Category: Marketing Automation

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Life on the Internet can be stressful –  even more for anyone who’s selling a product or service. Negative comments and reactions on your social media are standard and almost expected whether you’re a brand or an individual. Receiving these comments is inevitable, but the important thing is how you handle them. Poor handling can hurt you and your brand and turn customers away.According to ReviewTrackers, 94% of consumers say that a bad review has convinced them to avoid a business. This is why it’s essential to create a clear and concise policy for what to do when you encounter negativity on your social media so you can tackle it before it becomes a problem for your business.1. Always address negative comments about you or your brandShould you address every comment you receive? We think so. Maintaining public relations is essential for personal and business brand building; part of that is customer engagement in both positive and negative circumstances.Noting the comments you get — positive, negative, or neutral — can help you understand followers’ sentiments about your brand and your content which, in turn, enables you to connect better with them.Rosie Hall, a PR & Communications Manager at Hable, agrees with this approach, saying, “My policy for dealing with negative comments on social media has always been to address it quickly, be apologetic, and then try to take it off the public-facing areas to discuss it privately. I think that way, your audience knows that you’re dealing with any issues, but the detail remains private. Never deleting negative comments is also a bit of a golden rule for me – it can get people even angrier, and it looks like your brand has got something to hide. A big no!”Royal Bank of Canada’s Twitter response team took this approach – instead of getting defensive, they approached with empathy and an offer to help.However, the exception to this rule will have to be your or your social media manager’s mental health, which should take priority over anything else. From negative but fair feedback from customers to outright unfair or incendiary comments from trolls, it can be difficult to face attacks of any kind on social media.It’s natural to deal with negativity. If a rude comment affects you, speak to someone on your team or your circle of friends and family. No matter how personal a comment might seem, the commenter doesn’t know you. Be secure in your value, focus on positives, and let the negatives fade.2. Determine how to respond to different types of negative commentsYour social media strategy should include a set of standards for responding to incoming notifications and messages. Your team should be clear on how quickly they need to reply and provide some templated on-brand messaging that addresses frequently asked questions.Stephanie Gutierrez, a Senior Social Media Strategist at Online Optimism – a marketing agency – shares the system and steps that the agency has developed to address communications issues – especially when it comes to negativity. Stephanie says, “At our agency, we produce a Communications Guide for each client at the start of our partnership. This allows us to plan for any messages or comments we anticipate receiving on social media, good or bad, so we’re ready to respond in a timely manner.”Based on Stephanie’s guidelines, here are some steps to creating standards for your social media communications.Identify which questions come up from your customers the most, as well as the positive and negative feedback they tend to give. Stephanie recommends asking your salesperson/team if you have one. You can also look through your social media profiles to see what questions and comments you’ve received in the past.Plan out a few responses to negative situations that you anticipate so several options are available. For example, if someone can’t get a hold of your customer service or if someone’s order was wrong, having a few answers on hand prevents users from feeling like you’re copying and pasting the same message for everyone.Plan to update these responses from time to time, so they remain relevant and don’t feel stale. If a question or comment comes up that wasn’t in your guide, add it with the approved response so you are prepared for the next time it comes up.Your responses should address the individual in a personalized way by calling them by their name. Acknowledge the issue they are facing and reassure them that you want to set things right if they had a negative experience. Personalized messages help customers feel heard. Nike’s customer response team took personalization to the next level, offering to help the customer find the exact item they were looking for.In addition to Stephanie’s advice, here are some other practices to include in your Communications Guide:Frequently reiterate your policies on harassment on your social media accountUse the BIFF (Brief, Informative, Friendly, and Firm) framework to respond to commentsIgnore the comments and don’t respond if you don’t absolutely need toConsider muting or blocking them (after determining that the person in question is actually a troll)If it goes too far, report the post.By having your policy in mind, you’ll be prepared should a situation arise. And in an added layer to creating a communications policy, make sure every employee is aware of how to handle negativity on your public-facing channels, even if they don’t normally interact with customers. This way, everyone in your organization knows how to address any situations that may arise.3. Respond on timeOne of the critical difficulties in responding to negative comments on social media is time, as Rafal Mlodzki, CEO of Passport Photo Online, points out. People want a quick response when things go wrong and social media makes it so that customers worldwide (and in different timezones) are constantly engaging with your brand. So, a lack of response might signal that you don’t care about your customers’ opinions.Here at Buffer, we have lots of experience responding to messages quickly. Team members in both Marketing and Customer Advocacy have access to our social accounts so we can respond to users quickly. A great example is this tweet that was sent out at 4:40 am (GMT +1) and the response from our team 4 minutes later.Hey Ashish! I’m sorry to say that we are unable to connect and directly publish to Instagram and Facebook Personal Profiles. You can read more on this here https://t.co/AJgCtWQQOC. -James— Buffer (@buffer) July 11, 2022

