Social media platforms are a valuable data source, and collecting customer and industry information from them a growingly important practice, as evidenced by new UBM TechWeb social media research.
The 2010 UBM report – How IT Decision Makers and Tech Marketers Are Using Social Media Today – surveyed ‘IT Decision-Makers’ and ‘Tech Marketers’ to uncover the usages for, and perceived importance of, social media platforms as information sources in the technology industry.
IT Decision-Makers see value in social media
The survey found that IT Decision-Makers are spending 13 percent of their time on social networking sites to learn about industry trends and news. Forty percent plan to increase their usage of, and amount of time they spend on, social networking sites in the next year, with social media ranked as the fourth most important information resource by IT Decision Makers, in terms of time invested.
Tech Marketers to increase social media campaign spending
Unsurprisingly, Tech Marketers also placed heavy emphasis on social media platforms, with 43 percent agreeing that marketers must have a social media strategy in place, or be rendered uncompetitive.
Forty-four percent of Tech Marketers surveyed said they planned on increasing their spend on social media campaigning, with Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin rated as the three most influential sites.
The research clearly indicates that social media platforms are becoming increasingly important sources of data for organizations involved in the technology industry.
Business Intelligence tools can leverage social media data
Business Intelligence (BI) tools must adapt to this trend, and be able to utilize the insightful data generated via social media networking and interaction, so that organizations can better understand their customers, industry trends and develop effective marketing campaigns. - Not just within the tech industry, but across all industries.
Conversely, marketers must be prepared to collect social media data, and invest in reporting and analytics tools capable of dissecting that information, to provide actionable market intelligence.