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Hilton’s SVP, Daniel Reynolds, on the art of brand storytelling
Think of a memorable marketing campaign. Got it? Odds are, that campaign tells a great story — whether it’s a tearjerker Super Bowl ad, a hilarious viral video, or an innovative social media collab. The best marketing campaigns have a narrative that makes you feel something. And effective brand storytelling is the secret to success on social media and beyond.
For expert advice, we chatted with Daniel Reynolds, Senior Vice President of Global Content, Media, and Partnerships at Hilton. Before checking in to the hospitality industry (pun very much intended), Reynolds worked for other global brands, including Disney and Toyota. And for every brand he’s worked with, storytelling has been an important marketing strategy.
“How to extend the story of a brand in new and different formats has always been a key throughline,” he shares. Hilton’s storytelling is authentic and inspiring: think photos and videos taken by real hotel guests, horror stories from the competition, and partnerships with celebrities like (duh) Paris Hilton.
Read on for tried-and-true marketing methods and examples of brand storytelling from Reynolds and his team at Hilton.
What is brand storytelling, and why does it matter?
Brand storytelling uses a narrative to communicate a message. Instead of simple promotion (for example, a billboard saying, Buy This Product!), brand storytelling uses emotion to encourage audiences to engage (like, say, a funny video that illustrates why you should buy this product).
“You aren’t just saying the same thing over and over again, like an advertising format,” Reynolds explains. “You’re recognizing and valuing the relationship that your audiences have with brands.”
In the hospitality industry, competition is fierce, and Reynolds shares that brand storytelling helps Hilton’s content marketing efforts stand apart from the rest. “It’s so important, in today’s world, to break through,” he says. Hilton’s storytelling increases brand awareness, fosters customer loyalty, and even helps engage audiences who aren’t planning to travel.
How Hilton crafts its stories: 5 pillars to success
1. Authenticity, relatability, and emotional connection
Hilton’s marketing team aims to bring a genuine, sincere vibe to their social media content. To do that, Reynolds says it’s important to stay true to the brand’s values. “Our guiding light is about creating a great stay experience,” he says. “That lets us anchor ourselves and really show up in a way that feels authentic.”
This Instagram Reel sharing Hilton bartenders’ favorite drinks and who they craft them for is a great example.
The Reel demonstrates how Hilton’s social marketing caters to different members of its target audience. The “meeting that could have been an email” will ring especially true for guests who are traveling on business.
“We serve a variety of different-sized businesses, from large global corporations down to small- and medium-sized businesses,” says Reynolds. As a result, a portion of social content is devoted to the Hilton for Business travel management and loyalty program.
Another key demographic for Hilton is families; and functionality is essential for families. “One of the things that we heard from families a couple of years ago was when travelling with kids, it’s really difficult to fit in one room,” says Reynolds. “It’s difficult to book a second room and not know if they connect.”
To solve this, Hilton launched a product called Confirmed Connecting Rooms by Hilton, and shared relatable, funny narratives on social media to spread the word.
Luxury-seekers are also prioritized by Hilton’s marketing team — much of the photos and videos splashed across their brands’ social feeds include picturesque panoramas, spreads of delicious-looking food, and very relaxed, happy people.
Source: @hiltonhotels
Reynolds points out that, even for people who aren’t specifically searching for luxury travel, telling the story of a luxury experience is relatable on an aspirational basis: many people are “just dreaming of having that escape moment and what their next day could look like,” he says.
It may sound obvious, but the best way to come across as authentic when brand storytelling is to tell authentic stories. Hilton’s team successfully did this in a video highlighting stories from its efforts to provide room nights for those displaced by the Los Angeles wildfires in early 2025.
Sharing images of donation drives, data on the rooms provided (20,000 room nights for over 7,000 people), and stories from those who stayed in a Hilton hotel builds an uplifting narrative. It connects with audiences on an emotional level.
