SAS(R) Social Media Analytics takes social media marketing to the enterprise

More than just monitoring, SAS analytics help B2B and B2C marketers get real-time, real-world value from social media data for better business decisions

SAS GLOBAL FORUM, SEATTLE, April 12 /CNW/ - Global corporations are seeking ways to convert social media data into better customer relationships, stronger customer service, enhanced marketing efforts and improved bottom-line results. They are struggling to derive practical insight from a flood of online conversation data and apply it to real-world decisions. Corporate marketers and agencies want more than the current one-size-fits-all offerings. They want to integrate social data across all areas of their businesses, answer key questions, and apply the answers to specific business decisions. SAS, the leader in business analytics (http://www.sas.com/businessanalytics/), understands what social marketers require from online conversation data and is offering new software to make the business benefits of embracing social media a reality.

SAS(R) Social Media Analytics (http://www.sas.com/software/customer-intelligence/social-media-analytics/) is the first enterprise solution designed to meet the needs of marketers in medium and large companies. It helps them understand, predict and act based on social media data. With the ability to archive and analyze more than two years of social media conversations from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, discussion forums, blogs and more, SAS' new on-demand software shows marketers how people feel about their products or brands, who is influencing them, and how social media conversations affect business results. They can immediately apply answers to brand strategies, media placement, public relations and customer care activities.

"SAS' new social media solution is a game changer," said Katie Paine, CEO of KDPaine & Partners. "I never thought automated measurement could achieve this level of accuracy, and so seamlessly integrate human coding to deliver the precision customers demand. With its analytics expertise, its big-picture view of measurement, and its technological know-how, SAS' entry into this marketplace will bring this industry to a whole new level. One in which marketers won't just be able to measure more, but better, and deliver more accurate, actionable information on which to base their decisions."

SAS Social Media Analytics is built on SAS' strengths in advanced analytics and data integration. SAS Social Media Analytics offers seven distinct advantages:

    
    -   Enterprise-level capabilities - SAS Social Media Analytics can
        collect and analyze huge quantities of data, both structured and
        unstructured, from internal and external sources. Integrating with
        CRM and marketing systems, the solution aligns social media
        monitoring with overall business strategy and tactics.
    -   A long-term view - SAS Social Media Analytics maintains a continuous
        archive of online data stretching back more than two years at the
        start, building over time the ability to understand trends and update
        historical analyses based on new information.
    -   Predictive analytics - The software delivers the ability to quantify
        influence, forecast future volume of social media conversations, and
        then predict their impact on the business. This helps companies
        allocate resources, create "what-if" scenarios and correlate key
        marketing metrics like brand preference, Web traffic, online campaign
        effectiveness and media mix.
    -   Extensible Language Processing - Statistical models miss
        colloquialisms and slang. Unlike "black-box" offerings, SAS lets
        marketers and analysts adjust the rules that assign sentiment to
        topics and apply subject-matter expertise to improve statistical
        approaches and better classify text. This hybrid approach provides
        more accurate sentiment extraction rules that give a more complete
        picture of customer likes and dislikes and better answers to business
        questions.
    -   Multi-language support - SAS Social Media Analytics can understand
        and classify conversations in 13 distinct languages including Arabic,
        Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean,
        Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.
    -   Ability to take action - Even the best data analysis is only useful
        if it reaches decision makers on time, in an easily understood
        manner. SAS Social Media Analytics delivers real-time insights
        through Web-based dashboards, reports and workflow-enabled alerts.
        his enables organizations to respond in a timely and consistent
        fashion across brands, business units and service groups.
    -   Industry expertise - SAS has customers in nearly every industry. SAS
        Social Media Analytics reflects our understanding of those fields and
        provides industry-specific language processing to ensure higher
        accuracy and relevance.
    

"SAS' expertise is analytics. Analyzing social media for business insights is the perfect fit for SAS," said Alan Webber, Partner at Altimeter Group LLC. "With SAS Social Media Analytics companies can understand who is doing what, where, and why in social media. With this new solution SAS has an opportunity to redefine the Social Media Analytics space."

"Consumers are online right now talking about your products and services, their experience, and their likes and dislikes. Smart marketers aren't just listening to online chatter; they are analyzing it to better focus resources and build engagement and loyalty," said Mark Chaves, Director of Media Intelligence solutions at SAS. "SAS Social Media Analytics helps marketers combine data from online conversations with other data to build a more complete picture of each customer. And then use these analytically driven insights to predict and act."

SAS Social Media Analytics is being offered as an OnDemand solution. Like other SAS Solutions OnDemand (http://www.sas.com/solutions/ondemand/), this offering gives business users all the analytical power of SAS with the ability to get the solution up and running quickly. And as an OnDemand solution, it is available globally today.

Today's announcement was made at SAS Global Forum (http://support.sas.com/events/sasglobalforum/2010/index.html), the world's largest gathering of SAS users, attended by more than 3,000 business and IT users of SAS software and solutions.

About SAS

SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative solutions delivered within an integrated framework, SAS helps customers at more than 45,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW(R).

The Canadian subsidiary of SAS has been in operation for 21 years. Headquartered in Toronto, SAS employs 254 people across the country at its Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City and Montréal offices. www.sas.com

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. (R) indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright (C) 2010 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

For further information: Editorial Contact: Suzanne Sprajcar, [email protected], [phone]; Visit the SAS Press Center, www.sas.com/presscenter