Collaboration Based on Data

Collaboration Based on Data

Overview for this week:

In this week's lecture, we're going to go through:

Quick Review of What's Trending (Your Responses)

Researching Brands

Assignment Look Ahead: Pitch A Partnership Activity

Types of Social Media Data

Quick Case Study

Review of What's Trending in your feeds!

Warm-Up Discussion:

Let’s start with a brainstorm. When you hear the word ‘collaboration’ in a social media context, what pops into your head? Celebrity endorsements? TikTok duets? Meme wars? Co-branded products? I want to hear your first associations. Click on the button below to open Mural and add to the whiteboard.

Open Mural

Collaboration:

This week (and next), we’re digging into collaboration and partnerships in social media—and more importantly, how data drives the choices behind them. You’ve probably noticed that nearly every brand online is teaming up with someone else: whether it’s influencers, other brands, nonprofits, or even competitors (sometimes in friendly feuds). The reason? Collaboration amplifies reach, adds new voices to the conversation, and often makes a campaign more memorable. But the most effective partnerships aren’t random—they’re backed by audience insights, engagement patterns, and smart strategy. When we think about social media partnerships—whether it’s between brands, influencers, or even competitors—the most successful ones are built on strategy, not guesswork.

Looking Ahead

The readings and examples this week highlight both the serious and the satirical sides of collaboration. The Hootsuite article shows you the how-to of pulling off a good partnership, while the Business Insider roundup of fast-food Twitter feuds demonstrates how humor, rivalry, and personality can generate massive engagement. And then, of course, The Onion’s video pokes fun at the whole idea—reminding us that not all “collaborations” are original or thoughtful. Taken together, these resources should get you thinking about what good collaboration looks like, what bad collaboration looks like, and how audiences respond differently depending on tone, timing, and authenticity.

Why Collaborations Matter

Collaborations can expand reach, strengthen brand identity, and bring fresh creative energy. Think about brands like Nike teaming up with Apple, or even smaller-scale partnerships like a local coffee shop working with a bakery. In social media, these collaborations don’t just happen for fun—they’re usually backed by data that shows overlap in audience, shared values, or a trend worth tapping into. When you see two accounts working together, you should ask: what do they gain by joining forces?

Data-Driven Partnerships

The key to successful collaboration is data. Social platforms give us insights into audience demographics, engagement rates, and even the times of day people interact. Before a brand reaches out to another, they’ll usually compare these data points. For example, if one brand’s audience is mostly Gen Z and another’s is largely Millennials, they might need to decide whether that mismatch is a strength or a weakness. Partnerships aren’t random—they’re carefully matched using audience overlap, trending content formats, and metrics that predict success.

Collabs aren’t random. They’re driven by:

• Engagement rates
• Follower overlap
• Virality metrics
• Sentiment analysis

Collaboration Categories Mural Whiteboard Recap

These are the 3 primary collaboration types we see in social media marketing. Each uses unique strategies—but none work without aligning with platform culture and community expectations.

• Brand × Creator → Duolingo × influencers

• Brand × Brand → McDonald’s × Cactus Jack

• Brand × Audience → Wendy’s roasting fans

Collaboration Categories Mural Whiteboard Recap

Brand × Creator: Companies tap into the influence and authenticity of individual creators to reach niche audiences. For example, Duolingo leans on influencers and TikTok creators to extend its quirky personality. Brand × Brand: Partnerships between two companies—like McDonald’s × Cactus Jack—create cultural buzz by merging fan bases and communities. Brand × Audience: The brand collaborates directly with its followers, often through banter, roasting, memes, or user-generated content. Wendy’s Twitter strategy is a prime case—playful roasting keeps fans engaged and amplifies reach.

Read Sprout Social Article

Data Point Breakdown

Engagement rate Likes, comments, shares, saves. Are they posting regularly?

