NetBase and SAP to deliver social media analytics

Sanjay Poonen, president of global solutions for SAP, explains that 'SAP Social Media Analytics application by NetBase' will provide marketing departments with accurate real-time analytics via the social web. "NetBase offers scalable, more accurate technology; tools that are easy to integrate with SAP solutions; and iterative analysis capabilities that will allow businesses to take advantage of social media as a strategic data source," explains Poonen. "By teaming with NetBase and other partners, we continue to offer customers increased choice and flexibility through our global partner ecosystem and further extend SAP's social enterprise strategy," he adds. NetBase claims to process billions of social media posts across millions of sites globally to extract structured insights and metrics that companies can use to understand market thinking and trends, as well as to quantify perceptions about products, services and organisations. Coca-Cola Company, an early adopter, says it works: "The social web provides marketers with an unprecedented opportunity to transform the way that we understand our consumers and go to market," comments Stan Sthanunathan, vice president, marketing strategy and insights at Coca-Cola. "The companies that can listen carefully to what the market is saying, understand these perceptions clearly, and act confidently are the ones that will gain competitive advantage. Hundreds of solutions claim to capture consumer sentiment, but NetBase stands alone in its ability to help us get to the bottom of opinions, emotions and behaviours," he adds. SAP Social Media Analytics is a cloud-based solution. Poonen explains that it uses a natural language processing engine to read and categorise posts according to the opinions, emotions and behaviours that the market is expressing.