However, while we have a large team in place for customer engagement, that isn’t possible for every business owner. If you can’t afford a large team dedicated to customer engagement, consider sharing that on your profile (for example, pinning a post with your response policy to the top of your Instagram or Twitter), and remember to give your customers a time frame of when you’ll be getting back to them4. Approach negative comments with facts and not emotionsIt’s crucial to respond factually when faced with a negative comment, whether it’s admitting when you’re wrong, offering a solution, or countering misinformation.If you or your brand is wrong, apologize sincerely and provide a solution for the aggrieved customer. However, if someone is only posting to get a reaction out of you or your audience, then Logan Mallory, VP at Motivosity which creates employee engagement software, recommends that you do not engage.As Logan shares, “There’s a difference between someone voicing concern and someone who’s just trying to be an instigator. You can and should reply to negative comments where someone is directly expressing concern, but when it comes to comments that are simply inflammatory remarks, those are best left alone. A reply won’t do any good, and can simply cause the person posting those comments to post even more.”However, this option won’t work for every scenario – while ignoring negative comments might seem like the right move as you’re not feeding the fire, it can also seem suspicious to some of your followers.If you have to address potentially misleading information, share fact-based sources that refute the wrong information. Don’t respond directly to the troll – your response shouldn’t be for them. Instead, leave a comment that clears up any confusion that may arise. While this isn’t from social media, it’s a great example of how to put out a fire with facts. This Mazda dealership defended itself by stating the steps they took to solve the customer’s complaint, effectively shutting down the problem.Ultimately, you must figure out what approach – ignoring vs. responding with facts – is best case-by-case.5. Always report harassmentThere’s a fine line between criticism and outright harassment — if someone makes you or your followers uncomfortable or even threatens you on social media, don’t hesitate to report them.Check out the policies that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other major sites have when it comes to filing complaints about abusive behavior. Also, consider blocking accounts that harass you or your followers and highlighting them for your legal team and community to be aware of.Consider creating a “rules of conduct” post and pinning it on your profile. Then, if someone behaves inappropriately, you’ll have a clear justification for booting them.Focus on cultivating positivity between you and your communitySocial media is incredible for its ability to bring the world together. But unfortunately, that does open us up to a world of negativity. It’s just something that brands have to deal with, especially as they grow and garner more attention.That’s why it’s important to remain positive when dealing with social media trolls and also encourage healthy interactions with the supportive part of your community. David Bitton, CMO at DoorLoop a property management software company, recommends that you outright dismiss exchanges that could potentially induce conflict before they become heated if the conversation adds no value to achieving your business goals on social media.Your goal when managing your community should be to foster a supportive environment where people feel safe to have honest dialogue, listen, ask questions, and express their points respectfully.Want to keep an eye on everything happening in your comments and mentions across all your social media accounts? Try out Engage by Buffer.

With the potential to increase your brand awareness and build a reputable brand being so high on Instagram, understanding how to use it is essential.
While there are various ways to market yourself or your business on Instagram, it’s impossible to do so without first understanding your Instagram engagement rate.

Discover below ways to increase your engagement rate and the industry benchmarks to measure yourself against.

