More Insight on Analytics from Carmichael Lynch Rep Andrew Danielson

Andrew Danielson's presentation on analytics was incredibly beneficial in developing my personal projects and increasing my effectiveness with my current job. I was familiar with most of the platform specific analytics tools Danielson shared, and use them when managing social media strategies for clients. Facebook and Twitter insights, Tweetreach, Hootsuite and Quantcast are the major tools I'm equipped with. The cross property tools, Netbase and Radian 6 I am excited to experiment with. I was not incredibly surprised with Danielson's overall sentiment towards the purpose and usefulness of social media analytics: it is new, growing fast and no one can actually promise they know exactly how to measure or how to promise clients incredible ROI for their efforts. This is the zeitgeist of any professional; client, analyst, platform creator alike. I very much agree with Danielson that as clients are scrambling to have any kind of social media presence the bulk of what analysts and social media managers can provide is volume measurements, sentiment and influence insights. The most touted purpose of social media I have been hearing is consumer engagement with the brand and convincing followers to post content in the hopes of gaining new customers and repeat business. I agree this is important but I have found in working with my own clients that social media is best used as a customer service tool and as another tool of marketing promotions - events, sales, coupons.