Simply Measured offers “first social measurement API” for marketers

Social analytics firm Simply Measured is today releasing what it describes as “the first social measurement API designed for marketing teams.”

Previously, co-founder and VP Adam Schoenfeld told me, clients have received their social analytics via reports. Now, they can query the data via the API, when it is integrated with an analytics or business intelligence (BI) platform such as QlikView or Domo, enabling comparison with other kinds of marketing data. A typical query through the platform, for instance, might ask: “What are my top 10 photo posts across all channels?”

As part of the announcement, Simply Measured noted that the new API is now integrated into BI tool Tableau (See screen below). An integration with Microsoft Power BI is in the works.

Simply Measured’s platform offers social data from eight networks: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Tumblr, LinkedIn and Google+. The new API currently connects to feeds from the first four, with the others to be added later.

Schoenfeld noted that, while multiple-source APIs are otherwise available, the new API’s data feeds are offered as structured and standardized data, instead of just raw info. For instance, a tweet is categorized as a “share,” so a marketer can compare shares across platforms, apples to apples. The marketer can also drill down to the actual post.

The main differentiator for this API, Schoenfeld said, is that it is designed with marketers in mind, rather than intended primarily for use by developers and data scientists. A Simply Measured dashboard for viewing the API data in real time is now in development.