20 - SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS

Question 1

Social media allows programs to

Answer 1

• Reach broad and diverse audiences
• Promote open communication and collaboration
• Gain instantaneous feedback
• Predict future impacts – “Forecasting based on social media has already proven surprisingly effective in diverse areas including predicting stock prices, election results and movie box-office returns.” (Priem 2014).

Question 2

Social Media Analytics (*)

Answer 2

ability to “gather and find meaning” in data gathered from social channels to support “business decisions” — and “measure the performance of actions” based on those decisions through social media.

Social media analytics uses specifically designed software platforms (e.g. Twitonomy) that work similarly to web search tools. Data about keywords or topics are retrieved through search queries or web ‘crawlers’ that span channels. Fragments of text are returned, loaded into a database, categorized, and analyzed to derive meaningful insights.

Question 3

when and if to conduct a social media analysis

Answer 3

• What are the “specific goals” that will be answered through social media?
• How will these “goals be measured” using social media?
• Which “platforms will be most valuable/useful” in reaching the targeted audience?

(specific goals, how to measure, platforms_target audience)

Question 4

The results from the analysis can be organised to include the following information

Answer 4

• The extent to which the company’s “content was viewed”
• The “type of audience” viewing/engaging with the content
• The “engagement and preferences” with the content being posted on various social media platforms by stakeholders
• “Potential areas of focus” for the company’s future social media efforts

Question 5

How to track social media performance with social media analytics tools

Answer 5

Goals - social media platforms - metrics (performance against each goal) - benchmarks/ growth rates - social media analytics report - action to improve - revise and revisit
(goat - plat - met - ben - report - action - improve - revise)

Below is a systematic process to track a company’s social media performance

1. Define the goals for a company’s social media campaign (e.g., to gain 10,000 followers)
2. Choose social media platforms to use
3. Choose relevant metrics which would measure performance against each goal
4. Set benchmarks/ growth rates for each metric to demonstrate progress
5. Generate a social media analytics report (identify emerging trends/insights into customer behaviour)
6. Take action to improve your social media performance (e.g., making it easy for customers to send a query on FB)
7. Revise and revisit (social media metrics) regularly