Social Media Analytics Tools: The Most Reliable Source For Amassing Social Intelligence

In my previous post on Social Intelligence, I discussed the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of the importance of Social Intelligence. In this post, I will delve into the ‘how’ of it.

I will begin by reiterating that organizations and brands cannot afford to merely collect data and not explore it for actionable insights. Social Intelligence or Social Media Intelligence is clearly the vital key to business success. Therefore, apart from monitoring, collecting and storing their social data, organizations must, using Social Media Analytics tools, also analyze it well. However, no organization can benefit from Social Intelligence if the amassed Intelligence does not support its business objectives and goals. 

This brings us to the question – HOW can organizations use Social Intelligence to their benefit?

The trick here is simple – once an organization gets its goals and business objectives in place, it must invest resources and time in collecting social data that is relevant to their business. Effective Social Media Analytics tools are the most reliable sources to separate signals from noise.

Angela Hausman, quoting one McKinsey report points out that unlike in traditional media where data analysts spend more than 80% of their time just collecting data, in social media, data collection is “ubiquitous and real-time”. Not just that, by providing instant but detailed reports, Social Media Analytics tools makes data analysis and interpretation quick and hassle free.

What’s more, when an organization’s social media efforts are analyzed and interpreted with precision by Social Media Analytics tools, heads of units and senior leadership can improve communication and engage in constructive discussions based entirely on quantified facts and figures.

The bottom line here is that Social Media Analytics tools are a great source for gleaning and amassing Social Intelligence. I firmly believe that Social Intelligence will be extremely crucial for the future success of businesses both big and small. Therefore, it is imperative for organizations to leverage the power of Social Media Analytics tools to the fullest in order to empower themselves with Social Intelligence.

Do you also believe that Social Media Analytics tools are the most reliable sources of Social Intelligence? Share your thoughts in the comments below. To know how Shout Analytics can equip you with Social Intelligence, write to us at info@shoutanalytics.com

Brand on Social Media – Are You Leveraging Your Social Intelligence?

Till recently, conducting extensive, in-depth market surveys using lengthy questionnaires was considered as the only reliable method to gather market information and customer data. Customers had to be asked what they felt about the brand. They needed to be urged to share their experiences with the brand.

However, with the advent of social networking and active usage of social media by both brands and its customers alike, gathering customer perception has become a child’s play. Today, customer conversations on the social channels are information mines providing critical, valuable information from customers’ wants and demographics to brand reputation.

Yet, the big question still remains – with social media changing the way business is conducted around the world, is it enough for brands and organizations to merely gather social data?The answer is definitely NO.

Collecting social data is one part of any social media strategy. Gleaning insights from the collected data and using it effectively for intelligent business decision making must be the primary goal of any organization that has an active social presence. What is crucial in this exercise is the critical ability to turn data into actionable insights.

Zacharia Hofer Shall, a researcher with Forrester defines this ability as Social Intelligence in his research, Defining Social Intelligence. According to him, Social Intelligence is, “the management and analysis of customer data from social sources, used to activate and recalibrate marketing or business programs”. Hofer Shall says that Social Intelligence involves monitoring social media, analyzing the content, and using the insights to inform your strategy.

Who needs Social Intelligence?

I believe that Social Intelligence is the need of the hour for any organization that has a social presence and is serious about its social media strategy. That said, Social Intelligence will especially benefit those organizations that deal with large streams of social data on a daily basis; making it necessary to separate valuable conversations from plain noise.

How to Achieve Social Intelligence?

Social Media Analytics tools are the source of Social Intelligence. Using text (Natural Language Processing) analytics and statistical modelling techniques, social media analytics tools monitor social data and convert it into simple but rich intelligent information to aid CxOs in better and informed business decision making.

How important is Social Intelligence for your business? Share your views in the comments below. To learn how Shout Analytics can help you garner Social Intelligence, write to us at info@shoutanalytics.com.

Key Social Media Influencers: How They Can Help Your Brands

One of the key to successful social media marketing is finding your key social media influencers. Such influencers are those people in your product/service community who are widely followed and liked for their opinions. Others (read your audience) believe and trust the influencers. They are the person to rely on when it comes to useful information on issues and news related to your product or service. Since the influencers are considered as a sort of subject-matter-experts by their social community or communities, what they say and do often serves as a “guide” to others.

Importance of Influencers:

Digital marketers must take influencers seriously because of their sheer ability to influence others. As I mentioned earlier, these people have an innate quality or rather ability to get people to do things the way they do it. What they say and what they do influences their followers in such a way that they trust these influencers for getting appropriate, authentic information related to products and purchasing decisions.

Identifying influencers:

Use the common characteristics listed below, to identify the right influencers for your business

·         Influencers are involved actively in various movements and endorse a lot of public causes.

·         They nurture an extensive social network(s).

·         They are looked up to and impactful and have a large number of followers.

·         They are active members of several varied groups

·         They are Trendsetters: influencers tend to be early adopters (or leavers) in markets

How are they useful to your business?

·         They endorse you – others endorse you too.

·         They trust your product – others do the same

·         They recommend your product – others will buy it

·         They review/ vote your product – others will trust it, use it to choose your product over your competitors

·         They share your product news – others get to know about you.

To sum up, influencers are people who have the strength in their thoughts, ideas and opinions to influence others. Social media marketing is all about finding new audience and building an engaging and trustful relationship with them. As influencers have a wide reach and a strong say in their (or your) communities, social media marketers must take them seriously and must aim to harness the influencers power to influence others, in order to widen the market for your product and also give it more visibility. 

