Are You Monitoring Online Conversations?

If your business has been around for any length of time, you know that knowing what customers think about your service is important. However, customers may be reticent to provide that feedback directly to you - good or bad.

For some reason, we prefer to vent with friends and colleagues. Sometimes those conversations escalate without warning. Perhaps because what you were getting through your customer service line was just a frustrated tone and a couple of hang ups.

Many companies have a process for monitoring conversations. Although there’s no silver bullet, you can use a combination of tools - Radian6, BuzzLogic, Cymphony, Twitter Search, Technorati and Google, for example. Some of these tools are free, some cost in the range of $5,000-30,000 for a single research dip, and some are subscription-based.

I was poking around and stumbled across a post by Ryan*MacMillan that offered a survey of the ten leading online conversation monitoring companies. You may see the table here - as an aside, this is quite a clever way of sharing excel spreadsheets.

I recognized MotiveQuest LLC - Tom O'Brien has been a contributor in this space and his Human Voice is inspiring. I'm also familiar with Radian6. There are other companies I listed when we discussed how to improve your company's reputation online. You may want to take a look at the Social Web Analytics eBook by Philip Sheldrake, which you can download here. In it you can find information about free services along with paid services.

Monitoring is a first step. You then need to figure out your strategy to respond, reach out, and help correct misinformation for your time and effort (and budget) to be worthwhile. Monitoring is also a reactive measure. A much better approach is that of embracing social media.

There are a number of companies that are already active in social media and learning from their customers as a result. Dell has IdeaStorm, Nike has Nike Plus, Ford has Where are the Joneses*, GE is present with Ecomagination, Method blogs at People Against Dirty, Graco shares resources for parents on their Graco Baby blog, and many others. For a more extensive dive, Peter Kim put together a list of social media marketing examples.

Today at Fast Company Expert blog, we discuss how you can own your customer service experience. Do you monitor online conversations about your business and brand? What tools have you found useful?

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Related Posts:

The Distance Between Avoidance and Attention in Customer Service
Improve Your Company's Reputation Online
Reputation, the One Thing You Cannot Really Buy

[* update from Scott Monty at Ford - this site was run until the summer of 2007. Ford gives people the opportunity to submit their own ideas at Ford New Ideas. They also have a forum for owners of the SYNC system (hands-free control of your phone and mp3 player, developed in partnership with Microsoft) called Sync My Ride.]

Comments

[David Alston]

Valeria, great post for any company trying to decide whether they need to be listening and engaging. And unfortunately there are still many who have yet to decide.

I was pointing out something similar on Thursday last week at the Social Media Breakfast in Boston - companies are already listening and engaging intently with customers and potential customer in other communication channels (phone, email, website forms, storefronts etc...) They wouldn't think of not engaging a customer in any of these channels. So why would they be ignoring the social media channel - especially since these conversations are out in the public and cached forever in Google for all to see. People blog, tweet, share videos etc...online to be heard/to vent/to share ideas etc... Reaching out to those folks to help them out, empathize with them, is generally welcomed and appreciated.

Great post Valeria. Now off to see your post on FastCompany.

[Tom O'Brien]

Hi Valeria:

Thanks for the shoutout. This has become a really busy space recently, and I think most big companies need three kinds of help. Dashboard, research data and analysis and insight.

(We do analysis & insight)

Tom O'Brien
MotiveQuest LLC

[Scott Monty]

Nice roundup, Valeria. Thanks for the mention as well. I should note that Where Are the Joneses is no longer running - it was retired as of the summer of 2007, with the completion of the webisodes.

What we do have, however, is a forum where individuals can submit ideas to Ford. Since people are passionate about their cars and what they'd like to see in a vehicle, Ford gives people the opportunity to submit their own ideas at Ford New Ideas (http://fordnewideas.com).

We've also got a great forum for owners of the SYNC system (hands-free control of your phone and mp3 player, developed in partnership with Microsoft) called Sync My Ride at http://syncmyride.com/Own/Modules/Community/OwnerToOwner.aspx. It gives users of the SYNC system a chance to share ideas, give feedback and request features - and the product development team is actively listening. I'm going to see what I can do to get them actively participating next!

Scott Monty
Global Digital Communications
Ford Motor Company

[Webconomist]

Great post and set of resources.

