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Insight From Social Media: A Road To Enlightenment or Disaster?

By Wayne Clouten, BPR

Part 2 – The Opportunity

In the first instalment about attempting to gain insight from social media we explored some of the traps. In Part 2 we consider the opportunities.

Despite the distortions, social media can reflect genuine public feeling when:

• a topic is emotionally universal (e.g., grief after a disaster)
• commentary comes from diverse demographics.
• posts are personal rather than performative.
• the platform’s user base matches the population (very rare)
• sentiment is consistent across multiple platforms.

Even then, it’s a signal, not a census.  The most accurate way to interpret social media commentary is to think like this:

Social media shows what highly motivated people want others to think they think, filtered through algorithms that reward intensity.

It is not useless; it can be a powerful window into:

• emerging narratives
• activist energy
• cultural trends
• what certain groups care about
• how ideas spread

But it’s not a reliable measure of broader public opinion, what is actually a trend in the market or narratives that necessarily resonate with strategic market segments.

From a strategic research perspective, data from social media is like attending a jumble sale at the local markets.  There may be a bargain hiding somewhere amongst all the clutter, but most of it is simply other people’s junk.

Shop carefully!