SOCIAL MEDIA AND WEB

ANALYTICS
UNIT-1
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?
 In a nutshell, social media are web-based platforms that allow users to
engage with one another.
 The term social media refers to a computer-based technology that
facilitates the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and information through virtual
networks and communities. Social media is internet-based and gives users
quick electronic communication of content, such as personal information,
documents, videos, and photos. Users engage with social media via a
computer, tablet, or smartphone via web-based software or applications.
 Social media is an internet-based form of communication. Social media
platforms allow users to have conversations, share information and create
web content. There are many forms of social media, including blogs,
micro-blogs, wikis, social networking sites, photo-sharing sites, instant
messaging, video-sharing sites, podcasts, widgets, virtual worlds, and
more.
 What are the benefits of using social media?
Billions of people around the world use social media to
share information and make connections. On a personal
level, social media allows you to communicate with
friends and family, learn new things, develop your
interests, and be entertained. On a professional level, you
can use social media to broaden your knowledge in a
particular field and build your professional network by
connecting with other professionals in your industry. At
the company level, social media allows you to have a
conversation with your audience, gain customer
feedback, and elevate your brand.
HOW DOES SOCIAL MEDIA WORK?
 As there are many types of social media apps, the role of these tools
varies as well. On the other hand, most social media platforms begin
with a user generating an account, usually by inputting a username and
an email account.
 Users can produce and share content after creating a profile. For
example, an Instagrammer with a new account can click a photo and
upload it with a caption on their account. In addition, social media users
can identify other users whose content they would like to follow or react
to and provide content for their profile. For example, a user may
“follow” another person, add them as a “friend,” or “sign up” to another
user’s page based on the form of social media.
 Social media frequently employs “feeds,” which allow users to navigate
through content. Social media businesses utilize algorithms to predict the
information displayed and the order in which it appears depending on a
person’s profile data. Content from “following” persons and companies
that pay to advertise their content will be included in the feed.
SOCIAL MEDIA TYPES
There are various forms of social media, and they offer a variety of services; listed below are a
few types of social media, along with instances.
 Social Network

 This type of social media is concerned with sharing ideas, opinions, and content with other
users. Facebook and Twitter are the best examples of social networks. LinkedIn is another
social network. However, it is more sophisticated and professional.
 Media Networks

 Users use this type of social media to share media assets such as images, videos, and other
content with one another. The best examples of media networks are YouTube, Pinterest,
TikTok, Twitch, Flickr, Vimeo, and Instagram. People post media to these sites, and other
users can like, dislike, and remark based on their preferences.
 Review Networks

 Review networks aid in the evaluation of products and services. It includes Yelp,
TripAdvisor, and Amazon.
 Discussion Networks

 These platforms allow people worldwide to discuss a range of problems. Some of the finest
examples of discussion networks are Reddit and Quora.
 You can also break down social media types, based on
their usage as follows:
 Social networking

