The Role of Social Media Analytics in Providing Product Intelligence: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

The use of social media for business is becoming a new norm for gaining business intelligence. While research work is increasing on social media analytics (SMA) for some aspects of business intelligence, the knowledge of how SMA facilitates product intelligence (PI) is still very limited. To address the gap, the data from qualitative interviews was analyzed using NVivo coding and matrix queries. The results show that products, processes, and people underpin the mechanism for providing SMA-enabled PI. Serving dichotomous objectives, people act as (1) conduits for providing insights about products and processes and (2) subjects for gathering behavioral insights. The PI gathered about the products could help understanding of the process effectiveness and be used for planning, product, and promotional strategy development. Because of the impulsive nature of SM, while the utility of PI from SMA may be limited to gaining short-to-medium-term benefits, it is an important indicator of customer and market sentiments. Theoretically, the study develops a framework of SMA-enabled PI, highlighting the mechanism that yields PI and advancing knowledge on the role of SMA in improving business efficiencies. The results provide managerial insights about the levers and limitations to guide the design of SMA strategies for acquiring PI.