What is an Instagram engagement rate?
Why does your Instagram engagement rate matter?
What is the average Instagram engagement rate?
How To Calculate Your Engagement Rate On Instagram
How to Increase Your Instagram Engagement Rate

Why does your Instagram engagement rate matter?
Instagram engagement rates are significant because they measure an audience’s interest, brand relevance, and social authority.
Audience Interest
If your content appeals to your target audience, your engagement rate will be higher.
If you take the time to review your best-performing content — i.e., posts with the most likes, shares, saves, and comments — you’ll get a feel for what your users want to see.
It’s important to note high impressions may indicate that your content has been viewed a lot, but engagement is typically defined as concrete interactions with your posts.
Relevance
If you have a high engagement rate, it’s likely your audience sees you as a relevant source of information.
They may favor your content over competitors because your content sets you apart. However, if you have a high engagement rate now, will it stay the same in three months? Is it higher than it was last year?
If you aren’t monitoring your engagement rate and using it as a benchmark for relevance, your score can decline.
Social Authority
While you’ve probably already identified your target Instagram audience, it’s never bad to add new followers and fans to the list.
These new users will take notice of your engagement — your followers, likes, comments, etc. — to decide whether or not to follow you.
They’re likely to move on to your competitors if they notice your brand’s engagement, a.k.a. social authority is not strong.

What is the average Instagram engagement rate?
There is no one-size-fits-all definition of a “good” engagement rate. It can vary by industry, B2B vs. B2C, and a series of other factors.
However, Instagram does have higher engagement rates than other social media networks.
According to the HubSpot Instagram Engagement Report, posts on the platform generate 23% more engagement than Facebook, even though Facebook has 2x more monthly users.

If you want a numerical value to compare your score to, Rival IQ found that the median engagement rate across all industries is 0.064%, in a 2022 report.
The highest engagement levels are reported in the sporting industry (0.27%) and by influencers (0.23).
Because of this, it’s safe to assume that an engagement rate of around 1% is a good engagement rate.
If you’ve already run the numbers and found that your engagement rate is significantly lower than average, don’t fret. There’s room for improvement — but maintain a healthy perspective.
Assess how your engagement rate has changed over time and begin devising strategies to raise your score.
Start this process by calculating your engagement rate, outlined in the next section.

How To Calculate Your Engagement Rate On Instagram
There is debate among marketers on the best way to calculate your Instagram engagement rate, as different industries define success in different ways.
Your preferred method depends on your goals as a brand or influencer.
Calculating Instagram Engagement Rate for Brands

This formula is best for brands on Instagram because it considers the number of people who have seen a piece of content (impressions) rather than the total number of followers.

 

 

Brands typically convert more leads via exposure first, rather than follower count.

 

When branded advertisements get viewed, engagement rates go up, especially if they follow the advertisements on Instagram profiles and become followers.

Note that Instagram accounts need to be public
Business Profiles to see impressions.

Calculating the Instagram engagement Rate for Influencers
Since sponsors often recruit influencers on Instagram based on their likes and follower count, their engagement rates incorporate these two factors.
Since this metric doesn’t require any personal data, it’s possible to compare your engagement rates to competitors.

No matter your engagement rate, there are always steps to be taken to raise your score.

1. Maintain consistent branding.
Maintaining consistency with your content is extremely important, and there are a variety of actions you can take to do so.
Firstly, your username should be similar or the same to your other social media usernames. For example, if your Twitter handle is @greenbookworm, your Instagram handle should be the same if it’s available (or something very similar).
You should also make sure that your content is visually consistent as well, and you should have a format that you use for all of your posts. Take a look at Nike’s Instagram, for example.
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Whenever they post content that includes typography, they use the same backgrounds and font. When they post photos, they’re high quality and use the same filter.

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When your content has a similar look, your profile becomes aesthetically pleasing, and users can recognize your photos as a consistent brand. If they come across your content on another social media site and can realize that it’s yours, they may follow you there as well.

There’s data to back this up — WebDam found that 60% of the best-performing brands on Instagram used the same filter every time they post.
2. Understand your audience.
You can’t begin creating content without knowing your intended audience. Developing Instagram personas is a helpful tool for increasing your engagement rate.
If you know who your followers are, creating content that they want makes them more likely to engage with you. Take the time to monitor your audience statistics, and update your personas accordingly.
You can use Instagram insights to get a demographic understanding of your followers. If you have an Instagram business account, navigate to the audience tab from the Insights menu.
From here, you can see the top locations your users are in, your users’ age ranges, and their gender. All this information will give you an understanding of your users. If you’re a HubSpot user, you can utilize the Social Reports data to find these same insights.
Regardless of your target audience, your content needs to be accessible. Utilizing Instagram’s accessibility tools is crucial, and you can use it to add image alt text, subtitles, and captions to your content.
3. Post regularly.
Once you know your target audience, post content they’ll enjoy and do it regularly.
The number of times you post depends on your marketing strategy, but the average brand posts four to six times a week on social media, according to a 2021 HubSpot Blog survey.
Again, this metric is an average and it may not work for everyone.
Posting too much content can overwhelm your users, and they won’t hesitate to unfollow if their feed is clogged.
It’s also important to know the best times to post for your followers. Instagram insights will also tell you the best days and hours to post.