 Bookmarking

 Social news

 Media sharing

 Microblogging

 Online forum sites

 In a nutshell,
 Type Social Media Platforms Purpose
Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, Listen to live conversations on
Audio Platforms
Spotify specific topics
YouTube, TikTok, Instagram
Watch videos in short and long
Video Platforms Stories and Reels, Facebook
formats
Watch
Send short messages privately and
Snapchat, Instagram Stories,
Disappearing publish conveniently, at-the-moment
Facebook Stories, LinkedIn
Content content for all your followers that
Stories
lasts for 24 hours
Debate and discuss, network, form
Discussion Forums Reddit, Quora communities around a subject, and
share views on internet-driven topics
Collaborate with professionals in
Business Platforms LinkedIn, Twitter
your niche or with potential clients
 Broadcast live video to viewers. This
Twitch, YouTube, ranges from a person broadcasting what
Live Streams Instagram Live Rooms, they’re doing on the screen to ethically
Facebook Live, TikTok organized conferences with numerous
speakers
Closed/ Private Forming communities, possibly you
Discourse, Slack,
Community should register or other screening
Facebook Groups
Platforms measures for new members.
Surf for information and find inspiration
Inspirational Pinterest, YouTube,
for anything from food to travel to
Platforms Instagram, blogs
shopping and more
Pinterest Product Pins,
Research and purchase products directly
Shoppable Social Facebook Shops,
from companies through social media
Media Platforms Instagram Shops, TikTok,
platforms
Shopify, Douyin, Taobao
EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL MEDIA
 Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world,
with a clear advantage over other social media, though it
has similar audiences to others like Twitter and Instagram. The
figures for the most popular social media websites as of
January 2021 are as follows:
 Facebook
 YouTube
 WhatsApp
 Facebook Messenger
 Instagram
 WeChat
 TikTok
THE BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
 It draws people together: Social media platforms allow
us to communicate openly, and we can readily locate and
convey information. Anybody can meet new people,
make new connections, and communicate with them.
 Attract attention: In addition to creating loyalty and
long-term relationships with your audience, social media
can draw attention to your website, product, or service.
 For Promotional campaigns: Social media is highly
beneficial in promotion and advertising. People can use
social media to share their businesses, products, or
services with the entire world.
CONTINUEE….
 Education: People can get a lot of support from social media
regarding their education. We can learn from others online,
and it offers the best learning chances ever. YouTube,
Google, and others are a few instances.
 Beneficial for Government: The government benefits
significantly from social media. It is an effective method for
the government to communicate with the public. It is
relatively simple for the government to raise public
awareness about any topic through social media.
 As a kind of entertainment: One of the simplest methods to
entertain people is through social networking. A large number
of people use social media to entertain themselves. People
use social media to publish various images and videos to
engage others.
SOCIAL MEDIA’S DRAWBACKS
 Privacy: While a person can secure himself, he has no
control over what others post concerning him. This is
becoming a major worry as businesses look for information
on new and prospective employees.
 Fraud: Sometimes, a user is not the person he is pretending
to be. People create fraudulent social media profiles to
defraud others. We’ve seen a lot of people taking advantage
of it. Their money has been stolen, and other sensitive
information that they have shared is now in jeopardy.
 Distraction: Many people are distracted from their goals
due to social media, and the majority of them are students.
Rather than doing their schoolwork, people fail their
academic aspirations because they misuse social media.
 Health Concerns: Excessive usage of social media affects
people’s health. People grow sluggish and obese, and they
dislike going outside, resulting in significant health problems.
 Cyberbullying: One of the worst harms of social media is
cyberbullying. People taunt and troll others for images,
videos, or points of view that they disagree with.
 Spreading Fake News: Fake news spreads quickly on social
media. People post sham news and information, and it quickly
goes viral. Nobody investigates the truth of the report;
instead, they begin spreading it.
 Hacking: Hacking is one of the most severe drawbacks of
social media. Hacking is not permitted anywhere; hackers
obtain your private and confined information through
hacking.
SOCIAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE
