Asking the right questions: Assessing the value and futures of social media analysis

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) commissioned Ipsos, the King’s Centre for Strategic Communications (part of King’s College London) and the Social Intelligence Lab to conduct research assessing the utility of social media data for the purpose of online audience analysis. Online sources provide a vast body of data, which can help leverage insight in to public beliefs, attitudes and behaviours. However, there is still much debate over their reliability and utility compared to other forms of data and research.

The overarching objective of the project was to ask: “How robust, representative and reliable is content posted online in providing insight into the behaviours, motivations and attitudes of wider populations?”

Based on the evidence from our literature review, expert interviews, and primary case study research, we conclude that any form of social media data is unlikely to be truly representative of wider populations of interest; and that the collection and analysis of social media data is not yet as reliable and robust as other more established methods. However, we also conclude that this does not discount social media data from being a valuable tool for research.