data mining, social media analytics
- 11:48 AM - 5 comments
Do Social Media Monitoring tools provide True Intelligence?
Having recently read a report from WebLiquid one of the interesting facts to consider is that around 70% of Marketers replied finding the insights gleaned from Social Media Monitoring tools "Somewhat Valuable". Slightly more than 20% of them found these insights "Extremely valuable". The report also shows that most Marketers plan to invest more in SMM tools with few of them retreating from any further investment.
This is Big News. 70% of Marketers finding insights gleaned from SMM tools "Somewhat" valuable is not a good thing and perhaps there are reasons for this. It would be very interesting to know what do Marketers consider Insights, how they prioritize those Insights and how easily they can act once they have those insights . The problem can be summarized in one sentence:
- Marketers do not want (just) Reports.
But what is considered Intelligence in Social Media? Would someone identify as intelligence the fact that during the past 2 months there was an increase in specific Brand Mentions on Twitter but not on YouTube? Or is it Intelligence when we notice that there has been a decline in positive sentiment about a product? All of this information is Reporting and Feedback. It is not meant that this is not useful information : It is important to know what is happening and why.
So what True Intelligence is all about?
True Intelligence is about knowing how to successfully Promote and Market a Brand, Product or Service. To do that a Marketer wants to know the Best Practices : With Social Media Reports, Marketers know what is happening (a decline in positive mentions on our new smartphone) and why this is happening (a potential hardware problem). Social Media Analytics can identify the right strategies to make things happen. True Social Media Intelligence is about knowing which parameters (channels, number of mentions) are important in achieving a result. Is it important to have a product associated with intense (positive) sentiment? Or could it be more important to have a Product being highly associated with Rumors?
There is still a long way to go in terms of Insights from Social Media Monitoring tools. There are many processes and parameters that will eventually used for deriving more Insights and better Strategies. The answer to true Social Media Intelligence is the use of Predictive Analytics (Data and Text Mining) applied to Social Data : One area that is currently untouched by most Social Media Monitoring tools.
This is Big News. 70% of Marketers finding insights gleaned from SMM tools "Somewhat" valuable is not a good thing and perhaps there are reasons for this. It would be very interesting to know what do Marketers consider Insights, how they prioritize those Insights and how easily they can act once they have those insights . The problem can be summarized in one sentence:
- Marketers do not want (just) Reports.
There is a lot of useful information provided by many Social Media Monitoring tools : The number of mentions of a Brand (or Product or Service) per channel, which users talk frequently about your Brand (and which of them are considered influential). Sentiment Analysis provides Marketers with the perception of a Brand but also the perception about competitive Brands leading to what is known as Competitive Intelligence. Perhaps Social Media Monitoring platforms have many types of metrics still to offer : For example, a potentially useful metric could be the ability to identify Consumer Intentions ("I will definitely buy...") and how these intentions differentiate - such as "I would buy 'ABC' if it was cheaper" or "I would buy 'ABC' if i hadn't purchased 'XYZ' already".
Notice that SMM tools provide metrics : Number of mentions per channel, Top influential users, percentage of positive / negative / neutral sentiment and sentiment intensity, how mentions of a new product disperse through different social media channels, etc.
But what is considered Intelligence in Social Media? Would someone identify as intelligence the fact that during the past 2 months there was an increase in specific Brand Mentions on Twitter but not on YouTube? Or is it Intelligence when we notice that there has been a decline in positive sentiment about a product? All of this information is Reporting and Feedback. It is not meant that this is not useful information : It is important to know what is happening and why.
So what True Intelligence is all about?
True Intelligence is about knowing how to successfully Promote and Market a Brand, Product or Service. To do that a Marketer wants to know the Best Practices : With Social Media Reports, Marketers know what is happening (a decline in positive mentions on our new smartphone) and why this is happening (a potential hardware problem). Social Media Analytics can identify the right strategies to make things happen. True Social Media Intelligence is about knowing which parameters (channels, number of mentions) are important in achieving a result. Is it important to have a product associated with intense (positive) sentiment? Or could it be more important to have a Product being highly associated with Rumors?
There is still a long way to go in terms of Insights from Social Media Monitoring tools. There are many processes and parameters that will eventually used for deriving more Insights and better Strategies. The answer to true Social Media Intelligence is the use of Predictive Analytics (Data and Text Mining) applied to Social Data : One area that is currently untouched by most Social Media Monitoring tools.
Posts
Themos,
Social media monitoring is pretty neat. You get cool charts, fancy graphs, and the ability to track and analyze mentions of your brand online (with sentiment). However, there is something missing; something profound. I'm talking about the ability to correlate all of this unstructured social data on the web with your key business metrics!
The bottom-line is the only thing on the mind of executives. "How can my company make more money using this tool?" Intelligence is not only understanding and analyzing the social web, but it's also tying it to the bottom-line. "If it doesn't make dollars, it doesn't make sense. "
Themos, thanks for the post. You pose a number of thought-provoking questions. What is true intelligence about? I would say correlating social data with key business metrics is a key first step. That's what social media business intelligence is for.
- Sergei Dolukhanov
@sdolukhanov (twitter)
Sergei,
Thank you for your comment. The next major step is "Social Intelligence" and your comment shows what has to be done.
I was amazed from the fact that most Social Media Monitoring tools do not employ Predictive Analytics to extract insights. Of course this is easier said than done.
The most critical part in extracting these insights is not only about finding correlations between social data and business metrics but a much more profound type of analysis. More to come soon.
I'd love to know which tools provide predictive analytics. Do you have any current recommendations?
@A.Daniels,
Can't really say this. That would appear as though i am promoting specific tools..
A little late but, SMM is neat but as you pointed out, going to the next level beyond the metrics is what will provide value.
Smartly done, it is the "aligning" of social media research with traditional media research that will boost the value of social media monitoring in the future -- and this requires more than an algorithim.
Regards,
Stewart
@stewartlevin