Like many people these days, I spend increasing amounts of time using social media. I visit LinkedIn forums regularly, where I find that other people are asking questions I might ask. Or, where I am a resource to those asking the questions. Besides the fact that I occasionally find leads and prospects this way, I find the give and take with people and the exchange of knowledge to be both personally enriching and often professionally useful. I tweet from time to time too and have a Facebook page. Given the growth in all manner of social media, lots of folks clearly feel the same way I do.
But for businesses social media is a challenge. Businesses are typically not equipped to take advantage of social media and appear to be struggling with it. But, as businesses become more aware of social media and raise their participation in it, they need to understand that they are creating multiple feedback "channels" that all need to be listened to.
For instance, today many businesses use on-line panels or communities to collect feedback from designated customer subsets. But, in the social media world, is a product oriented LinkedIn forum simply a social media based panel or community? I think the answer is Yes. The difference is that in LinkedIn or on Facebook, members of the community initiate (and respond to) topic dialogues. And, the forum or page may be "owned" by some member of the community and not by the company. Members of the community / forum dialogue on subjects they feel are important or relevant and do it when its important or relevant to them. Whereas in company directed panels and communities customers mainly react to company initiated dialogues. So, social media is a different model requiring a different approach to the feedback being generated in the community.
Data flowing in from social media channels can be revealing as to customer needs, wants and issues (especially current ones). Often, forum posts will illustrate needs for upgraded or enhanced products or services. Yet, businesses have few options or even mechanisms available to help them organize and use this kind of feedback, with many relying on their people to scan LinkedIn forums and Facebook pages for relevant opportunities or challenges that require action by the business.
Needless to say, vendors of EFM platforms (like QuestBack) have mobilized to help businesses to dissect and analyze this kind of data so that it can be used to the benefit of the business. Since much of the conversation occurring in social media environments is customer initiated, it's important that businesses have tools that enable "listening". Many businesses use text analytics to provide this automated listening capability. I work with a product called Etuma360 and find it very useful in interpreting text based feedback.
However, pure text based feedback analysis can only take you so far. In my experience, text analysis results typically need augmentation from more structured feedback - usually survey based - in order to provide actionable insights. Text analysis can tell you what is happening and if it's good or bad. But it doesn't tell you who its happening to, why, or if you should do anything about it. For instance, text analysis might highlight that a problem exists amongst customers. It typically won't tell you that the problem is within a certain customer subset. If you have lots of customers, that can be a critical data point that determines how to react. Being able to quickly deploy a survey into the social media environment that collects respondent profile information provides the additional insight needed to generate action at the business level.
Businesses therefore need to use social media, text analytics and survey technologies together to interpret dialogue, understand its meaning and provide insight into how to act. Potentially a tall order. But the technology is getting there. Stay tuned.
But for businesses social media is a challenge. Businesses are typically not equipped to take advantage of social media and appear to be struggling with it. But, as businesses become more aware of social media and raise their participation in it, they need to understand that they are creating multiple feedback "channels" that all need to be listened to.
For instance, today many businesses use on-line panels or communities to collect feedback from designated customer subsets. But, in the social media world, is a product oriented LinkedIn forum simply a social media based panel or community? I think the answer is Yes. The difference is that in LinkedIn or on Facebook, members of the community initiate (and respond to) topic dialogues. And, the forum or page may be "owned" by some member of the community and not by the company. Members of the community / forum dialogue on subjects they feel are important or relevant and do it when its important or relevant to them. Whereas in company directed panels and communities customers mainly react to company initiated dialogues. So, social media is a different model requiring a different approach to the feedback being generated in the community.
Data flowing in from social media channels can be revealing as to customer needs, wants and issues (especially current ones). Often, forum posts will illustrate needs for upgraded or enhanced products or services. Yet, businesses have few options or even mechanisms available to help them organize and use this kind of feedback, with many relying on their people to scan LinkedIn forums and Facebook pages for relevant opportunities or challenges that require action by the business.
Needless to say, vendors of EFM platforms (like QuestBack) have mobilized to help businesses to dissect and analyze this kind of data so that it can be used to the benefit of the business. Since much of the conversation occurring in social media environments is customer initiated, it's important that businesses have tools that enable "listening". Many businesses use text analytics to provide this automated listening capability. I work with a product called Etuma360 and find it very useful in interpreting text based feedback.
However, pure text based feedback analysis can only take you so far. In my experience, text analysis results typically need augmentation from more structured feedback - usually survey based - in order to provide actionable insights. Text analysis can tell you what is happening and if it's good or bad. But it doesn't tell you who its happening to, why, or if you should do anything about it. For instance, text analysis might highlight that a problem exists amongst customers. It typically won't tell you that the problem is within a certain customer subset. If you have lots of customers, that can be a critical data point that determines how to react. Being able to quickly deploy a survey into the social media environment that collects respondent profile information provides the additional insight needed to generate action at the business level.
Businesses therefore need to use social media, text analytics and survey technologies together to interpret dialogue, understand its meaning and provide insight into how to act. Potentially a tall order. But the technology is getting there. Stay tuned.
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