#IamSocial: Insight & Jazzy Jumpers
Blog four about the #IamSocial grad scheme is here! This month I’ve been getting locked in small rooms for fun, delving into spreadsheets with the ‘Research & Insight’ team and taking full advantage of the We Are Social free breakfasts.
So, what is R&I?
R&I (Research and Insight) is the one stop shop when you want to find out how successful a campaign was or identify important audience insight and demographics. Using powerful tools they scour the social media landscape to help our clients understand and interact better with their customers.
Their real talent lies in their ability to analyse the reams of information they receive and extract that all-important, meaningful insight. Working with powerful tools, our analysts make sense of the conversations happening over social media and not only to help our clients understand it, but ultimately, to ensure the recommendations we make to our clients come from a social insight.
I won’t beat around the bush; I was slightly unnerved about my placement in R&I. The last time I properly opened up an excel sheet to do sums was during high school, and since then the quiet mutter of the word ‘excel’ has sent me into a cold sweat.
Luckily, the team were great and threw me straight into working on some interesting projects. Using spreadsheets and boolean queries I quickly learned about the various tools we use here and how they can be put to use for different clients. Within two weeks I was transformed from an excel novice into an excel GOD. Great success.
In honour of the R&I team I will now deliver the rest of this blog in the form of pie charts (and the odd line graph).
First up, here is a pie chart depicting the percentage of problems that can be solved by creating a pie chart:
The figures don’t lie, it is evident to see that pie charts are the answer to all of life’s problems.
During my time with the R&I team I was introduced to Joe, a Research & Insight Director here at We Are Social. It was here that I learned about Joe’s penchant for jazzy jumpers. I have used my new found excel skills below to chart the increasing jazziness of his jumpers over the past ten months:
As you can see there has been a rise in jazziness in the past few months indicating jazzy jumpers are going to be big sellers this festive season. You heard it here first.
The evolution of Joe’s jumpers from Q1 to Q4
I also ventured out with the R&I team for a team building game of ‘Hint Hunt’ last week. Hint Hunt is hard to sell in words, but you basically spend an hour locked in a small room with your work colleagues trying to find clues that eventually allow you to escape. Clues are hidden beneath tables, in cubby holes and within locked boxes. It’s better than it sounds – I promise. The below chart explains how I spent my hour locked in a room with the team:
As you can see from the above chart, I live by the mantra: if in doubt, flip a table.
R&I turned out to be one of the most useful placements I’ve completed. Not only have I conquered my fear of excel, but I’ve also learned how to utilise a variety of useful tools to track conversations as well as building knowledge of complex demographics. These skills will prove invaluable when we begin our permanent roles come January!
So in conclusion…
5 things we’ve learned this week
- Pie charts make everything better
- Specialized social tools can be put to great effect to track the success of campaigns
- Jazzy jumpers are in this season
- Excel is friend, not foe
- Nick (writer of the Monday Mashup) was once the star of a Cheerios TV ad campaign. Rumour has it he was paid in solely Cheerios.
“One day I’ll be writing the Mashup, then you’ll see”