Social media data offers real-time insights into product design, customers’ perceptions, likes and dislikes. More importantly, it can be used to design better products, engage with customers and understand the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and overall brand/product perception to improve a company’s bottom line.

What is social media?

Besides the social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, social media includes the millions of blogs, forums on products and companies, and review sites that exist on the Internet. As time goes on, it becomes increasingly important not only for companies to integrate a social media plan into their business strategy, but also to truly understand what is being said on the various platforms. Social media platforms provide businesses another way to understand their customers, and they should embrace it – not shy away from it. Why? Let’s use Subway as an example. Say a customer came into the store, tried the new sandwich that Subway added to its menu and hated it, but wasn’t invested enough to write Subway an email detailing their opinion. However, will they tell their friends about it on social media? Almost definitely. If Subway were to monitor the social media conservations, they could identify the negative reactions to the new sandwich and change the sandwich accordingly or take it off the menu entirely – thus showcasing the importance of social media.

What kind of data exists in social media?

To determine true consumer sentiment from online sources, millions of conversations on specific topics need to be mined on a regular basis. That is a lot of data in a short timeframe but its insight can prove to be very valuable. For instance, it can provide information on whether customers like the mobile payment feature of Citibank better than that of Bank of America; or if they think the battery life of Apple’s iPhone 4 is better than that of the HTC Thunderbolt Android smartphone. In short, you can determine public sentiment on any given topic and in today’s market, a variety of companies are aiming to do just that – providing insight into the many social media conversations taking place.