well?
- What was the sentiment of the fan content?
This exercise wasn’t just academic – it had a tangible impact. The goal was to look at all social posts as critically and comprehensively as possible. Absorb everything. After months of this, I began to get a much stronger feel for what would be effective across all platforms. What could the Carolina Panthers adopt, modify, improve, and own? How would we activate around certain events or opportunities? These insights helped shape a social media strategy that prioritized quality over quantity and 1:1 fan engagements.
As team performance improved on the field, the social strategy elevated the team to lead the NFL in key social metrics, eventually becoming one of the most followed teams in all of pro sports.
Eventually, platforms like CrowdTangle came along to make the process easier – for a while.
But today, the bar is higher. There is more content than ever. There are more social platforms.
You need real-time, comprehensive, and customizable benchmarking.
That’s where Zoomph’s Benchmark Tool comes in.
Benchmark is the most innovative solution to date for measuring and comparing social media performance across the entire sports ecosystem – NFL, NBA, NWSL, Motor Sports, College Athletics and beyond.
This tool was inspired by industry feedback and Zoomph’s deep roots in sports media – and is currently used by our customers of all sizes – not just NFL teams – to efficiently evaluate their own social performance in real-time against their league, market, and industry. It is the ultimate content research and inspiration tool. Get the data you need in layouts that make sense to you. Shareable, readable, and actionable for anyone in the organization. Ranked performance data via benchmark was a hallmark of our major sponsor pitch decks at the Carolina Hurricanes. That could be the difference maker for a jersey patch or helmet decal sponsor.
What used to take hours of content research and inspiration now takes minutes. See every post from a certain day (or holiday) or campaign from any other account. Get deeper insights on performance. Confirm what worked – and improve it.
Beyond just organic social performance metrics, Benchmark also leverages Zoomph’s AI logo detection technology, providing a deeper look at the value each post drove for a corporate partner.
Bottom Line: What once took hours of manual labor, gut instincts, and notetaking now happens in a single dashboard. Zoomph Benchmark turns the art of competitive analysis into a science – one that’s accessible and digestible.
So whether you’re a digital manager fine-tuning your content calendar or a sponsor looking to justify the value you drive via social to increase your budget – Zoomph’s Benchmark tool delivers the clarity and direction you need.
The future of smarter, sharper, and more strategic social content starts here.
Want to learn how Zoomph Benchmark can revolutionize your content and sponsorship strategy? Reach out to our team today and let’s build something legendary together.
