The key to getting real meaning from social data is to analyse the interests and opinions of consumers. Demographics and other consumer information are good to have, but when it comes to igniting a connection between your brand and your customer, it’s all about achieving an emotional connection; sparking that interest which will resonate with the target audience.
By using advanced social media analytics tools, organisations can map the customer’s purchase journey with the data they provide on social media, ensuring they target the consumers, at the right time with the right message.
Let’s look at a specific set of consumers and their purchase journey on social media – holidaymakers. If your company is in the travel industry, social media can provide a key data source across the entire organisation. And if there’s one thing people love to talk about and share, it’s holidays.
Social data analytics has moved on dramatically from just touching the surface of social conversation and can now dive deeper into the data
If we analyse social media conversation around the topic of holidays, we can identify key moments for holidaymakers:
- Consideration: during this period people mostly debate where to go as well as asking for advice on the different social networks
- Booking: once the initial research has been carried out, holidaymakers will look to start booking their travel arrangements
- Holiday period: the actual holiday period, which can include photo-sharing, social check-ins at locations or even complaints with service obtained during a flight or a meal, for example
- Post-holiday: finishing a holiday makes people reminisce about the days spent and also recommend experiences to their friends.
While brands can and should be listening across the entire purchase journey, the initial stages of holiday-planning and booking are where travel companies can learn the most and make the biggest impact to influence sales.
Analysis performed on the Crimson Hexagon platform for the period between May 2014 and May 2015 shows that more consumers begin to express a “need” for a beach holiday from late-March onwards. The volume rises to a peak during mid-June before tailing off in August. For skiing holidays, we see more consumers begin wanting to get away in November. Desire for a Disney break is more consistent throughout the year, although it does suffer a drop during the months of July and August.
Social data analytics has moved on dramatically from just touching the surface of social conversation and can now dive deeper into the data. This enables companies to gain valuable insights that can be turned into actions.
Brands can leverage social data to discover what types of holiday consumers desire and at what time of the year these initial triggers will occur. And it’s not just travel companies that can benefit from this insight. O2, for example, listens to social interactions about travel, so they know when to promote their wearables and other travel-related products. Social data provides detailed insights into what content experience the consumer wants to be served up.
At Crimson Hexagon we believe the value of social insights for brands lies in understanding consumer opinion and building up their target audience profile.
For more information on how global brands and leading agencies are making the most of social data insights to improve their customers experience, check out crimsonhexagon/raconteur
