Social media has become a powerful instrument and today it's inseparable from marketing. Aside from allowing for more brand awareness, social content creates many useful data points around them, and if collected and
One of the difficulties of his job, Wes admitted, 'was getting all that data from all those local marketers and bring it together in a cohesive way, to tell the story and to really drive every one of the regions forward in their marketing.' Regarding social media strategies at Coca-Cola, there was a lot of data to work with. In 2015 alone, Coca-Cola produced over 120,000 pieces of content, where each had unique data points in the form of impressions and engagements, and these helped the company to learn more about different types of consumers, their demographics, and
From 120,000 pieces of content, Coca-Cola needed to
Why do you need to analyze all of this data?
Firstly, because it helps to create one powerful brand narrative across all segments, and, secondly, because 90% of consumers, today, base their purchasing decisions on social media content. With such large amounts of data available, Wes says, there must be machine-learning solutions, which allow assumptions to be made and help to differentiate data.
Using learning and
To ensure marketing campaigns reach targets and create value across all segments evenly, Coca-Cola has 37 Social Centres which represent connected and networked resources. Using Salesforce, these teams collaborate and extract social data related to risks and opportunities. Social Centres have three main purposes: to listen, to engage, and to create content.
As for the actual data analysis, social centre teams use a variety of tools. Among them is Gaze Metrix which allows them to identify company's brands in visual identity systems, for example, photos. If people tag a product in a photo, the system can differentiate what the product is. Marketers can then apply images to Gaze Metrix and from there, they can see whether people have been taking pictures with Coca-Cola brands on Instagram. This data can be then added to the company's listening software to measure if conversations are going up or down, even if people were not mentioning the brand. Wes pointed out that it's similar to having a facial recognition feature, but for brands.
Additionally, listening and
The value that social media analytics can create should never be underestimated. With the right set of tools and customer first approaches it can allow companies to learn more about hidden risks and opportunities, as well as allowing brands to appear more trustworthy in the eyes of a customer - because they are heard, engaged, and informed, at all times.