Understanding the ways in which people make decisions and influence others’ decisions and actions can give us both an insight into our customers’ behavior and an overall view of our customers that was previously unavailable. The key however is to find the right information and that which is relevant, and use what is available to us to gain an insight into how our customers feel about our products. The social network analysis of Big Data can identify relationships between individuals, whether customers or businesses, and understanding these relationships are key to moving forward as a business.
Customers’ current opinions – whether positive or negative – about yours or your competitors’ products can be collected. The Big Data collected from social network sites can be used to analyze the positive or negative sentiments of customers, giving you an insight into what parts of the product should remain the same (eg. Speed of service) and which parts you need to focus on improving (eg. Price). Also, by gaining information about competitors’ products, you can aim to create exactly what your customer wants.
Social network analysis includes consumers’ age range, geographical location and many other metrics that can be used to create a demographic profile of your customers and in turn help your business to improve their marketing in order to better target them. If you know specifically who your customers are, then it makes sense to understand customer behavior more fully.
By analyzing how a customer uses your product or services can identify the flaws with your business strategy. How often a customer needs to go elsewhere to find what they are looking for can be a great indicator as to the features and services they want from your business.
What customers are willing to pay and how often is important when providing them with a service or product, and having a good understanding of how a customer finds your product and where they look when online can be an accurate indicator of this.
By using social network analysis to understand your customers, you will be able to target the right people with exactly what they want, in the right media form and at the right time for them. Also, by creating the right social marketing strategy, you bypass all of the fluff that has, in the past, wasted your time and effort and is more often than not ignored by your target consumers.