Virality metrics Speed of trend adoption, hashtag reach

EXPLAINED: When choosing a brand to collab with, ask yourself, "Would our audience benefit from this? Do they post consistently? Do I trust their voice enough to share them? These metrics tell brands: Will this collab actually land with our audience? Or are we just forcing it? Data helps avoid tone-deaf moments. The next video goes into more depth on how to collaborate with brands.

Follower overlap While other metrics matter, alignment matters the MOST! Does the brand align wiht your values, have a similar audience, similar visual style?

Sentiment Are people reacting positively or negatively?

Case Study – Twitter Feuds

Let’s look at a fun example: fast food Twitter feuds. Remember when Wendy’s started roasting McDonald’s, Burger King, and pretty much everyone else? That wasn’t just banter—it was strategy. These ‘feuds’ generated engagement, kept audiences entertained, and positioned Wendy’s as bold and witty. But notice something: every tweet was based on data. They knew what their audience liked, what tone resonated, and how far they could push without crossing a line. It’s a reminder that even humor online is calculated.

Read Article: 7 fast-food Twitter feuds

Collaboration Pitfalls

• Not every partnership works. Sometimes two brands collaborate without a clear strategy and it feels forced. Other times, the data gets ignored—maybe the audiences don’t actually overlap, or the messaging doesn’t align. The result? A campaign that falls flat, or worse, hurts the brand. As content creators and strategists, we need to think carefully about why a collaboration makes sense, and back it up with numbers, not just vibes.

• The LEGO-Shell partnership was a co-marketing arrangement dating back to the 1960s. In 2014, LEGO announced due to a brand misalignment.

Read 5 Brand Partnership Fails [Mistakes to Avoid]

Steps toCollab with others!

4. Build Buzz

2. Send Your Pitch

Share with your followers that you'll be collabing with another brand soon.This creates more awareness and engagement.

Messaging the brand you'd like to collab with. Outline what you like about them, how your materials overlap, and a formal request to work together.

5. Engage

3. Plan the Post

1. Find a Partner

You're the host of a party, now. Example: Engage with both audiences and make everyone feel welcome!

Who has a similar audience to you? What could your aueiences gain by this partnership?

A strong collab combines visual elements from both creators so both audiences can recognize it. Communicate about what that might look like toghether.

Step 1: How to Research Brands

Start with the basics: where did this brand or influencer come from, and what is their story? The official website and LinkedIn are great for credible info. Press coverage can also reveal recent moves, partnerships, or controversies.

• Website “About Us” page

• News articles/press releases

• LinkedIn company profile

• Wikipedia (for quick facts—verify!)

Step 2: Social Media Presence

Start with the basics: where did this brand or influencer come from, and what is their story? The official website and LinkedIn are great for credible info. Press coverage can also reveal recent moves, partnerships, or controversies.

• Platforms used (Instagram, TikTok, X, Threads, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.)
• Follower count & posting frequency
• Engagement rate = likes + comments ÷ followers (x100)

Step 3: Target Audience & Demographics

You won’t always find exact demographics unless the company has shared them—but you can infer. Look at platform-wide stats (ex: TikTok skews younger, LinkedIn more professional). Tools like SimilarWeb can give you site visitor demographics, and journalists often summarize audience breakdowns in articles.”

Where to find audience data:

• Instagram/YouTube “Audience Insights” (if public, sometimes reported in case studies)

• Pew Research + Statista (platform demographics)
• News coverage: ‘X% of TikTok’s users are Gen Z’

• Tools: SimilarWeb, Demographics Pro

Step 4: Competitors & Strategies

Identify who else is competing for the same audience. Look at their top posts, how they collaborate, and what their engagement looks like. Students don’t need paid tools—just scrolling and screen capturing can reveal a lot.

• Who are the direct competitors?

• What platforms do they use?

• What content is performing well?

• Tools: Sprout Social Competitor Reports, Hootsuite, or manual scanning

Step 5: Goals & Objectives

Common goals:

• Increase brand awareness

• Drive sales/conversions

• Grow community engagement

• Promote a cause or initiative

How to figure out goals:

• Read their mission/vision statement

• Scan press releases or recent campaigns

• Look at pinned posts / taglines / calls-to-action

Every brand has a purpose on social media—whether it’s sales, awareness, or culture-building. Students should look for explicit goals in press releases, pinned posts, and campaign hashtags. These clues reveal what matters most to the brand.

