Before the Royal Wedding put the U.K. in the spotlight, another monumental event brought social analytics experts and enthusiasts together “across the pond.” In case you missed it, here’s the rundown of the goings on at this month’s NetBase LIVE London conference.
Training Experts in the Field – Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Day One of our conference was all about how to use the NetBase suite to get the most from your analytics.
Newbies to experts learned tips, tricks, and best practices for carrying insights across the organization and maximizing social data – after a little get-to-know-you coffee time, of course!
With everyone caffeinated, classes began. Those new to NetBase learned how to build topics to get the best analytic results, as well as tips for aligning social insights with organizational goals, finding deeper insights, and maximizing dashboards to achieve executive buy-in.
Master Classes for experienced NetBase users upped the ante, focusing on creating emotionally-connected experiences to drive engagement, advanced social analytics best practices, using competitive analysis to fuel customer driven innovation, and monetizing your analytics with better measurement and governance.
Really interesting discussion on influencer identification and how to make the most of boolean queries from the @NetBase team at #NBLIVELONDON. Excited for 2 days of #Social and #Digital insights at @theBreweryVenue! #Netbase
— Maddie (@misformaddie) May 9, 2018
Social Analytics Leaders on the State of Social, and Beyond – Thursday, May 10, 2018
Day Two of NetBase LIVE London brought together agencies, brands, customers and industry experts for a jam-packed day of presentations. Everything you could want to know about how social analytics impacts brand operations – and what’s coming in the future – was covered. Here are some highlights:
After an introduction from NetBase CMO Paige Leidig, Forrester Principal Analyst Joana van den Brink-Quintanilha got the day going with her keynote, How Customer Journey Data Elevates Experiences and Helps Brands Drive Differentiation.
Joana van den Brink-Quintinilha illustrates all the potential customer data brands can use to inform strategy
The key takeaway here was how customers now help shape brand experiences. Brands must foster emotional connections and use customization and personalization to deliver individualized experiences.
Examples included the way Wells Fargo’s newest ATMs adapt functionality based on your transaction, and the OutSider app uses personal data and runner-specific weather metrics to guide runners to the optimal time for a run.
Joana also discussed the importance of Journey Analytics – or tracking qualitative and quantitative data to understand customer behaviors and motivations over time. This type of customer-obsessed approach is critical to successful brand futures.
“Journey analytics is the next frontier in customer-obsessed insights.” – @CX_Joana of @Forrester at #NBLIVE2018
Are you customer obessed? If not, why not?#socialmarketing https://t.co/8iImqd7Rnz
— Joel Bassuk (@blazing) May 10, 2018
Next we heard from NetBase CEO Peter Caswell, joined by VP, Sales Engineering Leigh Nichols on The Future of NetBase and the Social Media Analytics Market.
Essentially, the confluence of technologies has made the ability to understand consumer insights even more crucial. NetBase is dedicated to providing solutions that bring social data and voice of the customer (VoC) data) into a single platform.
The point is to create a more agile business, quickly and accurately finding the 12% of actionable data that is the cream of the crop in the social harvest. That’s right, nearly all the rest is noise and junk. And you definitely don’t want to waste your time on it.
Curious as to the secret behind how that guys tie is so perfect whilst upside down 🤔 #NBLIVE2018 pic.twitter.com/ScGdrQgGYo
— Darren Jones (@darrenianjones) May 10, 2018
Of course it wasn’t all work – there was plenty of time for networking and connecting with other attendees.
After a quick break, we got right back to it – because there was still a lot of great content on deck!
Next up was Teodora Coste, Strategy and Analytics Manager at Burston-Marsteller, to school us on Psychographics: The New Word on the Block. What Teo reminded us is that psychographics isn’t actually new, but the ability to harness psychographic insights instantaneously is.
And because people respond to emotional cues, it’s paramount to pick up on anything that evokes strong emotion on social media. These insights lead to audience segments, which can be used to impact a number of use cases.
The trick is knowing what you want to achieve when you set out to find audience segments, and remembering that segments are fluid. Consumers cannot be defined by a single interest, and preferences do change. This is why social listening must be continuous.
