The how and why of using social media analysis in business decision-making

Want to make more informed business decisions? Develop a product that solves pertinent problems for your customers? Create a powerful marketing strategy that hits all the right notes? Engage with your audience and build authentic connections? Regardless of your organisation’s needs and objectives, social media analysis can provide you with a wide range of research solutions.

Why should you analyse social media?

With billions of users worldwide, social media has become an integral part of modern society. The ease of connectivity it offers brings people together, providing a place not just for friends and like-minded peers to bond, but also for political debate and awareness raising, and for brands to connect directly with their customers.

This, along with increasing internet and smartphone access, has gradually shifted life from offline to online across the globe. With the Covid-19 pandemic accelerating digital adoption, there is now an online option for everything, be it work meetings, fitness classes or grocery shopping.

Social media plays an important part in all of this, serving as a channel for people to communicate with others, share their thoughts, seek advice and keep up with trending conversations and current affairs. It has moved beyond its primary functionality as a user-to-user communication tool, turning into a vital source of information for brands and consumers alike – a core pillar of today’s information society.

Consumers now use social media reviews, posts and conversations to inform their purchase decisions and shape their opinions about the brands and products around them. An influencer or a friend raving about a product could inspire their purchase in an instant. Equally, someone sharing their poor experience has the potential to damage consumers’ perception of the brand in question.

Social media monitoring and analytics help to extract valuable insights about consumer behaviour and opinions from these conversations. These social insights can then inform different aspects of a brand’s business decisions – from customer service to product development to marketing and sales.

How social media analysis helps your business

Data gathered from organic online conversations will provide businesses with an honest and in-depth understanding of consumer perception, needs and values. These are insights that will be critical in making informed business decisions.

• Competitor analysis & industry benchmarking
• Brands need to understand their competitiveness, not only from online visibility across all channels, but also in how consumers view them. Need states analysis will allow brands to identify opportunities to tailor communications and service/product offerings that best cater to the ever-changing consumer requirements.
• Reputation management
• While consumers can reach out to online support channels for their problems, they will also share their experiences online, where conversations can take place among followers or like-minded individuals. Having real-time access to this information allows businesses to quickly react and address consumer concerns, enabling them to maintain a positive brand image and engagement.
• Product/service development
• Consumers’ perception of current product/service offerings in the industry can reveal insights into unmet needs that are valuable for product/service development.
• Campaign evaluation & ROI measurement
• Monitoring conversations relevant to an ongoing or recently launched campaign can provide information to consumer perceptions of the campaign pre, during and post launch. These social insights allow brands to quickly adjust content and messaging to drive visibility, positive engagement and, ultimately, purchase decisions.

Understanding the consumer mindset with social media analysis

With the ability to closely monitor and assess online conversations, social media analysis can provide a deeper understanding of the consumer mindset. Social media listening looks into how people are discussing your brand or what your target audiences are posting on social media and other open-source platforms. By analysing these conversations, social listening will help you identify the opinions and preferences influencing their decisions.

The right social intelligence solution can look for patterns in consumer behaviour to identify any shifts in consumer mindset that could change how they perceive or interact with your brand. It can tell you what they like or dislike, what interests them in the moment, who is influencing their opinions, what motivates them to choose one product over the other and how they feel about a certain product or brand. These valuable social insights will help you develop data-driven strategies that have real impact.

This article was originally posted on the Convosphere website.

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