2. Craft cohesive storytelling through partnerships
Any good story requires compelling characters, and Hilton partners with creators and influencers to help craft its narrative. “We recognize that, for us to create real, meaningful connections with audiences, we need to understand who they are following and what they care about,” says Reynolds.
When researching people to partner with, the Hilton team focuses not just on their target market but also on why their target market travels. “We see an opportunity to connect with the people traveling for the love of a sport, activity, or brand,” Reynolds explains. “There’s a natural capacity for travel around that activity.”
Hilton’s partnership with McLaren Racing’s Lando Norris shows a commitment to a niche globetrotting audience: F1 fans. “F1 fans are growing worldwide at an exponential click, and those fans travel to pursue their love of the sport,” says Reynolds.
This year, Hilton is celebrating its 20-year anniversary of partnering with McLaren, making a collab with a McLaren F1 driver extra timely. “This year presents an opportune time for us to take advantage of this growing fandom by telling a very authentic story of how the McLaren team and the drivers actually stay with us,” Reynolds explains.
Hilton (and Lando Norris) shared photos and videos showing the driver experiencing various Hilton hotels. This capitalizes on an audience already traveling to watch the races and gently suggests a place for them to stay.
“When you’re a McLaren F1 driver, you need to make sure that the sleep experience, the food experience, and the on-property experience is excellent so that your mind is on the track,” says Reynolds, “and if you’re a fan, similarly, you don’t want to be distracted from anything while you’re there to experience your favorite sport.”
And, of course, there’s no better influencer for Hilton to partner with than Paris Hilton herself.
Collabs like the video above show how multifaceted Paris Hilton’s life is and how Hilton’s properties cater to all of those facets.
“Paris Hilton helps us authentically tell the story of how the stay supports her — a global icon, DJ, businesswoman — so that has been a fun one, to be able to tap into her fan base and tell that story,” says Reynolds.
3. Set yourself apart from the competition
Hilton is one of the largest hotel chains in the world, but that doesn’t mean the marketing team can slack off.
“In terms of awareness, the brand is so well-known, and that’s a real gift,” says Reynolds, “but we also know that we have to continue to reach new audiences and also show that we have a lot of new parts of our portfolio that they might not know about.”
Reynolds explains that while many hotel chains share images and videos of the destination more broadly — the city, the beach, et cetera — not many focus on the stay itself. He calls it a “sea of sameness.”
“We know that, for most travelers, the stay can actually make or break a trip,” he says. Videos like the collab with actor Sid Malhotra below spotlight the hotel itself.
Additionally, Hilton’s marketing often points out (in a funny way) why staying in a Hilton hotel is better than staying in a short-term rental. Some of these videos are on the subtle side, like this one:
Then, there are more direct ways of poking fun at the competition, like in this take on the “What’s your favorite horror movie” TikTok trend:
Source: @hilton
Content like this encourages brand loyalty, reaches new customers, and reminds audiences why Hilton stands out from the competition. But, it still comes across as genuine and fun and stays true to the brand’s core values.
4. Create participative storytelling experiences
Another social media strategy Hilton uses is capitalizing on user-generated content and encouraging the participation of guests and followers. Reynolds says the key to this is understanding “what our customers, or people more broadly, are doing on the platform, and then embracing it.”
On Instagram, for example, Hilton shares many photos and videos created by real-world users. For example, there’s this cute Instagram post from a family’s visit to Hilton Bali Resort.
When brands like Hilton share posts like the above (otherwise known as user-generated content), it helps to build a more authentic story.
There’s plenty of value in regular, marketing-focused feed posts and collab posts from influencers, of course, but sharing photos that guests have taken adds another layer of genuine experience to the content.
User-generated content typically isn’t as polished as the photos and videos the marketing team produces, but that’s part of its beauty.
The more customer stories a brand shares, the more users will be inspired to create it (after all, getting your photo reposted to an account with over 435K followers is pretty cool).
