The Marketer’s Guide to Social Customer Data

THE MARKETER’SGUIDE TO SOCIALCUSTOMER DATA

Shoutlet, Inc. 2013 • v13.012 shoutlet.com • facebook.com/shoutlet • twitter.com/shoutlet

Data. For marketers, data can be powerful. But the task of analyzing it can seem daunting.

For years, marketing has been moving online. Digital marketing in all its forms has become a

primary way to reach customers. That explosion first to the web, then e-commerce, and now

social media has plopped mountains of data squarely into the laps of companies.

The possibilities for what unlocking this data means are nearly endless. They offer companies

never-before-seen insight about their customers and their industry. But for many companies,

getting to this stage is a winding road – especially when it comes to social media data.

With e-commerce, purchase history, email interactions, and many others, the number of data

points that are available is impressive.

One of the hottest segments of this mass of data that is accumulating every second? Social data.

Data from social media is among the most exciting parts of this flood of numbers – one that

holds promise for what it means to social program, but also what it means when merged with

more traditional data. For marketers, this is some of the most exciting data around because it’s

about the customers who have opted-in to interact with you in social media.

It’s also some of the most overlooked types of data.

Right now, marketers are collecting demographic info, customer transactions, and customer

usage data, according to a study by Columbia Business School and the New York American

Marketing Association.1 Every day, social media generates billions of data points. Yet marketers

have not been capturing this data at a very high rate: just 35% are collecting social content from

customers and targets and 33% are tracking ties to customers in

social media.2

In 2013, many marketers have vowed to change this trend. Almost

80% of marketers surveyed in Q3 2012 plan to apply more social

customer data to drive marketing campaigns in other channels

in 2013.3 The importance of social customer data overall will

undoubtedly grow, especially with new tools like Facebook Graph

Search, which taps user data and fuels discovery for brands.

There is so much data now that this mountain of information,

this “Big Data,” and the idea of analyzing it seem like an

insurmountable task. But the payoff can be huge.

1 eMarketer, “Marketers Struggle to Link Digital Data to ‘Big Data’ Picture” http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Marketers-Struggle-Link-Digital-Data-Big-Data-Picture/1008909

2 Ibid. 1.3 Infogroup Targeting Solutions and Yesmail Interactive via MarketingProfs: “Marketers Upping the Ante on Big Data

in 2013” http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2013/9904/marketers-upping-the-ante-on-big-data-in-20134 Ibid. 3.

THE MARKETER’S GUIDE TO SOCIAL CUSTOMER DATA

4


SOCIAL DATA: WHAT IS IT?Social data is data that you can glean from social networks and social activity. There are many

types of data that can be extracted from social activity online, and in turn, can be analyzed –

and acted upon – in as many different ways.

Included under the umbrella of social data are measurement and analytics tracking data related

to the social actions taken on content, such as engagement data, shares, referral traffic, etc.

Also, conversations happening on all major social networks, content being posted to social

networks, blog posts, blog comments, check-ins – all the various types of social data being

generated is nothing less of astounding. Facebook alone processes 2.5 billion pieces of content,

300 million photos, 2.7 billion Like actions and more than 500 terabytes of data each day.5

Twitter processes more than 400 million tweets daily, and every minute 48 hours of video

is uploaded to YouTube.6

Many companies are utilizing this data by engaging in efforts such as social media monitoring to

undercover mentions and sentiment about their brand and to unearth trends in their industries,

consumer pain points, and opinions and feedback on their competitors. They are using the insight

from this overall data to apply to their business, whether that is through one-on-one responses

to customer service issues or by gathering insight from thousands of conversations to help shape

their next product design, for instance.

Social data also includes the social data and social activities about your existing social connections.

Social customer data is the user data and activity that can be extracted by way of social sites

and social campaigns, and is what we’ll focus on in this guide.

5 Search Engine Land: “The Importance Of Big Data, Integrity & Security In Enterprise SEO” http://searchengineland.com/the-importance-of-big-data-integrity-and-security-enterprise-seo-143066

6 Ibid. 5.

SOCIALCUSTOMER

DATA

SOCIALSITES

User Dataand Activity

SOCIALCAMPAIGNS

User Dataand Activity


SUMMITING THE MOUNTAIN: EFFECTIVE SOCIAL CUSTOMER DATA UTILIZATIONTackling the mountain of social custom data is possible!

You can conquer this mountain and begin harnessing

this data to better inform your marketing efforts.

