Social Intelligence Trends and Tool Selection Guidance

With consumers’ increasing use of social media to express their opinions and engage with others, there is now an incredible opportunity for brands and agencies to derive consumer insights from this expressed data. To do so effectively, however, means more than just a quick hashtag search on Twitter.

To help marketers extract the most value from social conversation, a whole industry of tools has arisen in recent years. This guidance paper aims to help agencies big and small better navigate, evaluate and select the right social intelligence tool or set of tools for their specific organization and needs.

Insights within this paper were derived through survey and in depth conversation with members of the 4A’s Social Media Committee, which is made up of social media leaders at some our nation’s top advertising agencies including Sapient Nitro, 360i, Digitas, MEC, and others.

Topics covered in this guidance paper include:

• What to look for when evaluating social intelligence tools, including capabilities around access to platforms, reporting & real-time data, engagement & conversation management, innovation and cost.
• An analysis of over a dozen leading social intelligence tools and their popularity among 4A’s member agencies broken out by agency size, tool capability, and value vs. cost.
• A guide for auditing and evaluating social intelligence tools for your organization
• Predictions and trends for the future of social intelligence tools