We've noted some interesting effects when consumers discover the company they are complaining about is actually listening; increased traffic and comments. When the company doesn't respond, the comments expand.

yet the dilemma for the company is how to respond, depth of response and how to engage given the sheer volume they might have to contend with. Once you hit "broadcast" mode, you can't be intimate.

[Valerie Combs]

Hi Valeria-

Was just reading your Fast Company post and this stat really caught my attention: "85% of Americans believe that in addition to being present, companies should interact with customers via social media." Wow. Consumers are pretty clear about their expectations - brands now need to not only pay attention, but move to actual engagement to build the right kind of relationships. Your post gives great guidance for getting started - good stuff!

Valerie Combs
BuzzLogic

[Valeria Maltoni]

@David - that is an astute observation about companies already engaging customers in other channels. It is considered part of doing business. There will be a day when these online applications will also be part of that. Thank you also for your comment at Fast Company. That post actually took longer than this one to compose. I wanted to articulate the idea just right. Judging from your feedback, I might have done so.

@Tom - thank you for the clarification. I am working on a post for this week on analysis, so I will look more into MotiveQuest.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Scott - thank you for the links. I updated the post so everyone can be brought up to speed on Ford's activities. Active participation is the new frontier!

@Giles - I end one of my presentations with the thought that once you open the door, you cannot go back. I'm seeing a lot of movement in the online space from the UK. Perhaps companies are starting to think about measurement and monitoring more there than in other parts of Europe.

@Valerie - I had published some of those statistics before, but I think that drawing attention to it drives it home better.

[Perry Hewitt]

Thanks, Valeria. There are some terrific folks in the space.

At Crimson Hexagon, we'd add that some of the monitoring challenge is around finding the relevance. As user generated content continues to grow in the many branded and independent networks of consumers, companies will need to increase their capabilities to sift through the mentions to find the opinions that matter.

Per your FastCompany post, "your most upset customers could be your number one source of innovative ideas". It's important to be able to track not only those one-off individual opinions, but the trends in negative or positive opinion that will lead you to refine your strategic efforts.

Thanks,
Perry

[Jake Rosen]

Valeria,

I think you are exactly right when you say that the first step is monitoring, which must be followed by engagement. My company, Sports Media Challenge is prominent in media monitoring and media training for the sports and entertainment industries. Our proprietary search engine, Buzz Manager, hones in on sport/entertainment specific websites (new media before mainstream media). We always tell our clients that the media analysis is important information on its own, but it becomes vital when developed into action and engagement.

Jake Rosen
Director of New Media
Sports Media Challenge

[Nathan Gilliatt]

Valeria,

If you're interested in the range of options in social media monitoring and analysis, I've been tracking the market for a couple of years. I publish a buyers guide (63 companies in the 2nd edition), and for those who really want to follow the space, I post a weekly news digest on my blog.

http://www.socialtarget.com/research/
http://net-savvy.com/executive/

When I started, every mention of this space included the same seven companies. Today, my vendor database includes over 130 companies worldwide.

I'd be happy to talk with you for your analysis post, if you'd like.

Nathan Gilliatt
Principal
Social Target

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Perry - I agree with you that trends are indicative of customer sentiment and should be monitored. However, to me all customers and opinions matter in terms of demonstrating you are listening. Networks work in amazing ways. News can spread through weak links, for example. And you never know when a discussion reaches tipping point. Digital means long memory.

@Jake - Niche measurement should be a consideration as well, yes. It's amazing how this area has developed, isn't it? As with any kind of information, how you're going to use it makes it relevant.

@Nathan - I have been reading your blog and yet had missed the guide, so thank you for providing the link. I will take a look as I prepare for my post on analysis.

[Dean Westervelt]

Hi Valeria,

In case you don't get Nathan's buying guide, I thought I'd add Collective Intellect into the media monitoring mix. We focus on surfacing interesting thematic content from conversations in addition to the usual suspects (activity, tonality, influencers)!

Cheers,

Dean Westervelt
Social Media Analytics
Collective Intellect

[Valeria Maltoni]

Dean:

I was going to send you a welcome note, but your Typekey profile seems to be empty. Welcome to the conversation. Surfacing thematic content sounds intriguing so I was looking for a link to Collective Intellect.