Media analytics is evaluation of a specific media message or construction to evaluate how it affects a target audience. This is in contrast to media analysis, which would be a more traditional evaluation of what's in a media message or construction. Media analytics for business tends to focus on results that affect sales rates or other specific events.
Within the greater definition of media analytics, some specific forms of this kind of service are becoming prevalent. One of these is Web analytics, where those evaluating a web media piece look at its specific effect on a target audience through quantifiable data like original views, location of ISP addresses, and much more. Web analytics may also look at the results of embedded items like Google ad words.
Another new part of the field of media analytics is called social media analytics. Social media is a term for very recent innovations in the online and wireless world, including sites like MySpace and Facebook, as well as alternative communication methods such as Twitter, generally enabled by smart phone wireless technologies. Companies are exploring the marketing opportunities of these platforms with social media analytics that focus on how new media can help promote a company or product or sell goods or services to a consumer audience.
A media analytics company can help an enterprise improve its existing media systems. Web analytics consultants, for example, focus on how to improve or upgrade an existing website or other Internet initiative. This can include creating new online forms or applications, installing shopping carts, or otherwise customizing a site to provide for personal data entry. Other elements include tracking customer events and automating some of the market research that helps business leaders chart a future course for a company.
Web analytics consulting companies often rely on specific developer skill sets for using traditional computer programming languages to work on client websites. Developers may work on creating a whole new customer interface on a webpage from scratch. They may also be involved in designing add-ons where new programming language enhances what an existing webpage can do. Programming knowledge and familiarity with common web interfaces is critical for this kind of work.
Social media consulting and analytics services will often focus more on how a message is deployed within a target audience. Lots of media relies on pre-existing programmed technology. Consultants and social media analytics tend to look at how these free-form technologies can be customized and used by a business for profit through better consumer outreach.