10 Conversations to Monitor
Posted on 26. Oct, 2009 by Cat in Marketing
I wrote about Stevel Rubel’s presentation at the New Media Academic Summit. He mentioned that they published a paper “chock full of with actionable insights for businesses”. You can directly download the PDF.
I found particularly useful a list of 10 conversations for companies to monitor and I’ve added some of my own thoughts.
It’s very easy with current technology to set up automatic alerts to track mentions of your company’s brand name, website and key personnel (for example set up a Google Alert) – but the paper suggests this is not enough, you need to be looking for particular conversations and you should be treating different types of conversations differently. Some of these conversations may never even mention your brand (at least at first).
1. The Point of Need: If you can meet people at their point of need, you are not interrupting or pitching, you are helping and responding to an expressed need
This is often why Google Adwords is so successful with certain search keywords. People are looking to solve a problem at that particular point in time so they are far more receptive to advertisements that fit exactly with their need.
2. The Influencer: Listen to the industry influencers and strong online voices
It’s important in any market to know who are the main influencers – getting an endorsement can mean instant sales success for your product or service. If you want to influence yourself, look to see what they are doing (and also what they are not doing for better or for worse). Model and differentiate.
But it goes further than just how you can influence. Keeping tabs on the main influencers is a simple way of keeping up to date with the key information and trends in your industry. Just remember to allow yourself to think for yourself and express your own individuality.
3. The Crowd: Monitor and participate in the broader industry conversation to identify which related topics garner the most attention and engagement
Don’t just look to the influencers and don’t underestimate the influence of a crowd. Quite often you’ll find that crowds behave differently to influencers – they have different experiences, comfort zones and sometimes, different problems. Influencers are usually early adopters who pick up trends that crowds may never accept and can tire of them long before they even become popular. Remember who your target market is and listen to them, try to understand them.
4. The Competitors: Listen to conversations about your competitors brand, including all conversation types
You’ll compete better if you understand your competition. What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? How does this create threats and opportunities for your company/product/service? You can also look to see if you can insert your product/service as an alternative.
5. The Crisis: Catch issues before they go viral or mainstream, when possible
“Forewarned is forearmed” as the saying goes. Don’t think you can just ignore issues and they’ll go away. The internet has ruined many a brand when problems go viral. Take control of the issue while you can.
6. The Campaign Effect: Measure the conversation effect caused by your social media (or other) campaign
Look for ways of measuring conversations – count the number of blog posts but also look at it qualitatively – is what you’ve seeded being picked up in a meaningful way. Look at how different campaigns get picked up – what works? What barely gets a murmur?
7. The Inquiry/Question: Answering questions online is an opportunity to gain valuable insight and also promote your strengths, product benefits, customer service, personality, etc. (and you are not pitching, you are answering a question)
Provide a face in the community. Not only does it get people at their point of need (see #1) but web services like Yahoo Answers get significant amounts of traffic and often rate on the front page of Google for searches for solutions to particular problems. By answering one person’s question, you can efficiently answer for many more readers searching for that answer.
8. The Customer Problem: Listen for known or potential customer issues so you can respond prior to “the complaint”
It may not be that someone is directly complaining about your product, but they may raise an issue or just be talking about your type of product/service in general. Catch it before it escalates. Also see it as valuable feedback and act on it.
9. The Compliment: Say thank you and show genuine appreciation of compliments; these online references and testimonials can prove valuable
By saying thanks, you give the person complimenting even more reason to go out and recommend your product/service again. Remember to collect them (asking permission of course) – social proof (that is proof that people’s peers like and use something) is one of the big factors in persuading potential buyers.
10. The Complaint: Listen for posts complaining about your company, product, service or staff and then respond quickly and transparently
There are few products/services in this world that are perfect. Don’t take a complaint (however badly it’s worded) personally. Don’t attempt to blame the complainer. Get a response up there quickly and be honest. If they are being truely unreasonable then don’t stoop to their level and be similarly rude – if you keep your calm and attempt to genuinely help, onlookers will see who the troublemaker is. On no account ever, ever, ever enter into a flame war, you’ll alienate readers and it’s too easy for such a conversation to be picked up by a blog and then spread as news.
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