Do keep in mind that quantity doesn’t equal quality, which brings us to the next engagement-raising strategy.

4. Create better captions.
Unless you’re @world_record_egg, who posted a photo of an egg with no caption that has generated over 12 million likes, you need to focus on your captions.
Use the brand voice you’ve developed to sound consistent and keep your intended audience in mind. You can create short captions that are serious or light-hearted.
You can also create longer captions that tell stories and take your users on a journey. Take the Instagram account @humansofny as an example. They regularly feature the personal stories of people around the world.

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Since engagement metrics factor in the length of time users spend on your posts, consider alternating shorter and longer captions.

Hand-in-hand with writing better captions is using quality hashtags — Instagram was built on them, after all. It’s still the algorithm’s primary method of filtering through content. If you’re unfamiliar with hashtags, here’s a summary.
Captions can hold up to 30 hashtags per post, but there must be a balance.
Hashtag dumping, which is similar to keyword stuffing, may make the algorithm think you’re spamming for engagement, and you can be shadowbanned. The goal is to figure out what works for you and stick to it.
Your hashtags should be a mix of popular and specific, long-tailed keywords. For example, if you’re running an Instagram for your hotel, you’ll want to use common hashtags like #hotel and #travel.
However, those are also very broad, as a search for the #hotel tag has 31 million posts. Be more specific and targeted towards your needs, and maybe say #hotel, #travel, and #hotel + your hotel name + the name of the city you’re in. So, for example, #hotellisamiami.
You can discover the best hashtags to use by doing keyword research and categorizing those that work best for you and your brand. You may also want to consider coming up with a brand-specific hashtag that users can recognize as yours.
5. Engage with your followers.
After you post, engage with your followers. While Instagram has the ‘Turn off comments’ feature, opt to keep them on.
Reply to comments that your followers make. Maybe they’re asking questions or proclaiming their excitement for your product. Paula’s Choice, a beauty brand, is an excellent example of this.

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They regularly host Instagram Q&A’s, where users ask questions and they answer them on their Instagram stories.
They’re taking actions that they know will entice their audience into interacting with their Instagram content, which factors into engagement rates.
Engaging with your followers also entails sharing their content on your site, known as user-generated content (UGC). Surfing through your brand-specific hashtags can help you find users that are posting about you. You can screenshot their content to share on your story, and even post on your feed.
Your followers will be excited that you interact with them, as engagement may signify a personal relationship with your brand. Here’s an example of Paula’s Choice posting UGC.

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6. Engage with similar accounts.
There wouldn’t be a point to using Instagram if you’re not following and interacting with other accounts.
Using the platform to engage with accounts similar to yours is extremely important. If you’re a brand, this can mean partnering with influencers in the same industry.
If you share products with them, they’ll post content wearing your brands. If they tag you, their followers will see your account, and many may follow you — all of these metrics factor into your engagement rate.
Emma Chamberlain is a popular YouTuber, holding almost 10.4 million Instagram followers at only 19 years old. She regularly posts sponsored content, and her sponsors post her. She entices her followers to interact with those brands, and vice versa.
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This establishes trust between brands, influencers, and their followers, which paints a picture of ‘high engagement’ to those browsing Instagram, and they’ll follow you in return.

 

In addition to influencers, simply engaging with brands within your industry is essential as well. Commenting on industry-standard accounts can give you exposure to users in that same comment section, and they may click your profile and become new followers.

