In the social intelligence industry, multiple business units and disciplines are using and analyzing social data. These disciplines have their own language for discussing social data analysis. According to Jillian Ney, founder of The Social Intelligence Lab, multiple languages make it a challenge to discuss social data as each discipline has its own terms, definitions, and descriptions.
The social listening industry uses many terms to discuss social data. For example, the terms, social listening, social intelligence, social media measurement, social analytics, and social media research are used with no clarity on whether the terms have the same meaning. Furthermore, there is no transparency on what are the actual definitions.
Additionally, along with the social intelligence industry gaining maturity, the language around social intelligence is becoming further complicated. To begin with, social intelligence started out as ‘social listening’. Subsequently, the practice of social listening was quick to be adopted. However, there is a perception that the practice has not lived up to its expectation.
Indeed, overpromising the abundance of insights that can be gathered in a ‘self-service’s mode has created a poor perception of the industry. Besides, the inability of the users of social listening technology to deliver insights has added to the perception. Furthermore, the social intelligence industry continues using the term. So, how can the industry overcome poor perception and simplify how social data is discussed?
This can be done by having a shared language or a shared taxonomy. The shared language will make talking about social data between disciplines simple and define the key practices surrounding social intelligence. Further, it will make industry terms universal. Consequently, communication will be clear, and clients will be able to understand the terminologies better. The industry would also be in a position to highlight when it comes across instances of overpromising and under delivering.
So how can the industry build a shared common language for social listening? How can it develop a taxonomy so that the breadth of terms, how they are employed, defined and discussed by the professionals in the industry understood? This can be done only if all the professionals in the social listening industry come together.
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