 Landscape Means : All the visible features of an area.
 Social media landscape means different platforms and apps that
enable people to connect and share in different ways.
 It also shows how media’s world is divided and which particular
media platforms are reigning supreme in the digital world at this
moment.
 Simply it’s the social “ecosystem” where we can
distinguish tools for:
1. publishing (with blog platforms),
2. sharing (videos or music platforms),
3. discussing (like Quora and comment platforms),
4. collaborating
5. messaging (mobile, visual and webmails)
6. networking (with dating and meeting platforms).56I
 social media are places, tools, services allowing
individuals to express themselves (and so to exist) in
order to meet, share…
 Infinity of tools and services
 The main characteristic of social media is audience
fragmentation: sources (hundreds of millions of blogs,
wikis, forums…) as well as tools.
 Those tools can take various forms (more or less
sophisticated) and fulfill various needs, previously existing
or not (yes, I’m talking about Twitter). The following chart
illustrates the richness and diversity of social media:
 those different tools and services can be grouped into categories:
 Publication tools with blogs (Typepad, Blogger…), wikis (Wikipedia,
Wikia, Wetpaint…) and citizen journalism portals (Digg, Newsvine…)
 Sharing tools for videos (YouTube…), pictures (FlickR…), links (
del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia…), music (Last.fm, iLike…), slideshows (
Slideshare), products reviews (Crowdstorm, Stylehive…) or products
feedbacks (Feedback 2.0, GetSatisfaction…)
 Discussions tools like forums (PHPbb, vBulletin, Phorum…), video
forums (Seesmic), instant messaging (Yahoo! Messenger,
Windows Live Messenger, Meebo…) and VoIP (Skype, Google Talk…)
 Social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, Orkut…), niche
social networks (LinkedIn, Boompa…) and tools for creating social
networks (Ning)
 Micropublication tools (Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, Plurk, Adocu…) and
alike (twitxr, tweetpeek)
 Social aggregation tools like lifestream (FriendFeed,
Socializr, Socialthing!, lifestrea.ms, Profilactic…)
 Platforms for livecast hosting (Justin.tv, BlogTV, Yahoo! Live
, UStream…) and there mobile equivalent (Qik, Flixwagon,
Kyte, LiveCastr…)
 Virtual worlds (Second Life, Entropia Universe, There
…), 3D chats (Habbo, IMVU…) and teens dedicated virtual
universes (Stardoll, Club Penguin…)
 Social gaming platforms (ImInLikeWithYou, Doof
…), casual gaming portals (Pogo, Cafe, Kongregate…) and
social networks enabeled games (Three Rings, SGN)
 MMO (Neopets, Gaia Online, Kart Rider, Drift City,
Maple Story) and MMORPG (World of Warcraft,
Age of Conan…)
WHAT IS SMA
 Social media platforms—such as Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram, and Tumblr—are a public ‘worldwide forum for
expression’, where billions of people connect and share their
experiences, personal views, and opinions about everything
from vacations to live events.
 But social media isn’t just a place for individuals to connect
with each other. It’s also a place for brands and customers to
interact.
 The growth of these platforms has provided companies a new
source of insights on which to base their strategies: social
conversations. Through social media analytics, businesses
have the opportunity to listen, monitor, and look in depth at
these conversations and understand what people are saying
online to make better-informed decisions.
THE DEFINITION OF ‘SOCIAL MEDIA
ANALYTICS
 Of all the definitions for ‘Social Media Analytics’,
Gohfar F. Khan’s hit the nail on the head. In his Seven
Layers of Social Media book, he defined social media
analytics as
“the art and science of extracting valuable
hidden insights from vast amounts of semi
structured and unstructured social media data
to enable informed and insightful decision
making”.
 Within organizations, different people and departments have
unique research questions, therefore their reasons for
analyzing social media platforms and leveraging social
insights differ. Some of the use cases include:
 Brand positioning assessment: What are people saying about
my brand?
 Competitive research: How is my competitor doing? What
are people saying about their product?
 Campaign planning and measurement: Was the new
campaign effective? What was the conversation around the
campaign?
 Audience interest and demographic understanding: Who is
interested in my product? What are their interests?
 Industry and product trend discovery: What are popular
trends at the moment?
 Performance benchmarking: How is my product
positioned compared to my competitor’s?
 Early warning – crisis management: What issues can be
identified? How can it be fixed?
Many organizations don’t listen to social conversations
because of the overwhelming amount of available data;
