Social media metrics and analytics in marketing – S3M: A mapping literature review

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to present a mapping literature review and a classification for research articles regarding social media metrics and analytics in marketing. The review covers 52 articles from peer review journals and international conferences, from 2010 to 2016. These 52 articles are classified in 5 distinct categories based on their: methodology of research, type of analysis, field of study, marketing objectives and social media type/platform used. The findings of the study reveal which is the most used subcategory for each classification, trends and tendencies. This review provides a base classification for researchers and an editable and continuously augmenting typology for further research in the area.

Introduction

Web 2.0 tools and the appearance of social media seem to have redefined the marketing strategy, research and practice, broadening marketing’s potential. These potentials go beyond customers’ information and expand on commitment and engagement levels. Constantinides and Fountain (2008) define Web 2.0 “as a collection of open-source, interactive and user-controlled online applications expanding the experiences, knowledge and marketing power of the users as participants in business and social process […] supporting the creation of informed users’ networks facilitating the flow of ideas and knowledge by allowing the efficient generation, dissemination, sharing and editing/refining of information content”.

Social media produce a vast amount of measurable useful data to analysts and marketers whose goal is to monitor and analyze behavioral targeting, brand loyalty and further marketing performance indicators, rendering these data effective. To do that, specific marketing metrics goals need to be clearly defined. Without a specific plan, regarding also the key performance indicators choices, data analysts together with marketers will fail to direct the social media data into useful insights for the companies. For that purpose, firms must precisely raise questions and search answers from social media listening in order to transform data in social media metrics. Social media analysis, therefore, consists of collecting, measuring, evaluating and finally interpreting data (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).

Since the first appearance of social media, marketers have noticed the potential of such technology in business (Mangold & Faulds, 2009). Social media can serve as an effective marketing tool in business, valuable for both consumers and companies, offering a wide range of opportunities (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Therefore, social media show an unprecedented increase of use inside business. Even though, understanding social media is a crucial, but not a simple procedure. Several definitions are classified in order to fully explore the dynamics of social media in marketing.

This study presents a complete base for understanding and describing social media metrics and social media analytics related to marketing strategy, policy and research, by reviewing the relevant literature. The objective of this paper is an extensive review of articles related to social media metrics and analytics in marketing, creating a mapping review/systematic map of the relevant material. The primary goal in this article is to create a conceptual classification scheme (named S3M) for the extant literature by using five distinct dimensions/criteria of classification, such as: Methodology of research, Type of analysis, Field of study, Marketing objectives, and Social media types/platforms. As a result, the most used subsectors from each category are identified, featuring the new upcoming trends in social media marketing. The findings of this study are expected to benefit researchers and marketers by helping them to better understand what has been hitherto achieved. It is our primary hope that the proposed framework will serve as a valuable classification system for researchers, academics and practitioners who conduct similar research.

The paper is structured as follows. The next section presents the research methodology we follow. In the following section we present the classification of the literature, providing a discussion section for each category. The final section summarizes our work, offering concluding remarks, future research directions and limitations that rise from our study.