This document discusses the value of using historical social media data for research purposes. It provides examples of how brands have utilized historical data to gain consumer insights, measure marketing campaign effectiveness, analyze competitors, and inform product development. Specifically, historical data allowed one brand to better distribute product inventory by location based on identifying purchase intent trends over three years. It also helped a video game company determine that measuring intent to purchase mentions, rather than total mentions, provided a better indicator of sales outcomes. The document advocates analyzing historical data to understand seasonality patterns and how they may differ between societal, industry, and brand levels.