Mindshape » Corporate Social Media

Measurement no Longer Social Media’s Achilles’ heel?

Robert Shapiro — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:28:47 +0000

Measuring sentiment and conversation has come a long way since the first tweet or status update. Technologies have been developed by organizations, such as, Sysomos and Radiant 6, which systematically measure business intelligence. But is measuring sentiment even possible?

The answer is yes and no.

Social media is built on sentiment (positive, negative or indifferent) and many will argue that software can not measure how a person feels and expresses. I, for one, agree that a computer could easily create a false impression when having to deal with the complexities of human opinion (which includes emotion, sarcasm, regionalized dialects, slang, etc…– none of which is straightforward).

A post would have to directly correlate to the organization/company/brand/campaign with simple positive or negative words (i.e. good, bad, great, etc…), for there to be no room for interpretation. But as we all know, even a 140 character tweet can be subversive and laced with sarcasm and innuendo.

This is not to say that measurement is still as large of a detriment to social media as it has been. It has come an awfully long way, and eventually should evolve to the point where we can successfully manage our reputations in the digital world and measure ROI as we can offline ventures.

3 Ways that Social Media has Improved Brand Marketing

Robert Shapiro — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:45:50 +0000

As social media grows not only in popularity but as a genuinely effective marketing method and arena, there are 3 distinct ways in which it has improved how brands are being marketed and communicated.

The Lost Art of Listening

Social Media’s lasting legacy on brands/companies/organizations might be that it finally forced them to listen instead of just selling. A lot of this might have to do with the fact that most social media forums are not their arena to preach about their brands. In actuality, conversations are taking place and they’ve realized that they have to monitor and participate before they try to market and sell.

A Voluntary Think Tank

If a brand approaches it right, throughout the online world, there exists an active think tank that is expressing their thoughts and desires, and whose opinions could provide dividends if properly harnessed. How much were companies paying for focus groups, where most people joined just to receive free giveaways or cash?

Real Time Research

Before we execute any tactic a solid foundation of research must be in place, and social media provides a constant stream of real time research. Of course, many argue that we can’t properly measure sentiment as it is subjective, but social media still provides a window for us to see how our brands and reputation are discussed in public forums.

Marketing Shift

David Brown — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:18:32 +0000

At last check there was some 231,000,000 Google search results for “online marketing”, a term that is as ambiguous as tube socks. Yet leading marketers are still scratching their hard drives and asking how is Twitter relevant to my brand (FYI follow me @David_Mindshape ) and isn’t Facebook for my 13 year old daughter? The writing is no longer on the wall, it’s on Digg or Linkedin. The advice we give our client’s is either continue with what doesn’t threaten you and stay safe in your cold marketing cave or get out, take a chance and discover fire. If you’re not prepared to stray too far from that safe little cave, there are e-crocodiles out there, allocate a trial budget to a well planned e-marketing or online initiative. With major brands using Twitter for customer support (Ford http://twitter.com/ford, Wells Fargo http://twitter.com/ask_wellsfargo and Whole Foods http://twitter.com/wholefoods ) the ability to connect and serve with customers is unlimited. Each move will get you one step closer to discovering fire, and we all know who survived and who perished!