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Social media analytics represent a game-changing technology for business managers, yet few managers understand their value. But with a clear understand of social media analytics and how they work, managers around the world can reap their benefits. 

What Are Social Media Analytics? 

To better understand social media analytics, let's first consider a key problem that many business managers face day after day. 

Now more than ever before, managers require comprehensive customer data sets that they can use to understand customer behaviors and trends. However, the majority of managers lack the time and resources needed to fully mine customer data sets. And when it comes to social data, managers often are left in the dark as well. 

Social data comes from Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. This information offers exceptional value, as it enables managers to understand how customers are connecting with a brand across social networks. 

On the other hand, few tools are available that empower managers to transform social data into meaningful insights. 

In many instances, managers are forced to use "basic" social data analysis tools to track impressions, comments, shares and other social metrics. But these tools fail to provide meaningful insights that managers can use to make more informed business decisions. 

Enter social media analytics, a best-in-class tool that empowers managers with social insights that they may struggle to obtain elsewhere. 

Social media analytics enable managers to review in-depth social data. That way, managers can use social data to understand why customers may select one brand over another, how customers feel about a company's products and services and other meaningful customer insights. 

With social media analytics, managers are better equipped to generate meaningful customer insights consistently. The analytics are easy to use and take the guesswork out of social data analysis. As a result, managers can deploy social media analytics instantly and enjoy their benefits for years to come. 

How Can Business Managers Leverage Social Media Analytics?

In the past, many business managers relied solely on text analytics services to obtain customer feedback from across the web. 

Text analytics usually enables managers to retrieve social data contained within Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. It even allows managers to organize social data into large customer data sets that are accessible at any time. 

Conversely, text analytics is not a data analysis service. And if managers want to generate meaningful customer insights, they will need to perform data mining – something that rarely, if ever, is simple. 

Data mining requires managers to collect customer feedback and review this information closely. Ultimately, managers will need to look for patterns and trends within data sets to generate meaningful insights. Without extensive data mining expertise, managers may struggle to get the customer insights they need to take their businesses to the next level. 

Social media analytics eliminate the need for data mining, making the service exceedingly valuable to managers at companies of all sizes. 

Thanks to Self-Service Text Analytics, managers can utilize social media analytics any time they choose. Self-Service Text Analytics is a free data analysis service that works in combination with text analytics. Unlike a traditional data analysis service, Self-Service Text Analytics enables managers to produce interactive PDF (iPDF) reports to highlight customer data in a reader-friendly format. 

To create an interactive PDF (iPDF) report via Self-Service Text Analytics, a manager only needs to upload an Excel spreadsheet that contains user-generated content from social networks, blog posts and other online sources. Then, a manager will receive an interactive PDF (iPDF) report via email only minutes later. 

Each interactive PDF (iPDF) report contains charts, graphs and other visualizations that illustrate consumer sentiment, customer loyalty and other customer metrics. As such, the report empowers managers with meaningful insights that they can use to help a business bolster its products, services and customer interactions. 

Social media analytics represent the next wave of data analysis. Going forward, social media analytics may help managers assess social data and gain the insights they need to drive ongoing business improvements. 

Summary

Business managers can incorporate social media analytics into their data analysis efforts and understand customer behaviors and trends like never before. Social media analytics allow managers to transform social data into meaningful insights quickly and effortlessly. Therefore, social media analytics can make a world of difference for managers who want to make the most of the social data at their disposal.