How Data Visualization Is Breathing New Life into Social Media Marketing Metrics

Data is one of the least fun words in the social media marketing world. So often, when people want to see the numbers, they’re hoping for a quick spreadsheet or PowerPoint that proves that their marketing dollars are well spent.

As the person behind the creation of those PowerPoint reports, though, you’re struggling. You pump hours each week into pulling together reports on your social marketing analytics, while also spearheading creative strategy and working closely with the editors of your brand’s digital publication—and the shift from creativity to report building is a severe drain on your mind and eyes alike. But now it’s the end of the year, and you’re also responsible for the email communications of one of your teammates who’s out on break. On top of that, today, another colleague called out sick, and you have to lead a strategy session with two new hires. You’re stressed, and oh by the way, your execs expect to see your presentation at 3:00 this afternoon.

There has to be a better way, you’re thinking, as your fingers fly across your keyboard, trying to get ahead of the time that remains between you and 3:00 p.m.

Sisence, an analytics software company, is bringing data to the forefront of the modern workflow by offering chatbot integration to several major messaging platforms. With Sisence, marketers can create visually rich data representations in an easy conversational format. It’s more like sending your coworker a Slack message than running a dull analytics report and spending the time turning raw data into something worth looking at.

That alone is thrilling, but Sisence’s tool points to a trend in big data marketing—one that exists at the intersection of creative thinking and smart software. Thanks to the availability of countless software, plugins, and social media platforms catering to marketers, we’re able to collect more and better data than ever. But until recently, it was still as clunky as ever to gather, analyze, and decipher. Sisence brings visualized data into the conversation (literally) which does away with the need for numbers crunching and painful formal presentations.

One of my favorite under-the-radar announcements of the year was Knotch‘s new colored feedback tool, which allows audiences to respond to content in a way that’s much more emotional than a numbered scale or boring feedback survey.