Insights are shifting from an era of "listening" to one of "hunting." The case for "Social Hunting."

As the term "Outside Insight" suggests, social media is overflowing with consumers' true feelings. There's no reason not to leverage these genuine voices in planning. We introduce "Social Hunting," a new method for capturing signs and insights that could become major concerns in the future—insights often missed by traditional social listening—along with how to utilize them.

※＝Outside Insight
Title of a book by Jørn Liseugen. It signifies that all traces (data) of activities left online by individuals, companies, and organizations are valuable insights appearing externally.
 

What is "Social Hunting," the new social analytics method?

Social listening is the standard method for analyzing the flood of posts on social media. It involves analyzing the volume of posts, the spread of trending tweets, the positive or negative reception, and topics of high interest, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Such analysis captures large volumes to identify diffusion trends and key points. However, with low post volumes, signs of future major concerns might be missed. To address this, Dentsu Inc. Public Relations and the Corporate Communications Strategy Institute (within Dentsu Inc. PR) jointly developed the "Social Hunting" methodology.

Social Hunting is a coined term derived from the concept of "capturing" (hunting) tweets from social media that are useful for corporate or product communications. It focuses not on the volume of voices but on their content, identifying tweets where "emotions are expressed" or "trend signs are felt," and leveraging them for corporate or product communications.

This leads to the discovery of issues and trends not yet present as mass information, allowing companies to gain first-mover advantage as information disseminators. In other words, Social Hunting has the potential to uncover the background and consumer insights invisible in quantitative analysis, revealing issues that warrant attention.

While "issues" are often treated as large-scale challenges tied to social environments or political contexts that require long-term solutions, this approach frames them as individual consumer pain points. Planning solutions that address these issues through your own products or services can generate greater resonance.

Determining appeal points from captured insights

Johnson & Johnson Vision Care Company was exploring appeal angles for its photochromic contact lenses, which adjust the amount of light entering the eye.

When examining when consumers want clear vision, we observed behaviors like taking blueberry supplements before events such as watching sports games or attending live concerts.

Fans express their strong support for their favorite subjects using the term "oshi" (favorite). Among those actively pursuing their "oshi" (oshi-goto), this behavior was particularly pronounced. Digging deeper revealed actions like debuting contact lenses specifically to see their "oshi" clearly or rushing to adjust glasses prescriptions. This revealed a willingness to adjust their visual conditions.

Thus, we identified the issue from the consumer's perspective: "The problem of having limitations with your usual vision when you don't want to miss your favorite idol even for a second." We aimed to highlight this latent need by positioning "#推し見逃さない" (#NeverMissYourFavorite) as the core message for communicating with consumers who empathize with this issue.

Effective Methods for Uncovering Insights: The 7 Frustrations WARPATH

Dentsu Inc. PR and the Corporate Communications Strategy Institute have systematized methods for effectively uncovering insights through social hunting. We organized frustrations about the current situation, which tend to surface as honest opinions on Twitter, into the "7 Frustrations WARPATH." We then search tweets by combining words related to these frustrations. "WARPATH" represents the initial letters of seven emotions, such as "Want = Desire" and "Anti = Resentment." For example, under "Want = Desire," we search by combining words like "want to," "want," and "don't want to."

For example, this summer, "mask tan" became a concern. Indeed, on May 17, Yahoo! News published an article titled "Will 'Mask Tan' Happen This Summer?" and Twitter saw active posts about "mask tan."

However, looking back, posts related to "mask tan" began appearing in small numbers as early as March. Using "WARPATH"'s "Awful = Pessimism" function, a keyword search for "mask," "summer," and "scary" would have found posts about "mask tan" as early as March. Digging deeper from this discovery reveals more posts expressing concern about "mask tan," suggesting high empathy. This shows that signs of an issue can be captured (hunted) before it becomes a media-driven topic.

In the with-corona environment, values shift easily, making issues more likely to emerge. For example, signs are emerging among young people's marriage outlook: "Rather than spending on engagement/wedding rings or lavish receptions, we want to invest because the future outlook is uncertain."

Social hunting also allows us to uncover unexpected voices about existing products or services. Taking "granola" as an example, using "Problem = Difficulty" reveals posts about "eating methods," such as "I can't eat it with cold milk because I have a sensitive stomach or it's too cold on winter mornings" or "I eat it with warm milk poured over it."

Shifting perspective and searching with "Want = Desire" combined with "don't want to" reveals posts like "I don't want to go to the convenience store on rainy days, so I just eat granola for my meal" (Rainy Day × Granola) or "I want to fill my stomach with a bowl full of granola, even if it's not the right amount" (Bowl of Granola).

In this way, even with the same theme, shifting the perspective of frustration can sometimes reveal different insights or emerging issues.

Setting Issues from a "Societal Perspective" through Social Hunting

Some companies and products seem to struggle with setting appropriately sized issues they should tackle. This can happen when issues are too broad, making it hard for the public to relate, or conversely, when focus is overly narrowed to what the company can do, creating a disconnect with broader societal concerns.

That's precisely why we suggest utilizing social hunting to discover and set issues from a "societal perspective" – one that resonates with both companies and consumers – rather than relying solely on a one-sided "corporate perspective."