“The more we can learn about the individual customer, the better job we can do engaging them,” David Schweidel, an associate professor of marketing at Goizueta Business School, said, adding social media is just one data point. Marketers should consider transactional records and customer service logs.
From political unrest to photos of cats, social media plays a key role in many an aspect of life. David Schweidel, an associate professor of marketing at Goizueta Business School, has multiple research efforts on social media phenomenon, including how day-to-day conversations among consumers create a virtual (literally) treasure trove of information for marketers.
Oddly enough, its roots are in tried-and-true marketing efforts.
“Part of what customers are worth to companies is what they’re saying about them,” Schweidel said in an interview with EmoryBusiness.com. “Social media research has taken off in the last three to five years but the ideas behind it are the same ideas we’ve had all along. When we’re looking to make a purchase, who do we trust? Are we trusting the marketing material being pushed out by a manufacturer or a retailer or are we going to trust the people we know?”