Realizing Insights Through Social Media
It’s a challenge to coax insights from today’s crop of social media listening tools. In expert hands they’re wonderful at providing information in the aggregate for things like audience sentiment and share of conversation. However, unique insights that lead to new opportunities rarely come from the vox populi.
To eke insights from online conversations you need a human with an authentic interest in the subject matter to study them in their context. This is rarely practical due to the sheer volume of mentions and the dearth of talent in this new discipline. We took this on as a challenge at my company and have been developing tools and techniques that make this process fruitful and scalable.
I’d like to share an example. We were engaged by a global manufacturer of intrauterine contraceptives—more commonly referred to as IUD’s, to conduct a social media listening exercise. They wanted us to uncover new market opportunities and get a sense of competitor vulnerabilities.
Right from the outset interesting avenues to explore came to light. For example, people who mentioned IUD’s also talked about physical activities such as running and yoga significantly more often than individuals who mentioned other types of contraception. Contrast this to the company’s advertising at the time that depicted women relaxing and in mostly sedentary situations—the exact opposite of what their consumers were actually doing day-to-day.
Another unexpected tidbit appeared. In a few instances anonymous individuals were recommending the IUD as a viable form of contraception for women who were having extramarital affairs. As we dug deeper we learnt why: for a woman who is on oral contraception—the Pill, to continue taking it after her husband has a vasectomy would increase her risk of getting caught—after all, why would she need the Pill if he’s effectively sterile? The IUD on the other hand is invisible and won’t inadvertently fall out of her purse.
Perhaps this is too niche a target? Perhaps not; consider that up to 60% of all married individuals will engage in infidelity at some point and that the infamous Ashley Madison website has over 10 million members. Also consider that market share battles in this mature category are won or lost by fractions of a point.
Real insights are rare. In a hypercompetitive market there is no such a thing as too small an insight.
