Social Media Monitoring, Planning and Delivery G-CLOUD 4 SERVICES September 2013 V2.0
Contents 1. Service Overview... 3 2. G-Cloud Compliance... 12 Page 2 of 12
1. Service Overview Introduction CDS provide a fully managed service inclusive of professional business analysis to: Design and deliver an effective social media monitoring programme Author and deliver a creative lead conversation plan to manage the engagement Deliver the content and provide a fully outsourced, live engagement into social media channels using CDS content editors and authors. Social Media Monitoring Social Media Marketing is often broken into 3 steps: 1. Listen: to what is being said 2. Learn: Analyse the data 3. Act: Respond/do something based on that data Within the context of the listen learn act social media principle, media monitoring is focussed on the listening part. Our solution does not require you to download any software. Full reports are provided in your preferred format, whether online, PowerPoint, PDF, etc. Page 3 of 12
How CDS Design a Social Media Monitoring Programme A. Report Topics The first stage is to define what you wish to listen to. This involves defining target CATEGORIES, TOPICS and then KEYWORDS. These topics will by definition evolve over time. You will likely opt to begin with one topic area and build out from there as you begin to learn from the reports generated. As an example the table below highlights a mature level category and topic level target list from a major international motor manufacturer: Products Brand Services Special Topics Environmental Issues Environmental Issues Purchase Process Motor Shows TCO/Running Costs/Economy Safety Dealers New Mobility Safety Quality Leasing/Payments Sustainability Security Design Insurances Innovation Configuration/ Equipment Engine After Sales Political Regulations Infotainment Image/Prestige/ Lifestyle Sales experience Human Resources Conception Issues Service experience Social Media Trends Quality Issues Image/Prestige/Lifestyle Design interior Design exterior Performance Pricing Page 4 of 12
Our software enables us to select geographic filters but identifying specific areas will depend on that data being linked to the social media sites. This is often available on Facebook but less readily available from Twitter users. It is also important to note that because Twitter and Facebook are based in the USA all social media monitoring software sees traffic from these sources as coming from the States, no matter where the user is based. B. Report Parameters Sorted by the above target keywords, social media monitoring reports then organise results by parameters such as: overall buzz sentiment of impulses and reactions various platforms and channels source ranking (level of influence) identification of influencers (by username in twitter for example) network analysis (volume, reach assessments) socio-demographics of the users CDS reports cover all areas, but it is necessary to evolve and refine the parameters over time as the most relevant zones emerge. Effort will logically then be focussed on those parameters delivering valuable insight. C. Monitoring Breadth The monitoring process aggregates content from social media/user generated content sites available for public access. The breadth of this analysis will typically take in sources including: Blogs Forums Microblogs (e.g. twitter) News sites with user generated content (bbc news comments) Online portals (news.yahoo.com) PR portals (e.g. Newspress) Social bookmarks (e.g. delicious.com) Social networks (e.g. Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, LinkedIn) User review sites / rating and ranking (e.g. Yelp, Qype) Page 5 of 12
Monitoring services should clearly show which type of network/source insights are drawn from as every social media network has its own culture and degree of influence. For an obvious example, data drawn from PR aggregators will clearly have an obvious positive sentiment bias in comparison to twitter. D. Data Storage The data harvested is vast, and thus is best delivered by cloud hosted services. Data captured should be STORED, and CLEANSED as part of a good service to avoid duplicate bias and to allow historical trend analysis. The data should also be stored in a legally compliant way, such as within the EU if it is EU data you are monitoring. Only sophisticated/mature social media products deliver these types of features effectively. The CDS service includes the use of industry leading tools which deliver enterprise level capabilities in these areas, and is well documented and referenced. E. Timing of Social Media Monitoring There are 3 key levels of listening service that CDS deliver: One off insight: A one off snap shot of what has been said about your target topic(s) over a time period (such as a calendar month). A periodical report: A (for example) regular monthly report that provides trend and comparative reports on social media activity. Real Time Alerts: An enhancement to the periodical service, real time alerts can be added for particular hot or dangerous keywords. Adding Response Capability Social Media Monitoring tools can also provide a guided interface to push replies back into social media channels. For example, if you are running a real time alert based tier 3 programme, and you are alerted to an angry tweet, that tweet could be pushed to the appropriate team who can respond to it. CDS Value Proposition Choosing CDS to support you with your social media monitoring requirement provides you with the following value over a DIY approach: Social media monitoring software of itself, delivers nothing. It requires a business analyst to configure the tool, download and analyse the results, before insights can be drawn. CDS provide a fully managed service, you simply receive the insights without needing to evaluate and test products, configure products, pay product Page 6 of 12
subscription fees, update products, design reports, output data, output a report and then analyse it. You would of course also need to train a member of staff to be able to deliver all of the above. A fully managed CDS service will not cost notably more than if you were to purchase and configure your own tools, and train your own staff. This is because there are significant economies in scale in product implementation and report generation when delivering such a service across a greater number of topics. As CDS will provide the service to a multitude of customers across many more topics, we are able to realise those economies of scale and are thus able to offer a compelling service to you that remains profitable for us. If you do not currently have a trained member of staff, once training and staff time costs are factored in, it is likely that our fully managed service will cost less than a DIY approach. As described above, as part of our service we will be: Devising the most appropriate methodology to meet your requirement Selection of best monitoring software configuration to fit your requirements Set up of topic/s to track Selection of the best keywords and key phrases and use of Boolean search methods to achieve the results needed Selection of appropriate filters language, geographical area, media etc Selection of comparison terms Advanced search and filter options for key phrases refinement can dramatically affect the quality of the results Choosing which media channels to monitor and which to exclude, if any Choice of most appropriate dashboard monitoring tools and methods within a software package Analysis of reports including identification of influential sources, highlighting key trends, providing deeper insights and checking accuracy of sentiment reports Compile overview reports Make recommendations for engagement and actions to address issues where appropriate Deliver those reports with an audio call allowing you to interrogate the reports with expert support not just viewing an automated export. Page 7 of 12
