Social Media Analytics, Marketing, and Privacy Concerns - Literature review Example

Table of Contents: Introduction……………………………………………………………….. 3 Social Media Analytics…………………………………………………… 3 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………. 8 Bibliography……………………………………………………………….. 9 Appendix ………………………………………………………………….. 10 Introduction: Social media analytics refers to the process of analyzing, interpreting and measuring the various associations and interactions between topics, ideas and people. It is a powerful tool that organizations can use for purposes of uncovering the various sentiments of their customers, from the countless online social platforms that exists (Evans, 2008). It is important to understand that the social media is a very popular method of interaction, and it has been made possible through advances in the technological innovations involving information technology. Social media companies such as face book, twitter, instagram, have millions of users, and this makes it very attractive to companies. This is because they would need to market their products to the users of these accounts. For example, social media companies such as Face Book has over 500, million users, and this makes it highly attractive to multinational companies, mainly because it gives them an access to these people. Social Media Analytics, Marketing, and Privacy Concerns: Therefore it is easier to market their products to these users. Social media analytics can also be referred to as online listening or even social media listening. This is because it allows marketers to have the capability of identifying the trends, and needs of customers, for purposes of developing products that would satisfy and meet these needs (Turban, Delen and Sharda, 2013). There is significant evidence and examples whereby companies have used the tool of the social media analytics to market their products, and engage with their customers. Companies such as Royal Bank of Canada, Jet Blue, Whirlpool and Barclays Bank are known to be using the tools of the social media analytics for purposes of marketing, and promoting their brand image. These companies have managed to improve their services, because of the feedback that they usually receive from their customers, through the social media. This is because the social media is an interactive tool of communication. Furthermore, scholars and academicians have tried to analyze and explain the seasonal emotional pattern that is always characterized by the use of the social media (Turban, Delen and Sharda, 2013). This is important because this type of research has enabled companies to know the reason why people use the social media, and the best marketing tools to use, for purposes of convincing them to use the products of the company. Through these studies, researchers have managed to come up with social media tools that can enable them study the emotions of customers, regarding a particular product or substance. For example, the University of Bristol was able to develop a social media analytic tool referred to as Mood of the Nation. This tool had the capability of extracting emotions such as fear, anger, sadness, joy, hate from the twitter accounts, of users who are located in the United Kingdom. Such kind of information is very important to a company, and this is mainly because a company would have the knowledge on how its marketing campaigns are received by the target audience (Evans, 2008). A marketing advertisement or campaign that manages to elicit a lot of negative emotion in the social media would mean that it has failed, and the company under consideration would be forced to change strategies, and initiate a new marketing campaign. On the other hand, a marketing campaign that achieves a lot of positive emotions would mean that it is successful, and hence it should continue with the advertisement, or the marketing campaign. These types of technologies and social media tools have the capability of affecting the privacy of individuals. Privacy is a matter of concern to every people, and this is because it any breaches to it, can compromise the security and well being of an individual. For example, with the development of Facebook, and the continued increase in the popularity of MySpace, majority of people, all over the world are providing their personal information through the internet. However, most of these users do not have the knowledge that they can modify the settings of their accounts for purposes of ensuring that the personal information they provide is not given to the public. This therefore means that the privacy concerns of people, in relation to social media analytics is unfounded. This is because users of social media sites have the capability of controlling the kind of information they receive or use, in their social media sites. However, Hay (2011) believes that this is not the case. In the view of Poston (2012), administrators of the social media sites have the overall control of the accounts of users. This is because they are in business, and it is their desire to ensure that large organizations are able to use their sites for marketing purposes. Furthermore, for purposes of identifying the location of its users, companies such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have introduced applications aimed at tracking and identifying the location of its users. This kind of information is very useful to companies, and this is because they would know the geographical location of their users, hence develop appropriate marketing techniques or tools, that would have the capability of appealing to people within these geographic locations (Hay, 2011). Furthermore, it would save the company some money, because it won’t advertise or engage in marketing promotions, in regions where it offices or products are not available. However, these applications that identify the locations of social