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Finding The ROI Of Social Media Mining
By Michael Vigeant, Founder and President, GreatBlue Research
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As the world of social media develops, the opportunities to gather applicable data from the masses grow. Like all data collection, though, retailers must pay close attention to identifying appropriate data and determining optimal ways to apply it.
Enter social media mining — the research methodology that assesses Internet “chatter” regarding clients, competitors, products, ad campaigns and promotional events. Direct feedback from customers hits the web all day every day, with consumers weighing in by posting, passing and promoting their unique experiences. But this presence is no new news, so the real question is: What’s next?
Trying to determine the return on investment (ROI) for social media mining is like trying to put worth to each individual’s feedback — the positive, negative and neutral. The methodology tracks the outreach, or lack of outreach, for products and services. This input offers insight to the potential of future rollouts and offerings. Are we doing things well? Was this product a success? What did consumers like or dislike?
Similarly, social media mining presents an opportunity for companies to respond and engage in social communities. A critical element to all social media outreach, engagement taps into the sensibility of these platforms and embraces its role as an active member. Social media mining identifies which platforms customers are using and offers data to support the type of approach a company should take on the platform.
For example, if Twitter seems to be a hotbed for complaints, it makes most sense for the company to use its Twitter presence as a customer service sounding board, where it can respond quickly and interact directly with dissatisfied consumers, turning their experience around. These circumstances increase the ROI of social media mining research, backing it with increased customer satisfaction and longevity.
On the opposing end of the spectrum, the ROI for social media mining can also be increased by its providing information up front. Whereas the previous example helped assist with reactionary movement, social media mining can also provide insight into what consumers do and don’t like about competitors’ products. It can gauge what features they will and won’t use, providing qualitative data for product development.
In addition to providing content information, the ROI on social media mining increases again when applied to target markets. The “source” information can be accessed and utilized for demographic reporting, providing a second layer of input to the preferences of the target audience and regions.
Take the example of a product marketed toward teens familiar with technological advances. When social media mining showed a large amount of negative feedback on Facebook, it could then be traced back to the source. If that source is a population of middle-aged consumers, that feedback is now put into perspective and the organization can determine the relevance of that information.
Like face-to-face consumer interactions, social media platforms are living instruments — moving and taking shape by the impact of the daily culture and experiences of the members. Knowing this, the methodology allows for the adjustment of sentiments or phrasing to better reflect the connotation of the response. For example, the term “bad fast” insinuates a positive intonation and changing the comment from an assumed negative to a positive.
This phrase association can also be applied going forward, identifying common word groups to use in future ad campaigns. In turn, the burden of generating ad content can be disseminated to the ability or voice generating potential content. The public feedback identifies what the target audience wants to hear and how, and the ROI on the social media mining then increases with its ability to decrease costs in other areas of development.
As president and founder, Michael Vigeant champions the collaborative, client-focused atmosphere of GreatBlue. With more than a decade of experience in market research, Vigeant launched the company (previously The Center for Research) in 2009 after serving as the Executive Vice President for The Center for Research and Public Policy. A specialist in the design and implementation of a wide variety of research methodologies including telephone, mail, and web-based studies, focus groups, and in-depth interviews, Vigeant empowers his clients with objective, reliable data to maximize organizational effectiveness. Vigeant has conducted more than 400 focus groups nationwide for respected clients such as McDonald’s Restaurants, The University of Connecticut, Pure Fishing Corporation, Connecticut Water and The University of Rhode Island, among others.
