I worked as a Data Analyst for a consumer brand to analyse a full year of their social media performance data. The goal was to move beyond surface-level metrics and uncover the specific patterns. By platform, content format, posting time, and campaign. Patterns that were actually driving results. The analysis fed into a fully interactive dashboard built in excel and a formal executive summary report delivered to senior leadership, containing 8 prioritised strategic recommendations.

The dataset was cleaned in Power Query, modelled in Power Pivot, and used to build the dashboard directly in Excel. It captured 14 fields spanning post identity, platform, campaign, content format, timing, paid vs. organic status, and performance metrics, covering everything from impressions and reach down to individual engagement types (likes, comments, shares, clicks) and followers gained per post. Click to view dataset

• Overall Performance: 450 posts generated 13.2M impressions and 870K engagements at a 6.61% engagement rate, more than double the industry benchmark. However, only 0.11% of the 9.5M people reached ever followed the brand, the most critical gap in the strategy.
• Platform: TikTok led at 8.97%, nearly 3x Facebook's 3.46%. Despite this, budget and effort were spread evenly across all four platforms.
• Content Format: Video drove 9.35% engagement while text sat at 2.85%. The content calendar treated both formats the same.
• Posting Time: Afternoon posts outperformed every other window at 7.47%, 35% higher than Midday. Posting times were largely unplanned.
• Platform × Format: TikTok Video in the Afternoon hit 14.03%, the single highest-performing combination. 2.4x better than anything else. One organic TikTok video hit 12K+ engagements with no paid spend.
• Campaigns: Summer Vibes led in engagement (269K), Spring Launch led in follower growth (2,833). The gap between the top and bottom campaign was over 5x.
• Boosted vs. Organic: Boosted posts drove 2.84x more engagement than organic. The cost difference was negligible, $0.14 vs $0.12 per engagement.

The following 8 recommendations were delivered to senior leadership;

1. Double down on TikTok Video: the highest-performing platform-format combination at 14.03% engagement
2. Default to Afternoon posting: 35% engagement advantage over Midday slots
3. Boost proven organic content: amplify posts already showing strong early performance rather than boosting indiscriminately
4. Scale Instagram Carousel as the secondary strategy: 7.63% engagement, strong for storytelling and product content
5. Replicate the Summer Vibes playbook: audit creative, themes, and messaging from the top-performing campaign
6. Reduce investment in Facebook and text content: reallocate budget to higher-return channels and formats
7. Close the follower conversion gap: introduce follower CTAs, community content, and audience retention tactics to address the 0.11% conversion rate
8. Activate a Q4 engagement recovery plan: engagement dips in October–December, introduce reinvigorated campaign strategies to sustain year-round performance