media users is controversial, and it has implications on the role of internet privacy, as overlapping on the need of providing security to the users of these social media sites. For examples, some of these social media applications are aimed at cyber stalking (Turban, Delen and Sharda, 2013). An example is an application known as Creepy. This application has the capability of tracking the location of an individual by using photos that are uploaded to Flickr or Twitter. For example, when an individual uploads photos to their social networking sites, marketers are able to track their recent locations. Furthermore, some smart phones have the capability of embedding the latitude and longitude coordinate into photos, hence automatically sending this type of information to the Creepy application. Anybody using this type of application can conduct a search on the specific person, and find out their locations. This creates a variety of risks to the users of the application, specifically to those sharing their information with a large group of people, or followers. The security of these people is at risk, and this is because of the identity of their locations (Poston, 2012). However, to marketers, this is beneficial. This is because they would have the capability of identifying the location of their customers, and hence come up with marketing campaigns, that are effective in appealing to the needs of their customers (Turban, Delen and Sharda, 2013). Furthermore, developing a marketing campaign that does not factor in the location of its target audience would normally lead to the failure of the campaign under consideration. Therefore, such kinds of information are always useful to marketers. Furthermore, the use of social media analytics helps an organization to listen and learn from its customers. This information is very useful to marketers, because they would develop a marketing campaign aimed at satisfying the identified needs. A good example is the Accor hospitality company. The company has more than 4100 properties, in different countries. The company was facing pressure from its shareholders for purposes of increasing the quality of its service, and the number of its employees. To achieve this objective, the company hired Synthesio, a global company responsible for social media research. The mandate of the company was to examine and analyze more than 5000 customer opinion regarding the companies, which were posted on various websites. From these reviews, the company was able to not that its major weakness was on how to identify the problems of customers, and initiate measures aimed at satisfying and correcting those problems. The company further managed to create an online tool that had the capability of tracking the reputation of 12,000 hotels, and this includes the hotels managed and operated by its competitors. Through this action, the company was able to identify the various needs of the market, and it developed strategies such a reward system, training programs, for purposes of improving the quality of its service, and appealing to its target market. This had an impact on the number of visitors attending the company’s hotels, rising by 53%. Evans (2008) further explains that the use of social media analytics in marketing helps in improving innovation. These tools of the social media normally help in providing a deep natural language or semantic analysis of the social media. It is possible to configure these tools for purposes of discovering the various gaps in an industry as a whole. Innovation would emanate, based on the information provided by users of the social media, concerning a particular product (Hay, 2011). The social media comprises of a lot of information about the portfolio of a company. Effective implementation of the tools of the social media analytics helps an organization to mine this information, which would in turn help it to improve the existing services and products. Conclusion: In conclusion, the social media analytics plays a great role in ensuring that an organization manages to get the necessary information that can be used in advancing its interest and objectives. Social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter have millions of users, and these people normally comment on the quality of products or services that an organization offers. It is this kind of information that companies can mine, and use them for marketing of their products and services. However, the use of social media analytic tools, normally compromise the security and privacy of an individual. This is risky, because the security of the person under consideration may be at risk, or vulnerable. However, to business organization, social media analytics is an important marketing process, that can help them recover information that can be used to promote their business. Bibliography: Evans, D. (2008). Social media marketing an hour a day. Indianapolis, Ind.: Wiley. Top of Form Bottom of Form Hay, D. (2011). The social media survival guide: Strategies, tactics, and tools for succeeding in the social web (2nd ed.). Fresno, Calif.: Quill Driver Books. Top of Form Bottom of Form Poston, L. (2012). Social media metrics for dummies. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Top of Form Bottom of Form Turban, E., Delen, D., & Sharda, R. (2013). Business intelligence and analytics: Systems for decision support (Tenth ed.). New York: Pearson. Appendix: Social Media: These are online tools of communication that makes it easy for people to communicate with each other, and in an instant. Social Media Analytics: This refers to the analysis of the various social media information, for purposes of finding out what people are saying about a company or an organization. Marketing: This refers to a process in which an organization engages in, for purposes of promoting its products, or creating a positive brand image. Read More