however, there are certain tools that specialize in capturing
and interpreting this conversation online, making it easier to
separate valuable signals from social media noise. These
tools can crawl most social media channels, including
anything from the main social networks to forums, news
sites, and blogs
DEALING WITH UNSTRUCTURED DATA
 What is Structured Data?
With the explosion of big data, there has been a reciprocal
explosion of companies trying to mine value from the
overwhelming amount of data out there. When looking at the
data that needs to be analyzed,
we can find two distinct types: structured and unstructured
data. We are all aware of structured data: purchases,
transactions and electronic sign-ups, but…what is
unstructured data? How is it different from structured data?
Structured data refers to the kind of data that is organized
and displayed in a database with rows and columns, making
it straightforward to work with.
Examples of this include sales figures, names, phone
 Unstructured data lacks organization.
Due to its variability and unidentifiable internal structure, unstructured
data cannot be analyzed by the conventional technologies.
A few examples of ‘unstructured data’ are:
• Social media posts
• Emails
• Images
• Product Reviews
When looking at social media posts, we see that most of the
information can’t be segmented into fixed categories due to the
complexity and variability of the content. Social media users write
about different subjects, in varying forms, making it hard to categorize
them in a strict manner. Due to the increase in popularity of social
media channels, new analytics tools and processes were developed to
understand and extract value from this boom of unstructured data.
 But why bother to extract this unstructured data? It can
yield deeper insights. Organizations in several industries
are researching and investing in tools to extract meaning
from this data and drive strategic business decisions,
something hard to get from limited structured data. The
value of unstructured data comes from the patterns and
the meanings that can be derived from it. Examples
include identifying issues, market trends, or overall
customer sentiment towards a brand. Two available
solutions for the analysis of unstructured data are
machine-automated NLP (natural language processing)
and machine-learning.
 the basic definition: social analytics is a system that allows
for the collection, aggregation, and standardization of social
media data to discover and communicate meaningful
patterns. Social analytics helps us simplify data from dozens
of networks, millions of people and a variety of activities.
Social analytics can give you a far deeper understanding of
user behavior and demographic data than Google Analytics
ever could. And that is why social media analytics are
important.
SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS IN ORGANIZATIONS
 Social media analytics tools are more important for small
businesses than for larger corporations. When you are running a
small business you have to focus on building a strong brand
image. You have to keep working on improving your reach and
visibility while ensuring that your reputation is positive. All this,
while you are on a little budget. The CMO Survey reports that
over 60%of marketers face pressure about proving ROI. And as a
small firm with a tight budget, it is understandable that you
would want to only implement things that work.
 With social media analytics, it’s smart-work more than hard-
work. The difficulty of marketing your small business lies in the
fact that you have limited resources. Unlike MNCs, you might
not have a large team or a big budget. Also, you will have to take
care of every aspect of the business within your limited time.
 Social media analytics helps with each of these limitations. With a proper
tool:
 You don’t need much time or a large team. The tool makes your job easier
by making most of the work automated.
 Powerful analytics help you optimize your social media and online
performance.
 Every strategy or campaign you plan is data-driven.
 You get automated insights and recommendations from across multiple
online sources on a single dashboard. Some tools also deliver customized
reports built around your company’s performance on a
daily/weekly/monthly basis.
 You get help with not only the marketing side of things. The tool brings
you data about your target audience thus helping your sales team. It
brings you real-time customer feedback and sentiment analysis helping
the customer service aspect of your business and much more.
WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES?
As a business owner of the new age, you already know the value of
online marketing. Social media Analytics only helps you perfect
your efforts. Let’s look at how social media analytics helps small
businesses specifically in generating the following:
 Visibility and Lead Generation

