Social Media Analytics Strategy
Using Data to Optimize Business Performance
2nd ed.
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To my grandfather, Maximiano Gonçalves, who proved through his many books that writing and sharing knowledge is amazing and possible.
To my father, Maximiano Gonçalves Filho, who never gives up on me no matter what and taught me the discipline that shaped me into who I am.
To my mother, for giving me more than I ever asked for and supporting all of my huge dreams with infinite light, love, and strength.
Analytics is the pursuit of truth.
We want to find the truth because we want to make the best possible decision in the face of any given situation.
The concept of analytics is to understand all the different parts of a problem and then be able to find improvement points from facts in the past and to predict the future outcome of present decisions.
In social media, we are faced with many challenges when it comes to analytics. Many of us don’t come from a technical background and become slightly confused by the details around data sources, integration, available data, and data processing systems. We might not have time to constantly use all of our mathematical knowledge either and may become slightly confused when creating and working with new metrics to accurately measure what we need. On top of that, social media is a field evolving very quickly, and analytics is evolving far beyond social media and into artificial intelligence (AI).
The foundation of social media analytics: How to understand and deal with any social media network, strategy, or campaign
The broader picture: How social media analytics integrates with and affects other areas of business
This book focuses precisely on these two points. It takes you on a journey of discovery, where, by the end of it, you are ready to tackle any project or process using social media analytics. Naturally, as in all interesting topics around technology and business strategy, you are able to continue your studies as you grow further into it. The journey of this book, in relation to that, drops you off at the point where you are ready to jump into advanced studies around analytics. You will be prepared to understand the current state of analytics in the world and to have a strategic view into what works and why.
To give real-world context and insight, the book brings exclusive interviews with six global experts in fields that cover social media analytics specifically, but also business intelligence, data integration, artificial intelligence, machine learning, project management, and even the “human side” of things. As you will see throughout the book, the “human side” of the analytics process is key to its ultimate success.
The ultimate objective of this book is to help you shape the best version of your “analyst self.” We can truly become thinkers in the field and reach a point in which we can effortlessly approach any project with a sharp analytical mind.
On a last note, please don’t be hasty as you progress through the book. Many concepts are built on top of the understanding of smaller parts, so even the “simple things” can matter along the way. It is important that you can make all the connections in the end and truly become fluent in analytics; so please enjoy each step of the way.
This book became possible thanks to the amazing professionals I had the chance to meet along my career, and the amazing clients I had the chance to work with, who pushed me with their eternal curiosity. It was in the trenches of social media that I understood how important it was to prepare this book as a compendium of the necessary knowledge to take every reader to the next level. I am absolutely sure that if we have worked together, either as a colleague or as a client, you will notice in this book some or a lot of what we spoke about.
An immense thank-you to the guests in this book who believed in me and through their interviews offered their insight and knowledge. In order of appearance in the chapters, I give a very special thank-you to Luis Madureira, Alexander and Frederik Peiniger, Tam Su, Armando Terribili, Milan Veverka, and Michael Wu. I am a great admirer and fan of your work, vision, and drive.
An extra-special thank-you to Alexander and Frederik Peiniger for giving access to use and for publishing of quintly’s analytics metrics in the book, which are used to illustrate many concepts that we explore.
A huge thank-you to my dearest friend Paulo Henrique for bringing in his knowledge and insight as technical reviewer.
Eternal admiration and gratitude for the work and spirit of the entire team at Apress: Todd Green, Susan McDermott, Shivangi Ramachandran, Laura Berendson, and in special, for being my superhero along so many contacts in the everyday process of this book, Rita Fernando. A very special thank-you also to Jonathan Simpson, who introduced me to Todd Green and the Apress team. And for this second edition, also Jessica Vakili and Jim Markham, who offered me guidance and so much support.
Last, but most definitely not least, a hearty thank-you to all my friends and family who are present with me every step of the way, in my heart, giving me the drive to push forward and believe.
A photo of April Ursula Fox.
Her professional experience includes passages in Socialbakers and quintly, in client-facing roles, implementing and training organizations in the use and strategy of analytics. Working with clients of all sizes, including global companies such as Peugeot & Citroen, Danone, Autodesk, Bosch, Samsung, P&G, and Monster Energy, as well as global PR and marketing agencies such as Ogilvy, Leo Burnett, Publicis, Mediacom, Mindshare, Havas, and many others, her global and professional experience has given her a deep understanding of the different contexts of digital marketing around the world.
April has lived in the United States, England, Germany, Czech Republic, Portugal, and Brazil and highly values the cultural diversity of our world.
April was born into the technology industry. Her father created the world’s largest technology convention of its time: Fenasoft (http://bit.ly/2uFoQgu). As a child, April clearly understood technology’s immense power for positive change. When social media technology came along, she embarked on a journey to uncover more of its secrets, seeing it as a possible core system in all human-related technological operations.
By April’s calculations, in more than ten years of working with analytics in social media, she has spoken to more than 9,760 people, for more than 24,400 total hours of conversation. She feels that this qualifies her as passionate for the subject, a trait that she will surely honor when contacted by anyone interested in talking about social media and social media analytics. So please be encouraged to get in touch!
You can contact April at www.linkedin.com/in/aprilursulafox/.
graduated in IT with a degree in digital marketing and communication. He has a great experience creating communications projects for different companies from different countries, always using data as the base of his strategies. Besides his professional life, Paulo spends time with his family, most of the time traveling as it is one of his passions.