Social Media Marketing and the measurement thereof is always a hot topic. In this exclusive 7-part series - which begins today and will continue every Tuesday for the next 6 weeks, I will delve into the wonderful world of Social Media Marketing Analytics (SMA) and help you better understand what it is and why it is so important.
Social Media Marketing Analytics... "Huh?"
Why do I get the feeling that's the response many marketers have when asked about Social Media Marketing Analytics?
Well fear not marketers of the world, I am here to help.
Part I - Overview
Social Media Marketing Analytics, as defined by the Altimeter Group is "The discipline that helps companies measure, assess and explain the performance of social media initiatives in the context of specific business objectives."
It also appears to be an enormous obstacle that many organizations are working hard toward understanding and utilizing in an effective strategic standpoint.
No Shortage Of Solutions
There are many Social Media Marketing Analytics solutions on the market, and quite frankly they are a dime a dozen. Before you begin doing your diligence, it is of course necessary to know the answers to a few questions such as:
- What will we use this for?
- Why should we use this?
- How will this benefit us?
After meticulous research, cross team collaboration and product testing, my recommendation for our agency, The Star Group, was Alterian SM2 due to it being the best-fitting solution for our client and internal agency needs.
Alterian SM2 is a Social Media Marketing Analytics and Intelligence solution that allows you to monitor content & conversations all across the web and lets you tap into a new kind of data resource; your customers' direct thoughts and opinions. SM2 easily captures and analyzes data from social media channels to monitor your brand, identify key communities/ influencers, address customer service issues, conduct unbiased research for strategic planning, among others.
As I said, there are many solutions on the market but at their core, they all offer relatively the same value.
In brief, here are some of the core value offerings that a Social Media Marketing Analytics solution such as Alterian SM2 can provide:
- Brand Monitoring
- Monitor what consumers are saying about your brand.
- Alterian SM2 has the power to crawl the entire web and allow you to understand who, what, where, why, when and how 3rd party sources or customers are referring to your brand.
- Alterian SM2 has the power to crawl the entire web and allow you to understand who, what, where, why, when and how 3rd party sources or customers are referring to your brand.
- Monitor what consumers are saying about your brand.
- Competitive Research
- Analyze content & conversations around competitive brands.
- Alterian SM2 can track competitors in the same way you can track your own brand. These analytical insights give you the benefit of understanding how well your competition is performing online and are also very useful for uncovering potential opportunities that competitors may be not paying attention to.
- Alterian SM2 can track competitors in the same way you can track your own brand. These analytical insights give you the benefit of understanding how well your competition is performing online and are also very useful for uncovering potential opportunities that competitors may be not paying attention to.
- Analyze content & conversations around competitive brands.
- Strategic Development
- Leverage insights for strategic planning and market research.
- Alterian SM2 gives you the significant advantage of being able to probe the online environment before launching a program or initiative. These insights enhance your ability to make better business decisions and develop sound strategic direction.
- Alterian SM2 gives you the significant advantage of being able to probe the online environment before launching a program or initiative. These insights enhance your ability to make better business decisions and develop sound strategic direction.
- Leverage insights for strategic planning and market research.
- Strategic Connections
- Identify social influencers or "power users" for marketing outreach.
- Alterian SM2 has the ability to rank 3rd party sources and users pertaining to their influence/popularity. This advantage gives you an understanding of the most viable relationships to develop to increase marketing effectiveness.
- Identify social influencers or "power users" for marketing outreach.
- Crisis Management
- Identify emerging issues that require immediate response.
- With SM2's "real time" monitoring capability, you can quickly and efficiently uncover problems as they happen to ensure a timely response that can potentially counteract negative commentary or solve a customer service issue for example.
- With SM2's "real time" monitoring capability, you can quickly and efficiently uncover problems as they happen to ensure a timely response that can potentially counteract negative commentary or solve a customer service issue for example.
- Identify emerging issues that require immediate response.
- Social ROI
- Gauge effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
- SM2's range of analytics allows you to understand if you are effectively achieving your goals through Key Performance Indicators (KPI's). A few examples of the KPI's I'm referring to are:
- Daily Volume - the measurement of the total amount of conversations & content generated in regard to your brand within a given time period. Daily Volume allows for an accurate understanding of brand awareness.
- Share of Voice - the measurement of the amount of conversations & content generated in regard to your brand by medium within a given time period.
- Brand Sentiment - the measurement of the manner in which users/sources refer to your brand (positive, neutral, negative) within a given time period.
- SM2's range of analytics allows you to understand if you are effectively achieving your goals through Key Performance Indicators (KPI's). A few examples of the KPI's I'm referring to are:
- Gauge effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
Ok, so there's an overview of Social Media Marketing Analytics along with my recommendation for which tool to use.
I will continue the series by focusing on each aforementioned core value offering (in descending order starting with Brand Monitoring) and cover the importance and benefits of each. I will also apply situational examples based on past experiences, which should adequately paint a nice picture for all those who are following along.
If anyone has questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to post them here, ourFacebook page or via Twitter.
Stay tuned...
Sources: Google Images, The Star Group, Social Media Marketing Analytics - First Of An Exclusive 7-Part Series