Social Intelligence Strategies for Early Stage Companies

Social Intelligence Strategies for Early Stage Companies

According to this State of Social Intelligence report conducted by Talkwalker in 2019 among social data analysis professionals, it was revealed that 80% of the respondents agreed that social data provided them unique marketing insights that they would not have obtained elsewhere. On top of that, 57% also expressed that the application of social intelligence had exceeded their expectations. Understandably, in 2021, social intelligence is no longer a flashy buzzword but a cornerstone of digital marketing strategies for an increasing number of brands.

But what exactly is social intelligence? And what can early-stage companies do with it to improve the business? Let's get to the bottom of it.

Social intelligence or social media intelligence refers to using social media-focused analytics to gather strategic meaning from millions of available data points before channeling these insights to relevant resources and personnel within your organization to make them actionable in real-time. Social intelligence tools allow analysts to create dynamic data maps that pinpoint, analyze and react to data in real-time.

Now that you know the basics, let's look at some of the strategies you can use to leverage the best of social intelligence:

1. Answer the Why question

Usually, with data analytics, analysts tend to look for "what is working?" Whether it be content or influencer advertising or a new feature, marketers can get carried away trying to find new elements that work. Social intelligence, however, is all about looking beyond the "what" to understand the "why." This approach takes cognizance of the fact that contexts, behaviors, and attitudes ultimately drive social data. To truly harness it to your advantage, one needs to go beyond regular monitoring and reporting and shift the focus to critical data analyses.

2. Identify your focus point

With the incredible amounts of social data available today, you must delineate clear focus points before attempting to parse data. Organizations often classify focus points for a particular query into topical analysis, audience response, brand perception, or competitor analysis. For instance, according to the State of the Social report, analysts' favorite social intelligence objectives were customer insights (72% ), measuring campaign success (66%), understanding customers (56%), and brand positioning (54%). Therefore, if you know what aspect you want to improve on, it will be easier to find the insights you are looking for.

3. Track Brand Equity

Tracking equity helps brands understand the audience's perception of their digital campaigns and products in greater detail. Social brand equity broadly depends on four elements: brand awareness, desirability, shareability, and relevance. Social intelligence helps brands gauge their equity about these elements and make real-time nudges to improve their campaigns while they are still rolling. For instance, UK-based e-commerce fashion company ASOS' success story is well documented. Using social intelligence tools, ASOS discovered that their clients primarily consisted of active students on the internet during later day hours. Tweaking their brand communication to align with the student clientele's preferred timings helped them boost business.

4. Detect emerging trends

While social listening can play a crucial role in helping you identify existing trends, it is not all that reliable when anticipating future trends and consumer behavior. On the other hand, social intelligence can help you identify gaps between consumer demand and supply and aid you in developing fresh ideas and products. Brands including Taco Bell and Buffalo Wild Wings have registered success by taking calculated risks based on social media intelligence in recent times.

With spending on digital marketing and social analytics tools on the rise, it is pretty clear that social intelligence is here to stay and get smarter. At Cogent inCights, we offer the best social intelligence solutions to gauge consumer perception of your brand and tweak your product planning to maximize revenue opportunities. To receive more valuable business insights, subscribe to Cogent insights today!

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