Social Intelligence Pros Say Customer Insight is Their Top Objective

July 17, 2019

Influencer marketing is still all the rage, with the majority of brands who used influencers last year continuing to do so in 2019. There are several considerations that go into choosing the right influencer for a brand, with nearly all of the more than 250 social intelligence professionals surveyed for a report [download page] from Talkwalker listing trust as one the main components they look at when finding the right influencer to work with.

Perceived reliability, integrity or trust of an influencer was one of the key considerations for 92% of survey respondents. The fact is, many people put their faith in influencers with a past study showing that three-fifths (62%) of 18-24-year-olds and more than half (55%) of 25-34-year-olds feel that influencers are honest with their opinions.

Along with trust and integrity, audience engagement is another key metric that 9 in 10 (92%) respondents use when choosing the right influencer for a campaign. Audience engagement continues to be important as it is also considered one of the key metrics used to measure the success of a campaign.

Other important metrics and areas of consideration include correlation of the audience demographics to the campaign target audience (92%), the quality of the content (88%) and the absolute size of the influencer’s audience (62%).

Key Social Intelligence Objectives

Some 43% of respondents use social data as part of their identification of potential influencers. However, this use of social intelligence falls short of the top 5 favorite social intelligence objectives pinpointed by respondents.

Instead, customer insight was identified as one of the top objectives by 72% of respondents, followed by measuring campaign success (66%). To a lesser extent, but still within the top 5, are better understanding of the customer (57%), understanding customer sentiment (56%) and brand positioning (54%) round out the top objectives.

But while these objectives ranked high with social intelligence professionals, their importance varies depending on the industry using social data. For example, clients say their top objective for social intelligence data is measuring campaign success, while PR firms want it primarily to inform campaign strategies.

Customer insight is the number one objective for social intelligence for marketing, which isn’t too surprising considering that marketers are always on the hunt for ways to better engage their customers. Unfortunately, many marketers are stifled from gaining such insights because the data is often siloed or they do not have the capability to extract the data they do have.

Fake Followers Not Tolerated… Mostly

Research by Edelman found that, in the US, the majority of consumers will stay loyal to a brand that they trust. That same study also found that more than half (58%) of the global shoppers surveyed said they had purchased a new product because of an influencer.

Other research has found that two-fifths (42%) of marketers said their biggest concern about influencers was the issue of fake followers. For the social professionals surveyed in this most recent report, fake followers are a possible deal-breaker when they are considering which influencer to work with.

More than half (54% share) of respondents say they would only choose influencers who never purchased fake followers or fake likes. But the rest appear to have a more relaxed attitude.

At the same time, a 46% share of respondents said they would tolerate some purchased followers or likes if the influencer has a sufficient number of genuine followers/likes. The remaining 4% share of respondents say they would tolerate fake followers, provided the influencer’s likes are not purchased.

To read more, you can find the report here.

About the Data: A total of 267 social intelligence professionals in companies across the world were surveyed in order to learn more about their current social data analysis practices, structures, integrations, challenges, and their opinion on the future of the social intelligence industry.

Chart-Library-Ad-1

Explore More Articles.

Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

Which Skills Are Important in RevOps?

9 in 10 RevOps professionals view data analysis skills as being important, a high percentage also don’t believe they need this skill for their job.

Marketing Charts Logo

Stay on the cutting edge of marketing.

Sign up for our free newsletter.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This