MKT 380Week 10 Introduction to Social Media Marketing

Chapter Objectives• Describe the types of data used in social media

research• Discuss the methods and usages of quantitative and

qualitative social media research• Discuss the functions of metrics in social media

marketing• Assess the costs and benefits of social media

marketing programs• Describe methods to track social media marketing

results

The Role of Social Media in Research

Marketers rely on several variants of marketing research to make decisions. Options include:

• Secondary research – information already collected and available for use.

• Primary research – information collected solely for the research purpose at hand.

• In Social media the presenceof so much informationhas resulted in the idea ofBIG DATA

Qualitative Social Media Research

Observational Research involves recording behavior or the residual evidence of behavior.

Qualitative Social Media ResearchEthnographic Research occurs when marketing researchers conduct field research by visiting people’s homes and offices to observe them as they go about everyday tasks.Netnography is a rapidly growing research methodology that adapts ethnographic research techniques to study the communities that emerge through computer-mediated communications.

Quantitative Social Media ResearchMonitoring and Tracking

• Social media monitoring occurs by carefully choosing and searching the appropriate key words and the relevant social communities.

• This process answers four basic questions:1. How many times was the search term found?2. When was the search term found?3. Where was the search term found?4. Who mentioned the search term?

Quantitative Social Media Research

Sentiment Analysis refers to determining how people think or feel about an object.

The analysis consists of four steps:1. Fetch, crawl and cleanse.2. Extract entities of interest.3. Extract sentiment.4. Aggregate raw data into a summary.

Quantitative Social Media Research

The challenges of sentiment analysis• Accuracy in gauging sentiment with automated tools• Cultural factors, linguistic nuances and differing contexts• Defining the sentiment dictionary• Accuracy in the categorical data needed to make better use of data

Quantitative Social Media ResearchContent Analysis is an analysis approach used to identify the presence of concepts and themes within qualitative data sets. Click here to read more about Dove’s use of social media mining

Social Media Metrics

What Matters is Measured

In many ways, social media marketing mimics online advertising in terms of the viable metrics available to measure how effective these messages are. Advertisers can measure

• Reach - the number of people exposed to the message• Frequency - the average number of times someone is exposed• Site stickiness - the ability of a site to draw repeat visits and to

keep people on a site• Relative pull - a comparison of how well different creative

executions generate a response of creative advertising• Clickthroughs - the number of people exposed to an online ad or

link who actually click on it• Sales conversions - the number of people who click through who

go on to purchase the product• Viewthroughs - the number of people who are exposed and do

not click through, but who later visit the brand’s website

What Matters is Measured

A First Date or a Marriage?• Simply counting the quantity of interactions consumers have with a

brand doesn’t tell us much about the quality of these touchpoints. We need to know the degree of engagement people feel during and after the interaction, and how these exposures influenced their feelings about the brand.

• Key performance indicators (KPIs) are those metrics that are tied to organizational objectives.

What Matters is MeasuredA Review

• Measurements within a defined context are metrics.• Measurements require context to provide useful

feedback.• Metrics that are tied to objectives are key performance

indicators.• Objectives must be well-defined before we can identify

key performance indicators.

The Evaluation and Measurement Process: DATA

The measurement plan is organized according to a four-step process known as the DATA approach.

1. Define: Define the results that the program is designed to promote.

2. Assess: Assess the costs of the program and the potential value of the results.

3. Track: Track the actual results and link those results to the program.

4. Adjust: Adjust the program based on results to optimize future outcomes.

The Evaluation and Measurement Process

• Simple Ways to Start Measuring• Content consumption: Who is interacting with and consuming

the brand-generated and consumer-generated content? • Content augmentation: Who is adding to or changing your

content by continuing the conversation with response posts? • Content sharing: At what rate are those exposed to the

brand messages sharing the content with others using Share tools?

• Content loyalty: How many consumers have subscribed to branded content with RSS feeds or by registering for site access?

• Content conversations: Who is discussing the brand? • Content engagement: Is the number of friends to brand

profiles growing?