Hilton allows audiences to shape the brand’s narrative through a social engagement strategy, backed by the “Hilton. For the Stay” platform and “It Matters Where You Stay” campaign.
Using this strategy, the team monitors social media and other outlets and finds people who have had nightmare travel experiences in short-term rentals or at other hotels. Then, they reach out, offering to move the person to a Hilton hotel, send them some swag, or otherwise support them.
This Instagram story highlight shows the campaign’s impact and how meaningful interactions with an audience can further enhance a brand’s story.
Source: @hilton
5. Bring audiences behind the scenes for a transformative experience
“There’s a lot of work that goes into creating a great Hilton stay, and that comes through in the on-property experience,” says Reynolds, “but telling the story of all the work that has gone into that is actually quite an interesting thing for a lot of our fans.”
Hilton’s social accounts share several types of behind-the-scenes content that furthers the brand’s transparency, relatability, and trustworthiness. For example, for the aforementioned collaboration with McLaren F1 driver Lando Norris, Hilton posted a 13-minute long YouTube video sharing candid clips from the campaign.
“It showed a ‘day in the life’ of Lando Norris, but what it really showed was that there’s a tremendous amount of care that goes into the stay experience for him and making sure he can perform his best,” Reynolds explains.
Hilton also uses behind-the-scenes content to share stories from employees. For example, in this Instagram post, a team member who has been with Hilton for 18 years handwrites custom notes for guests.
Behind-the-scenes content helps to humanize the brand, trigger an emotional response, and create a more well-rounded, authentic story.
A peek behind the curtain has an exclusive, honest vibe that’s often missing from meticulously curated Instagram feeds, and that helps a brand stand out, too.
Crafting your own brand’s story: 4 tips from Daniel Reynolds
1. Know your community
To tell a compelling story, you should have a good idea of exactly who you’re telling the story to. The digital marketing team at Hilton focuses their brand’s mission on who their guests are.
“It’s all about deeply understanding them, their needs, and their expectations when it comes to a hospitality experience,” says Reynolds.
Need help defining your target audience? Aim here.
2. Listen before you act
This blog post might inspire you to start creating storytelling content right away, but keep this in mind: “It starts with listening more than doing,” says Reynolds.
“Really understanding what our customers care about, what they’re talking about, and what they want is such a great and strong starting point.”
Social listening is the best (and most wallet-friendly) way to do this. For small businesses and emerging entrepreneurs, that’s key. “It doesn’t necessarily require a ton of investment,” Reynolds points out.
For example, Hootsuite offers AI social listening tools powered by Talkwalker, including quick search ability and sentiment analysis.
3. Consider the fan experience
Hilton’s partnerships tap into brands, experiences, and people who already have a committed following or fandom.
By collaborating with influential people (like Tommy Paul and Paris Hilton) and businesses (like Calm and Peloton), Hilton exposes itself to new, engaged audiences — audiences that require services that align with the brand’s purpose.
“When we tap into the fan experience, we can tell the unique story of how our stay actually enables that fandom to come through most authentically,” says Reynolds.
4. Walk the talk
Finally, it’s important to make sure that the brand story you tell is true. For example, the wildfire relief video mentioned earlier was possible because Hilton supported people affected by the wildfires.
Brand storytelling should be an accurate reflection of who you are and what you do. So, make sure there’s a good story to tell. “We have an authentic reason to engage in conversation, tell a story, and create an impact,” Reynolds says.
Key takeaways
- Successful brand storytelling allows businesses and creators to connect with their audience on a deeper level.
- Brand storytelling can set you apart from your competitors in a creative, meaningful way.
- Social listening can help you determine who your audience is and what kind of brand stories to tell.
- Lean into the “fan experience ” by collaborating with creators, influencers, and other brands with passionate followings and fandoms.
- Participatory content can engage audiences and tell a compelling brand story.
