If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. – Peter Drucker
Social Analytics benefits any company by helping them better measure and manage their business. Social Analytics benefits come in the form of competitive intelligence, targeting, customer support, predicting behaviors and course correction. They help build any business.
Social analytics is the collection and analysis of statistical, digital data on how users interface with an organization, particularly online. It is an analysis of the tweets, blogs and other postings on the social web, with a focus on a particular subject area.
This does not negate the importance of traditional research, where focus groups give you a private view on possibly sensitive topics or a questionnaire is filled out by 500 people in a designated age group or profession. Social analytics provide access to data and conversations about a topic or subject occurring right now and the opportunity to listen, learn, filter, measure and put them to use for business benefits.
Why is this relevant? Here are 5 social analytics benefits that help any business.
COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE: Is collecting and analyzing actionable information about competitors and the marketplace to form a business strategy. Its aim is to learn everything there is to know about the competitive environment to make the best possible decisions. Here’s what can be accessed through social media.
- 91% of retail brands use 2 or more social media channels
- 81% of all small and medium businesses use some kind of social platform.
- 73% of businesses are investing more than 20% of overall technology budgets on intelligence and data analytics
- There are 60 million active business pages on Facebook
- Facebook has 5 million active advertisers on the platform.
TARGETING: Every effective audience profile starts with a fundamental understanding of who your audience is. There is an incredible amount of information about your ideal customers in social media. Social analytics helps you identify and target them to find them. For example:
- Internet users have an average of 7.6 social media accounts
- Social media users grew by 121 million between Q2 2017 and Q3 2017
- 89% of B2B marketers use content marketing strategies
- Only 20 Fortune 500 companies actually engage with their customers on Facebook, while 83% have a presence on Twitter
- People aged 55-64 are more than twice as likely to engage with branded content than those 28 or younger
CUSTOMER SERVICE: Social media is one of the most effective channels for customer support in today’s digital world. Whether they have questions, complaints, or compliments, people are increasingly using social to connect with businesses. Here’s are some of the finding social analytics reveal:
- 90% of businesses are expected to use social media for customer service by 2020
- 78 percent of people who complain to a brand via Twitter expect a response within an hour
- 77% of Twitter users feel more positive about a brand when their Tweet has been replied to
- 67% of consumers now use social media networks like Twitter and Facebook to seek resolution for issues
- Customers spend 20-40% more with companies engage and respond to customers via social media
PREDICTING BEHAVIORS: Given this enormous volume of social media data, Social analytics benefits business using data, statistical algorithms and machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical data. Here’s how it’s working:
- 70% of executives consider predictive intelligence the most critical data insight
- Facebook accounts for 53.1% of social logins made by consumers to sign into the apps and websites of publishers and brands
- On average, businesses are only analyzing 12% of their data, leaving a lot of untapped opportunities and critical insights
- 29% of patients viewing health information through social media are viewing other patients’ experiences with their disease
COURSE CORRECTION: Even the best business strategy can require connection. Social analytics benefits business by connecting the dots from what people say, do, act and are likely to behave in the future. Here’s how it can help overcome challenges you may be facing.
- When social media is part of their buyer’s journey, customers tend to convert at a 129% higher rate, and they are four times as likely to spend significantly more than those without a social component
- 80% of CEOs say that mobile technology and analytics are key to their strategy
- 72% of business leaders say that their organizations will be susceptible to threats from digital market disruptions in the next three years
- 69% of organizations that have used an external partner to gain better data insight report positive results from that decision
Are these social analytics benefits useful for your business? Do the facts help? Are you ready to get get started?
