Polygraph Media Blog

The folly of analytics and value of big data analytics

Analytics has become a hot topic over the last 12 months as middle-managers are asked tough questions by their executive stakeholders.

For all the insanity around social marketing, mobile apps, and "conversations", many CMOs, CIOs, and CFOs want to know exactly what they're getting for their money.  Budgets are growing and advertising spend is fluid.  People want to know the impact of strategy changes and tactics tweaks. But don't worry.  This pattern is not just familiar to you in your business, it's happening everywhere.

Middle managers have turned to analytics to rationalize what has happened -- to measure success and failure.  But I'd contend that some of the early analtyics offerings are doing a bit of a disservice to the very clients who rely upon them.  Charts, graphs, and data visualizations are compelling -- so they must be authoritative.

But are they really?

The one question you should ask of any analytics offering is simple:

Do I truly understand the metrics presented in this chart?
As a marketer, do I understand how to improve the metrics presented in this chart?
And finally, do I understand clearly how these metrics impact my company's ability to make more money, save money, and generate a return on investment (ROI)?

As I talk with corporate marketers about social marketing, content, and advertising measurement, I'd say that at least half the people do not understand the data presented to them by Facebook Insights.  Few, if any people, understand what Facebook's Reach and PTAT (People Talking About This) metrics really mean.  Almost none understand how those metrics should be used and interpreted.  And fewer know exactly how they'd improve upon those numbers.  The same goes for abstractions on hard metrics provided by third-party analytics providers.

The only way to get a true understanding of your performance is for your metrics to match the things you know how to do.  On Facebook, it's simple:

• Page Likes -- how many Fans do you have, and is that number growing?
• Posts -- how often do you post?
• Post Type -- how often do you post different types of content to keep your Page fresh?
• Shares -- how often are people inspired to share content with their friends?
• Comments -- how often do people comment on your Page?
• Likes -- how often do people like content that you post?
• Engagement Rate -- by time period or post, how well does your content truly perform?
• Clicks -- how do your ads and/or Page Posts generate clicks to a web site?

Facebook is the top of the funnel for many consumer marketers -- it's an awareness vehicle that can help you create a better conversion rate for other online activities.  It can also identify your top fans and people who advocate for you online and offline.

But (and I'll pick on Facebook Insights for a moment) if you're using metrics such as Reach and PTAT as religious metrics that you watch feverishly, I think you're missing the point.  You're succumbing to the folly of analytics as opposed to the data-driven answers that big data analytics can provide.

If you go to the effort of measurement, you're ahead of the game.  But you're really ahead of the game if you take a data-driven approach.  Be sure to measure the very things you know you can affect.  Otherwise, you're just guessing.

Social, the Salesforce acquisition of Buddy Media, and Real Value

Tonight, this blog post summarizing year 1 of the Salesforce acquisition of Buddy Media.  The numbers, if taken on face value, are brutal as the endeavor is a big money loser so far.

The picture painted is probably a tad on the pessimistic side.  If your Salesforce, you don't buy a Buddy Media to harvest but rather capture market share.  I'm sure a conscious decision was made to spend whatever necessary to win share asap -- so costs are going to be higher in the short-term than revenue.  This is why people invest in Salesforce.com, for the prospect of future cash flows and the benefit of capturing share now at the expense of optimizing short-term financial results.

Remember also that this particular business is super competitive with Salesforce, Adobe, Google, and Oracle all competing in the SMMS space against a few independents (Sprinklr, Spredfast).  Keep in mind also that a lot of SMMS work is still being done manually by service businesses from IBM to digital agencies to traditional agencies now competing aggressively in social marketing.

But I do think there is a lesson lurking in here -- that social is still an unproven commodity in the short-term.  Folks like us and others are doing what we can to find value in social media.  Investors who get into social media plays, whether through publicly traded companies or those selling privately held stock, do so on the belief that their picks will help the marketing ecosystem in some way.  But it's still the wild west when it comes to delivering real value.

Whether it's Buddy Media struggling or Facebook ads struggling or folks like Mark Cuban questioning whether or not he should pay for Facebook News Feed visibility, it all comes down to one critical and unanswered question -- what is the value of social marketing for marketers?

When the answer to this question is as simple as it is for search... i.e. Google Adwords... billions of dollars of new shareholder value will be unlocked.  Now where exactly will that be, and when?

Social Media Measurement & ROI - the next big thing

According to The Center for Marketing Research at The University of Massachusetts.

We agree.  Link below:

http://www.customerthink.com/blog/social_media_measurement_and_roi_next_focus_of_inc_500_fortune_500

Big Social Data -- Explaining Offline Behavior

Over the past six months or more, you've probably heard the term "big data" floating around as if it is supposed to solve all your problems in business, marketing, operations, etc.  Just "access the data" and you'll be smarter than your competition.  You'll react to customer feedback.  You'll be a visionary.  Blah blah blah

All of this creates a situation where they hype is through the roof, but few people can really speak to real-world scenarios and useful applications of big data.  That's probably why "Big Data" is high on Gartner's Hype Cycle 2012 Chart.  Lots of possibilities, but not a lot of answers just yet.

We work primarily in the social data realm at the moment, although we have been getting more & more requests to integrate offline data with social data to understand patterns.  Alongside first-cousin ROI (return on investment), the big question today is whether or not social media is a scorecard for how you're doing or if it can influence offline behaviors, purchase patterns, etc.

The takeaway for us so far is that different businesses certainly have different dynamics.  Only with full access to the data can you really draw any firm conclusions.

Contact us to learn more about how we can help harness big data for your company or brand.