Adobe Social Analytics Suite

In my blog post, I want to give an overview on the new social media - marketing suite of Adobe, which was introduced to the European markets in November 2011. In order to get an understanding about the software, its purpose and its potential target audience, I've listened to an interview with Chad Warren, who is Senior Manager, Product Marketing for Social Media at Adobe's headquarters in the U.S. In this 24 minutes long interview, he talks about the need to use such a program, the internal setup of the software, the desired users and the difference between Adobe Social Analytics and competitors. Additionally, I examined a presentation, which he uses to present the software on conventions.

THE NEED TO USE THE PROGRAM

"Deciding how to measure the value of an investment in social media is the highest priority for marketing directors in Europe" Chad Warren 2011.

Marketing budgets are moving and marketing directors have to decide how much they invest in social media. 78% of these managers don't have a complete view of social campaigns.

Between 2012 and 2014, Adobe estimate, that 94% more money will be spend in social media ads in Germany. The company estimate an increase of 60% in the UK, and 83% in France. At the same time social media will compete against traditional websites.

At its core, the software should help businesses to monitor, measure and monetize the impact of social media on their business.

INTERNAL SETUP OF THE SOFTWARE

The software captures all relevant conversations on blogs, Twitter, Facebook etc. Further, it determines the mood of the conversations. Finally, the software measures the impact of these conversations on the business. The software should ultimately help marketers to gain information on their social media campaigns and to make appropriate changes in order to create more impact and to reach people more effectively.

The software particularly tracks influencers on social media. Chad Warren defines an influencer in two different ways. The first metrics he uses is the reach of an influencer. This means, how many followers the person has or how many interactions the person has? The other way is to measure if the person drive revenue to the business.

 The adobe analytics window is separated into 4 parts:

- Share of Voice,

- Marketing Performance,

- Marketing Strategy and

- Influencers.

WHO WILL USE THIS SOFTWARE MOSTLY?

Adobe Analytics can be used by professionals and beginners. Their typical background comes from marketing together with PR experience. At the same time other people such as traditional marketers or people with a financial controlling function within a company should be able to use the software as well.

The software is interesting for both, agencies and organizations. For the introduction of the software, agencies are very important, because agencies do new and innovate things and so they might be the first, who work with Adobe Analytics. But Adobe's aim is to get the software to organizations in order to become the market leader in social media analytics.

In the beginning of social media marketing organizations asked agencies for help. But organizations had been often not interested in a long-term relationship, because they recognized very soon, that they needed the skills internal. This development can be repeated with social media analytics software in general.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

The software:

-       connects social media to business results by using multi-channel analytics.

-       brings social media into the marketing mix by extending traditional monitoring and measurement as an integrated component.

-       facilitates real-time marketing intelligence by showing most popular feedback of current marketing strategy and messaging.

-       closes the social marketing loop by showing how social marketing converts into orders and revenue,

Adobe Analytics is the future of social media tools. There will be a lot of consolidation in the market place. On one hand, marketing managers will use one suite for all their needs. Adobe has this integrated approach and includes various tools connected to each other in the suite. Fragmentation could happen for businesses with special needs. Social media analytics can be useful for other branches as well. Adobe focuses on marketing only.

Interview direct link (MP3): http://traffic.libsyn.com/fir/fir-adobechadwarren.mp3

Presentation direct link (PDF): http://social-optimisation.com/downloads/Adobe_London.pdf