The Five Cs Of Social Media Analytics
Social media has the power to yield an understanding of consumers, brand identities, and the competitive landscape in a unique way that no other single data source can. Tune in, listen, and analyze. You never know what opportunities will be discovered in the sea of data.
What if you could survey 65% of your target population? That kind of access and data could provide a mine field of valuable marketing insights. According to the Pew Research Center, that’s the percentage of U.S. adults who use social media.
No other form of communication can come close to offering such a large sample of the U.S. population. And while not all conversations on social media are relevant, certain insights within the fabric of unstructured conversations can only be uncovered with effective social media analytics.
For marketers to tap into this rich resource and drive tangible results from social media, they should take advantage of the five Cs of social media analytics.
1. Campaign Effectiveness
Global advertising spend for 2015 was estimated to reach $540 billion, yet marketers struggle to estimate the effectiveness of their campaigns. What was the impact of the campaign, and how did the target audience react to it? Social media analytics with its sweeping reach can be an effective tool for tracking the impact of those campaigns on the brand image and purchase intent. For example, after spending $4.5 million for a 30-second spot in Super Bowl 2015, the advertisers need not wait for days to gauge the response; instead, social media analytics could be used to uncover reactions in almost real time.
Brands can also leverage social media analytics to benchmark marketing campaigns against those of their competitors. With those data-driven insights in hand, future campaigns are better informed and are more likely to succeed.
2. Crisis Detection
Instead of relying only upon their sophisticated and numerous sensors, it is feasible for the U.S. Geological Survey to detect an earthquake in a matter of 29 seconds by leveraging social media. With data feeding into the platform nearly in real time, it’s a useful tool for understanding trends, events, and potential brand crises as they surface. Organizations can tap into its power to detect crises while they’re still unfolding and before they erupt into an event that’s detrimental to the brand. Using past crisis data, social media analytics also can identify and map potential crises so they can be addressed before going viral.
3. Competitive Insights
The power of social media analytics isn’t limited to its monitoring and real-time reaction capabilities. The patterns and insights gleaned from the vast amounts of data can also be used for strategic purposes from new product development and opportunity identification to customer preference studies. Being clued into what consumers are talking about—as well as when and how they’re talking about it—provides brands with a competitive edge in developing new product and service offerings. For instance, analyzing social media conversations that indicate a switch from one brand to another in any industry will yield a treasure trove of insights on strengths and weaknesses among competitors.
4. Community Of Influencers Mapping
Never underestimate the power of influence. A recent McKinsey study on purchasing behavior found that recommendations via social media induced 26% of purchases across all product categories. What’s more, the study found that in some cases a small number of active influencers accounted for up to 45% of social influence generated in a particular category.
Do you know who the purchase influencers are for your brand? Social media analytics enables brands to map influencer communities specific to your organization’s products or services. From there, brands can glean insights on purchase influencers’ reactions to both their offerings and those of competitors to further inform their marketing and brand strategies.
5. Convergence Of Insights From Non-Social Data
Finally, social media analytics can be used to validate findings from smaller, more structured samples–such as a survey or focus group. When that structured market research is converged with social media analytics, another layer of insights can be derived from the data. By joining the rich, unfiltered, direct-from-consumer insights that social data provides, brands can add an entirely new dimension to the depth of structured data from non-social sources.
Social media has the power to yield an understanding of consumers, brand identities, and the competitive landscape in a unique way that no other single data source can. Organizations that ignore social media analytics simply aren’t taking advantage of the invaluable data and rich insights it can deliver. Tune in, listen, and analyze. You never know what opportunities will be discovered in the sea of data.
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