Social Media Intelligence

In the world of Facebook, Twitter and Yelp, water-cooler conversations with co-workers and backyard small talk with neighbors have moved from the physical world to the digital arena. In this new landscape, organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to government agencies to political campaigns continuously monitor online opinions in an effort to guide their actions. Are consumers satisfied with our product? How are our policies perceived? Do voters agree with our platform? Measuring online opinion is more complex than just reading a few posted reviews. Social media is replete with noise and chatter that can contaminate monitoring efforts. By knowing what shapes online opinions, organizations can better uncover the valuable insights hidden in the social media chatter and better inform strategy. This book can help anyone facing the challenge of making sense of social media data to move beyond the current practice of social media monitoring to more comprehensive use of social media intelligence.

About the Authors

WENDY W. MOE is an associate professor of marketing and director of the MS in Marketing Analytics at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. She is a recognized expert in online marketing and social media and has been on the faculty at the University of Maryland since 2004. Prior to that, she was on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds a PhD, MA, and BS from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania as well as an MBA from Georgetown University. In addition to her academic work, she has consulted for numerous corporations and government agencies, helping them develop and implement state-of-the-art statistical models in the context of web analytics, social media intelligence, and forecasting.

DAVID A. SCHWEIDEL is an associate professor of marketing and co-director of Emory Marketing Analytics Center at Emory University's Goizueta Business School. He is a recognized expert in customer analytics and social media. He has been on Emory's faculty since 2012, prior to which he was on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin– Madison. He holds a PhD and MA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. He has spoken at numerous conferences and consulted for companies on the use of advanced analytics to guide customer relationship management strategy.