- Sharing behind-the-scenes content gives followers a fresh, exciting perspective and builds trust.
- Compelling storytelling puts authenticity first by staying true to brand identity and customer values.
Save time managing your social media presence with Hootsuite. Publish and schedule posts, find relevant conversions, engage your audience, measure results, and more — all from one dashboard. Try it free today.
The post Hilton’s SVP, Daniel Reynolds, on the art of brand storytelling appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.
* This article was originally published here
Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Social Media SWOT Analysis Guide: Make Your Insights Work for You
Want to know exactly where your online presence stands? A social media SWOT analysis gives you a clear plan so you can make smart choices instead of guessing.
This guide will show you how to find your social media wins, losses, new chances, and potential problems. Buckle up for steps and tools you can use right away. Whether you’re running social media marketing for a small brand or a big company, this will help you and your team focus on what matters.
Key takeaways:
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A social media SWOT analysis examines platform-specific strengths (like high video engagement) and weaknesses (like poor posting consistency) to guide strategic decisions rather than following hunches and generic trends.
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A comprehensive SWOT framework analyzes engagement metrics and content performance (strengths), identifies strategy gaps (weaknesses), discovers relevant trends and partnership possibilities (opportunities), and monitors algorithm changes and competitive threats (threats).
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Connect the dots in your SWOT. Use your strong points to jump on opportunities and avoid risks.
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Develop SMART goals based on your SWOT findings for measurable improvement.
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Perform a SWOT analysis when launching campaigns, exploring new channels, auditing performance, or benchmarking competitors.
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Social media analytics tools like Socialinsider provide the data foundation needed for a comprehensive, timely SWOT analysis that can be turned into actionable plans.
What is a social media SWOT analysis?
A social media SWOT analysis is a structured method to assess your current social media marketing efficiency by examining four key areas: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It’s a great way to make informed decisions about your social media strategy by understanding where you stand and what factors might affect your success.
Unlike general marketing assessments, a SWOT analysis focuses specifically on your digital presence across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and others.
Let’s break down what each component means for your social media work:
- Strengths — What’s working? These are the internal factors where your social media marketing excels. When identifying strengths, look at:
- Content performance: Which types of posts receive the most reactions?
- Social media engagement: Are followers actively commenting, sharing, and interacting with your content?
- Brand loyalty: Do you have a core group of followers who consistently engage with and advocate for your brand?
- Weaknesses — What are the gaps? These are shortcomings that limit your social media effectiveness. Common weaknesses include:
- Low reach: Your content may be high-quality, but it is reaching too few people.
- Poor ROI: You’re spending significant resources on social media with minimal returns.
- Inconsistent branding: Confusing messaging that varies too much across platforms and weakens your overall social media impact.
- Opportunities — Where is there room for growth? These are factors you can take advantage of to improve your social media results:
- Social media trends: New features, content formats, or platform-specific developments that align with your brand’s goals.
- Influencer partnerships: Potential collaborations with content creators who share your target audience and values.
- Threats — What are the external risks? These are outside factors that could harm your social media performance:
- Algorithm changes: Platforms frequently update how content is distributed, which can suddenly decrease your visibility.
- Competitor strategies: New approaches from competitors might draw attention away from your brand.
- Negative PR: Issues that generate negative social sentiment can quickly spread across platforms.
This breakdown of your social media into four main dimensions helps you see the whole picture more clearly and gives you a great starting point to make things better.
How does a SWOT analysis help you get better at social media marketing?
As opposed to making decisions based on hunches or copying what others are doing, a social media marketing SWOT analysis gives you insights into where you stand and where you should go next.
