Social Media Analytics: Effective Tools for Building, Interpreting, and Using Metrics Review

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Social Media Analytics: Effective Tools for Building, Interpreting, and Using Metrics ReviewThis is not a how-to book. It's more of a "why should I", or "which tool do I buy" book? There are many books that address why companies need to be using Social Media, how to sell it to the C-suite, how to set up a Facebook page, or how to engage with fans and followers. Social Media Analytics is the only book that takes a deep dive into several of the major vendors of monitoring and measuring tools. Whether your are selling a brand or monitoring a political campaign, you'll need to know what to measure, how to measure, and how the data can provide actionable results. You're not buying analytics just to look at pretty charts and graphs, are you?
The importance of the analyst is emphasized in this book, and for good reason. Without a solid understanding of what you're looking for before setting up an analytics platform, you could end up with reams of data that are meaningless, and provide no value to your business, or client. Too many agencies are using an ax when what they really need is a scalpel.
Many of the tools discussed in the book aren't designed for very small businesses, but the concepts can be scaled down and used with free or inexpensive tools. For the larger business or agency, Social Media Analytics provides the framework to make the best tool/platform choices. Decision makers will learn the vital importance of understanding what they want from data, before they commit to a platform/vendor. The wrong choice can waste time and money!
Marshall Sponder is the only Social Media Analyst with access to dozens, if not hundreds of analytic platforms. He is able to discuss each tool from the perspective of an experienced user, rather than relying on sales pitches to determine a platform's capabilities and limitations.
Social Media Analytics is full of relevant case studies, and in-depth interviews with executives and developers of analytic platforms. Digital versions of the book include many links to companies and articles cited in the book.
There's a lot of value here for PR, marketing, and MarComm agencies, but perhaps even more for their clients and other decision makers who want to know the quality of the data they are paying for, and how useful the resulting reports will be.
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Listen First: Turning Social Media Conversations Into Business Advantage Review

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Listen First: Turning Social Media Conversations Into Business Advantage ReviewQuick Review:
Being a good listener, argues Stephen Rappaport, is an increasingly important skill in the age of effective Internet marketing. This playbook by the Advertising Research Foundation is a detailed (perhaps over detailed) effort to help businesses both small and large learn how to leverage social media as a platform for marketing research. Although quite difficult to read, its value lies in its difference: unlike most social media marketing books, this one is all about listening and research.
I teach Social Media Marketing both online and in San Francisco (you can click on my profile or Google Jason McDonald to find me), and this book is a one-of-a-kind new perspective on social media marketing and reputation management, that I will recommend to my students and colleagues who want to look before they leap into social media marketing!
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Listen First! Social Media Marketing Research
Marketing ultimately is about selling; marketing is to selling, as strategy is to tactics. So as marketers, we are the eyes and ears of our companies - constantly scanning the environment for opportunities and threats. As Rappaport argues in this book, the new social media landscape provides unprecedented opportunities for us to 'listen in' to our customers - and thereby gain insights into both opportunities and threats.
Whereas previously marketing research was largely about surveys, focus groups, observational methods, and sales data, now we can hear customers as they complain, customers as they praise, customers as they suggest ideas to us (and to each other). Social media venues such as Twitter, Facebook, Yelp and the like are a veritable gold mine of untapped marketing intelligence.
For that brilliant insight alone - I recommend that you buy this book. Heretofore, most social media marketing books have largely been about talking and getting customers to talk about you; this book switches our focus to the logic of listening.
Defining Marketing Objectives
As marketing needs clear objectives, so too does marketing research and so too does listening in to social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Rather than provide clear outlines and guides, however, this is where the book falters a bit. It has many, many case studies but all written in small fonts without clear breaks between concepts and best practices. There is a ton of information in the case studies, but it is really up to you (the reader) to tease it out. It's unfortunate that the book's editor didn't know where the BOLD key was in Microsoft word! That would have made the book a lot easier to read, and to get the correct take-aways.
I especially liked the distinctions made. For example, Rappaport distinguishes between Brand Backyards like one's own Twitter account, blog, or forum and consumer backyards such as the Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter accounts of others. Too often, corporations have tried to control the social media marketing dialogue rather than embrace the necessary chaos of this new marketing world order.
The case study on Justin Esch and Dave Lefkow who provide bacon-flavored products is especially informative. Rather than getting stuck down with academic research agendas and objectives, the two basically trolled user forums and blogs to realize the obvious: everything tastes better with bacon! From this social media marketing insight a bacon powerhouse was born.
At the level of theory, Rapaport reminds us, an overly academic researcher might have objected to the lack of statistical rigor in the I-love-bacon listening strategy. But, he reminds, us the results (sales!) speak for themselves.
So first define your objectives, and then listen. Or better yet: define your marketing objectives as you listen, and don't get too hung up on social science rigor!
Reputation Management and Social Media Marketing Listening
Among the new social media marketing buzz words is reputation management. Rapaport only touches on this subject, but reminds us that listening is a critical element of an effective reputation management strategy. You have to know your reputation, after all, before you can manage it!
He concludes the book with a list of online resources, that I will peruse and investigate during my summer break. I track hundreds of free social media tools, and I am eager to investigate his picks. My hat goes off to him for having a list of resources as many otherwise great books, leave us hanging. In this age of the Internet, no book is complete without a list of links and Rapaport obliges. Thanks!
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