'Social-First' MR Consultancy Launches

Social media marketing agency Social Chain has launched a market research consultancy, Social Chain Data, which will tap into the parent company's expertise to help clients analyse their audiences and markets.

Manchester, UK-based Social Chain, which also has offices in Berlin and New York, owns more than 400 digital communities including channels such as 'Student Problems', 'Sporf' and 'Love Food'. Its new consultancy, described as a 'social-first' MR firm, will aim to help brands make better-informed marketing decisions by analysing the vast amount of data available across these communities.

The new firm will conduct audits of a brand's social media landscape, listen to what its customers say online, track brand perceptions, monitor competitor activity, and track emerging consumer trends. Through the group's publishing division Media Chain, the company has access to 80 million fans on social media, all segmented into categories such as fashion, food, travel, education, sports and gaming. Social Chain is investing in listening tools and resources that gather data from various online platforms, and dedicated analysts and strategic advisors will use the resulting data to help guide business decisions and train in-house teams on how to gather the right information for brands.

McVal Osborne (pictured), Head of Data at Social Chain, comments: 'As the agency continues to use data for our own decisions, we wanted to offer this to our clients and give them a better understanding of the customers. Business can succeed or fail because of the decisions they make related to their customers - we want to help brands make the best-informed decisions possible'.

Web site: www.socialchain.com .