Social media represents a new data source for marketers and academic researchers to access and analyze the changing opinions and attitudes of large groups around the globe. Without the delay or cost of traditional research methods, social media analytics offer a new pathway to answer pressing research questions in both contexts. This address, delivered at the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology 2014 Annual Conference in Pittsburgh, outlines the institutional actors and motivating research questions in the new field of social media analytics through the story of the company Crimson Hexagon and its analytics technologies.
