Appen met Cristina David
09-12-2021 (16:42) - Appen met
We Are Era heeft recentelijk haar Social Intelligence Hub gelanceerd: een unit waarbinnen de online communities rondom en de doelgroep van klanten geanalyseerd worden aan de hand van wat 'psychografische data' wordt genoemd. FONK sprak Vice President Business Intelligence bij We Are Era Cristina David over deze nieuwe veelbelovende ontwikkeling en wat het voor social marketing betekent.
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Hi Cristina! This is Anne from FONK. Are you ready for our chat?
Hey Anne! Yes, all ready.
Hey Anne! Yes, all ready.
Cool! Congrats on the launch of the Social Intelligence Hub. Can you tell me what it exactly is and what it is meant to do?
Thank you very much - it has been an exciting few months. The Social Intelligence Hub is a data excellence center built to help brands understand, reach, and influence communities of interest. We offer a wide range of products and services that help brands create data-driven social media marketing strategies. We partner very closely with our brand clients, first sitting with them to understand their needs and goals and then brainstorming together about how we can support them. We like to think of ourselves as an "outsourced Business Intelligence or BI department" for our clients and we tailor our support to each client's situation - just as an internal department might do.
It sounds very promising
So organizationally - do I understand correctly that it is more of a separate team than a tool?
The Social Intelligence Hub is a unit within We Are Era. We are a team of data analysts and data product developers who curate, analyze, and interpret social listening data to answer relevant questions for our clients. We offer services and products designed to answer specific questions like "What are trending topics or content in my vertical ? ", "Which influencers fit my brand personality ?", or "What sentiments and emotions are being expressed in online conversations about relevant topics ?". The Social Intelligence Hub offers more than just data - our clients benefit from our talented analytical team who generate actionable insights. We do not just send brands a report or an excel sheet - we walk them through our findings and how they can be implemented. This is a true partnership model between We Are Era and our clients.
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so in the press release I read a lot about 'online communities'
How would you define this term? Are communities bounded by the platform they use most frequently or by their interests or values?
Indeed we talk a lot about online "communities of interest" and we strongly believe that these communities need to be understood not as a collective and homogenous group, but as individuals with diverse needs, values, and motivators that drive them to a common topic of interest. Using this definition or understanding, the Social Intelligence Hub goes beyond basic demographic profiles when we analyze audiences. We focus on what is known as psychographic data, which is used to identify the values, needs, and personalities of audiences. Two people may be demographically similar, but psychographically completely different. Likewise, two people can be interested in the same topic or product, but may have completely different drivers and motivators behind this interest. Understanding these drivers is critical to understanding audiences and tailoring messaging to them. I am really proud that the Social Intelligence Hub leverages this type of data to make data-driven social media marketing more "human".
I think it is really interesting how that focus on diversity among audiences is the next step from targeting online audiences maybe five years ago
Of course it makes total sense to view people in this way, but back then the idea of personalized advertising used to be so innovative in the first place, so it is nice to see that technology and agencies are catching up to a more realistic view of engagement
I also think this has been an important step. We have to acknowledge that no one can be defined by one label and no one belongs to only one community of interest. We each have such a diverse and often surprising bundle of interests. We also help our brands understand their audience's most common interests outside of the brand itself. This can be very useful for creative campaign ideas that combine two topics in unexpected ways or engage a non-traditional influencer that really catches the audience's attention.
Without spilling the secret to the potential success of course, can you maybe tell us a little bit as to how this analysis actually works?
Because it almost sounds Utopian haha
I do believe our approach is quite unique and revolutionary. A traditional audience analysis may start with looking at the followers of a particular brand. We instead begin by looking at the entire online conversation related to a particular topic that is relevant to the brand. This is the true audience, which includes those who have already engaged with a brand and those who likely have an interest in what they are offering. When we select influencers, we do not simply look for creators with large reach who have posted on a topic, we again start with the online conversation and with all the posts on that topic. We find the most engaging posts and see who wrote them. Those are the TRUE opinion leaders and real influencers of that audience. I think what we have done is question assumptions and commit to approaching things differently and in ways that acknowledge the nature of people and of online conversations.
Really interesting!
how did the idea for the hub come about? was it demand by clients or your own insight that created the idea and eventually concept?
It actually happened quite organically- our team had offered these types of services internally to help our client partnership teams demonstrate the value of their strategic proposals using data. As demand for this grew, we began thinking about how we could support brands in a more direct, in-depth, and customized way. Not every brand has its own analytics department or access to social listening data. We Are Era can play that role now for our clients with the Social Intelligence Hub.
It actually happened quite organically- our team had offered these types of services internally to help our client partnership teams demonstrate the value of their strategic proposals using data. As demand for this grew, we began thinking about how we could support brands in a more direct, in-depth, and customized way. Not every brand has its own analytics department or access to social listening data. We Are Era can play that role now for our clients with the Social Intelligence Hub.
Nice
What can we expect from the Social Intelligence Hub in the future? Any interesting leads in terms of clients already?
The Social Intelligence Hub has already engaged with several clients and looks forward to supporting many more across all verticals in the future. I love the question about what to expect next, because our organization really is very dynamic - each time we sit with a client, we learn more about their current needs and we begin anticipating future needs and how we can support them. Our team has a dedicated product development arm - our version of "R&D" - and that means, something new is always being worked on ! Our product development agenda is driven by our clients and the great questions they ask us. Our job is then to answer them in a way that adds unique value and corresponds to We Are Era's strong beliefs about the human-oriented way that brands should interact with audiences online.
Sounds great! Thanks for talking to me Cristina, really interesting insights
Thank you so much, Anne ! Hope we can speak again soon !
Yes please! Let me know when you have any interesting updates!
Then we may be in touch quite soon :) Have a wonderful rest of the day.
Mysterious! I'm very curious, will be on the lookout haha
You too!
