#SMMW16 Analytics and MarTech Roundup

Social Media Marketing World 2016 offered plenty of networking, discovery, and fun, as promised. As part of the networking, I had the opportunity to lead the #Analytics Slack channel for the conference in the lead up to the conference and at the conference. The Analytics channel boasted 125+ members; one of the most popular discussion topics was the Analytics and MarTech landscape in social media marketing.

We referenced Scott Brinker’s Marketing Technology super-graphic many times:

Out of this massive landscape, what did #SMMW16 analytics-minded attendees focus on? Here’s my roundup.

Data Visualization

Visualization tools were the hottest topic, including:

• IBM Watson Analytics
• Tableau Public
• Good ol’ spreadsheets
• Google Customer Journeys
• SOFA Stats

Data Quality

Improving our data quality was a hot topic, from cleaning tools to technologies:

• Google Tag Manager
• Google Analytics Bot Filtering
• Enhanced filters for Google Analytics
• Regular Expression testing
• URL and UTM builder
• Cross domain tracking with iFrames in Google Tag Manager
• Facebook Reactions API

Dashboarding and Reporting

We discussed today’s dashboarding tools for consolidating and cleaning up reporting:

• Google Analytics Data Studio 360
• Dasheroo
• Klipfolio
• Cyfe

Slack Bots

Unsurprising that the topic came up with Facebook’s F8 announcements and attendees just becoming comfortable with bots. Slack bots offer us the ability to experience chat bots and other interactive services today. For analytics and MarTech minded folks, we suggested:

• Statsbot for Google Analytics
• Birdly for B2B marketers
• Geekbot for agile marketing

Artificial Intelligence Platforms

AI was a hot topic for our #Analytics channel, looking forward at the future of marketing. We explored:

• IBM Watson Bluemix and Personality Insights
• Google TensorFlow
• Facebook Wit.AI

Social Media Advertising Systems

No surprise that the topic of modern ad systems came up since social media has largely become pay-to-play.

• Facebook ads
• Facebook audience insights
• Twitter analytics
• Centro demand-side platform
• StackAdapt native ad platform

Analytics Training

Finally, we reviewed the many training options for Google Analytics.

• Digital Analytics Fundamentals
• Google Analytics Platform Principles
• ECommerce Analytics
• Mobile App Analytics
• Google Tag Manager Fundamentals

It was my pleasure and privilege to lead the Analytics group, and for those who were members, stay in touch. You’ll find my contact information here on my site; please feel free to subscribe to my weekly marketing newsletter and Marketing Over Coffee podcast.