Subscribe

Social media: data goldmine

Many South African companies have started listening to, but not yet interacting with consumers, says SAS SA.

Lebo Mashiloane
By Lebo Mashiloane
Johannesburg, 16 Sept 2013

Integrated marketing management (IMM) is not a set of products or tools, but rather a strategic approach to marketing that spans all solutions, technologies and departments.

This is according to Rene van der Laan, director of business advisory at the SAS Centre of Excellence for IMM, in the Netherlands.

In the 1960s and 1970s, marketing was simply about advertising and brand awareness, Van der Laan says, but now the challenge for marketers is to illustrate a return on marketing investment.

"The market is always connected and social media has a massive influence on consumers; this presents both challenges and opportunities. Among the challenges is the fact that social media results in rapid swings in customer sentiment. Consumers tend to speak only when they are unhappy."

Unstructured data, or data that does not follow a specific format, can also prove tricky, he notes. If left unmanaged, the sheer volume of this data can cause storage problems for an enterprise and increase liability if the information cannot be located in the event of a compliance audit or lawsuit.

To manage this, organisations should filter data in the social media space down to that of sentiment and conversations about their products, Van der Laan explains. Companies should also focus on the customer's vision and growth prospects, as well as look at what the public is saying about their competitors.

"That way, they can collect data to see if they stand out or fall short compared to the competition," remarks Van der Laan. "Also, when accurately analysed, this big data from social media presents an opportunity for organisations to achieve contextual insights into customer behaviour, respond appropriately and even predict future customer behaviour."

According to Van der Laan, in an environment with numerous marketing and communication channels, consistency is crucial. The marketing message that flows out via various company channels should deliver insights and enable strategic decisions in real time, he says.

From an African marketer and consumer perspective, however, the social media experience is different to that of both the emerging and developed markets, adds Van der Laan, which he says is mainly due to low Internet penetration in this region. As such, in Africa, social media is not the voice of a country or continent, while in many European countries, where Internet access is over 95%, the opinions shared on social media can be seen as a good reflection of the population.

Mandie Herzfeld, senior solutions manager for IMM at SAS South Africa, adds that factors like brand awareness, social influence and competitive intelligence should be a focus. She notes that while many South African companies have started listening, they are not yet interacting with the consumer.

"Companies that are very proactive on social media, such as FNB, have seen huge gains in customer acquisition. Mobile has also grown big in Africa; according to online research, just over seven million people in South Africa access the Internet via their mobile phones, with six million using a mobile device, including a laptop or tablet device."

Companies and marketers are using mobile marketing via SMS and MMS to target customers, which is cheap and can be sent to all mobile phones, not just smartphones, she explains.

Van der Laan concludes that only once social media data is used to interact with customers and to make the social context relevant on a per-customer level, will there be sustainable value for marketers on the African continent.

Share