Foreword

In the decade since social networking was born, we have seen the power of platforms that unite humanity. Across our professional and personal lives, social platforms have truly changed the world. Social media has been the tool to ignite revolutions and elections, deliver real-time news, connect people and interests, and of course, drive commerce. In 2005, industry analysts were skeptical about how blogging and its successors could ever be used in business; today every single social channel has both B2C and B2B offerings sprinkled generously throughout the content.

As businesses figured out that they could use social networks to interact directly with their customers and prospects, questions were immediately generated about efficacy and ROI. Was it just hype and noise, or were new audiences being reached and new opportunities created? For the first several years, the only way to answer these questions was anecdotally. Many brands and businesses viewed social media warily, feeling that nothing good could come from engaging in online discussions directly.

Things changed as the technology matured to offer tools for social listening. Whether for business, politics, or news, organizations learned they could identify trends and patterns in all the flotsam and jetsam of online content. Another leap forward occurred as analytics engines were applied to the vast stream of unstructured data, when suddenly big-picture profiles and behaviors could be identified.

Today, organizations of all sizes and missions are looking for ways to make sense of the information available on the social web. Analyzing social media, the right way at least, is now just as important as a brand presence or advertising strategy. When done correctly, the insights available can shape decisions, make organizations more responsive, and quell negative press before it takes off.

In Social Media Analytics, Matt Ganis and Avinash Kohirkar have set out a thorough approach to gaining business insights from social media. Matt and Avinash understand this challenge. Each has built his career on data analysis and insights, and they have specifically looked at social content for the last several years. They have examined key vectors of social participation, including reach, eminence, engagement, and activation. They understand how to filter out noise and focus on relevant insight, building the right tools and conducting the right studies to demonstrate trends, correlations, and results.

Social Media Analytics provides much-needed understanding of both what can be accomplished by examining social streams and why such insights matter. In the first part, the book looks at data identification, sources, determining relevancy, and time horizons. In Part II, several chapters explain ways to find data—what tools, how to understand output, and getting deep into the insights themselves. Part III goes further into interpreting data, looking at potential shortcomings of social analysis and useful ways of sharing insight through visualization.

Social media has evolved quickly from the initial hype, through the naysayers, and to a point where it is no longer viewed as optional. Today, however, there are so many social channels, devising a strategy for sharing and leveraging the online conversation can make the difference between success and failure.

I invite you to think back nostalgically to the days of focus groups, printed surveys, and controlled messages. As those tools of the past have faded out, they’ve been replaced with a veritable deluge of information. Social Media Analytics will help you devise the right strategy to make data-driven decisions rather than reacting to that one nasty tweet, looking at the overall story your customers and prospects are sharing online.

Ed Brill
Vice President, Social Business
IBM Corporation
Chicago, September 2015