Happy New Year! We are starting 2019 the right way; refreshed, full of energy (and mince pies) and of course talking with our friends about social data and audience intelligence!
Below, 10 marketing professional superstars share with us their 2019 tips and predictions for creating the most powerful trends using social data and audience intelligence. Ready to launch yourself to the most innovative and avant-garde trends?
Jillian Ney: Recognition of social data as an independent source of data and information
Jillian Ney, founder of The Social Intelligence Lab, answered our question "In your opinion, what will be the most powerful trends related to social intelligence and audience intelligence for 2019?"
A bigger focus on the audience and their behaviours instead of a focus on the brand or product, I've noticed a big shift in 2018 and see that continuing momentum in 2019. It marks a maturity in the use of social data, and a focus on answering questions or hypotheses instead of gathering whatever data you can and trying to find an insight. Related to this, I also see a better understanding and appreciation of data sources and where these data sources can be used. It's no longer about entering a search query and seeing what comes back but understanding the data sources independently and knowing when the most effective time to use them is.
There is more than likely going to be a lot of buzz around artificial intelligence but it's not going to steal our jobs. The focus should be on using AI to cut down on the time to prepare, segment and analyse the data - it is the most time-consuming part and leaves us more time to interpret the insight to create actionable recommendations.
Davide Berretta: A deep understanding of audiences at the core of the businesses
Davide Berretta (VP of Marketing at the audience intelligence company Pulsar) shares his vision of how the use of social data affects the R&D and production processes in companies:
In 2019, more companies will grow organically around existing audiences, rather than try to build new ones from scratch or only buy access to them through paid media.
We're seeing this more and more with software startups and DTC (direct-to-consumer) brands, where a deep understanding of their audiences is at the core of their business processes, with tight feedback loops and a general blurring of the lines between product and marketing.
The smartest players will stop treating the Web as a mass medium, and pair social and web data with owned analytics, vertically-trained artificial intelligence, and high-end custom research to find new audiences, connect with them, and build products and services around them.
Lauren Kaufman: Relevance and authenticity in the conversation between brands and consumers
Lauren Kaufman (Account Supervisor, Integrated Marketing at PAN Communications) highlights the vision of agencies and their clients on the use of audience intelligence this year:
In 2019, audiences will continue to reward brands for relevancy and purpose. Using social intelligence will allow brands to stay ahead of the curve, providing the insight needed to respond to, and take a stand on trending topics in real-time. Authenticity will become even more important to audiences, and by listening and driving two-way conversations that align with the priorities of our audiences, brands will be able to stay relevant and break away from the crowded social landscape in the eyes of their audiences.
Mauro Fuentes: Personalization thanks to the integration of 1st party and social data
Mauro Fuentes (Social Media Director at El Corte Inglés) highlights the momentum of the personalization of customer experiences with the integration of data from different sources:
The industry is ready to cross customer data with social data. In this way we will be able to offer more personalized content experiences to our audiences and, above all, we will learn what they really want. This is part of putting the client in the center, responding to their needs and ultimately understanding them better.
María Lázaro: The advance of social intelligence beyond marketing
María Lázaro (Director of the Corporate Development of the Real Instituto Elcano) trusts that audience intelligence will cross the boundaries of marketing:
We know that using social intelligence to create personalized content for very specific audiences is something that is becoming common practice amongst marketers.
It is likely that real time marketing actions will gain more momentum as well, however, I believe that in 2019 audience intelligence will no longer be a tactic associated almost exclusively with the marketing sector. For example, in the open debate about how social networks polarize opinions and how audiences are influenced for political purposes, social intelligence could almost certainly help analyze how these processes occur.
Larry Kim: The challenge of segmentation after the privacy and social data scandals
Larry Kim (founder of the free Facebook Messenger chatbot builder MobileMonkey) reflects on the impact that privacy and data scandals in 2018 will have in 2019:
Every year, marketers have become accustomed to platforms providing more and more insights about our audiences. But this year was different and we'll see its ripples in 2019. The 2018 Cambridge Analytica data scandal caused platforms to start limiting the resolution and segmentation options in their audience analytics, eliminating thousands of ad targeting options. The trend we'll see hit hard in 2019 is reaching peak audience data.
Tamara Lucas: Combination of cutting-edge technologies for greater data performance
Tamara Lucas (Senior Analyst at Convosphere) shares her wishes for this year:
What I would like to see more of this year is:
- Increased emphasis on the importance of protecting people’s privacy. Privacy is no longer a matter of four rare types with aluminum foil hats. With the (potential) manipulations of elections and security breaches there has become global debates that concern the ordinary citizen. Social Listening is better than 5 years ago and we need to take responsibility in protecting people’s privacy.
- Make data processing more agile by greater combined use of Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Image and Video Analysis technologies.
- Combination and integration of social data (and metadata) with other sources that will give us greater vision and context of audiences.
Michael Brito: The definitive boom of B2B Influencer Marketing
Michael Brito (Executive Vice President, Digital & Technology at Zeno Group) predicts two very clear trends:
Trend 1: Data will finally be in the driver’s seat when planning for programs.
Trend 2: B2B influencer marketing is going to explode; and be integrated into more broad brand activations.
Juan Merodio: Predictive models based on artificial intelligence
Juan Merodio (Blogger, Speaker & International Advisor in Marketing, Innovation, Management & Digital Transformation) bets on the importance of artificial intelligence for 2019:
As a consumers behavior today will not be the same as it will be in 3 years. Artificial intelligence and its capacity to develop predictive models of audience evolution will help us to better understand the future of consumers.
Javier Burón: Rebirth of Social Market Research
Javier Burón, co-founder and CEO of Audiense, talks about market research as one of the key uses for social data in 2019 and the insights extracted from them for marketing intelligence:
Market researchers are finding increasing value in social data to enrich their market studies, especially in audience profiling and segmentation. In my opinion, this is a trend that will continue to grow this year thanks to the fact that the information we have is increasingly representative. When researchers started using social data, the insights provided were based on only 16% of the American population so it was ignored as a reliable source of information. However, today, that percentage has increased considerably reaching 69%. Social data is ready to serve as a source of increasingly reliable market and consumer insights.
What do you think the most successful trends in social intelligence will be in 2019? We would love to hear your opinion! Tweet us @audienseco
Photo by Jaddy Liu on Unsplash.
