“If you’re going to hire an analyst, hire the one that’s doing the Sudoku puzzles in the waiting room,” says Jim Sterne of eMetrics Summit. But, he says, it’s not all about the numbers.
In his presentation at SocialMedia.org’s Brands-Only Summit, Jim talks about the human side of social media analytics. He focuses on the role an analyst should play within a company and the qualifications they should have to turn social data into effective business practices.
Here are some key points:
- Tell stories instead of reports. Jim advises analysts to skip over the nitty-gritty numbers. Instead, get right to the insight by focusing on customers and business objectives.
- Be careful. Jim acknowledges that humans love to find patterns and make assumptions. Unfortunately, there are a lot of traps the brain can fall into when it comes to processing data. He warns analysts not to confuse correlation with causation or to give in to cognitive bias.
- Have a goal. Social media analysts can’t provide the right answers if they aren’t aware of the business’ questions. They need to understand company objectives before they can draw relevant insights.
For more details, watch Jim’s full presentation in the video below.
Want to see more social media case studies like these? If you’re a social media leader at a big brand, we’d love to have you at our next Brands-Only Summit in Orlando, Fla., Oct. 27-29.