Twitter-IBM Partnership Brings Social Data to Businesses

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It's no secret that Twitter is a gold mine for data, but until now, those analytics had been limited to things like mentions, followers and trends. Now, Twitter and IBM are taking social data tracking to the next level.

This week, Twitter and IBM announced that they're partnering to bring social insights to businesses by integrating Twitter data with IBM's tools, solutions and services. The move aims to help businesses get answers to their most pressing Twitter marketing questions, gain a better understanding of how Twitter is working for them and use that information to make wiser business decisions.

"Twitter provides a powerful new lens through which to look at the world — as both a platform for hundreds of millions of consumers and business professionals, and as a synthesizer of trends," Ginni Rometty, chairman, president and CEO of IBM, said in a statement.

Here's what the Twitter and IBM partnership means for small businesses.  

Discover patterns and answer questions

Thanks to the new partnership, you'll be able to go beyond tracking mentions of your business in tweets. Now, you'll be able to use Big Data tools to mine Twitter for trends and answer critical strategic questions. For example, Chris Moody, vice president of data strategy at Twitter, said IBM's famous computer Watson can answer such questions as, "What do customers like best about my products?" and "Why are we growing quickly in Brazil?"

Build custom solutions

You'll now be able to create solutions that are catered to your business. IBM representatives said the company is training tens of thousands of consultants to help businesses with custom applications for both their Twitter data and the implementation process.

Use IBM's tools or your own

Twitter's data will already be integrated with IBM's Big Data analytics tools, so you can get started right away. But if you want more control and have developers on your team, they'll also be able to integrate Twitter data into your business's own cloud applications, so you can incorporate Twitter insights into your own analyses.

The partnership will start with building applications and services for sales, marketing and customer service. The first app aims to help companies better engage with customers on Twitter.

Future plans include industry-specific solutions for sectors such as banking, consumer products, transportation and retail.