We will evolve the report month on month as part of the service. Page 8 of 12
CDS Social Media FAQs 1. What number, type and breadth of online media are monitored by your service? We can monitor over 150 million public sites and sources including blogs and comments, forums, mainstream online news publications, public photos and videos. We also monitor the open Facebook API and every tweet through the Twitter Firehose. The types of media we monitor include: Blogs Forums Microblogs (e.g. twitter) News sites with user generated content (eg BBC news comments) Online portals (news.yahoo.com) PR portals Social bookmarks (e.g. delicious.com) Social networks (e.g. Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn) User review sites / rating and ranking (e.g. Yelp, Qype) 2. What are the metrics used by your tool to analyse online media mentions e.g. influence, tone, etc, including a brief outline of how these metrics are calculated and presented? We use the full range of metrics, so that you can measure and analyse social media data in almost infinite ways. All of the data can be presented in a number of different ways including, pie charts, graphs and bar charts. Word clouds are also used with larger words indicating more mentions. We can drill down into each word to find out what posts feature a particular word keyword. Typically we will measure: overall buzz sentiment of impulses and reactions various platforms and channels (twitter, Facebook, forums etc) source ranking (level of influence) identification of influencers (by username in Twitter for example) network analysis (volume, reach assessments) Page 9 of 12
socio-demographics of the users Buzz and Trend Buzz is measured in terms of the number of tweets, mentions, comments and postings over a period of time. We can also look at where most conversations are taking place e.g. Twitter and then measure the volume of conversations over a period of time on that specific channel. Sentiment (tone) Our software enables us to segment social media mentions into positive, neutral and negative comments. We measure the volume of each category and can then drill down to identify the source of each negative or positive comment. Fine tuning may be required and we can add filters to correct automated sentiment analyses. This is important because no software out of the box can deliver 100% accurate results. Influence Influence is not straightforward to measure. There are a number of automated tools which can give an indication such as number of followers on Twitter but this is a fairly crude measure. Our software uses sophisticated algorithms to identify influencers, which takes factors such as relevance, number of links, size of thread into account. Our software can integrate with Klout scores and other automated measures of influence too. Ultimately human analyses can be used to fine tune the results and a list of influential social media sources will be identified. 3. Are you able to provide early warning alerts when conversations on a particular topic reach a critical level or increase significantly? We are able to set up early warning alerts within agreed volume parameters and by using our workflow system, email these alerts to the relevant team. 4. If you were to produce a report on the customers current standing within social media, advising on possible tactics, what information would you include in the report? We would examine a number of key phrases that you have indicated as important in your brief. For each search phrase we will agree a time period that you wish to look at. Over this time frame we will produce a report on the number of mentions on: Blogs Forums Page 10 of 12
Microblogs (e.g. twitter) News sites with user generated content (BBC news comments) Online portals (news.yahoo.com) PR portals Social bookmarks (e.g. delicious.com) Social networks (e.g. Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, LinkedIn) User review sites / rating and ranking (e.g. Yelp, Qype) We will plot the trends to see when and where most mentions are taking place. We will also: Produce extracts highlighting important Tweets and Facebook posts and other social media comments made during the search period Highlight who the most influential voices are in relation to your keywords Produce a report showing the sentiment over a time period in relation to your keywords Identify other keywords that come up in conjunction with your keywords, providing valuable insights into the context of conversations taking place around the topics you are interested in following Provide information on geographical location of sources of mentions As an existing supplier of many years to the Government and its executive agencies we have an excellent understanding of the public sector. Together with you we will use business analytics to identify important trends and suggest tactics you can use to engage and influence your target audience. We have more to offer than a social media software vendor. As a full service agency we have a deep understanding of communications, editorial, brand, content generation, information, data and the integration of online solutions. Page 11 of 12
2. G-Cloud Compliance The following is a summary of the features included in, not included in or are not applicable to () this Lot 4 service. (a.) An overview of the G-Cloud Service (functional, non functional); Included at section 1 (b.) Information assurance Impact Level (IL) at which the G-Cloud Service is accredited to hold and process information; (c.) Details of the level of backup/restore and disaster recovery that will be provided; (d.) On-boarding and Off-boarding processes/scope etc.; (e.) Pricing (including unit prices, volume discounts (if any), data extraction etc.) Included in SFIA Rate card (f.) Service management details; (g.) Service constraints (e.g. maintenance windows, level of customisation permitted, schedule for deprecation of functionality/features etc.); (h.) Service Levels (e.g. performance, availability, support hours, severity definitions etc.); (i.) Financial recompense model for not meeting service levels; (j.) Training; (k.) Ordering and invoicing process; Included in CDS Standard Services Agreement (l.) Termination terms: (i.) By consumers (i.e. consumption); and (ii.) By the Supplier (removal of the G-Cloud Service); Included in CDS Standard Services Agreement (m.) Data restoration / service migration; (n.) Consumer responsibilities; (o.) Technical requirements (service dependencies and detailed technical interfaces, e.g. client side requirements, bandwidth/latency requirements etc.); and (p.) Details of any trial service available. Page 12 of 12