Content: First it starts with developing content - the stuff that gets conversations started, gets

your customers to share, and prompts them to continue to follow you on social sites. Facebook

posts, tweets, videos, contests – any content that your customers can engage with on social

networks and are set up to gather information can be sources of information.

Engage: Next, users engage with your content - they comment, share, click on, tweet, like, and

view your content. It’s this interaction that leads to accumulating data about who is engaging

with your content – and attracts new people who are opting-in to your updates across social sites.

Data: All the activity related to your social community can be gathered and collected, amassing

a valuable store of social customer data over time.

Analyze: The next step is to analyze – to use the social data you’ve gathered to make your

marketing better. Companies are beginning to realize how powerful this social customer data

really is and have adopted platforms that can facilitate not just aggregating this data, but also

slicing the data to unlock actionable insights.

Act: The data you’ve uncovered can illuminate findings that you can use across your marketing

efforts, from applying social customer data results back to social plans to using that information

to launch more effective emails to different segments of your audience.

CONTENT

ENGAGE

DATA

ANALYZE

ACT


WHY THE TIME IS NOW FOR UTILIZING DATAHaving a plan to use social data is becoming imperative for marketers.

Tapping into this can align a brand with these trends in the space:

RELEVANCY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER.

“Content is king” has been the common mantra in social media.

While interesting content continues to be the fuel behind engaging

social programs, focusing on relevancy is key to taking that

engagement to a higher level. The space has seen a trend in

the number of personalization options available to social media

marketers, ranging from post targeting for Facebook Pages

and LinkedIn Company pages to more robust features for serving

more relevant ads to people on Facebook.

By capturing and delving into the findings social customer data

can reveal, you will be better able to understand what content

is most relevant for your community so that you can tailor your

messaging more skillfully.

DATA-DRIVEN MARKETING IS NOW A REQUIREMENT.

With the ubiquity of digital marketing, which generates massive

amounts of data, using this data has prompted campaigns, products,

ad spend – nearly every part of the marketing landscape – to be

supported and informed by data. Social media is no different.

Almost half of CMOs have used social data to make predictions or

forecasts. Roughly 90% have said social data also influences their decisions.7

SOCIAL IS MOVING OUT OF THE SILO – AND ITS DATA SHOULD, TOO.

The trend toward social business, where social media touches every part of the

enterprise, requires that social teams do not operate in a marketing or public

relations bubble. By unlocking findings about your social customers and then

intertwining that data with data from other parts of marketing and the enterprise

as a whole, you can free your social customer data from silos, too.

7 Bazaarvoice and The CMO Club, “Chief Customer Advocate: How social data elevates CMOs” July 2012.

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Brian Solis

Altimeter Group


SOCIAL CUSTOMER DATA: A BREAKDOWNLet’s look at social customer data through these three levels: high-, mid-, and individual-level

data. Each of the three lenses can bring into focus different insights that your team can use

to make your marketing more effective.

HIGH-LEVEL DATA: This is a broad way of looking at your database of social

connections. These data points will uncover who is actually interacting with

you in social in aggregate. Learning the high-level facts about the social

connections across multiple presences (hundreds if you manage a global

brand) offers insight for categories like gender, state, city, age, and so on.

Ways to Use It:

Tools like Facebook Insights will give you data about who your fans are,

where they live, how old they are, etc., and social media monitoring will help

you engage in active and passive listening to gather feedback from your

customers. Being able to know these data points for a variety of your social

channels helps you understand what segments of your overall customer base are

tied to social media, helping your team create content that can be effectively repurposed across

channels. It can help you understand where content creation and community response resources

should be focused and how to tailor the message to the sub-segments of your audience that are

connected to you in social spaces.

MID-LEVEL DATA: Mid-level data is a hybrid of high-level data and individual-

level data, which relates to each person’s interests and social activity.

When broad, high-level filters get paired with more specific pieces of

data, this is when it starts to get even more interesting. Being able to

segment your social customer data means unlocking insights about

them that wouldn’t otherwise be revealed.

By pairing general, high- and specific, individual-level data, you’ll be

able to conduct social segmentation that answers questions like these:

• How many married women subscribe to your YouTube channels?

• How many users under 30 in California Like your Facebook Page

and follow you on Twitter?

• How many of your Facebook Likes work at Company X?

Ways to Use It:

While these filter combinations will each teach you insights, compare your social customer findings

with other marketing data sets to see how they match up. Are the target segments you’re shooting

for as a brand reflect who is actually connected to you in social media? Just as social listening

can illuminate new demographics that are attracted to your brand, pulling this insight from your

database of existing connections is possible, too. Plus, knowing more about your social audience

will help shape your content calendars, social ad strategies, and long-term goals.


INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL DATA: Take a microscope to your data and you’ll find each

of your social connections – the customers who your brand is aiming to reach

one by one to develop relationships and strengthen their connection to your

brand through social. Capturing profile information and interaction history

for each of your social connections creates a go-to resource for getting to

know your customers.

Ways to use it:

For your community management team, individual-level data is invaluable

when interacting with people one-on-one in social media. Knowing about

each customer makes subsequent interactions richer and helps identify brand

advocates. It helps everyone on your social response team view each customer

for who each person is personally – making interactions more authentic and personalized.

Dive in deeper to your mid-level segments to learn more about how your team is interacting

with members of that group. For instance, if you are a snack brand, view individual profiles of

this segment: mothers living in New York who Like you on Facebook and have indicated they like

a particular flavor over another, which you’ve included as a field in a newsletter sign-up form. Spot

subtle trends early, supplement your social media monitoring efforts, and stay ahead of the game.

By viewing data through these three lenses, you can uncover more than ever about the people

who have raised their hands to interact with you in social spaces.

WAYS SOCIAL CUSTOMER DATA IS COLLECTED How do you collect this data so that you can begin unlocking those insights? Social customer

data is collected in a variety of different ways, depending on the tools and platforms you’re

using to perform this task. Here’s how social customer data can be collected and filtered into

a Social CRM platform.

Facebook:

• Profile Data - Publicly accessible profile info, or info provided through Facebook app

• User entered data via fields completed in Facebook apps (tabs)

• Activity & Interaction

• Info gathered through Facebook contests

Imported info from your other databases:

• Email marketing data

• Purchase history

• Loyalty program info

• Custom data points

User supplied data from forms on the web and/or through Facebook apps (tabs)

Twitter:

• Activity & Interaction

• @usernames

Info via other networks:

Facebook Insights

Data collected in aggregate about fanbase


INVITE ALL YOUR DATA TO THE PARTYWhile social customer data can uncover eye-opening findings about the people connected to

your social accounts, more benefits emerge when you invite all of your data sets to the party.

By merging the information in these disparate data sets, you’ll be able to see enriched profiles on each

person in your database, and you can use the data generated through social media to incorporate into

segmentation for tactics like targeted email campaigns, to extract new ideas for content generation,

and to uncover more actionable information by looking at your data holistically.

SOCIAL AS PART OF THE PROMISE OF BIG DATABig Data has been recognized as a soon-to-be monumental turning point for marketers, but

getting there is a process. Many are at the beginning of that journey. But in the swirling mass of

Big Data analysis, capturing and using social media data is an attainable objective. Not only can

it be meshed with other overall business data, but also with additional marketing data to give

users personalized experiences and make messages from companies relevant and more impactful.

Start extracting findings from your social

customer data. Here are three ways to prepare:

• Do an audit: Spend some time compiling a list of all the

potential sources of social customer data, including the

social networks you are active on, contests, and more.

Add to this list the various sets of marketing data you

are collecting, including email marketing databases,

loyal program information, and others.

• Adopt a Social CRM platform that can collect social

customer data. To organize a social database with

fresh data, adopting a platform that pulls in as much

information as seamlessly as possible will work to

build viable social customer profiles 24/7.

• Tap experts in the technology vendor space to learn

the best ways for your unique company to link the data

sets from your preferred technology partners.

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WAYS TO PREPARE TO HARNESS

YOUR SOCIAL CUSTOMER DATA


ABOUT SHOUTLETShoutlet is a 100% DIY, cloud-based, social marketing platform

for brands and agencies to publish, engage, and measure social

marketing initiatives. Its industry leading functionality includes

Social CRM, Social Listening, Social Canvas™ for creative design;

Social Switchboard™ for trigger-based campaign publishing;

Social Profiles for data/interest segmentation; Social Ads,

Social Contests, Social Enterprise for corporate-level control;

and Social Analytics.

Shoutlet’s Social Profiles feature allows companies to collect

and store social customer data from social networks and link

other databases to each social connection’s Social Profile. As a

social contact management system, Social Profiles automatically

gather important data points about each social connection.

The result is a powerful database of social contacts that uncovers

characteristics about your audience through advanced filtering

and segmentation tools. Learn more about how Social Profiles

can help you be more effective by tapping social customer

data at Shoutlet.com.

SHOUTLET SOCIAL PROFILES

CONTACT US

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(608) 833.0088