How Are Marketers Using Social Data?

July 15, 2021

This article is included in these additional categories:

Customer Engagement | Customer Experience | Customer-Centric | Data-driven | Digital | Social Media

SproutSocial Marketer Uses of Social Data July2021Social media usage has grown since the start of the pandemic, providing a plethora of opportunities for marketers who utilize social media data. But what are they using that data for? Per a report [download page] from Sprout Social, more than half (55%) of marketers are using social data to understand their target audience.

Indeed, when asked to rank the top ways social data informs marketers’ understanding of their customers, the top 3 included: showing them how customers use their products and services; showing them what customers dislike about their brand; and telling them what customers like about their brand.

Returning to uses for social data, marketers also responded that they’re using the data to develop creative content (48%), support other departments (39%), analyze trends (32%) and assess campaign performance (29%).

Even though about 7 in 10 consumers use social media to interact with brands and many expect brands to read and analyze what they post, only 26% of marketers say they use social data to foster relationships with customers. In addition, while 88% of marketers say their social media strategy positively impacts their bottom line, only one-quarter are reporting results to their manager or team and even fewer (10%) are using social media data to inform business decisions.

When it comes to overall organizational views of the value of social media data, fewer than half (47%) consider social media a resource that influences strategy for multiple teams while a similar share (46%) consider it to be strictly a marketing resource. Only 8% say social media data is a resource for organization-wide business intelligence.

Finally, per the report, social data is offering businesses an understanding of their competitors including the strength of customers’ brand loyalty, as well as revealing strengths and weaknesses of competitors’ products or services. Marketers also say social media highlights where their brand can differentiate from competitors.

The full report can be found here.

About the Data: Results come from surveys offered to 1,002 US consumers and 1,001 US marketers between March – April 2021.

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