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Gabrielle Corrigan
December 2, 2016
Intern Mentor
Online Analytics Tools, the Key to an Online Presence
It seems as if all anyone talks about nowadays are the upcoming elections. It floods the
news, and everyone is trying to better understand who these people are. In this digital age, some
candidates will do the most extreme they can to remain relevant online, because the internet is
the quickest way to reach massive amounts of people. If candidates take a leaf out of Obamas
book though, they will find a subtle way to stay top of mind, and still stick to the campaigns
values. In the 2012 election, Obamas campaign did something that had not yet been done in a
presidential election. He used Google Analytics to track his following, how they were
interacting, and what converted people from being neutral to being interested in the Obama
campaign. His approach rigorously relied on data to determine the success of the campaign, and
that led to the beginning of his achievements as a candidate. One of the key functions that could
be accomplished through use of Google Analytics, was that debate topics could be viewed in
realtime, which means that as soon as people started searching questions about topics covered in
debates, Obamas team was already putting out ads directing internet users to his take on the
issue. This provided the campaign with much desired visibility, while still meeting voters needs,
and not overwhelming the web with pseudo viral content. The Obama campaign is one example
out of many successful stories about brands that are using social media analytics tools, and as we
continue in the digital age, its more and more crucial to have structure, and monitor online
content. Establishing social media analytics tools is essential in businesses establishing an online
presence, because it teaches businesses about consumers, provides data to help in creating
meaningful and impactful content, and allows companies to adapt much faster to an ever
changing market, and ever changing online interactions.

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History
Social media has exploded since the founding of Facebook in 2004. By the end of 2008,
according to Statista, an online statistics compiler, Facebook had already acquired 100 million
active users, and this number has been steadily increasing every year. Two years after Facebook
was founded, Twitter was created in 2006, furthering the quantity of interactions performed
online, and in 2010, Instagram was founded. These three social media platforms, Facebook,
Instagram and Twitter, have become the most widely used and recognized. Social media in the
past ten years has graduated from being a place to reconnect with college friends, to a significant
part of how the modern person interacts with the world around them, and filters information.
Now, Social media accommodates everything from casual interactions between friends, to
creating fan bases for major brands.
An immense amount of time is being spent with media online, According to the article
Utilizing Social Media Analytics, As of October 2012, Facebooks nearly one billion active
users collectively were spending approximately 20,000 years online each day. (Fan) Even more
importantly though, people are not just scrolling around aimlessly, they are engaged, and
responding to online stimuli constantly YouTubes analysis of its videos indicates 100 million
people take some sort of social action each week, by say, liking, disliking, or commenting on
what they see. (Fan)
These numbers are extraordinary, and when marketers saw this social media boom, it was
obvious early on that social media would become the new word of mouth. When studying
marketing, its taught that the most effective mode of getting information to a target audience is
through word of mouth. Unfortunately, what people talk about is most often beyond a businesss
control. However, with social media, companies gain a new power to influence and monitor the

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conversation. As social media continues to expand, it has become too massive for companies to
effectively evaluate the audience, and remain relevant by simple observation. As soon as
companies decide to invest in social media, it becomes a hungry beast that must be fed, but what
with? Any missteps on social media can be detrimental to a brand, and its important that efforts
made to post are effective. This is where social media analytics comes into play. Social media
analytics allows companies learn about the audience, and what posting behavior will be most
effective to get the message out about their brand. Businesses have adopted entire teams of
analysts dedicated to monitoring website and social media analytics. Investing time and money
into social media analytics is a strategy to remain relevant to an audience of consumers.
Learning about audience
Online analytics tools provide a unique opportunity to marketers to learn extensive
amounts of information about their audience online. One excellent example of a tool that can
collect a large amount of data about internet users is Google Analytics. Google Analytics
associates with a companies website, and gleans data about who the audience of the website is,
and how they are using the site. This is the statement that appears on the Google Analytics page
before login, to describe the service:
Google Analytics helps you analyze visitor traffic and paint a complete picture of your
audience and their needs. Track the routes people take to reach you and the devices they use
to get there with reporting tools like Traffic Sources. Learn what people are looking for and
what they like with In-Page Analytics. Then tailor your marketing and site content for
maximum impact. (Google Analytics).
This is important, because for many people who are active users of the internet, and social
media specifically, they are approaching social media how they would a friend; self- identifying
their interests, habits, and motivations. The fact that Google Analytics can monitor that kind of
information provides companies with a whole new insight into its audience (Sponder). Being
able to segment the market into various demographics helps companies to learn about who to

