Social Media - the new frontier for Analytics

We often hear that Marketers of today face challenges of the order that their predecessors never encountered.  They have to fight their battles on multiple fronts – Increasing competition, fast changing consumer needs, communication challenges with multiple media, commodization, costs etc.

While most of the problems would have existed in some degree in the past, media proliferation is definitely a challenge that has emerged from the developments in technology. This brings us to the question – OK. So, what exactly is the challenge?

The challenge is not very straightforward and simple to understand. Let's break it into 3 components in the endeavour to understand it better.

Previously media was largely consigned to print and television. When TV started expanding and growing in mid-90s, marketers had to deal with communication challenges with channels exploding – entertainment, sports, news, et al.  Marketers had decide on the channels that synergized with their brand because the viewership got split across these channels.

Today, a new media is emerging and rapidly too! It is social media that once again threatens to be disruptive just as it was in mid-90s.  The challenge is that smart phones have allowed people to consume social media and consequently, has split the earlier audience segment from TV. This poses the first challenge of Reach!! 

How do you reach customer who has moved to social media from TV?  US data for the last 4 years substantiates this point of view.  It is only a matter of time before India gets to a similar situation.

Moreover, people have started sharing their experiences with brands on social media in large numbers. This is the unsolicited feedback that marketers always dreamed of getting from their consumers.  But are they listening?  It’s not so easy if you look at the numbers in the figure below:

source: Intel Inc.

Marketers would need to leverage Social media analytics to listen to these conversations given the volume and speed at which it is generated. This will help marketers address the first challenge too! Analytics will tell you where the potential consumer is spending more time and hence the marketer can choose the right platform to reach her.

This is the second challenge of Listening & Understanding! Analytics will also provide invaluable insights on brands associations, communication strategy, competition benchmarking.

We will cover the 3^rd challenge in our next blog – It’s the most critical one – Action, Reaction & Corrective Action!!