7. Create mixed content.
When the app was first launched, all you could do was post photos. Now, there are five types of content posts supported on Instagram: photos, videos, Instagram TV (IGTV), Instagram Reels, and Instagram Stories.
It’s no longer enough to just post photos; you need to do all of it.
Videos
Zenith Media estimated that the average person would spend 84 minutes a day watching videos in 2020. That’s a significant amount of time spent watching videos, so use it to your advantage.
There are five video options within Instagram: Reels, IGTV, Story videos, Instagram Live, and video posts. You’ll need to decide which method is best for you, but a well-rounded Instagram strategy will include all. If people are watching content on your page, they’re spending more time on your site, factoring into your impressions rate.
If you’re a sports brand, post enticing videos of recognized athletes using your equipment to practice their sport.
Stories
Instagram Stories are essentially the same as Snapchat stories. HubSpot’s Instagram engagement report found 22% of users watched branded content Stories from a company, business, or brand more than once a week, and 36% liked, commented, or shared branded Stores.
You can take advantage of these numbers and use this feature to draw attention to your new posts by sharing them on your Story or simply posting Story exclusive content.
This feature can also be used to engage with your audience. Post quizzes and questions and make them shareable for other users. Stories can also be used to get feedback from customers, asking them to submit experiences with your products and services.
Circling back to influencer sponsorships, having them go live on your account via Instagram Live is a great strategy. Instagram Live’s can also be saved to your account, so new users can watch them even if they occurred three months before.
8. Use calls-to-action (CTAs).
A CTA is an image, line of text, hashtag, or swipe-up link that is meant to entice your audience to take action — hence the call to action.
The specific action you’re asking users to take should be decided based on your brand, service, or influencers’ needs. This may mean notifying them of a sale by including a swipe up link in your Instagram story, asking them to tag a friend in the comment section, or sharing links to partner-posted content.
While links to other sites don’t directly impact your Instagram engagement rate, they still require users to spend more time on your profile, and you can convert them into leads on other platforms. Here’s an example of National Geographic advertising a new product on their story using a swipe-up CTA.

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9. Track your statistics.
Why would you bother taking action to improve your engagement rate if you’re not taking the time to understand if it’s working? Tracking your progress is extremely important, and it should be something you focus on.
Trial and error is expected, and it should be used to inform your current and future strategies. Use your preferred CRM to find your most effective posts or pieces of content, and use the strategy employed in those for your next content posts.
After you’ve calculated your engagement rate for the first time, you should devise a timeline in which you’ll recalculate it again. Maybe you’ll set a goal of raising your score by .10% in a year, so you may plan to re-calculate the numbers every three months.
This can also help you understand what isn’t working — if your numbers haven’t budged, something needs to change.
All in all, Instagram engagement rate is a measure of how your audience interacts with your content. Your rate is an indication of your Instagram profiles’ social authority, relevancy, and audience interest.
If your content is good and your followers are engaging, your engagement rate will demonstrate that. When you spend time working on your engagement rate, you collect valuable data to inform your entire Instagram marketing strategy.
You should see your engagement rate as a benchmark for customer loyalty and satisfaction.
If your users like you, it’ll show.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in October 2020 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Microsoft Excel lets you do more than simply create spreadsheets — you can also use the software to calculate key functions, such as the relationship between two variables. Known as the correlation coefficient, this metric is useful for measuring the impact of one operation on another to inform business operations.

Not confident in your Excel skills? No problem. Here’s how to calculate — and understand — the correlation coefficient in Excel.

A correlation coefficient of +1 indicates a “perfect positive correlation”, which means that as variable X increases, variable Y increases at the same rate. A correlation value of -1, meanwhile, is a “perfect negative correlation”, which means that as variable X increases, variable Y decreases at the same rate. Correlation analysis may also return results anywhere between -1 and +1, which indicates that variables change at similar but not identical rates.
Correlation values can help businesses evaluate the impact of specific actions on other actions. For example, companies may find that as spending on social media marketing increases, so does customer engagement, indicating that more spending might make sense.
Or they may find that specific advertising campaigns result in a correlated decrease of customer engagement, in turn suggesting the need for a reevaluation of current efforts. The discovery that variables do not correlate can also be valuable; while common sense might suggest that a new function or feature in your product would correlate with increased engagement, it might have no measurable impact. Correlation analysis allows companies to view this relationship (or lack thereof) and make sound strategic decisions.
So how do you calculate the correction coefficient in Excel? Simple! Follow these steps:
1. Open Excel.
Step one: Open Excel and start a new worksheet for your correlated variable data. Enter the data points of your first variable in column A and your second variable in column B. You can add additional variables as well in columns C, D, E, etc. — Excel will provide a correlation coefficient for each one.
In the example below, we’ve entered six rows of data in column A and six in column B.

