Is your company primed for social media analytics?

Do you find that certain companies in certain industries get more or better use out of social media analytics than others do? If so, which kinds of companies are primed for it?

Companies that make hay out of social media are the ones that dispense with the “why is there air?” conversations and get straight to the tactics of making it work. Developing a corporate social media strategy is all well and good, and social media analytics tools should be a key part of that. Knowing that you want to increase your “share of conversation” online is a laudable accomplishment. But social media analytics serves the same purpose as “regular” analytics: It tells companies what’s going on so that they can make adjustments to their operations or strategic objectives.

The problem with social media is just like the classic BI problem: When you get it to work, what do you do with it? A hundred people signed up as fans on your corporate Facebook page yesterday? Very interesting. People are talking about your brand on Twitter? Kewl. A social community is buzzing about your flagship product? Awesome. But now what?

This is less of an industry issue (though I would submit that industries with heavy customer service demands, such as communications and manufacturing, are certainly primed for social media analytics). It’s really about understanding what’s going on – and then taking action.