Broker Roundtable: How Reliable is Social Media Data?
Welcome to Broker Roundtable, where each week we ask list brokers to give their opinions on issues that matter to the marketing community. This week’s question: How reliable is data from social media for predicting buying behavior?
Our current panel includes Price Anderson of DirectMail.com, Patricia Leone of Leon Henry Inc., Dave Hare of New England List Services Inc., Michael Peterman of Veradata and Michele Volpe of Media Source Solutions. Would you like to be considered to be a member of our roundtable? Contact Larry Riggs ([email protected].)
Price Anderson, vice president, sales and marketing, DirectMail.com:
Social media monitoring can provide marketers with valuable insights into the consumer psyche. It likewise can provide valuable, real-time feedback on how consumers perceive your brand, messaging and so forth. However, it is important to be cautious in understanding and responding to the comments (both positive and negative) received. In the final analysis, though, there is no better predictor for buying behavior than past actions or activity.
Dave Hare, president, New England List Services Inc.:
We are testing but the jury is still out. From my reading of various articles in the Wall Street Journal, Time and Newsweek, they seem to indicate a lot of poor conclusions being derived from the information.
Patricia Leone, senior account executive, Leon Henry Inc.:
Psychographic information gathered through social media outlets is likely to be a fairly good predictor of buying behavior (e.g,, if knitting is your hobby then I believe you are more likely to respond to a knitting offer.) . Demographic information, such as age and income would be far more general and less likely to be predictive. All information gathered from social media outlets, however, should be evaluated using predictive analytics.
Michael Peterman, CEO, Veradata:
This often depends on the source. Is the social media property an aspirational venue or is it reality based? Some social sites breed users whose “habits” are more virtual than reality. If the sources are good, this data is helpful for marketers. Attitudes can be derived and used for more sophisticated offer versioning. Peer influence can be achieved through the appropriate use of social media data, as well. As a whole, we’ve found social media data lacks consistency and needs to become more accurate. Once accuracy is confirmed, that information will most help to build stronger models and more successful campaigns.
Michele Volpe, vice president of sales and marketing, Media Source Solutions:
Data sourced from social media based on an ad ID associated with a campaign in my mind is rather like using a compiled database. I believe that you are getting a targeted consumer who has responded to an offer that was sent to them based on their web activity. They told us about themselves by their own web footprint. Why wouldn’t we believe them based on who they told us they are? I feel that for the most part the information that is gathered is fairly accurate. As we grow more sophisticated in the ways that we can assemble and mine for data, we can’t overlook these new means of finding ways of predicting buyer behavior. As the Millennials march ever closer toward becoming a marketing force to be truly reckoned with, we have to be able to collect information about them using the means that they use to conduct their daily life, both socially and with other online behavior.
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