Why Financial Institutions Need Business Intelligence and Analytics Tools?

Financial Institutions especially banks, stock exchange houses and wealth management enterprises or institutions broadly referred to as Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) industries are slowly turning to social media analytics as the size of their unstructured social data grows by leaps and bounds every day.

Shout Analytics, a sophisticated big-data competent Social Media Analytics product is a viable solution for BFSI enterprises looking for a cutting edge Social Media Analytics.

Thanks to the ever increasing use and growing popularity of social media channels; that facilitate seamless sharing of information, today’s business enterprises have to deal with large streams of unstructured data. For BFSIs, this unstructured data involves both static and real-time data generated both within and outside the enterprise and primarily consists of data pouring in from the following:

• Trading rooms,
•  Call center logs,
•  Sales, research and marketing reports,
• Market pricing,
• Newscasts,
• Internet
•  Ubiquitous Social media platforms.

Now, analyzing and interpreting the above mentioned data streams are crucial to the BFSIs if they want to gain actionable insights from this rich-in-information data repository. As such, the need of the hour for BFSIs is an analytics solution that guarantees in-depth, accurate and optimal analysis of large unstructured data including social data.

Challenges for BFSIs

Advancement in technology has led to an increase in the people’s use of financial services as well as simplified the process of making financial transactions. In the wake of such advancements, I believe there are certain challenges still plaguing the BFSI enterprises. These include –

•  Detect fraud
•  Predict stock sentiment
•   Overhaul customer service
•   Customize product innovation

Can Social Media Analytics tools help BFSI enterprises to overcome these challenges?

The answer is yes. Business Intelligence and Analytics tools like Shout Analytics are equipped with advanced capabilities like text analysis, predictive analysis, and sentiment analysis among others that allows BFSI institutions to address the above mentioned challenges effectively.  Here is how social media analytics tools will help BFSIs –

• Easily detect improper or immoral practices in transactions, and find common trends in fraudulent activities using Predictive Analysis.
• Stock prices are bound to fluctuate depending on the vibe generated in the media. Breaking news  stories can adversely affect stock market performance. Using sentiment analysis BFSIs can detect the brewing consumer sentiments on the aftermath of such impactful news stories and also predict, using predict analysis the possible outcomes.
• Measure, monitor and manage their social reputation and to improve their customer engagement initiatives.
• Financial organizations can track the consumers’ online conversation and can find out their actual needs and requirements. Based on this insightful knowledge channel, innovation of new products and services which are completely in-line with the consumers’ needs and requirements can be made.

This is just a sneak peek into what business intelligence and analytics tools do to BFSIs. To know more, contact info@shoutanalytics.com and see how your organization can benefit from advanced social media analytics.

Is Your Brand More Human? Reveal With Social Media Analytics...

 Author: Suraj Arukil 

About the Author: CEO/Founder of Nuvento ( a technology firm that specializes in Business Intelligence and Software Architecture.)

http://www.business2community.com

Is your company having a fan page on Facebook or a presence on other social media channels, which is an integral part of your online brand marketing strategies? Your prompt answer may be yes but indeed you may fumble when you are asked about whether your brand has more interactive human characteristics and personality traits. However, brand marketing circles around the ideas of customer retention and engagement but talking about your products and services all the time does not give you an edge on social intelligence.

Additionally, people attach, engage and respond more in terms of relationships build on a person to person basis over social media and at this stage you cannot be just talking about your products and services. As of today’s business environment, companies and entrepreneurs are connecting to the customers with a more human approach for a better social media engagement and stay on track which every brand must necessarily do.

Let’s say if there is a situation like the national cricket team is in the world cup finals and you are only talking about your products and services, then seldom anybody pays an attention on you. However, at the same time the brands engaging customers with a more human approach on the current emotional environment gain mass attention as well as enhanced public image. 

How you make your online brand promotion more Human?

•Assign human traits : Humans are social beings by nature and they prefer to relate themselves to living people. Brands need to assign human traits to their social media accounts by humanizing their profiles and drop down formal approaches towards the customers. Upload a celebrity photo to the social media and post contents that talk about matters of common interest.

•Gaining the public interest : While implementing your social media strategies, the common question that you need to ask yourself is whether your brand promotion on social media include fun aspects or not. Moreover, the fun aspects of brand promotion over social media channels are something that drives people to get involved into interesting online activities related to the brand. Allowing people to participate in online contests and public events of the brand earns you a lot of positive public feedback and attention.  

•Adding sense of Humor  : When we are talking about a human approach, then human emotions cannot be excluded. The undeniable aspect of touching the emotional sentiments of your customers is a positive step for adding value to your brand. Moreover, emotional personality traits aligned with sense of humor allows your customers to emotionally attach to your brand promotion activities over social media channels.

Social media analytics can help organizations to succeed in their online marketing strategies along with a more human approach. Fortunately, organizations can monitor the social media channels for figuring out the positive brand sentiments and filter out the positive conversations about the brand. Hence accordingly brands can evolve with a more human approach and involve the customers along with their sentiments.

Shout Analytics is one such unique patent pending solution that organizations can proactively use to monitor the progress of their online marketing strategies on social media. Shout Analytics gathers useful information, with its analysis modules like predictive and sentiment analysis, allows the organizations to monitor the customer sentiments and understand their brand perception.

To know more about Shout Analytics, write to us at info@shoutanalytics.com