When so many of us talk about social media, we talk about “the conversation”, as if it’s some kind of holy grail. The problem I have with the term is that, not only is it short sighted, but also ties us to the idea of message control.
So what’s wrong with “the conversation”? Well the simple phrase implies that there is only one conversation.
The truth is that for most brands, consumers are talking about multiple topics. Some are good while others may be negative.
An important part of a social media strategy should include recognizing the many topics and conversations on the web. From there, the brand should actively track any news and developing topics.
With this information, the brand can effectively frame the conversation; quickly responding to negative stories and promoting positive ones.
Knowing everything being said about the brand and industry can give you the proper information needed to decide on a successful overall strategy.
If a brand notices certain consumers are continually starting new, positive stories, it may be worthwhile to reward them.
Also, overtime, the brand may notice a patter between topics, promotions, and outreach. Recognizing how long it takes for a conversation to develop from the announcement of a new promotion, could help a brand better time promotions for the most buzz.
However, there are some obstacles that need to be overcome. Tracking all the data will require fairly advanced processes.
First, tracking every mention and determining the topic, validity, and sentiment, must currently be done by hand (as far as I know). Because of this, a brand would be required to dedicate a number of resources to this task alone.
There are some tools available to expedite the process, for tracking mentions and buzz.
Of the many available, I use three extensively; Google Alerts, Google Blogsearch, and Yahoo Pipes.
Google alerts is a service offered by Google, which will alert you every time the search engine indexes a new page with the keyword you specify. For example, you could create an alert for “BMW”. Every time a new page is indexed with the word “BMW” in it, you’ll receive an alert, either in the form of an RSS feed or eMail.
Google blogsearch is a search engine just for blogs. It returns the latest blog posts for your query, and even allows you to filter by date. Blogsearch also offers an RSS feed for your query, keeping you up to date with the latest posts.
Finally, Yahoo pipes can help you separate out topics from feeds. The service allows you to manipulate and aggregate RSS feeds, offering a number of filters.
I use Google alerts and Google blogsearch to create feeds surrounding a specific topic, for example “Social Media”. Then, use Yahoo pipes to create separate feeds for separate topics.
For example, by adding the “Social Media” feed, then applying a “Metrics” filter. Now, the feed will only output articles about social media metrics. The reason to track everything, and then filter out conversations, ensures that you do not miss a new topic.
Tracking and monitoring all the conversations on the web is important. If a brand focuses too much on “the conversation”, the one taking place right now, they may not be ready for the others that are growing. In the end, being caught unaware online can mean many missed opportunities.
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