The two most fundamental objectives of any business enterprise continue to be brand building and lead acquisition. However, there has been a subsequent change in the manner in which it is achieved now.

1. Importance of Social Media Analytics
The two most fundamental objectives of any business enterprise continue to be brand building and lead
acquisition. However, there has been a subsequent change in the manner in which it is achieved now. Social
media is the new business mantra. There was a time when social networking sites were written off as a mere fad.
However, today these sites have grown to become the conversation economy.
Social media is all about communication and conversation between people either in a linear or in a non-linear
fashion. Social networking sites started as a casual and informal media where people met each other, made new
friends, and shared their opinions, emotions, insights, and experiences. It provided a platform for people to voice
their opinions regarding anything under the sun. However, it caught the attention of the marketers when the
opinions shared by the people about products or services influenced other people to change their brand loyalties
and purchasing decisions. Since it significantly affected brand and corporate reputation, marketers could no
longer ignore the immense power of social media as a marketing medium. Hence, today social media is an integral
part of their marketing strategy and is now a popular analytics tool.
The world famous web strategist, Jeremiah Owyang, defines Social Media Analytics as “The practice of being able
to understand customers and predict them using data from the social web.” The purpose of social media analytics
is to measure, analyze and interpret the conversation happening on the social networking sites. Since a great
percentage of the population is now available on social networking sites, discussing and expressing their opinions
on every subject under the sun including brand experiences, products and services businesses have no other
choice but to be part of the social media movement. And they do so with the help of social media analytics tools
that measure the conversation, sentiment, engagement and influence of the people in the social media, discover
relevant conversation, gather insight and then help enterprises to connect with potential customers.
Social media analytics help enterprises in making relevant business decisions by providing information as to what’
working and what’ not so that they can optimize products, features, campaigns, and interactions on the fly. The
analysis of social media also helps to find out whether customers are happy and if not what are their grievances. It
facilitates the adoption of corrective measures to drive out all wrong opinions against a company or its brand.
Therefore, enterprises and organizations must invest in social media analytics tools to increase and improve their
effectiveness online.
Click here for more on actionable insights & engagement analytics