Customers do online and offline research, take the recommendations of friends and family and go through product reviews before buying a product . This is where social media plays an important part in marketing. Brands find social media analysis necessary to quantify purchase intent. The three ways to get richer insights are

1. Analyze social media to understand the number of buyers interested in the product.

2. Buzz around the launch of a product reflects the purchase intent of the product.

3. Conducting a competitive analysis of the brands with the help of social media can help the brands to be better.

Read more at http://marketingland.com/social-shopping-use-social-media-analytics-quantify-purchase-intent-214173