IBM Introduces Cloud-Based Social Media Analytics Capabilities for Marketers

ARMONK, N.Y., March 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today launched new, cloud-based software designed to help marketers gain real-time, actionable insight from data available across social media channels.

(Photo: https://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110314/NY64247-a )

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO )

The new software expands IBM's business analytics capabilities by enabling organizations to develop faster, more precise social media marketing programs that support their brand's total online presence through a cloud-based delivery model.  

The first product, IBM Coremetrics Social, helps companies analyze the business impact of their social marketing initiatives, while IBM Unica Pivotal Veracity Email Optimization Suite analyzes email links that are shared across social network platforms, enabling marketers to better capitalize on opportunities across channels.

Today's news follows IBM's recent announcement of new software and the creation of a new consulting practice dedicated to the emerging category of "Smarter Commerce," which is focused on helping companies swiftly adapt to rising customer demands in today's digitally transformed marketplace.  Smarter Commerce includes new cloud analytics software that enables companies to monitor their brand's presence in real-time through social media channels to better assess the effectiveness of new services and product offerings, fine tune marketing campaigns, and create sales initiatives in real-time.

"IBM's approach to social media analytics is based on the understanding that people interact with an organization's brand in a number of ways—including email, social networking sites and company Web sites—and the true measure of business impact demands a fully integrated view of the interaction with these resources," said John Squire, chief strategy officer, IBM Coremetrics. "The new social media analytics software unveiled today will help marketers develop more targeted, highly-measurable, and effective social media marketing campaigns."

IBM Coremetrics Social enables organizations across a wide range of industries to measure the effectiveness and return on investment (ROI) of their social marketing initiatives by gaining insight from data that's publicly available on social media websites.

This Smarter Commerce offering delivers real-time intelligence on the social media response to a particular brand, or the products, content and services being offered, and enables clients to make fact-based, accurate decisions about marketing expenditures. As a result, marketing teams can easily attribute business impact to social referrals in the context of other marketing programs.

Using the analytics foundation of the Coremetrics Continuous Optimization Platform™ and its complete suite of marketing optimization applications, IBM Coremetrics Social provides cross-channel reporting and benchmark capabilities to track and improve social marketing campaigns. With social benchmarking, brands can evaluate the effectiveness of their social initiatives relative to their peer companies, and understand where they excel, and where there is opportunity for improvement.

It has become routine for social networks to be used as a resource to broadly share links to special offers made available by companies via email. Well-known brands can expect to see as much as 38 percent of their special offer email links shared across social networks. An average of 28 percent of these links is then 'liked' or commented on.  

The new IBM Unica Pivotal Veracity Email Optimization suite tracks and analyzes email links that are shared across social network platforms, delivering actionable insights which marketers can turn into recognizable profit.  Unlike other technologies, this new offering opens the doors for marketers to identify, track, and improve the perception of their brands across channels. The Social Email Analytics software tracks all links associated with a marketer's brand and email, not just the intended links a marketer shares. This approach better encompasses and reflects the emerging complexities and ramifications of consumer interactions with brands, starting with email and ending up in the social realm. With this new software, marketers can also hone Web pages for social networks and better identify opportunities across channels.

For more information on IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative, please visit: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/33983.wss

For more information on Coremetrics, an IBM Company, please visit http://www.coremetrics.com/

For more information on Unica, an IBM Company, please visit http://unica.com/

Contact:

Michela Stribling
650-387-3194
[email protected]

Dan Ring
781-487-8641
[email protected]

SOURCE IBM