IBM's James Newswanger on The Power of Twitter Data for Corporate Decision Making

Twitter analysis is not just for marketing and brand equity anymore

The Research Insighter: "IBM recently issued an Institute for Business Value report called Beyond Listening. Can you tell us a little about it."

James Newswanger: "It attempts to take a step forward past text analysis for marketing and brand analysis only. Social business analysis has moved into the fundamental operations of a firm and to some extent the strategy making of a firm. Things like supply chain, HR, every element of a firm now can figure out a way to use social. We give examples of how different companies are using Twitter to unearth a different level of business analysis. That's proven to be particularly valuable to the C-Suite."

The Research Insighter: "How would that work? Do you have any examples?"

James Newswanger: "Here are two of the most interesting examples:

Influencer identification. Many people use Twitter analysis to identify who they choose (or who they won't choose) to be a product endorser. People also use Twitter information to decide who to invite (or not invite) to events as advocates.

Most companies sponsor events where they specifically target some people who are active socially. You see this a lot in fashion. In addition to a traditional magazine editor, you'll see a whole barrage of bloggers and Twitter folks assigned to the front row because they've become important.

Supply chain. The other area that's particulary interesting is supply chain. Companies are using Twitter to identify where people are, supplying things that are relevant to their inventory. For example, right now, the flu. If people tweet about being sick, colds or 'where should I run to the store to get a cold medicine'."