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target with ads. Through many analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Facebook Analytics,
information about an audiences age, interests, life stages, and location can be collected
(Sponder). Another valuable way analytics tools can help a company learn about its customers, is
by filtering through geotags. Geotags are a feature that is used on many of the big social media
platforms, and it allows users to check in and let their followers know where they are, or where
a picture was taken (Instagram). This chance to know such extensive information about a target
audience is a chance that no company should be able to pass up.
Improving Content
Social media analytics provide businesses with a unique opportunity to improve ads and
products based on interactions customers are having with the company online. Before social
media, brands put their message out through various mediums such as TV or magazines, and
consumers could take it or leave it. With this approach, the company did not have the ability to
narrow in on specific improvements, and build strong report with customers. With social media,
and most importantly analytics tools, so much more can be learned about how effective a
companys ads are, and where to improve. Social media allows businesses to see what is being
said about a product, and how many people like it.
Social media analytics adds another dimension to understanding consumer behavior. One
example is from an online tool called Iconosquare. Iconosquare measures Instagram analytics,
and it organizes data collected from how people are interacting with an Instagram page, and
translates it into relevant graphs and tables. One of the most useful graphs shows the most
popular times of day and days of the week that the pages audience to interacts with posts. This
feature allows marketers to be more effective in their approach to social media, and post when
its most likely to show up in users feeds. Social media analytics allows a company to see
material its putting out from more angles, and time posts to be as effective as possible.

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Another important aspect of maintaining an online presence, and keeping customers
engaged in a brand, is to utilize website analytics. Working with a tool such as Google Analytics
helps a company improve online content in multiple ways. This includes observing what the
sites most popular pages are for people to spend time on, and tracking what social medias are
directing the most customers to the website (Sponder). From this information, a company can
conclude what pages on the website are most engaging to users, and expand on that, and
determine what social media platforms to put the most resources into based on how many
customers come from them.
Able to adapt more quickly
Social media analytics allows companies to be more flexible in their marketing
campaigns, and adapt quickly to the ever-changing market. In the article The Power of Social
Media Analytics by Weiguo Fan, the author speaks about the stages involved in analytics tools
collecting data, and organizing it into relevant information The stages are conducted in an
ongoing, interactive manner rather than strictly linearly(Fan). Its nearly impossible to process
information this way without analytics tools. Information that in the past would have needed
surveys and focus groups to be collected, can now be received significantly faster, and for far
less cost. Analytics tools allow processing to happen as quickly as the data arrives. Companies
can improve products with more flexibility with information collected through social media
analytics. The average customer posting on social media can help companies understand exactly
where the pitfalls of campaigns and products lie, and quickly address those concerns. loyal
followers also provide valuable information on social media that allows businesses to quickly
accommodate content to trends. Through analytics tools, companies can observe what trends
followers are talking about in real time. A company can then add its perspective to the
conversation, which gives the company and its mission more valuable visibility.
Conclusion

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Social media and analytics tools have changed the game when it comes to getting a brand
message out. It was part of President Obamas success, because his campaign could move with
agility never seen before, and be constantly adapting to voters needs. Any business that is not yet
using social media analytics is missing out on a perfect opportunity to collect extensive
information about the audience, improve content based on users needs, and to adapt campaigns
swiftly as needed. Social media is the present, and future of marketing, and embracing that
provides brands with visibility that could never have been accessed before.

Citations
comp. Obama for America Uses Google Analytics to Democratize Rapid,
Data-driven Decision Making. N.p.: Google, 2013. Print.
Fan, Weiguo and Gordon, Michael. The Power of Social Media Analytics. Communications of
the ACM, June 2014: pg. 74-81. Web.
Google. "Google Analytics." Google Analytics. Google, n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.
Schwandt, Frederick. Statista. 2007. Web. December 29, 2015.
http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-usersworldwide/
Sponder, Marshall. Social Media Analytics: Effective tools for building, interpreting and using
metrics. New York: McGraw Hill, 2012. Print.
Systrom, Kevin; Krieger, Mike. Instagram. Facebook. 2010. Web. Dec. 2015

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