On February 19th, we conducted a webcast titled “Combining Social and Enterprise Data to Increase Insight.” It was one of the most popular events we have run in the last 12 months. It is great to see so many people excited about the future of social media data analytics.
The objective of the webcast was to introduce the concept of combining social media with enterprise data and discuss potential areas of value. We chose to take a “foundational” approach to the webcast based on our understanding of where people are right now regarding their analytic capabilities. Our poll of the attendees confirmed our approach. The vast majority of the attendees are not combining social media and enterprise data now.
We asked the question, “What drove you to register for this event?” The options given were:
- For the time being, we are really just focused on obtaining insight strictly from social media data and were hoping to get ideas around that.
- Combining data seems like an interesting area of opportunity and I wanted to learn more.
- We are planning to do some combined data analytics and are looking for tips to get started.
- We are already doing offline combined analytics and are looking for new areas of value.
- We are already doing combined analytics through one tool and are looking for new areas of value.
The poll told us that if we extrapolate the answers to the broader market, that only 24% (13% + 11%) are currently performing analysis by combining social and enterprise data in some form. On the other end of the maturity curve, 59% (18% + 41%) are not even in the planning stage for combined analysis.
Why are there so few people combining data today? One theory is that most of the social media data analysis is now being performed by the social media teams. If that is the case, the 59% number is not surprising. It is easy to be overwhelmed by social media data if you only focus on it, meaning, if you don’t have time to look at other data types. But we are seeing broader roles taking an interest in social media data as a form of research. As this expands, we will see more interest in combined data analytics.
For example, market research is beginning to understand the value of combined analytics. The universe of data available to them is huge – surveys, reports, online behavior, focus groups, CRM data, etc. They are well trained in finding insights by looking for the common perspectives across data types. Social media data is simply the newest data type they are integrating into their methodologies.
Take a look at the webcast. If you are doing combined analytics, you may get some new ideas. If you are just getting started, we will help you move forward, as we reviewed:
- The case for combining analytics.
- Examples of potential areas of value by functional area (customer service, product marketing, product development).
- A specific case study where we working with a leading retailer. They were looking for insight around their layaway program. We combined social data with survey data, syndicated shopper research, and online behavior research to develop new insights around the best target market and messaging.
- Three things that everyone should think about as they get started: Defining analytic objectives and alignment with others in your company, understanding the data that is available, and building a team.