Great presentation on #psychographics, emotional/behavioural connectivity, and its value to #communications and campaigns from @t30d0ra at #NBLiveLondon #NBLive2018 @NetBase pic.twitter.com/1F0OBCEPNK
— Maddie (@misformaddie) May 10, 2018
Finally, before we broke for lunch, NetBase Senior Social Analyst David Chaitt moderated the panel, Trends in Social – What’s on the Horizon for 2018 and Beyond. On stage were Sarah Knowles, Social Lead, and Flo England, Social Account Manager, from Substance Global, Anupam Singh, Founder and President of 113 Industries, and Royah Shafei-Sabet, Social Insights Manager at Manning Gottlieb OMD.
It was another amazing and insightful discussion – and hard to believe that we were only halfway through!
Anupam Singh, Sarah Knowles, Royah Shafei-Sabet, Flo England, and David Chaitt
Brands and Agencies Expand Ideas About Social Analytics Use Cases
Brands and Agencies Expand Ideas About Social Analytics Use Cases
After lunch, attendees chose their preferred tracks and went off to learn how to use social analytics to maximum effect – by the brands and agencies doing just that. Here are some of the topics covered:
Socialising Social Insight Across the Business
Darren Jones, Senior Social Media Manager at Post Office Ltd shared the stories of three customers – Tallulah, Olivia and John – representing three distinct consumer groups and areas in need of improvement.
Darren Jones, slaying
Using NetBase in conjunction with Lithium, Post Office Ltd:
- Changed staffing to accommodate long queues at certain times of day
- Increased subscribers, share of voice, and sales of travel money with wary consumers in the travel category
- Provided social media guidance and support for 11,000 Postmasters, cutting down on misinformation by 80%, and boosting business for these Postmasters
As always, social analytics makes a lot more sense when put in the context of real-world brand success.
Best Practices: What to Measure and How to Measure it — KPIs and Benchmarking
One reason social analytics are often avoided by executives is because measuring ROI seems so esoteric. Luckily we had Anna Zaikina, Head of Social Media Insights at Digital Media Services, on hand to clarify what to measure and how.
Anna reinforced the ongoing nature of social listening, and offered these tactics for brand campaigns:
- Develop goal-driven KPIs and benchmarks
- Implement ongoing reporting for earned and owned activity
- Feed data powered insights back into your social media campaign
This way, you’re always working with accurate insights aimed at achieving the goals of the moment.
“The key to campaign reporting is to develop goal-driven KPIs and benchmarks, implement on-going reporting and feed data powered insights back into your social activity” – Anna Zaikina #NBLIVELONDON #NBLIVE2018 #socialmedia pic.twitter.com/D4w0mlzkQ9
— DMS (@dmsukltd) May 10, 2018
Corporate Storytelling with Social Intelligence: Taking an Engagement Led Approach to Reputation Management Through Social Influencers and Trends
Lucy Cording, Director of Digital Engagement, CNC Communications shared an excellent presentation, using examples from clients like McDonald’s, Burt’s Bees, and Airbnb to drive home social storytelling best practices:
- Understand the context of social conversations
- Lead with the audience’s desires and needs
- Engage on an emotional level
- Tell stories that matter to show who you are as a brand – not what
- Simplify!
This way you’ll never inadvertently shoot yourself in the foot with a poorly targeted campaign.
Attendees taking it all in
How to Use Social Insights to Drive B2B Brand Innovation
Social analytics isn’t limited to the B2C realm, as Natasha Holloway, Associate Director and Head of Digital Brand Labs for Hotwire Global reminded us.
Her presentation outlined the differences between B2B versus B2C thinking – and how social analytics lets you pinpoint these distinctions.
Just as when you surface for insights for B2C customers, you want to look to B2B brands’ needs and concerns. In this case you need to appeal to stakeholders, demonstrating a clear understanding of the B2B customer journey.
Instead of comments and reactions you may be focused on bounce rates, email opens, and which CTAs work best. But understanding these insights is achieved in much the same way.
What’s Next?
NetBase LIVE London was a whirlwind two days of fantastic information, delicious food, and quality time with friends and colleagues.
All totaled there were 18 sessions featuring more than 20 customer speakers, 8 Amazing All Star Academy sessions, not to mention our fabulous keynote speaker, Joana van den Brink-Quintanilha, the dedicated NetBase staff who worked tirelessly to put on this event, and the flawless hospitality of The Brewery.
We couldn’t begin to share all of it here, but hopefully this gave you a taste of what the experience offered.
And perhaps we’ll see you at our next NetBase On Tour event in D.C., Austin or Denver!
Ready to give NetBase a go? Get in touch for a customized demo, or register for an upcoming event!
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