As a new brand, you need to find your customers before they find
you. One of the greatest ways to do that without splurging on lead
generation applications is to invest in social listening. Social
listening is a part of social media analytics that allows you to listen
to every comment or conversation happening online across the
globe on any topic. Just feed in your topic of interest and listen to
who is saying what. This gives you a sense of the kind of people
looking for your service/product. This brings to light the people
who are interested in your industry. You even find out the
experts/advocates/influencers from your industry.
 Better Insights for your Business Functions
Invest in a quality social media analytics tool and
monitor every possible metric on one dashboard. What does
that do? It helps you make data-driven decisions for each
function within your business. Identify which content works
best for your audience members. What are the common
complaints? Which are the most frequently asked questions
about your product/service? What more needs to be done?
And the metrics do not stop at that. You get to compare your
performance across social channels with that of your
competitors. Keep an eye on how well you are doing against
your competitors. Get personalized reports and suggestions
to help improve your performance going forward.
 Save Time and Money
Most importantly, social media analytics helps small
businesses save the two most valuable resources – time
and money. You get quick updates/alerts about every
comment/mention made mentioning your business
online. You also have access to automated engagement
features and an easy-to-use dashboard to help you
understand and respond to your audience.
 Social media analytics is broader than metrics such as likes, follows,
retweets, previews, clicks, and impressions gathered from individual
channels. It also differs from reporting offered by services that
support marketing campaigns such as LinkedIn or Google Analytics.
 Social media analytics uses specifically designed software platforms
that work similarly to web search tools. Data about keywords or
topics is retrieved through search queries or web ‘crawlers’ that span
channels. Fragments of text are returned, loaded into a database,
categorized and analyzed to derive meaningful insights
 Social media analytics includes the concept of social listening.
Listening is monitoring social channels for problems and
opportunities. Social media analytics tools typically incorporate
listening into more comprehensive reporting that involves listening
and performance analysis
 The job of social media analytics tools is to make this
content useful and effective for business
 Grow the business and evaluate the impact of marketing
campaigns
 Make better business decisions and build a strong strategy
 Improve customer experience and satisfaction and build
brand awareness
USES IN BUSINESS ORGANIZATION
 Social media analytics can increase engagement and responsiveness:
A marketing software company increased the leads generated
through social media by 47% over last year, thanks to a complete
picture of what its customers are saying on the web
 Social media analytics helps organizations understand their targeted
audience. An American gaming and media streaming website used
social media analytics to analyze and define the segments of its
audience that were most interested in certain types of video games
in order to offer insight and more effectively support its clients’ ad
strategies
 Brand awareness has a major impact on consumer choices. A British
non-profit that needed to amplify its message and increase
fundraising used social media analytics to measure and improve
brand awareness through deep insights on what consumers were
saying about its brand and the success of its promoted hash tags.
 Social media analytics can help you learn from the competition.
Monitoring and analyzing unstructured information help
companies stay informed about the latest from competitors, as
well as the reactions customers and the activities to avoid. One of
the most important European supermarkets analyzed social
conversations around the home delivery service of its biggest
competitor in order to understand who its key customers were,
how the customers described the service and customers’ “level of
trust” in the company.
 Social media analytics can highlight problems and weaknesses to
discover new trends and avoid a brand crisis. A large brewing
company found that one of its products had a 25% negative
sentiment rating. Thanks to a constant social media analytics and
monitoring, the company was able to control the crisis and
quickly recover.
 These strategies affect a range of business activity:
 Customer experience
 An IBM study discovered “organizations are evolving from product-led to
experience-led businesses.” Behavioral analysis can be applied across social
channels to capitalize on micro-moments to delight customers and increase
loyalty and lifetime value.
 Product development
 Analyzing an aggregate of Facebook posts, tweets and Amazon product
reviews can deliver a clearer picture of customer pain points, shifting needs
and desired features. Trends can be identified and tracked to shape the
management of existing product lines as well as guide new product
development.
 Branding
 Social media may be the world’s largest focus group. Natural language
processing and sentiment analysis can continually monitor positive or
negative expectations to maintain brand health, refine positioning and
develop new brand attributes.
 Competitive Analysis
 Understanding what competitors are doing and how
customers are responding is always critical. For example, a
competitor may indicate that they are foregoing a niche
market, creating an opportunity. Or a spike in positive
mentions for a new product can alert organizations to market
disruptors.
 Operational efficiency
 Deep analysis of social media can help organizations
improve how they gauge demand. Retailers and others can
use that information to manage inventory and suppliers,
reduce costs and optimize resources.
WEB ANALYTICS
 Web analytics is the gathering, synthesizing, and
analysis of website data with the goal of improving
the website user experience.
 Web analytics is the process of analyzing the behavior of
visitors to a website. This involves tracking, reviewing
and reporting data to measure web activity, including the
use of a website and its components, such as webpages,
images and videos.
 Data collected through web analytics may include traffic
sources, referring sites, page views, paths taken and
conversion rates.
IMPORTANCE OF WEB ANALYTICS
Using Web Analytics, we can −
 Refine your marketing campaigns

