The SAS offering is built on natural-language processing technology developed by Teragram, a company it acquired in 2008. Using content and sentiment analysis, the software measures what people say and feel about products and brands.

In addition, SAS says its technology can identify influencers within social networks, quantify their impact and from that forecast the future volume of social media conversations. The ultimate aim is to predict what impact these conversations will have on a business so companies can allocate relevant resources, create “what-if” scenarios and correlate key marketing metrics like brand preference, web traffic, online campaign effectiveness and media mix.

Mark Chaves, SAS’s director of media intelligence solutions, said: “Smart marketers aren’t just listening to online chatter; they are analysing it to better focus resources and build engagement and loyalty.”