How to Use Social Analytics to Build a Better Brand

Executive SummaryThe buzz about social media and social analytics continues to hit new highs—but now it’s a matter of learning how to capitalize on

these mediums to impact your bottom line. Smart companies are taking note and analyzing the millions of conversations available

online, integrating the information gained into their overall go-to-market and business strategy. Whether it’s product development,

brand management, customer acquisition or retention strategies, effective Social Analytics can bring you closer to your customer,

uncover untapped markets, and provide insight into your industry/competitors like never before.

This Social Analytics white paper provides a framework and educational information for jumpstarting your navigation of the Social

Analytics landscape. Inside, you’ll !nd:

Notes and ResourcesResearch and representative charts/graphs contained were created by Infegy, provider of Social Radar®, the industry’s most

intelligent social media monitoring and analytics platform.

· Facts and Figures that boil down the vast Social Media space to what it really means for today’s businesses

· De!nitions around Social Analytics and How it Works

· Tips on understanding detailed analytics data: In"uencers, Sentiment, and Buzz

· A framework to apply Social Analytics to Drive Revenue

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IntroductionThe world has changed—social networks, the blogosphere and the exploding amount of Web-based content means companies

need to !gure out how to listen to the millions of conversations occurring online, and, then, decipher and analyze what those

conversations and content mean to all facets of their strategy. Whether it’s product development, brand management, customer

acquisition or retention strategies, tapping in to what is being said and then extrapolating actionable and intelligent information to

improve your business is more crucial than ever in 2011.

Businesses are starting to get it. A recent study conducted by Gartner found that over 60 percent of Fortune 1000 companies “with

a website will connect to or host some form of online community to build customer relationships.”i Yet, while engaging customers

and prospects by signing up for a Twitter account, offering support through Facebook and integrating your website with Digg is

crucial to being part of the conversation online, listening to what customers and prospects are saying about your brand and your

products to potential customers is just as, if not more, essential to business-building strategy. There is a wealth of information that

can be gleaned from not just participating in social media, but analyzing the conversation, and integrating the information provided

there into your overall go-to-market and business strategy is intrinsic to success. Social Analytics gives companies the data they

need to competitively differentiate, bring superior products to market faster, and, plainly, grow business—fast.

In this report, you’ll learn:

The Importance and Breadth of Social Media and Internet ContentThe tide isn’t just rising, it’s surging when it comes to social media adoption by Internet users worldwide. If you’re still not convinced

customers (and potential customers) are talking about you online, here are a few facts to consider:

According to PWC’s 2010-2014 Global Entertainment and Media Outlook Report, in 2010 there were approximately 493.49 million

broadband and 160.89 million dial-up households worldwide. In the United States, broadband Internet penetration reached 85.5

million households in 2010.v

Okay, you say, I get it. People are talking. A lot. But, do these conversations occur often enough to justify implementing an ongoing

Social Analytics program? Why not just track and analyze online conversations pertinent to my brand on a quarterly basis? Or why

not just use manual Google searches? The answer is, simply, because it is not good enough.

Instead, innovative companies that prioritize proactive brand/product strategy have no choice but to keep their !ngers on the pulse

of the online conversation. This is essential to act strategically on the knowledge gleaned from analyzing the importance and

sentiment of what is heard across the online universe. There is a lot of information out there, and more every second. A recent

Berkeley study found that more information has been created in the past !ve years than in the whole of human history, and that data

grows exponentially daily.

In early November TGDaily.com reported that Twitter had 175 million users; that number was expected to reach the 200

million mark in January of 2011.ii

There are currently 26.2 million bloggers and 112.7 million blog readers according to eMarketer. In 2011, the number of

bloggers will reach 28.1 million, while the number of readers will reach 122.6 million.iii

According to the Keller Fay Group, the average American consumer mentions speci!c brand names 60 times per week in

conversations.iv

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What does this mean for marketing? It means that social media analytics is a viable resource to determine real-world trends.

Going beyond !nding and tracking all this information—which is an impossible task without social media monitoring and analytics

platforms—how do you gain a perspective on it, and then, rapidly institute action now and into the future? As technology grows

faster, easier to use and more affordable, online users are quickly becoming a near perfect cross-section of consumers, replacing

traditional focus groups when analyzed correctly. New information is published online about your brand and your products every

second.