Here are the main benefits for social media managers:
1. Get context for more accurate goal setting.
- Identify realistic benchmarks based on your current position
- See which platforms deserve more attention
- Understand what success looks like for your specific situation
2. Stay in tune with trends.
- Spot emerging opportunities on platforms like TikTok, LinkedIn, or Instagram
- Notice content formats gaining traction with your audience
- Understand which social media marketing trends match your capabilities
3. Stay competitive.
- Identify gaps between your social media work and competitors
- See what others are doing well that you could adapt
- Pinpoint unique strengths you can emphasize to stand out
4. Optimize social media budget allocation.
- Get data on which platforms deliver the best returns
- Identify underperforming areas where spending can be reduced
- Spot opportunities worth additional investment
A thorough social media SWOT analysis example might help a small business discover that their tutorial videos receive consistent shares on Facebook (strength), their Instagram photos aren’t generating engagement (weakness), their video content performance suggests an opportunity to expand into TikTok, and algorithm changes pose a significant threat to their organic reach. With these insights, they can make data-driven decisions rather than simply following industry trends that might not work for their specific situation.
How to do a social media SWOT analysis?
Want to do a social media SWOT analysis but don’t know where to start? It’s all about getting organized with your social data. Tools like Socialinsider make it easy to grab those numbers and see what’s really happening. Let’s walk through it.
Step #1 Strengths assessment
Start by examining your content performance across all social channels. When conducting a SWOT analysis for social media, focus on these key marketing metrics:
- Reach and impressions. Look at how many people your content reaches and how many impressions it generates. This data helps you identify which platforms give you the most visibility. In the example below, you can see Ryanair’s impressions across channels. Twitter has the highest number of impressions, though the number is decreasing. Meanwhile, Facebook shows growth, which shows that the platform is gaining momentum.
- Video views. Analyze how your video content performs across platforms. Continuing the Ryanair example, the data shows TikTok dominates with the most video views (and increasing), while YouTube views are decreasing. Facebook and Instagram show no video views, indicating a potential area for improvement or reallocation of resources.
- Engagement. Consider overall engagement rates to understand where your audience is most active. Looking at the social media analytics dashboard, we see that TikTok leads in terms of engagement (and growing), followed by Instagram (which is decreasing). This indicates where your content resonates most with audiences.
- Top-performing content pillars analysis. Use social media analysis to identify which content themes or topics perform best. For Ryanair, safety & security updates generate the highest engagement rate and perform best on Twitter (X). Customer stories & testimonials and behind-the-scenes content also perform well. This shows which content themes connect with your audience.
- Best posts analysis. Examine your most successful individual posts to understand what works. In our example, promotions & offers and safety & security updates dominate the top-performing posts. Note which elements these posts have in common — they might include humor, timely updates, or great visuals.
- Best performing content formats across platforms. Determine which content types drive the most engagement. We see below that reel posts generate the highest engagement, followed by carousels. This shows that video posts perform best for this brand.
Based on the data above, identify your social media competitive advantages:
- Which platforms do you excel on?
- What social media content types or themes perform exceptionally well?
- Where do you have unusually high engagement rates compared to industry standards?
These areas represent your strengths in a social media marketing SWOT analysis and should be the ones you continue to invest in.
Step #2 Weaknesses evaluation
After identifying your strengths, it’s important to assess honestly where your social media strategy falls short. When conducting a SWOT analysis for social media marketing, you can turn those weaknesses into strengths.
To recognize underperforming content and platforms, start by looking at the data to identify which content types, themes, or platforms aren’t delivering results. Look for:
- Low engagement rates compared to your other content
- Declining reach or impressions
- Poor conversion rates from social traffic
- Platforms where growth has stalled or reversed
Also, review your current strategy against your business goals to find misalignments:
- Are you active on platforms where your target audience spends time?
- Do you have consistent posting schedules across all platforms?
- Are you allocating resources proportionally to platform performance?
- Is your content mix varied enough to engage different audience segments?
Comparing your social media performance to competitors can help you reveal gaps you might have missed. For example, in this comparison we performed using Socialinsider, we see that Ryanair is more active on social media compared to WizzAir, and their increased posting frequency has also led to greater engagement.
