Social Media Roundup: May 9, 2017

Applied Analytics: 6 Tips on How It Can
Improve Your Decision-Making

POS systems continue to improve and expand the scope and types of data they can gather, but using that data continues to be difficult for non-experts. “The challenge faced by most operators is that their expertise lies in the complexities of daily operations, not necessarily in analytics,” writes Alexander Cairns, an econometrician for Revenue Management Solutions. In an article published in Restaurant Hospitality, he notes that most analytical approaches have been developed and used by academics, making many online resources difficult to decipher. To bridge the gap between academia and everyday business operators, he suggests the following (more detail on each available here):

• Clean data is essential for successful recommendations.
• Viewing analytics as a toolbox means using the right tool for the right job.
• Models should accurately reflect customer behavior.
• The result should be actions that help your business.
• Experts are your allies.

He concludes with the following advice: “As you think about how analysis can help you get to the answers of your questions, know that there is no one-size-fits-all way to use analytics. Keeping these points in mind can help you ask the right questions and ensure that the analytics presented to you are representative of your business and useful.”

Influence of Latinos on Foodservice Increases

A recent study by Technomic concludes that Latinos make up 17 percent of the U.S. population and their rising spending power and taste preferences are worth watching – and responding to. “While there is now more opportunity to drive traffic and sales among Latinos, their broadening consideration set will create increased competition for their foodservice dollars,” notes Anne Mills, manager of consumer insights at Technomic. “Keeping abreast of how the Latino population is evolving, and how this impacts their patronage, need states, and preferences will help create menu, product and marketing strategies that effectively resonate with this young consumer base.” Key takeaways from the study include the following:

• Three in five (62%) Latinos expect their personal financial situation to improve in the next year, with 35% of these consumers saying it will improve slightly.
• Two in five (41%) of Latinos and 54% of Spanish-dominant Latinos say that they are now more likely to visit restaurants that publicly support Latinos compared to in 2015.
• About half (49%) of Latinos say loyalty/rewards programs encourage them to visit a specific restaurant over another, up from 42% in 2015.

Digital Advertising’s Basic Promise Questioned
by Big-Name Advertisers

Last year, when Procter & Gamble’s CMO announced that the consumer products giant would be pulling back on ad targeting on Facebook, “the news led some to question the value of digital advertising’s distinguishing characteristic: its capacity to target narrow segments of the population,” writes Kate Kaye in MIT Technology Review. Digital advertising, she notes, continues to climb: eMarketer predicts a continuation of double-digit growth from $83 billion this year (or about 40% of the projected $206 billion that will be spent on all advertising in 2017) to more than $129 billion in 2021. Digital advertising experts cited in the story pointed out mistakes companies make in their online campaigns: 1) narrowly defining target audiences is still valid, but the targets must be chosen correctly (e.g., targeting 18- to 24-year-old men for fitness apparel when their mothers or wives were actually doing the buying); 2) relying too much on targeted ads and cutting back on other, broader-based efforts; and 3) hyper-targeting customers doesn’t always work. She concludes by saying, “Rather than a referendum on all digital targeting, pronouncements by companies like P&G may be a sign of maturity in the online advertising market as it assesses what this strategy can do very well and what it cannot.”

How To Determine the ROI of Online Reputation Management

In this short, breezy video from WebPunch’s School of Online Reputation Management, Matt Jones takes the viewer through a series of simple calculations to gauge the ROI from a brand’s efforts to maintain a positive image online. While not the definitive answer to the challenges of managing the ROI of reputation management in a world of online reviewers, the video does provide a useful point of view. Based on a study by MOZ that showed one negative search result can result in 21.9% of viewers not wanting to do business with that company, Jones worked with BrandYourself to come up with a few simple formulas to answer the following question: If you know the percentage of average lost customers, how can you extrapolate that and understand its impact on your bottom line?