The Business Impact Of Social Media Analytics

Social media analytics (SMA) is a rapidly emerging capability that provides organisations with the ability to analyse and interpret large amounts of online content to determine the attitudes and behaviours of people. The adoption and impact of SMA by businesses is still largely unexplored. In this paper we develop a framework, based on organisational motivation theory and the resourcebased view that explains how SMA can bring benefits to organisations. The framework includes three key concepts: organisational motivations, SMA capabilities and benefits. The framework is developed from a synthesis of relevant literature and an analysis of 40 success stories published by SMA vendors. The framework provides a ranked catalogue of clearly defined motivations, SMA capabilities and benefits. It provides researchers with a theoretically grounded base for understanding how SMA impacts organisations, and provides a useful starting point for future empirical research. For practitioners, the framework provides a systematic means of understanding how SMA might be used to bring benefits.