 |
| analysing – what’s being said by whom |
analysing – what’s being said by whom
As a marketer, the first step in looking at who is saying what is to take stock of the messages being sent by your own company. This includes: all web sites and domains owned by a company, all blogs maintained by employees (whether company blogs or personal blogs) and all blogs maintained by ex-employees. An audit should give an idea of the content that is available to the public and what that content is saying.
With regular RSS updates declaring that selected keywords have been used in some form of social media, a growing list is being created of mentions surrounding a brand.
Now what?
Even in the democratised world of the Internet, not all mentions are equal. They vary in terms of positivity or negativity and influence. Not all mentions require action from a company. Some require drastic measures to be taken. But all, no matter how quiet or how loud, are an indication of consumer sentiment.
Whether a post is positive, negative or indifferent can be quickly assessed by reading it. Influence can be a little harder to establish.
Indicators such as traffic, links and subscriber numbers can all assist in assessing the influence of a blog. There are also services such as Blog Influence (www.bloginfluence.net) and Social Meter (www.socialmeter.com) which will show the audience and reach for an entered URL. However, statements, particularly inflammatory ones, should still be monitored as traffic can increase substantially and quickly online.
Influence can also assist in establishing the credibility of the author. Factors which can indicate credibility include the size of the blog’s audience, the frequency of posts and the age of the blog.
The source should also be looked at: is the mention a news item or a tag on photo from someone’s holiday?
To be able to monitor reputation over time, in can be a good idea to aggregate the information into a spreadsheet or database along with the factors mentioned above. It is necessary to determine what is important to the reputation of the company you are monitoring, and perhaps adapt factors accordingly.
As a marketer, the first step in looking at who is saying what is to take stock of the messages being sent by your own company. This includes: all web sites and domains owned by a company, all blogs maintained by employees (whether company blogs or personal blogs) and all blogs maintained by ex-employees. An audit should give an idea of the content that is available to the public and what that content is saying.
With regular RSS updates declaring that selected keywords have been used in some form of social media, a growing list is being created of mentions surrounding a brand.
Now what?
Even in the democratised world of the Internet, not all mentions are equal. They vary in terms of positivity or negativity and influence. Not all mentions require action from a company. Some require drastic measures to be taken. But all, no matter how quiet or how loud, are an indication of consumer sentiment.
Whether a post is positive, negative or indifferent can be quickly assessed by reading it. Influence can be a little harder to establish.
Indicators such as traffic, links and subscriber numbers can all assist in assessing the influence of a blog. There are also services such as Blog Influence (www.bloginfluence.net) and Social Meter (www.socialmeter.com) which will show the audience and reach for an entered URL. However, statements, particularly inflammatory ones, should still be monitored as traffic can increase substantially and quickly online.
Influence can also assist in establishing the credibility of the author. Factors which can indicate credibility include the size of the blog’s audience, the frequency of posts and the age of the blog.
The source should also be looked at: is the mention a news item or a tag on photo from someone’s holiday?
To be able to monitor reputation over time, in can be a good idea to aggregate the information into a spreadsheet or database along with the factors mentioned above. It is necessary to determine what is important to the reputation of the company you are monitoring, and perhaps adapt factors accordingly.