Consider the following:

In June 2010 it was noted that based on daily activity, about 750 posts were posted by Twitter users every second.vi

Current events and crises spur conversations and spikes in online chatter, adding to the growing mountain of evidence

that social media can be used to gauge what’s on the world’s mind—and what matters to consumers most at a particular

point in time. Analysis using Infegy’s Social Radar® on March 21, 2011 showed 3x as many people are talking about

Japan vs. Libya.vii

Social Analytics and How It WorksWhat is Social Analytics exactly? And what’s the difference between Social Media and Social Analytics?

Well, the difference is simple: Social Media includes web-based technologies/sites that enable and foster social conversations

online. Social Analytics takes these conversations and allows users to search for what people, experts, and social media users are

saying about products, companies, and unique brands online, measure positive or negative sentiment trends within those

conversations, and with advanced tools, to set any number of !lters (time period, place, and speci!c medium, such as blogs vs.

Twitter) within the search.

Knowing which conversations matter, and turning those conversations

into actionable information to improve your product, build buzz around

a brand, and re-position resources exactly where they’re needed to

positively impact your product’s reception in the marketplace is

absolutely essential to building revenue in 2011.

Online users are quickly becoming a near

perfect cross-section of consumers,

replacing traditional focus groups when

analyzed correctly. New information is

published online about your brand and your

products every second.

Conversations around Southwest Airlines had been above 80%

positive prior to the news that a foot-long section of fuselage ripped

open during a Southwest "ight on April 1. Once the news was

announced, conversation immediately spiked to 61% negative. The

emergency landing quickly became the most discussed topic in

Southwest conversations for the month. Marketers and public relations

professionals might use analysis such as this to measure where to

allocate crisis management resources, what language to use in

accompanying copy, and which areas are most important to address

for immediate damage control.

Online conversation sentiment analysis of “Southwest Airlines” from March 5 - April 5, 2011 using Infegy's Social Radar.

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Having a !rm understanding of the key components of Social Analytics is the !rst step in helping you effectively utilize the data.

There are many tools available today, with similar functionalities, but core to Social Analytics are:

Searching: Social Analytics uses customized tools designed to effectively track, analyze, and dissect key topics and

brands most relevant to your business over a historical period and extending to near-real time.

Extrapolating: The detailed information extracted from a customized Social Analytics search can provide instant

understanding of how a brand, product, event, etc. is being received and viewed in relation to competitors.

Reporting: Social Analytics breaks information into easy to read charts, graphs and visual data !elds. Each is in!nitely

customizable, and can be generated instantly and automatically, making it easy to distribute and communicate important

details from each of your searches, much like how information is disseminated through the company following a series of

focus groups—only faster.

While static search and analysis is a great way to determine public opinion on a particular product at a speci!c moment in time,

performing the same analysis over time, comparing it to past periods, and measuring it against opinions on competing products is a

great way to track a brand’s share of online conversation. Creating custom reports to be updated at regular intervals keeps this

information dynamic—and applicable to the immediate needs of your customers.

Acting on the Intelligence: Social Analytics reports are must-haves for any organization looking to determine and predict the

success of strategic shifts or campaigns.

A few examples of the actionable ways to use Social Analytics include:

The uses for Social Analytics in driving revenue are nearly in!nite, whether in determining short-term needs, long-term brand,

advertising and product strategy, or simply identifying the key topics associated with your brand.

Understanding the Data/Using Social Analytics to Drive Revenue

In!uences

The bene!ts of Social Analytics are vast: segmented data from targeted queries provides companies the opportunity to review and

analyze various components of their social media footprint and to develop strategies that are more aligned with consumer sentiment

and values. Some key data points provided by dynamic Social Analytics include:

How it works: Algorithms using more than ten unique data points determine the most in"uential sources on a topic. One

determinant of in"uence is the number of inbound links to the source (be it a blogger, a Twitter user, or an online media

outlet). Social Analytics can !lter “speakers” to those with the most in"uence—going way beyond simple and manual and

hash-tag searches for speci!c sites.

Identifying consumer needs in advance of potential new products;

Keeping investors informed of public opinion surrounding your brand;

Drumming up support for resources in a badly-needed area. (Need to raise funds for more customer service reps? A report

on sentiment regarding your brand might help demonstrate that need with real-time data.)

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How to Use it: By measuring how many and which websites are linking to blog posts, articles or social media feeds about

your product against the in"uence of what’s being said about a competitor’s product to determine if you need to step up

your marketing strategy, hold steady, or roll out something new altogether. Knowing who has the most in"uence in online

conversations about your product is an added value for your PR and marketing team as well.