2. Install the Analysis Toolpak.
Next up? If you don’t have it, install the Excel Analysis Toolpak.
Select “File”, then “Options,” and you’ll see this screen:

Select “Add-Ins” and then click on “Go”.

Now, check the box that says “Analysis ToolPak” and click “Ok”.
3. Select “Data” from the top bar menu.
Once you have the ToolPak installed, select “Data” from the top Excel bar menu. This provides you with a submenu that contains a variety of analysis options for your data.
4. Select “Data Analysis” in the top right-hand corner.
Now, look for “Data Analysis” in the top right-hand corner and click on it to get this screen:

5. Select Correlation.
Select Correlation from the menu and click “OK.”

6. Define your data range and output.
Now define your data range and output. You can simply left-click and drag your cursor across the data you want to select, and it will auto-populate in the Correlation box. Finally, select an output range for your correlation data — we’ve chosen A8. Then, click “Ok”.

7. Evaluate your correlation coefficient.
Your correlation results will now be displayed. In our example, values in column 1 and column 2 have a perfect negative correlation; as one goes up, the other goes down at the same rate.

The Excel Correlation Matrix
Excel correlation results are also known as an Excel correlation matrix. In the example above, our two columns of data produced a perfect correction matrix of 1 and -1. But what happens if we produce a correlation matrix with a less ideal data set?
Here’s our data:

And here’s the matrix:

Cell C4 in the matrix gives us the correlation between Column 3 and Column 2, which is a very weak 0.01025, while Column 1 and Column 3 yield a stronger negative correlation of -0.17851. By far the strongest correlation, however, is between Column 1 and Column 2 at -0.66891.
So what does this mean in practice? Let’s say we were examining the impact of specific actions on the efficacy of a social media campaign, where Column 1 represents the number of visitors who click through on social advertisements and Columns 2 and 3 represent two different marketing taglines. The correlation matrix shows a strong negative correlation between Columns 1 and 2, which suggests that the Column 2 version of the tagline significantly decreased overall user engagement, while Column 3 drove only a slight decrease.
Regularly creating Excel matrices can help companies better understand the impact of one variable on another and determine what (if any) negative or positive effects may exist.
The Excel Correlation Formula
If you prefer to enter the correlation formula yourself, that’s also an option. Here’s what it looks like:

X and Y are your measurements, ∑ is the sum, and the X and Y with the bars over them indicate the mean value of the measurements. You would calculate it as follows:

Calculate the sum of variable X minus the mean of X.
Calculate the sum of variable Y minus the mean of Y.
Multiply those two results and set that number aside (this is the first result).
Square the sum of X minus the mean of X. Square the sum of Y minus the mean of Y. Multiply those two numbers.
Take the square root (this is the second result).
Divide the first result by the second result.
You get the correlation coefficient.

Easy, right? Yes and no. While plugging in the numbers isn’t complicated, it’s often more trouble than it’s worth to create and manage this formula. The built-in Excel Toolpak is often a simpler (and faster) way to pinpoint coefficients and discover key relationships.
Correlation ≠ Not Causation
No article about correlation is complete without a mention that it does not equal causation. In other words, just because two variables rise or fall together doesn’t mean that one variable is the cause of the other variable’s increase or decrease.
Consider a few very strange examples.

This image shows a near-perfect negative correlation between the number of pirates and the global average temperature — as pirates became more scarce, the average temperature increased.
The problem? While these two variables are correlated, there’s no causal link between the two; higher temperatures did not reduce the pirate population and fewer pirates did not cause global warming.
While correlation is a powerful tool, it only indicates the direction of increase or decrease between two variables — not the cause of this increase or decrease. To discover causal links, companies must increase or decrease one variable and observe the impact. For example, if correlation shows that customer engagement goes up with social media spending, it’s worth opting for a slight increase in spending followed by a measurement of results. If more spending leads directly to increased engagement, the link is both correlated and causal. If not, there may be one (or more) factors that underpin the increase of both variables.
Keeping Up with the Correlations
Excel correlations offer a solid starting point for marketing, sales, and spending strategy development, but they don’t tell the whole story. As a result, it’s worth using Excel’s built-in data analysis options to quickly evaluate the correlation between two variables and use this data as a jumping-off point for more in-depth analysis.

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