Also, when comparing their most engaging social media content pillars, we can see that Ryanair generates higher engagement with its safety & security content pillar than Wizz with its BTS content pillar, which indicates that Ryanair’s content approach is more effective.
Look for patterns in what competitors do well that your brand doesn’t:
- Content types you haven’t explored
- Platforms where you have minimal presence
- Engagement tactics you haven’t implemented
- Audience segments you aren’t targeting
Some social media weaknesses might mean you have to let go of a platform or format that isn’t performing, while others might require additional investments in testing and improving content types and channels.
Step #3 Opportunities analysis
The opportunities section of your social media SWOT analysis focuses on factors that could benefit your strategy. This is where you identify potential growth areas and new directions for your social media marketing.
Identify trends that align with your brand and audience:
- New platform features, such as YouTube’s AI dubbing, X’s long-form articles, or LinkedIn’s thought leader ads that open new ways to reach our target audience.
- Content format innovations, such as interactive live-stream shopping on TikTok or AI-generated podcasts, present opportunities to adapt and expand your content strategy.
- AI and automation tools, such as ChatGPT for copywriting, Canva’s AI design tools, and Meta’s Advantage+ ad targeting, help brands create, schedule, and optimize content efficiently.
- AR/VR experiences for creating augmented reality filters or virtual shopping experiences, like Sephora’s Virtual Try-On and IKEA Place, enhance the shopping experience.
When conducting a cross-channel strategy SWOT analysis, look for trends that span multiple platforms to maximize your investment.
Look beyond your current audience for growth potential:
- Demographic gaps — Are there age groups, locations, or interest groups that your content isn’t reaching but should be?
- Platform-specific audiences — Analyze where your target audience spends time, but where you haven’t established a strong presence.
- Community building — Could you create groups, communities, or recurring events to create deeper connections?
- User-generated content — Are there opportunities to encourage followers to create content about your brand?
For a TikTok marketing SWOT analysis specifically, you might discover opportunities in trending hashtags, video challenges, or creator collaborations that align with your brand values. For Instagram, opportunities might include expanding into under-utilized formats like Reels or creating themed content series that encourage regular return visits.
Across platforms, collaborations have a lot of growth potential. Explore strategic partnerships that can expand your social media reach and add credibility:
- Influencer collaborations — Find creators your ideal customers already love and team up for real connections.
- Brand partnerships — Find brands that fit with yours (but aren’t direct competitors) for awesome joint campaigns.
- Industry experts — Experts can really level up your content and make your channels way more trustworthy.
- Customer advocates — With the right incentives, your loyal customers could become your best brand ambassadors.
When exploring opportunities in social media marketing, prioritize those that align with your overall business goals and the strengths you identified earlier in your analysis.
Step #4 Threat assessment
To wrap up your SWOT analysis, you need to look at potential problems. This way, you can plan ahead and keep your social media on track.
Competitive landscape mapping is a must. A thorough SWOT analysis in marketing requires an honest assessment of how competitor movements might threaten your position.
Here’s what to look at:
- Increased social media competitor activity — When competitors increase their posting frequency or advertising spend, your content may receive less attention.
- New market entrants — New brands with fresh approaches can quickly capture audience interest and market share.
- Competitor content innovations — If your competitors try new, cool content that clicks with your audience, you might lose some engagement.
- Share of voice changes — Track whether your brand’s share of the conversation in your industry is growing or shrinking compared to competitors.
Like it or not, platform algorithm changes frequently pose threats. Keep an eye out for:
- Organic reach limitations — Platforms frequently reduce organic reach to encourage paid promotion (it’s a bummer, but it’s been going on since the early days of Facebook).
- Content prioritization shifts — Changes in what content types algorithms favor (e.g., from image to video) can suddenly reduce your content’s visibility.
