For about a year I’ve been really frustrated with reporting on campaigns. Let me rewind and explain, sometimes I take paid for campaigns as a content creator or “influencer”. I disclose these and they’re pretty easy to spot. These campaigns are by no means my bread and butter but they do add to my income stream. The thing you might not know about these campaigns is that, when they’re done, you need to supply a report to the brand or agency showcasing how the social media posts did. Simple enough if you’re doing one or two Instagram posts but a whole different story when you’re in a long term contract and need to supply monthly reports for stacks of posts on various platforms.
To give you an idea, recently I had to to do a three month report on more than 60 posts on various platforms. Before, this meant I’d need to go to each individual platform, find the post relating to the brand and pull the insights into a spreadsheet individually for each post. It isn’t as simple as just posting the platform stats because the only stats that are needed in these reports relate to the content posted for the campaign. It is a huge headache having to pull the various stats, add them to a spreadsheet and then present it in such a way that is easy for the brand or agency to digest – as well as easy to access the content itself. After years of having to report this way I tweeted in frustration:
Here’s an idea. Social media reporting software for creators, allowing us to select posts to pull for campaigns (not just monthly overall stats). That:
1. Doesn’t cost a gazillion doll hairs
2. Doesn’t force clients to use your platformI’d pay for that.
— Sam “Tech Girl” Wright (@TechGirlZA) September 1, 2021
Following that tweet, a company called Digital Republic reached out to me explaining that they had a potential solution for me. I was apprehensive. I’ve regularly tried to hunt down something to do what I wanted and have come up short. Basically here is what I needed:
A piece of software that pulled all my content from social media sites – so Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. I then wanted the option to go through each month and “tick” the content relating to a specific campaign, pull said content stats ONLY and then be able to present that or get it into a spreadsheet or PDF. I’ve seen similar software before but it lived on Influencer Marketing Platforms that forced you to sign up and run campaigns through them which they just “managed”.
Despite my apprehension, I did a walk through with Digital Republic and… they had it. They had EXACTLY what I needed and then some.
How it works:
- You have a dedicated dashboard that allows you to schedule and publish content to your linked social channels
- There is an option to “label” each individual post. Using a campaign name for that label means it is categorised under that label.
- At the end of the campaign or month, you can pull an automated report and simply request that only content under a specific “label” is pulled
- Live report for your specific campaign or brand needs – done
You can obviously also get insights on your channels as a whole or specify what you’re looking for. The software runs dashboards where you can respond to messages and replies across multiple channels in one space, analyse a host of different data and even manage your ad accounts if you wish. It’s ultimately a social media management tool, but the unique feature of the labelling and reporting makes it perfect for content creators and influencers.
An example
To show you what I mean, I decided to do a quick example. I went through the last three weeks and labelled all social posts sharing my Podcast. I then pulled a dummy report so you could see what it looked like. The image above shows an example of said report, but you can also share a live link that can be sent to a client.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE REPORT IN REAL TIME
When you’re in the report, clicking on the post will take you to it on the platform it was posted on as well.
I can honestly say that since using Digital Republic I’ve saved a full day in time because I no longer need to manually pull data. It is such an easy tool to use and the staff are extremely helpful. It doesn’t pull Twitch analytics or Instagram Story posts (yet) but because it does the bulk of my reporting work, it has allowed me to save time AND it also is just so much more professional to send to clients.
The biggest thing with software like this is price. I’ve been quoted upward of R20 000 in the past for something similar. Digital Republic has really great costing for smaller businesses and content creators. So if you’d like to find out more, drop them a mail and let them know you saw this blog post – so they’re aware of what you’re looking for.
I’ll be partnering with Digital Republic, moving forward, for all my reporting needs and will be sharing a host of tips and tricks for content creators and influencers looking to level up the “business” side of their job. Make sure you sign up to my newsletter or follow both myself and Digital Republic so you don’t miss anything.
Disclosure: After being blown away by the software offered by Digital Republic, I’ve agreed to partner with them on a Trade Exchange basis moving forward.
