Tracking and responding to customer conversations
We advise all of our clients to start by listening before they plunge into
the world of social media. It is crucial, we believe, to find out how your key audiences are using social media and what impact various networks and blogs are having on them.
It is immensely valuable to access this intelligence as people are talking openly and honestly rather than in artificial traditional focus group settings. You can also pick up fascinating insights around your sector and see how your competitors are faring.
This affects everyone: all demographic groups are using social media; mums; dads; teenagers; investors are using social media; analysts are using it; journalists are using and can be reached through social media; NGOs are using social media; MPs are using social media; young, old and middle aged professionals are using social media. Social media is B2B and B2C now and it is spreading fast. Through mobiles and TV sets and always-on broadband connections.
We carry out social media ecosystem audits which are designed to shed light on the social media networks that surround brands and companies. To do this we use the BrandWatch system (www.brandwatch.net). Other agencies do but they pretend it is their system. We are open about using Brandwatch.
There are plenty of packages out there which will help you follow social media conversations and help you listen to your customers and keep your ear to the ground. We have looked at a few and Brandwatch is our favourite. The key point here is that there is a limit to these software packages. None of them are perfect. They just generate data and there is a lot of it. What you have to do is interpret the data intelligently and organise it and act upon it in an intelligent way. People are crucial to this process.
Which is why ItsOpen puts experts onto our social media audits. We set up the Brandwatch keywords and then analyse the data and provide reports and presentations which are designed to deliver insights to keep you informed.
We then make recommendations on how companies/brands should act upon the feedback. How it should influence your messaging and campaigns going forward and whether or not you should start to engage with existing social media channels or set up your own.
Regular audits are a good idea. And it is also essential to be consistently tracking what is being said about your brand and organisation. But more than that is required. We believe that companies need good online representational advice. And this is something we concentrate on at ItsOpen. It is not easy for large organisations to know how they should respond to a blog or a YouTube video and this is where we can help you. So you don’t behave in a clunky way and are sensitive to the communities that are talking about you.
Some people we meet don’t want to know what social media networks are saying about them. They are worried it will be too negative. There is no reason to assume it will always be negative. Some information can be very positive and valuable to businesses. Whatever the feedback, an ostrich-like approach is in no one’s long term interests. Ignore what is being said and speculation can grow and you will be in the dark about what people are saying about your business.
Social Media is the new media. You wouldn’t ignore what the traditional media says about you, so why should you ignore what social media says about you?
If you are interested in one of our audits to get a better understanding of how social media is affecting your brand, industry, products and customers and key audiences, please get in touch (info@itsopen.co.uk). You’ll probably find us a lot less expensive too than those agencies who continue to pretend Brandwatch is their own bespoke system!
