Social Media Analytics

By Murali Nadarajah, Xchanging Malaysia   Consumers can purchase virtually anything they want anytime from anywhere, from the Internet to social media to mobile devices to good old brick-and-mortar stores. As a result of today’s omnichannel approach to retail, chain stores now have access to a massive collection of customer data that hasn’t existed until recently.  

Sears and Amazon.com both recently came under fire for allowing rings decorated with the Nazi swastika symbol to be posted for sale on their third-party seller sites. While both retailers quickly pulled the items down and issued public apologies, they received a large amount of negative publicity and surely damaged their brand image with many offended customers, perhaps to the point of permanently losing some of them.

Seattle –- VenueLabs is launching a free social listening tool geared for small businesses called AboutLocal. AboutLocal lets small retailers listen to and engage with customers in real time across hundreds of disparate channels.  

New York -- Twitter is giving over every message ever tweeted to the data scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s famed Media Lab. The social media giant is also giving $10 million (over five years) to fund the new Laboratory for Social Machines (LSM), which will be based at the Media Lab.

Twitter is giving over every message ever tweeted to the data scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s famed Media Lab. The social media giant is also giving $10 million (throughout a five-year period) to fund the new Laboratory for Social Machines (LSM), which will be based at the Media Lab.

The new initiative aims to build new tools that will analyze and enable communication on social platforms. Twitter will provide full access to its real-time, public stream of tweets, as well as the archive of every tweet dating back to the first.  

Seattle -- Amazon.com is expanding its relationship with Twitter. Amazon’s new #AmazonWishList allows customers to add items to their Amazon Wish List without ever leaving Twitter.

Customers who discover a Tweet from their favorite artist, expert, brand, or friend with an Amazon.com product link, can add “#AmazonWishList” to the reply on Twitter and the product is added to their Amazon Wish List.

San Jose, Calif. – Neighbrhds, a product of mobile marketing provider Urban Living Marketing, has recently released more than 50 apps, each focused on providing the user with local information tailored specifically to their neighborhood. Each app, named after its corresponding neighborhood, aims to provide residents and visitors with instant access to community events, local businesses and more.

New York - SmartFocus has acquired beacon technology specialist TagPoints and social media analytics provider Content Savvy as part of its strategy to develop the U.K.'s first omnichannel digital marketing system. Its platform now offers customer engagement and analytics capabilities across all media channels, so clients can gain deeper insight into consumer behavior.

New York -- With U.S. social commerce sales expected to reach $14 billion by 2015 and social networks like Twitter and Facebook ramping up their commerce capabilities, a survey by global marketing and technology agency DigitasLBi, and conducted online by Harris Poll, shows that while only 5% of Americans have made a purchase on a social media site, 20% would consider doing so.

Saks Fifth Avenue continues to step up its digital efforts with its launch of a user-generated content hub called #SaksStyle.

Created by Curalate on its Fanreel image integration platform, #SaksStyle will function as a daily go-to guide for fashion inspiration created solely by Saks customers, highlighting products purchased from Saks Fifth Avenue locations nationwide and online.