- New metrics emphasis — When platforms change which engagement metrics they value most, your content strategy may need rapid adjustment. For example, Instagram’s shift from likes to saves/shares forced brands to change their content strategy.
- Feature removal — Platforms sometimes let go of features you invested in. For example, when Twitter (X) killed Fleets in 2021, brands that had put resources into creating content for the disappearing stories had to redirect their strategy back to standard tweets or other content types.
Also, watch out for changing privacy and content regulations.
- Data collection restrictions — Targeting gets limited because of privacy rules, so your reach could drop.
- Content moderation policies — Changing rules about acceptable content can affect your posting strategy or even risk account restrictions.
- Cross-border compliance — Different regions have varying regulations about promotions, disclosures, and data usage that complicate global strategies.
Knowing how all these factors can hurt your online presence helps social media strategists create concrete plans to deal with them. And speaking of plans…
Tips when conducting a social media SWOT analysis
Okay, you’ve got your social media SWOT done. Now what? Time to turn those findings into real results. Here are social media best practices to make the best out of your SWOT analysis.
Create actionable insights from your SWOT analysis
The power of a social media SWOT analysis comes from connecting the four quadrants to create practical next steps:
Connect strengths to opportunities
A social media strategy SWOT analysis works best when you build bridges between what you already do well and where you could grow. Use your existing advantages to capture new possibilities:
- If your strength is high engagement on video content, and you’ve identified TikTok as an opportunity, prioritize expanding to that platform with your proven video content approach.
- When your content creation team excels at a particular style, look for trending topics or formats where that style would stand out.
- If your community management is strong, consider opportunities to create more interactive content that sparks conversation.
Use strengths to mitigate threats
Your existing advantages can help defend against potential social media challenges:
- If algorithms hurt your reach, but you’ve got a great community, make content people want to share.
- When competitors get active, focus on your unique brand — they can’t copy that.
- If targeting gets limited by privacy rules, rely on making content everyone loves to keep things going.
Address weaknesses through opportunities
Strategic growth can help overcome current limitations:
- If you’re bad at posting regularly (hey, it happens to the best of us), use scheduling tools to keep your content consistent.
- If your visuals aren’t great, team up with creators who excel at creating great images and videos.
- If your team’s clueless about TikTok, get them trained or hire someone who knows it.
Develop SMART goals based on SWOT findings
A SWOT analysis isn’t just a nice quadrant you can put on a fancy slide. Use your SWOT insights to set up SMART goals that’ll give you real, measurable progress:
- Specific: Instead of “improve our Instagram presence,” create goals like “increase Instagram Story engagement by focusing on our top-performing behind-the-scenes content.”
- Measurable: Attach numbers to your goals — “Increase video content engagement by 15% by implementing the carousel format that performs well for competitors.”
- Achievable: Set realistic targets based on your resources and past performance data from your SWOT analysis.
- Relevant: Ensure goals connect directly to business objectives — growing followers only matters if it supports broader marketing aims.
- Time-bound: Add deadlines to create urgency, like “implement three new content formats identified in our opportunities analysis within the next quarter.”
SWOT + SMART = strategic focus. When you create social media marketing goals based on your findings, you direct efforts towards the most impactful changes rather than making changes based on hunches or irrelevant trends.
Helpful tools for doing a social media SWOT analysis
Want to make your SWOT analysis easier? Here are social media marketing tools to help you grab the data and insights you need.
Socialinsider — for social media analytics
You’ve already seen earlier in the article how helpful an analytics tool like Socialinsider can be in generating practical social media insights.
The platform provides in-depth analytics across multiple platforms, making it ideal for conducting a thorough social media SWOT analysis.
The tool offers:
- Cross-platform social media metrics to identify strengths and weaknesses
- Competitor benchmarking to spot opportunities and threats
- Content pillar analysis to understand what resonates with your audience
- Historical data to track performance trends over time
Socialinsider offers visual reports that make it easy to identify patterns in your social media marketing performance and fill in the gaps in your social media SWOT analysis.
