I just wanted to get one thing clear: reporting and analyzing do not mean the same thing. While both have to do with measurement (or monitoring), they have very different definitions.
More and more frequently I’m seeing blog posts and case studies which include social media or data “analysis.” What follows tends to be a list of metrics or observations from a data set. Let me give an example:
- There were 1,000 check-ins at the restaurant this month.
- Twitter followers increased 10% to 5,460 this month.
- The Facebook community is comprised largely of women aged 45+.
These are metrics and observations being reported. It’s quite honestly simple regurgitation in most cases. Sometimes a little bit of math is required to get there, but these are reported facts and figures. This is not data analysis.
True analysis takes facts, figures, numbers, whatever you want to call them and tells you what that means. Analysis answers the questions, “so what?” or “why?” wheras reporting more often than not just tells me, “what?”
Analysis often includes context and ties multiple observations together to give a more complete picture. Instead of reporting each fact as a singular data point, connections are made and related facts are grouped to show significance. Reporting tells me what it is; analysis tells me what it means. Here’s an example:
- There were 1,000 check-ins at the restaurant this month even though we have stopped offering a discount for each check-in. This indicates our consumers may be likely to use location-based services without an incentive.
- Twitter followers increased 10% to 5,460 this month compared with 45% growth last month. As our #FantasticGiveaway promotion ended and mentions on Twitter fell, it is likely less visibility has caused this decline in follower acquisition.
- The Facebook community is comprised largely of women aged 45+, which is slightly older than our core target audience. We should consider adjusting content to appeal more broadly to women in this age group.
Am I being too picky here? I feel it’s an important distinction to be made. Reporting has its value, but drawing conclusions and providing analysis are also valuable (in a totally different way).
Do you see a difference? Or is it all semantics?
