Social media analysis is also known as social network analysis, which is a process of extracting information from social media sites to uncover patterns and trends to gain new insights. Social media analytics reveals detailed information about the interconnected networks of people, groups, and organizations that communicate via social media channels. It is possible to find information about the behavior of people on social media sites by applying text-mining techniques. This article discusses the application of social media analytics in various areas like marketing, crisis management, law enforcement, healthcare and sports.
the ‘Social Media Analytics’ field is still considered as a new area that needs to be explored in different industry segments. The aim of this study is to highlight possible applications of Social Media Analytics (SMA) in various industries, how it helps to gain insight from social media data, and how companies can position themselves better in the marketplace. In the study, we will review multiple case studies about the use of SMA in various industries and present real applications of SMA originating from literature or company reports.
APPLICATION OF ANALYTICS IN DIFFERENT FIELDS
Not just one or two, the use of data analytics is in every field you can see around. Be it from Online shopping, or Hitech industries, or the government, everyone uses data analytics to help them in decision making, budgeting, planning, etc. The data analytics are employed in various places like:
1. Transportation
Data analytics can be applied to help in improving Transportation Systems and intelligence around them. The predictive method of the analysis helps find transport problems like Traffic or network congestions. It helps synchronize the vast amount of data and uses them to build and design plans and strategies to plan alternative routes, reduce congestions and traffics, which in turn reduces the number of accidents and mishappenings. Data Analytics can also help to optimize the buyer’s experience in the travels through recording the information from social media. It also helps the travel companies fixing their packages and boost the personalized travel experience as per the data collected.
For Example During the Wedding season or the Holiday season, the transport facilities are prepared to accommodate the heavy number of passengers traveling from one place to another using prediction tools and techniques.
2. Logistics and Delivery
There are different logistic companies like DHL, FedEx, etc that uses data analytics to manage their overall operations. Using the applications of data analytics, they can figure out the best shipping routes, approximate delivery times, and also can track the real-time status of goods that are dispatched using GPS trackers. Data Analytics has made online shopping easier and more demandable.
Example of Use of data analytics in Logistics and Delivery:
When a shipment is dispatched from its origin, till it reaches its buyers, every position is tracked which leads to the minimizing of the loss of the goods.
3. Web Search or Internet Web Results
The web search engines like Yahoo, Bing, Duckduckgo, Google uses a set of data to give you when you search a data. Whenever you hit on the search button, the search engines use algorithms of data analytics to deliver the best-searched results within a limited time frame. The set of data that appears whenever we search for any information is obtained through data analytics.
The searched data is considered as a keyword and all the related pieces of information are presented in a sorted manner that one can easily understand. For example, when you search for a product on amazon it keeps showing on your social media profiles or to provide you with the details of the product to convince you by that product.
4. Manufacturing
Data analytics helps the manufacturing industries maintain their overall working through certain tools like prediction analysis, regression analysis, budgeting, etc. The unit can figure out the number of products needed to be manufactured according to the data collected and analyzed from the demand samples and likewise in many other operations increasing the operating capacity as well as the profitability.
5. Security
Data analyst provides utmost security to the organization, Security Analytics is a way to deal with online protection zeroed in on the examination of information to deliver proactive safety efforts. No business can foresee the future, particularly where security dangers are concerned, yet by sending security investigation apparatuses that can dissect security occasions it is conceivable to identify danger before it gets an opportunity to affect your framework and main concern.
6. Education
Data analytics applications in education are the most needed data analyst in the current scenario. It is mostly used in adaptive learning, new innovations, adaptive content, etc. Is the estimation, assortment, investigation, and detailing of information about students and their specific circumstance, for reasons for comprehension and streamlining learning and conditions in which it happens.
7. Healthcare
Applications of data analytics in healthcare can be utilized to channel enormous measures of information in seconds to discover treatment choices or answers for various illnesses. This won’t just give precise arrangements dependent on recorded data yet may likewise give accurate answers for exceptional worries for specific patients.
8. Military
Military applications of data analytics bring together an assortment of specialized and application-situated use cases. It empowers chiefs and technologists to make associations between information investigation and such fields as augmented reality and psychological science that are driving military associations around the globe forward.
9. Insurance
There is a lot of data analysis taking place during the insurance process. Several data, such as actuarial data and claims data, help insurance companies realize the risk involved in insuring the person. Analytical software can be used to identify risky claims and bring them before the authorities for further investigation.
10. Digital Advertisement
Digital advertising has also been transformed as a result of the application of data science. Data analytics and data algorithms are used in a wide range of advertising mediums, including digital billboards in cities and banners on websites.
What are the use cases of social media analytics?
Social media analysis platforms can track and analyze a range of data and interactions used in a variety of social media marketing use cases.
Measure the ROI of social media marketing efforts
The main goal for any social media post, like, retweet or share is ROI.
