Kosmix is the developer of Tweetbeat Firsthand, a plug-in that scans the Internet for references to prominent people or organizations that have Twitter accounts and then provides readers of those pages with their latest tweets. The company is being acquired by Wal-Mart but, surprisingly to some social media tech aficionados, Tweetbeat Firsthand appears to be almost an afterthought - at least in terms of a social marketing application for the company.

Rather, Wal-mart is acquiring social media company Kosmix for its analytical expertise to be used in the newly-formed formed @WalmartLabs unit. It will be the bedrock of the company's plan to integrate its bricks and mortar nd e-commerce operations. "We are expanding our capabilities in today's rapidly growing social commerce environment," said Eduardo Castro-Wright, Wal-Mart's vice chairman. "Social networking and mobile applications are increasingly becoming a part of our customers' day-to-day lives globally, influencing how they think about shopping, both online and in retail stores."

A New Era

Welcome to the next phase of social media analytics. Up until now companies have largely focused their attention on tracking how popular, or not, they are on social media and responding, as appropriate, in kind. Next up is a period when firms will see the large amounts of data gathered as an information asset to be applied to other areas of a company besides marketing. Such a mindset, writes eConsultancy, will likely lead to more acquisitions similar to the one Wal-mart has made. "In some cases, it's even quite possible that some of the companies producing technologies will find that the opportunities outside of social media are far more lucrative."

How does Kosmix fit into this vision? The company explains in a blog post that it has been building a platform, called the Social Genome that organizes data by adding a layer of semantic understanding. "For example, when I tweet “Loved Angelina Jolie in Salt,” the tweet connects me (a user) to Angelia Jolie (an actress) and SALT (a movie). By analyzing the huge volume of data produced every day on social media, the Social Genome builds rich profiles of users, topics, products, places, and events."

That is essentially how Tweetbeat Firsthand works. However, the company - as does Wal-Mart, apparently, as well - envisions using this platform to insert a new level of understanding about customers and products into an ecommerce operation.

Slow to Take Off

However there are doubts whether or when this type of data will be fully utilized by retailers. It hasn't happened yet, says Jonathan Hornby, marketing director for performance management at SAS. (via V3). For instance, he says, geo-location data available now is grossly under-utilized by retailers. "At the moment retailers may only be aware that someone is in their store the moment they purchase something, but if they can track customers to know when they have walked in, they could give them a better experience," he said.