Title (Arial bold 30 point)

Social media and Web Intelligence In a nutshell

The three factors of shorter, almost real-time intelligence, the vast scale and the lack of direct intervention on people in the information collection process are the cornerstones of the shift that has impacted the way businesses do business.ImpactThis growth in social media has enhanced and in some cases, changed approaches and methodologies of assessing business intelligenceIn the past Research was

Intrusive since people were prompted to take part in the data collection process, as opposed to willingly contributing to discussions

Time Consuming since the data collection process used to vary from weeks to months

Restrictive in terms of scale, since the data had to be restricted to a sample setEarlierNo more constraints on Time, Scale or Acquisition during data gathering while conducting research: Social media and the real-time web intelligence, affords for the acquisition of unprompted and more honest and real mentions

The scale of research is no longer restricted to a sample set that is defined by the limits of human capacity to gather and collate information

Time is no longer a constraint since conversations in the social-web happen continuously and data can be gathered in real-time

Now Intelligence mined from social media and the real-time web, now provide a window to understand and analyze complex human emotions, moods and habits. For instance, online conversations are monitored to analyze the time of the day when people are happy and likely to buy a product OR the time of the day when people are likely to be put-off or distressed and likely to buy something else

Behavioral ResearchReputation Management Social media is like word-of-mouth on steroids

Bad word-of-mouth online can be the demise of even extremely promising companiesFor instance, a car company had a surprisingly large number of cancellations which spiraled the company into fixing everything in their sales. Later, it was unraveled that there were a bunch of bloggers who had blogged about their disappointing after-sales service.

If the company was online and was monitoring negative comments, they could have addressed these issues before they became viral and caused such colossal damages

58% of social media users say they write product reviews to protect other consumers from bad experiences, and almost one in four say they broadcast their negative experiences to punish companies.

60% of social media users say that consumer ratings andconsumer reviews are their preferred sources for information about products and services.Importance of online product reviews Purchase IntentSocial media has infiltrated the purchasing funnel

Consumers now make informed decisions, from what to have for lunch to where to go on a vacation

Social media chatter, a great measure of Purchase intent with consumers constantly posting about their purchase aspirations online. A great example of a company that used social media to measure purchase intent was a popular credit card company that took to social media to specifically track conversations that mirrored peoples intention to travel, which was later linked to their marketing efforts.Campaign Planning Marketers plan campaigns based on the nature of chatter of their brands/companies

They identify where to run their marketing campaigns by analyzing the break-up of chatter across various geographies

The effectiveness of campaigns is gauged by listening for conversations on social media channels pertaining to any specific ads, which might be resonating in users minds

Campaign planning can be tweaked based on the results of listening and monitoring online conversations

ROI Social media Chatter is a potent measure of a companys ROI of their marketing efforts

ROI goes one step beyond the total volume of buzz in the social mediaFor instance, a popular skin care brand launched a powerful online marketing campaign. At first glance, it seemed like the campaign was successful since it had resulted in substantial discussions about the product in social media platforms. A deeper analysis showed that most of the buzz in these platforms were not pertaining to the product and were infact irrelevant.

Although, the marketing campaign seemed successful at first glance, since it did not result in buzz relevant to the brand, the return on investment is actually nil.Social media impacts every stage of the intelligence cycleInformation is moving from proprietary sources to social platformsAlign decision support with social media intelligence

Understand how social media compliments your other intelligence activities

Choose your social media platform(s) based on your requirements and marketExamine your decision support needs for their social media potentialSocial platforms have distinct value propositions for competitive intelligenceFacebookOfficial marketing presence for competitors Business-to-consumer organizations are more likely to actively use Facebook as a marketing platformUseful to track competitor recruiting activities, particularly those focused on university graduates and young professionalsLinkedInThe professional social network ideal for recruiting, job hunting and networkingIndividual and company profilesDiscussions in industry-specific groupsUseful for developing profiles of prospective primary sources

TwitterOfficial marketing presence by companies and brandsUse in marketing, PR, customer support and recruitingOften favored by academics, pundits and journalistsCommentary from individual employees and customerUseful for broad collection and building an expert networkCollection becomes about farming, not hunting and gatheringAllows us to cast a wide net

Elements of primary and secondary collection

Near real-time streamExperiment with free and inexpensive social media monitoring methods and toolsPriceHighLowMonitoringand listeningLimitedRobustSource: Oram, Nicholas. Social Media/Web Collection Tools. Mercyhurst University.16Look beyond traditional authority to build a network of curators who scan and interpretThink about your engage-ment planPlan to spend 3-6 months building a social media presence and engaging with your targets.Understand who your targets are, and how can you reach them directly and indirectly.Budget your time accordingly: 30-60 minutes a day while you get up to speed.

Create your own professional profileChoose a unique handle; make it as short as you can.Have a professional photo or appropriate tasteful image.Write a short but clear description of your area of expertise. Include a link to a blog or LinkedIn profile.Clarify your corporate affiliation and that opinions are your own.

Find experts on TwitterUse a search engine to search for known experts on Twitter.Look for other relevant lists that other Twitter users have added your targets to.See who else is on these lists.

Build rapport with your expertsStart by retweeting content you find noteworthy to your followers.Comment on tweets from others with public @ messages. Be supportive.Direct items you know will be of interest to specific people. As people see your value they will follow and message you, too.17You will need to apply new criteria to process information from social mediaExpanding beyond traditional authorities requires new verification and validation.

You will need to focus on the specific social media data that will inform your analysis.18Credibility of information is intimately tied to the reliability of the source

Can you verify the identity of the source?

Do they have a complete and professional-looking social media profile?

Are they present with a consistent presence across social media platforms?

What is their history or longevity on a given social media platform?

Whom do they follow, message and retweet and who follows messages and retweets them?

Do they maintain authoritative lists and do they appear on authoritative lists with other known experts?19Effective social media intelligence requires considering a range of information

Quantitative metricsContentSentiment

VolumeAggregate data20Social requires new analytical techniques, bringing new information to existing methodsVolumes of social content requires semantic analytical capabilities.

Social platforms drive new types of content to existing analytical methods.21Social moves us from snapshot analytical methods to analysis of information streamsObjectiveTraditional tool kitSocial intelligence tool kitIndustry dynamicsPorters five forcesValue chain analysisInteraction among industry playersResponse to market changesCompetitive landscapeWar gamesBenchmarkingSWOT

Track product and service uptakeFuture trendsSTEEP/PESTLEScenario planningCompetitor trend exposure

Weak signal analysisCrowd sourcingCustomer insightsWin lossFocus groupSentiment and buzz analysisInfluencer intelligenceBased on Harrysson, Martin; Metayer, Estelle and Sarrazin, Hugo. How social intelligence can guide decisions. McKinsey Quarterly, November 2012. Accessed 2 June 2014. 22Social media inside the enterprise changes how we communicateEnterprise social enables two-way discussions, in close to real-time, across flattened hierarchies.

The platforms make it easier to target specific insight.

As such, internal social platforms can displace legacy intelligence portals while external platforms enable private curated news briefs.23

Social competitive research

Content Analysis

Graph Search

Blog Posts

Key Influencers

Other sources like KickstarterUse Kickstarter

Finally