Anna Zaikina, Head of Social Media Insights at DMS was kind enough to share key insight she’s come to appreciate about social media analytics over the years, offering learnings that will benefit any brand manager. Let’s check it out!
Let’s start by asking, who is the typical audience for your analyses and what seems to resonate the most with them?
More often, we analyze editorial and individual user accounts that are interested in entertainment including film, TV and music. These are the industries we most often work in, with PR and digital marketing professionals being our main clients. It’s really interesting to see how a news story or an interview, or any piece of new content has resonated with audiences on social media. We often use social listening to compare that to the volume and sentiment of press coverage as our publicity clients enjoy seeing things from this angle. Clients generally appreciate seeing social media sentiment drivers and themes emerging throughout a film or TV campaign, including fan reactions to a trailer launch, and their sentiment.
Word cloud showing Top Terms from topic search around cinema status during the pandemic.
Tell us about what you or your team’s process looked like prior to using NetBase Quid.
I’ve been with DMS for three years and we’ve always used NetBase in that time. Like other industries, we’ve had to adjust to a growing number of online events, online premieres, and a lot of films releasing digitally as opposed to having a theatrical release. The reporting itself hasn’t changed that much, but we do see new discussion points introduced by our audiences in the last year, such as cinema closures or re-openings, for instance. As a result, we’ve been able to identify people’s intent or willingness to attend a physical theatre as well, which is key during these pandemic times.
That leads us into our next question for you: Which business critical purposes do you use NetBase Quid for, and how frequently do you use it for this purpose?
We use it daily for social media analytics to report on social buzz surrounding films and TV shows. It’s critical for us to have access to that data around user reactions, comments, as well as editorial and general coverage on social with regard to films and TV. The NetBase product gives us the capability to flag any anomalies in the data and be alerted to crises that sometimes occur. And we can notify our clients immediately to resolve it. Often our reporting needs to be delivered in a few hours starting from when new content is launched, so time is critical. The NetBase product allows us to deliver everything within a tight timeframe.
What key performance indicators are you tracking/complementing with NetBase Quid data?
We use it for volume reach, sentiment, engagement, and competitive benchmarking. We use the same KPIs for multiple titles that may be releasing within a similar time period. Or we can even go back in time and look at something that released a while ago. We do use NetBase API’s abilities to merge some of the key performance indicators into our bespoke media monitoring tool in fact; This is a dashboard our clients can use to view their campaign performance themselves.
Can you share an insight that gave you an “Ah-ha!” moment about a topic – one you were using NetBase Quid to research?
We analyzed a live cinema experience in the UK versus the U.S. and looked at attendees’ reactions to the event. It was interesting to find that the weather in the UK was a key driver of negative reactions, whereas in the U.S., the event took place in sunny California, so the weather was not really an issue ever. Regional differences, specifically weather differences, playing into sentiment wasn’t something that we had thought of, and the client thought that was remarkably interesting. And so did we.
It sounds like being able to use the tool for comparison is key for your business. What are some of your favorite features and capabilities of NetBase Quid?
One of the key selling points of our social listening proposition is being able to use an advanced analytics tool such as NetBase to identify current and emerging trends that our clients don’t always have the time or resources to find themselves. In terms of the actual features, the preexisting themes and the crosstab feature, all of which we can add to a dashboard and have that view saved for quick and easy reference – these abilities alone make the NetBase product stand out amongst other vendors and platforms.
Crosstab comparison for key themes around an upcoming film Last Month vs. Last Year.
How important has it been to accurately identify trends or shifts within your market and/or target audience as data grows at an exponential rate?
I think the increased availability of data around trends is really interesting. Having social listening illuminates which platforms are used by audiences and what content resonates with them best on each. And whether it’s social media or online, each has changed over the years and we can see those shifts.
We also do lots of historical analysis, particularly as part of competitor benchmarking, and it’s really fascinating to see how all the different data sources ‘talk’ to each other. For instance, our clients are often interested in seeing an integrated view of two different sources, such as traditional press coverage versus social media.
What is one word you would use to describe your experience with using NetBase Quid’s products?
I’d say efficient. I use it daily, so having a tool that’s friendly to use, and genuinely useful for our purposes makes our work easier to complete, and we can trust the results.
What gets you excited about your job? Your favorite thing(s) or experiences that stand out for you.
Generally, the entertainment industry is fun to work in, but I think what excites me the most about my job specifically is getting client briefs that require devising a bespoke methodology and approach to social data. It’s creative and the NetBase product supplies so many different ways to cut that data and look at it in another way. And it’s fun too!
If your entertainment brand is searching for an agency insider to help you level up your social insights intel around culture, films, lifestyle or theater, be sure to reach out to Anna at Anna.Zaikina@dmsukltd.com.
And if you’d like to explore the many ways NetBase Quid can provide intel on your next campaign, regardless of industry – be sure to reach out for a demo. As Anna mentioned, there are so many ways to explore consumer intelligence, and we’re happy to help you slice and dice your way to online success!
