5 stories that showcase social data’s rising influence on business success
Social data can reveal insights needed to interpret consumer behavior, allowing brands to forecast trends and make smarter decisions. It’s more than numbers—it’s real, tangible business impact.
Business leaders agree that social media data and insights are essential for trendspotting, competitor analysis, proactive crisis management and more. Boosting outcomes in these key areas means integrating social into every corner of an organization.
Social media data collection tools have made connecting the dots between efforts and outcomes easier. Businesses looking to reap even more value from social must champion findings with collaborators beyond marketing. When companies adopt a social-first consumer perspective, teams can drive relevance and business impact.
You understand the why, so it’s time to get into the how. These five stories will inspire you to approach social data analysis in new ways, elevating the efforts of your entire team.
Why is social data important?
According to The 2023 State of Social Media Report, the key business priorities in today's economic environment are: building brand reputation and loyalty, gaining a deeper understanding of customers, improving competitive positioning, moving forward with reduced budgets and predicting future trends.
Social data can enhance all of these outcomes, helping brands stay ahead in increasingly competitive conditions. It’s about more than just your performance data. When you dive into the industry, competitive and cultural insights social can provide, you unlock the tools needed to stand out in a crowded market.
This value isn’t limited to your marketing organization, either. From product development to customer support, social data analysis can answer a brand’s most important questions about how to manage and expand a business across every department.
Use social data to zero in on what’s building brand reputation and loyalty
Social data allows businesses to build deeper connections with their audience, elevating products and services from “wants” to “needs”. It’s no surprise that business leaders near-unanimously (94%) agree that social data and insights have a positive impact on building brand reputation and loyalty.
The combined power of performance data and social-first brand health insights gives businesses an enhanced perspective on what’s moving the needle with their audience. Even marketers navigating complex and highly-regulated industries can rely on social data to help humanize a brand and shape its reputation.
Take Plaid, for example. The San Francisco-based fintech company makes it easy for people to connect their financial accounts to their favorite apps and services safely and securely. The brand’s success hinged on a ton of stakeholder education—for both consumers and financial institutions who were unfamiliar with the technology.
Matthew McConnell, Plaid’s Social Media Lead, says the channel plays a key role in managing brand perception. “We want to empower our followers with useful content, so they can help spread the word about Plaid.”
With help from Sprout Social, Plaid has created a data-driven feedback loop that supports sharper messaging, raising both brand awareness and reputation. “Tagging in Sprout helps us know which content we’re sharing that’s performing best,” says McConnell. “And if something isn’t working well, we can dig in to understand why, and recalibrate our strategy to make sure we’re providing our diverse audiences with access to the information they want, in the way they want to consume it.”
Use social data to understand your customers
If your social data analysis is limited to your brand’s performance metrics, you’re not tapping the full value of social. With social listening, brands can zoom out and listen to the larger social conversations happening around their industry, competitors and most importantly, their audience.
Goally—a technology company on a mission to ease the lives of families with neurodiverse individuals—uses Sprout’s Social Listening tools to stay in lockstep with the families they support. Through industry and brand health analysis, Kaelyn Brooks, Digital Marketing Specialist at Goally, surfaced a common need of parents raising neurodiverse children: They want to see their children become independent.
“That learning has really validated our vision as a company,” says Brooks. “We know the problem we’re chasing is real, and we’re providing a solution—a really good one, too. Education is often lacking in the world of neurodiversity, and people don’t know where to get information. Social media channels like TikTok offer a unique and accessible way for people to ask authentic questions and get answers.”
@goallyappsRemember this as Valentines Day approaches 💙 (… even our whole team can’t forget it after filming this in the middle of the office 😉) #neurodivergent #valentinesday #autismawareness #lovelanguagetiktok
♬ muerto gang ' qubelly🗽