Sentiment

How It Works: Proprietary language

analysis allows companies to examine

the quality of conversations around a

product and to quantify the amount of

positive, negative or neutral language

associated with the product into

actionable data. Analysis can be applied

within a historical context, reaching from

near real-time all the way back to 2007.

How to Use it: View topics of

discussion within posts about your or a

competitor’s product or brand and

historically see how sentiment has shifted. Also, identify which topics tend to portray the product or brand in a positive light vs. which topics trend negative in

similar discussions. By analyzing the differences and discrepancies found, multiple lines of business from marketing to

product development can determine in real-time—whether within hours of a product launch, or two months into its

release—where to allocate and focus enterprise resources for overall improvements that align with business growth

objectives and strategies.

The larger the circle shown, the larger its respective audience as

determined by page views, inbound links, outbound links and other

Social Radar proprietary algorithms of measurement. Social

Radar's Top Sources and Visualizer tools are great ways to use

social analytics to identify key in"uencers in your market and to

measure the spread of trends and ideas across the internet.

This Social Radar Visualizer chart shows inbound and outbound links between websites and blogs using the term "nuclear energy" from March 19 to April 19, 2011.

Social Radar can be used to determine international "buzz" for brands and products.

Country analysis of online conversations using the brand name "Android" from March 19 - April 19, 2011.

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Searching for pertinent conversations;

Extrapolating intelligent data from those conversations;

Reporting that data to determine trends and needs; and, !nally,

Acting on the intelligence.

Identifying New Markets/Targets

Understanding the Competition and Capitalizing on it

Identifying Product Development Opportunities/Improvements

Developing Effective Brand Management

Marketing Campaign Measurement and Tracking

How It Works: Measure the sheer volume of conversations happening around your product.

How to Use It: Compare amount of conversations around your product to those of your competitors, analyze which

features of a product are most talked about and more. Then, to get a closer understanding of what’s being said, zoom in

within those trends to review individual articles, blog posts and tweets to use as pull quotes in support of larger trend

arguments.

Going beyond just listening to online conversations, true social media analytics provides valuable, actionable insight for

shifting strategic focus through four main components:

Bene!ts of the insight gained through ongoing, detailed Social Analytics include:

Conclusion: Listening, Analyzing and Acting is Not New—It’s Just Easier NowListening to the needs of customers has been a staple of best business practices long before the Internet even existed. Our

inter-connected world and the rising tide of social media—which give both consumers and brands an easy and quick platform

through which to instantly engage—have not changed the principal that listening and analysis is as essential to building business as

communication itself. It’s just easier now.

Remember the old adage “Think before you speak?” Social Analytics makes use of the most cutting-edge information technology

and analyzes mediums in which we communicate today to enable businesses to do just that: think before they speak; know before

they act; and in turn, build better brand strategies, sell better products, and succeed in a !ercely-competitive and crowded

marketplace.

Buzz

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About InfegyFounded in 2007, Infegy is the provider of Social Radar®, the industry’s most intelligent social media monitoring and web analytics

platform. Delivered through the cloud, Social Radar® enables organizations, from agencies to enterprises, to instantly listen and

discern meaning from all of the conversations that occur every moment on the web and through social channels. Social Radar®'s

patent-pending analytics and algorithms extract valuable, sentiment-based and actionable information within a historical context

that is used to develop successful marketing strategies and bring to market competitive and improved products and services that

better meet the needs of consumers and business users. Tapped by enterprises, advertising agencies, and market research !rms,

Social Radar® is used by and for some of the world’s most innovative brands including Viacom, 3M, Sprint, Pizza Hut, Sony, H&R

Block, and DirecTV to determine the tone of the marketplace and tune into what consumers want. Infegy can be found on the web

at www.infegy.com.

References:i http://marketingbyraj.com/2010/02/09/fortune-500-companies-using-social-media-to-reachcustomers/comment-page-1/ii http://www.tgdaily.com/software-brief/52284-twitter-on-pace-to-reach200-million-users-by-2011iii http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007941iv http://kellerfay.com/?p=372v “Global entertainment and media outlook: 2010 – 2014,” PWCvi http://mashable.com/2010/06/25/tps-record/vii http://infegy.com/buzzstudy/japan-vs-libya/

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