The opportunity in mining social data to better inform business decisions is met equally with the challenges of converting something so vast and varied into meaningful insight.
In my opinion, it’s important to provide some differentiation between the functions Social Media and Social Analysis provide. In the context of business practice, social media is the promotion of a business through earned, owned and paid for media on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs.
Alterian’s Susan Etlinger describes Social Analysis as a measure to ‘focus attention, drive insight, and learn from experience.’ But while this approach fosters organisational learning, she goes on to explain how its most fundamental role is to provide strategists from all disciplines the ability to be able to ‘articulate, quickly and with confidence, the strategic business value of social media.’
Despite the swaths of information available, to be able to structure, organise and analyse social alongside other commercial data within an effective time-frame is presenting something of a stumbling block for marketers. Although movements such as linked data offer hope in this quest, to implement such a system in its relatively unproven state is a financial burden which may be hard to justify to executives.
As well as this, there is a general consensus that social data is far from revolutionising marketing. Colin Grieves, Director of propositions and strategy at Experian says ‘The volume and variety of data is something advertisers and network-owners have not yet managed to translate and fully exploit to prove the value of the channel. It will happen, but, as with anything this new and immense, it needs to mature and evolve.’
However, it isn’t without its high profile advocates. Both Marketing Magazine’s Melanie May and Edelman’s David Armano have recently published articles promoting the use of real-time data to influence program planning and uncovering trends and insight at a segment level. Whilst Armano skips around some of the problems, the provision of a strategic process to turn passive monitoring into valued insight which can then be spread across numerous business departments, does much to prove its value beyond communications.
So the question begs, where does a brand start with social analysis? Like all good decisions it should be shaped by your overall strategy. First of all, consider the objectives at the very core of your business, what are your corporate or unit priorities? Identify how social analysis can help satisfy these. If you’re still stuck, Alterian’s Social Media Measurement compass can help identify where the strengths of social analysis can align with your goals:
Second, define how you will measure success. Again, this should start with commercial objectives such as revenue generation, brand awareness and competitive insights. Then align these with social media metrics such as: leads generated through social media, positive brand mentions and share of voice.
Third, create and employ the tools needed to effectively measure this information.
Finally, and most importantly, turn this information into insight that can be shared across business departments. Although still in its infancy, being one of the first to uptake this type of analysis will no doubt provide a competitive advantage above anyone else, not least because once it’s matured into the potential it offers, you’ll have the experience and expertise of having been involved from the start. Product planning, CRM, strategic planning and human resources are all functions outlined by David Armano that will find this sort of information useful.
‘Our customers spend most of their time online, which requires us to adapt to their reality,’ says Xavier Vallee, direct of ecommerce, EMEA, at Avis. ‘As a result, we are transforming our marketing. The data we get from social media helps us participate in conversations with our customers as well as several objectives, in terms of brand positioning, product development, customer sales and insight, and it does influence revenue.’ – How to Join the Social Club, Melanie May, Marketing Magazine.
Despite its detractors, the fact remains that many businesses have already implemented and benefitted from this activity. The value of media in providing promotional value to a business is quickly diminishing due to the lowered barriers to entry of publishing. So the question begs: why not reframe media as an environment from where brands don’t only talk about themselves, but to where brands also listen to customers?