To determine social media ROI, marketers must first determine an initial benchmark and then have a way to measure key performance indicators (KPIs) against that benchmark over time. When efforts aren’t working well, analysis of those metrics will reveal tweaks marketers can make to improve the performance of the campaign and overall ROI.
In fact, a recent study from Hootsuite, a vendor offering a social media management platform, found that 85% of organizations that began measuring social media data within their analytics tools were able to accurately show ROI for those efforts.
To begin tracking social media campaign performance, a tracking pixel or Google Analytics UTM parameter can be added to any links used in social media posts or ads. That will show any conversions that came from social media marketing and can help with planning retargeting campaigns for visitors who didn’t convert.
Improve strategic decision-making
Social media analytics can improve a marketing team’s ability to understand what social media strategies are working and which ones aren’t as effective.
However, the analytical results can also provide insight that can be useful for making business decisions about other important aspects of the business not necessarily directly related to the marketing campaigns.
For example, with social listening tools, audience and competition can be analyzed by extracting useful insight from social media data being posted on various social media networks like LinkedIn and Facebook. It can also provide demographic information about the audience that will enable enhanced marketing efforts targeting that sector and more effectively create brand awareness.
By using real-time data, emerging trends may be detected that can give a business a jump on the competition by posting social media content sooner.
Track the efficiency of marketing teams
Most organizations strive to streamline workflows and enable team members to be more productive. A lesser known, but still important, feature of social media analytics is its ability to improve efficiency with your marketing team.
In addition to the KPIs for your social media content, you can also measure aspects like response time and customer sentiment.
Showing the chief marketing officer areas where workflows can be automated and resources can be redirected to strategic activities that directly impact revenue are key to obtaining marketing budget and approvals for future campaigns.
What metrics should be tracked with social media analytics?
There are six general types of social media metrics that should be tracked.
1. Performance metrics
Measuring the performance of social media marketing efforts is critical to understanding where strategic efforts are working and where improvement is needed.
Key performance metrics to track include the following:
- interactions across platforms and over time to determine if the posted content is properly engaging the audience;
- whether the number of followers is increasing over time to verify consistent progress across platforms; and
- click-through rate for link clicks on posts to see if they’re properly driving traffic from social media channels.
2. Audience analytics
It’s important to clearly understand and define the target audience, as it is the most important element of a social media strategy. Understanding the audience will help create a favorable customer experience with content targeted at what customers want and what they’re looking for.
In the past, audience data was difficult to measure as it was scattered across multiple social media platforms. But with analytics tools, marketers can analyze data across platforms to better understand audience demographics, interests and behaviors. AI-enabled tools can even help predict customer behavior. They can also study how an audience changes over time.
The better targeted the content is, the less advertising will cost and the cost-per-click of ads can be optimized.
3. Competitor analytics
To obtain a full understanding of performance metrics, it’s necessary to look at the metrics through a competitive lens. In other words, how do they stack up to competitors’ performance?
With social media analytics tools, social media performance can be compared to competitors’ performance with a head-to-head analysis to gauge relative effectiveness and to determine what can be improved.
Most modern tools that include AI capabilities can benchmark competitor performance by industry to determine a good starting point for social media efforts.
4. Paid social analytics
Ad spending is serious business. If targeting and content isn’t right, it can end up an expensive proposition for unsuccessful content. More advanced analytics tools can often predict which content is most likely to perform well and be a less risky investment for a marketing budget.
For best results, an all-in-one platform is the preferred choice to track performance across all social media accounts such as Twitter analytics, paid Facebook posts or LinkedIn ads. Important metrics to track include the following:
- Total number of active ads
- Total ad spend
- Total clicks
- Click-through rate
- Cost per click
- Cost per engagement
- Cost per action
- Cost per purchase
These metrics will indicate exactly where each dollar spent is going and how much return is being generated for social media efforts. They can also be compared against competitor spending to ensure that spending is at an appropriate level and to reveal strategic opportunities where an increased share of voice may be attainable.
5. Influencer analytics
To gain a leg up on competition in a competitive space, many social media marketers will collaborate with social influencers as part of their marketing campaigns. To make the most of partnerships, it’s necessary to measure key metrics to ensure that the influencer marketing is achieving desired goals.
Social media analytics can provide insights into the right metrics to ensure that influencer campaigns are successful. Some influencer metrics that should be tracked include the following:
- total interactions per 1,000 followers to understand if they’re properly generating engagement;
- audience size and most frequently used hashtags, to help determine the maximum reach of your campaign;
- the number of posts influencers create on a regular basis, to help determine how active they are and how powerful engagement can be; and
- past collaborations, which can be a great indicator of the potential for success with an influencer.
Conclusion
Social Media Analytics is the process of gaining insights from social media mentions which helps in gaining valuable customer insights. Social Media Analytics can be used in various fields such as Business, Business Intelligence, Marketing and so on. This has been used in every field and also by many of the top brands across the world.