Making a Social Media impression… or 7.4 million of them

 

 

Deloitte South Africa recently delivered two large client events that had a strong social media integrated strategy. Not only were the events successful, but analysis of the metrics demonstrate the importance of Social Media in the marketing plan. With 7.4 million impressions, and 204 815 unique users reached for two events, the proof lies in the numbers.

Social media is quickly becoming a standard channel in any communication or marketing plan. However, there is still a large degree of confusion around the application, measurables and actual success of these platforms at the centre of the debate on the relevance of social media in the B2B environment.

Deloitte South Africa recently ran two large campaigns, namely the CIO Forum that ran over two days in four hour sessions and focused on Tech Trends 2011, and the annual Deloitte Best Company to Work For Survey awards banquet, which lasted two hours. Both campaigns had a strong social media strategy and presence, although most focus was placed on Twitter.

With only an estimated 1 million Twitter users in South Africa, the Markets team in Deloitte South Africa recognised that a successful campaign needed a solid foundation, and focused on the three fundamentals:

1. Influencers and Relationship Networks: The team ensured they had high influencers at both events. Bringing them into the strategy and the event allowed for a strong “signal” when tweeting as opposed to noise, and allowed them to communicate with their respective networks, thereby giving the Deloitte brand greater integration with new markets.
2. Internal and External Influencers: This point concentrated on ensuring that the Deloitte message not only reached external markets, but the internal audience too. The South African team believes that the personal eminence of Deloitte staff is not only beneficial to them, but allows for greater penetration into the Twitter-sphere and assists in creating eminence for Deloitte.
3. Content: No campaign can be successful without having interesting and great content. The team focused on creating “stamps” for both events – these are pieces of content that are prepared beforehand and are easy Retweets. They are short statements, sum up a point of view and give a definitive opinion. These are scheduled into the Twitter handle, and some are then circulated to internal thought leaders to be posted.

The metrics of success

Using an array of reporting and analytical tools, the South Africa team was able to accurately gauge their success and view the impact of their three fundamental points of departure. The following shows the results of the campaigns:

 

The above reports were then imported in a Visual Data Analyser, which showcases influencers in real-time, and highlights the conversation participants and place within the topic. The visual data gives even greater insights, for example, the higher the bubble, the bigger the “signaller” or thought leader within the Twitter topic. It also shows influence; the bigger the bubble, the bigger the influence within the conversation, and it shows the connections and centrality between participants.

 

If you have any questions or would like additional information on the campaigns or the Visual Data Analytics, please contact Greg Comline on gcomline@deloitte.co.za or Mithun Kalan on mkalan@deloitte.co.za

Filed under: Executive Leadership, Technology, Media & Telecoms (TMT), BCTWF, CIO Forum, Data Analytics, Impressions, social media, Stats, Visual Data

Advanced Data Analytics-find the blind spots to keep your customers loyal for longer.

There are few organisations that are able to source, optimise and structure data so as to let the data ‘speak for itself’. Traditionally, a firm with a deductive approach will begin with a hypothesis and look for data or evidence to support that hypothesis. A common term is for this approach is known as ‘asking the right question’. This approach also leads to attention being diverted from understanding difficult areas of business to further cementing knowledge of known areas. The result is a blind spot in which information seems to be hidden from plain sight. A better approach to fully understand customers is to combine all data in its raw form from all sources of data assets with external market data. Customer data will then need to be arranged in such a way that all aspects, no matter how trivial, are visible to the business management. The visual that accompanies this arrangement must also be intuitive in the way customers are grouped. 

Graphic: Deloitte Advanced Analytics Customer Map

 

Deloitte has an advanced modelling solution that lets the data ‘speak for itself’, eliminating assumptions or the need to ask ‘the right question’ before gaining insight from data. The approach works well with large data sets so there is no longer any need for sampling. This technique has the advantage of being able to facilitate interpretation with clients through a visual interface. A picture tells a thousand words. What we are doing, is working with data in its raw form, enhanced by external data, to create analytical data sets more capable of providing new insight for a business’ customers.

To find out how Deloitte can identify your blind spots, contact Derek Schraader dschraader@deloitte.co.za

Filed under: Information Technology, Advanced Data Analytics, Customer Loyalty Retention, Data Analytics, Mapping, Profitability, Visual Data