Engagement Rate Calculations

Some tools like Hubspot and Sprout Social are not free to use, and make it difficult/ impossible to access their data if you're not paying for it. SOOO, with that said, you CAN manually calculate engagement rates. Here’s the simple math you can use if you don’t want to rely on tools. Take the average likes and comments for a few recent posts, add them together, divide by total followers, then multiply by 100. This gives you an engagement percentage. You can always use Social Blade or Phlanx to cross-check your numbers—but learning this math keeps you from being tool-dependent.”

Engagement rates usually look like this:

• 1–3% = average
• 4–6% = good
• 7%+ = excellent, highly engaged community

Engagement Rate Calculations

Engagement Rate (%) =

Likes + Comments

Followers

x 100

Example:

• Followers: 10,000

• Avg. Likes: 500

• Avg. Comments: 50

• Engagement Rate = (550 ÷ 10,000) × 100 = 5.5%

Tools to double-check:

• Social Blade → follower growth & post trends

• Phlanx Engagement Calculator → instant engagement %

Your Turn – Pitch a Partnership

Now it’s your turn. For your next assignment, you’ll pitch your own social media collaboration. You’ll choose two partners—these could be brands, influencers, organizations, or even fictional pairings—and you’ll design a campaign idea. Here’s the catch: you need to use data to justify your choices. Who’s the target audience? What platform makes sense for the content? What kind of posts, videos, or stories would work best? This project will test both your creativity and your ability to think strategically with numbers in mind.

Summary

• The big takeaway here is this: collaborations may look fun and spontaneous on social media, but behind the scenes, they’re built on strategy and data. Over the next two weeks, I want you to think like a strategist—pay attention to how brands interact online, how their audiences respond, and how data might be driving those choices. Then, bring that mindset into your own partnership pitch. And to wrap it up, here's a TikTok partnership video between Scrub Daddy and Duolingo.

That's it for now!

Same time next week?

Send An Email!

This video is about an hour long, but it has really good content on how to choose a brand to collab with. It also has a step-by-step guide with templates on what you should say/ do when approaching a collaboration with another person/ brand. I know an hour is a scary long time... but I watched it at 1.5 speed and that helped a lot!

Going Over Your What's Trending Submissions:

It was really fun for me to see what's trending in your feeds vs. what's trending in mine! I just bought a house, so in my TikTok feed, I have a lot of DIY projects trending + Booktok trends and many of the same trends you've picked out for your projects. There were some new ones for me, though! Here are the things you shared with me: Gap vs. American Eagle, of course- Cracker Barrel, the Performative Male trend, Skrilla's Doot Doot song, THE T-Swift proposal, Sorority Rush, A Day in the Life videos, Life If videos, Clash Royale, Autumn Consumption, and there were like 6 presentations on The Summer I Turned Pretty, so I guess I have a new show to watch!

Picking Tools

I chose free tools to use for our class, but there are better ones out there.

Social Blade: Tracks follower/subscriber growth, estimated views, and posting trends for accounts on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter (X), Twitch, and TikTok. Perk- It's free & Doesn’t require login/subscription. It lets you see whether a brand/influencer’s audience is growing steadily or stagnating. You can check daily/weekly follower changes → helps when evaluating if a collab partner is relevant now or fading. Phlanx Engagement Calculator:Quick engagement rate calculatorSaves from doing math by hand (likes + comments ÷ followers).Puts follower numbers into perspective → 1M followers with 0.5% engagement is less valuable than 50k with 6% engagement. These tools give hands-on methods to back up their analysis with data, without you needing to provide premium software access like Sprout or Hootsuite. It keeps the assignment realistic while still professional.

This is a satirical video... but there is far more effort involved in creating a successful social media campaign than just creating a Facebook page or Instagram page.