Digimind — for brand reputation management
Monitoring brand sentiment and industry conversations helps identify external opportunities and threats. Digimind offers:
- Social monitoring capabilities to track brand mentions and sentiment
- Industry monitoring to spot trends and competitor movements
- Consumer insights to identify shifting audience preferences
- Crisis detection to help mitigate potential reputation threats
These insights are particularly valuable for the opportunities and threats sections of your social media marketing SWOT analysis.
FREE tool: Socialinsider Strategy Assistant (custom ChatGPT)
If you’re looking for an accessible entry point to social media SWOT analysis, Socialinsider offers a free Strategy Assistant powered by ChatGPT:
- AI-powered social media tool that guides you through common challenges
- Answers specific questions like “What is a good engagement rate on Instagram?”
- Helps with practical decisions such as “Should I include Reels in my strategy?”
- Simple interface with both typed questions and suggested prompts
- Provides expert insights without requiring deep analytical expertise
This specialized social media AI tool focuses on improving your social media strategy by offering practical advice for each component of your SWOT analysis.
Pretty swell, right? Try it now.
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With these social media tools and this article’s tips, you’ll have a strong SWOT analysis that leads to tangible results.
When should you perform a social media SWOT analysis?
To get the most out of your social media SWOT analysis, timing matters. Here are the best moments to do it.
Launching a new campaign
Campaigns can be resource-draining. Before investing in a significant social media campaign, make sure to:
- Conduct a social media SWOT analysis to prioritize the right platforms and content types.
- Assess potential threats to figure out what could delay things.
- Identify strong points that you can use in your campaign messaging.
- Check for any potential problems and sort them out before we go live.
Doing a SWOT before your campaign means you’ll use what works and skip the old mistakes, so you’re more likely to hit your goals.
Considering investing in a new channel
A social media SWOT analysis can give you important information before deciding to invest in a new social platform:
- Evaluate whether your content strengths can translate to the new channel.
- See what’s not working well right now and if that could be worse on the new platform.
- Assess opportunities specific to the platform’s unique features and audience.
- Consider threats from established competitors already active on the platform or from any specific platform rules and regulations.
Basically, a TikTok SWOT and a LinkedIn SWOT would be completely different because each platform has its own rules. For example, your casual, entertaining behind-the-scenes content might be a strength on TikTok but a weakness on LinkedIn, where professional thought leadership performs better.
Running a social media performance audit
During regular social media performance reviews:
- Use SWOT analysis to assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats beyond surface-level metrics.
- Track performance shifts: rising engagement may signal a new strength, while declining reach could indicate a weakness.
- Identify new opportunities — for example, a spike in video views might suggest investing more in video content.
- Detect threats early, such as algorithm changes reducing your visibility or a competitor gaining traction in your space.
Adding SWOT to your regular social media audits helps you make better decisions based on your results.
Doing competitive benchmarking
SWOT is key for competitive analysis, because it gives you a clear, organized view of where you stand. When judging your position against competitors:
- Identify comparative strengths that give you competitive advantages.
- Recognize weaknesses where competitors outperform your brand.
- Spot opportunities in gaps that neither you nor your competitors are addressing.
- Assess threats from competitor innovations or market shifts.
A social media marketing situation analysis that includes competitor benchmarking provides context for your performance and helps identify which metrics matter most in your specific market.
Using SWOT at these times ensures you’re always growing and prepared for any shifts in your business or the wider world.
Final thoughts
Think of your SWOT as a living document, not a one-off exercise. Use it strategically to position your brand, launch new products or services, test new channels, and ensure that you keep a competitive edge.
Since social media keeps changing, tools like Socialinsider give you the real-time data you need for smart planning. Start a 14-day trial and take the free Strategy Assistant for a spin to turn your SWOT analysis from just a list of ideas into tactics you can use.
* This article was originally published here
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