 Understand your website visitors

 Analyze website conversions

 Improve the website user experience

 Boost your search engine ranking

 Understand and optimize referral sources

 Boost online sales

 Assess web content problems so that they can be rectified

 Have a clear perspective of website trends

 Monitor web traffic and user flow

 Figure out potential keywords
 Identify segments for improvement

 Determine the likelihood that a given customer will

repurchase a product after purchasing it in the past.
 Personalize the site to customers who visit it repeatedly.

 Monitor the amount of money individual customers or

specific groups of customers spend.
 Observe the geographic regions from which the most and
the least customers visit the site and purchase specific
products.
 Predict which products customers are most and least
likely to buy in the future.
WEB ANALYTICS PROCESS
The web analytics process involves the following steps:
 Setting goals. The first step in the web analytics process is
for businesses to determine goals and the end results they are
trying to achieve. These goals can include increased sales,
customer satisfaction and brand awareness. Business goals
can be both quantitative and qualitative.
 Collecting data. The second step in web analytics is the
collection and storage of data. Businesses can collect data
directly from a website or web analytics tool, such as Google
Analytics. Example: time stamp, referral URL, query terms
etc
 Processing data. The next stage of the web analytics funnel
involves businesses processing the collected data into
actionable information. Example Time on page, bounce rate ,
unique visitors etc.
 Identifying key performance indicators (KPIs). In web analytics, a
KPI is a quantifiable measure to monitor and analyze user behavior on a
website. Examples include bounce rates, unique users, user sessions and
on-site search queries. Example conversion rate, Average order value,
task completion rate etc.
 Developing a strategy. This stage involves implementing insights to
formulate strategies that align with an organization's goals. For example,
search queries conducted on-site can help an organization develop a
content strategy based on what users are searching for on its website.
Example save money, make money, market share.
 Experimenting and testing. Businesses need to experiment with
different strategies in order to find the one that yields the best results. For
example, A/B testing is a simple strategy to help learn how an audience
responds to different content. The process involves creating two or more
versions of content and then displaying it to different audience segments
to reveal which version of the content performs better.
WEB ANALYTICS TOOLS
 Web analytics tools report important statistics on a website, such as where
visitors came from, how long they stayed, how they found the site and their
online activity while on the site. In addition to web analytics, these tools are
commonly used for product analytics, social media analytics and marketing
analytics.
 Some examples of web analytics tools include the following:
 Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a web analytics platform that monitors website
traffic, behaviors and conversions. The platform tracks page views, unique visitors,
bounce rates, referral Uniform Resource Locators, average time on-site, page
abandonment, new vs. returning visitors and demographic data.
 Optimizely. Optimizely is a customer experience and A/B testing platform that helps
businesses test and optimize their online experiences and marketing efforts, including
conversion rate optimization.
 Kissmetrics. Kissmetrics is a customer analytics platform that gathers website data and
presents it in an easy-to-read format. The platform also serves as a customer
intelligence tool, as it enables businesses to dive deeper into customer behavior and use
this information to enhance their website and marketing campaigns.
 Crazy Egg. Crazy Egg is a tool that tracks where customers click on a page. This
information can help organizations understand how visitors interact with content and
why they leave the site. The tool tracks visitors, heatmaps and user session recordings.
 Site References
 means from which website or source your reader comes from
 Users may come using a link from other source to your
website
 Maybe user comes directly to your website

 Keyword
 Keywords (also known as “SEO keywords,"
“keyphrases,” or “search queries”) are words and phrases
that users type into search engines to find information on
a particular topic.
BUILDING BLOCK TERMS
 Page
 Page Views

 Visits/Sessions

 Unique Visitors
 New Visitor
 Repeat Visitor
 Return Visitor
 On site Web analytics
 Analytics to track the activity of visitors to a specific site to
see how the site is performing
 Ones own site

 Off site Web analytics

 The practice of monitoring visitor activity outside of an
organizations website to measure potential audience.
 Focuses on data collected from across the web, such as social
media, search engines and forums
 Provides an industry wide analysis that gives insights into
how a business is performing in comparison to competitors.
 Why You Need Web Analytics
 To understand how your visitors interact with your website
 So you can learn how to improve your visitors’ site
experience
 To view how people are arriving on your website and from
what sources
 To see which pages are performing best and how to improve
them in order to convert customers
 To understand your market demographics
 Improve SEO
 To track effectiveness of online marketing campaign