Archive for April, 2009

Why is Twitter important? NetWork and NetSearch (bye bye ReSearch)

I used to research. Now I retweet. And I’m not alone.

Learn how I, and millions of others, make Social Media our new priority Search sources. And why you, as a marketer or Brand expert, should care.

I used to Search. And I used to NetWork.

Now I NetSearch.

Once upon a time, long ago, in times like 1995, we netizens began to research a topic via an online database. Then we began to research our topics via an online Search engine (and Google became a verb in several languages). Sometimes we netizens would even end up in a database, provoking a fit of nostalgia (Ah, JSTOR and my university days). Now the era of the database is, well, not past, but somewhat passé.

Students, my littlest bro, still in uni, tells me, still go to the database to find the citations to back up the ideas for essays that they’ve already written “on paper” (a.k.a., in a Microsoft Word document). Students search and cite as they write, switching between “windows”, that is Windows’ Word and online Search windows. I only wish my professors had permitted me to cite via hyperlink rather than footnote. I submit that hyperlink citations would make professors’ jobs easier. They could clickthrough to check the source, rather than “Google scholar” the footnote. (Yes, beloved Profs, we know you use Search engines too. Libraries are just too time-consuming when you’re on a deadline.)

Now, students, marketers, and I don’t need to research or Google Scholar or even just Google most of the time. I follow people on Twitter. The people that I follow tweet, I tweet, and we all retweet. And we decrease exponentially the time we once spent on Search, scholarly or otherwise. We don’t have to Search–we “NetSearch” via our networks.

Twitter and Facebook are my personal favourites.

On Twitter, I follow many of the people who follow all the subjects that I need to know about. They follow the people that I can’t or don’t follow, and these people also follow the subjects that my followers and following want to know about. It’s my Twitter NetSearch. Twhirl provides constant computer headlines giving me the latest, up-to-date “NetSearch” info in small bubbles found at the right-hand corner of my computer screen.

Facebook I use to post the articles that I feel require small group discussion. I send an article to my Facebook friends who would, I think, want to discuss the article topic. They “send all” to reply with their thoughts. We Facebook Friends create our own little online mini-discussion groups.

I do the same thing via my personal blogs and favourite bloggers, responding to commentors who, in return, respond to commentors, who reply, who respond…These are people I “know”, or we “know”, people who, through time and NetSearching have come be sources that I, and the people who trust me, that is, we trust. We/they are content creators our online networks have verified and learned to value over time.

This is no longer search or research. This is NetSearch.

It’s social, it’s media, and it’s online. This is the social search that makes up the buzz that Attentio’s tools monitor and measure, making NetSearching easier for you and your Brand.

from Onemanandhisblog.com

Why monitor online Buzz? To avoid multiple choice marketing

Yesterday, to practice my French, I agreed to be interviewed for a traditional marketing survey.

The survey was simple. A beverage Brand is considering a new package, a new can. The Brand wants to appeal to a younger audience (represented by me at age 26). The new packaging is a tall, slender can, a la the Red Bull can. The marketer interviewing me wanted to know my opinion about the new packaging.

The marketer’s interview went like so:

Is this can trendy? A. Yes, very, B. Yes, rather, C. No opinion, D. No, not much, E. No, not at all

Is this can attractive? A. Yes, very, B. Yes, rather, C. No opinion, D. No, not much, E. No, not at all

And so on…

Before long, I was irritated. As an interviewee and a consumer, I felt stereotyped and, worse, patronised.

First of all, from just looking at the “new” packaging, I KNEW the Brand wanted to be the next Red Bull.  But Red Bull, as my fellow youthful consumers will no doubt agree, is about more than just “trendy” and “attractive” packaging. (What is “trendy” and “attractive” anyway? At 26, I know what I think of as trendy and attractive. But the marketer interviewing me was in her 50s.)

At no time within the interview was I allowed to express my irritation or actual sentiments regarding the Brand’s new package or the Brand itself. Instead, I had predefined choices A to E. I had to decide whether I would give the “expected answers” about what the marketer thought I thought about the new Brand packaging (and, yes, we over-studied and over-stereotyped youthful consumers know EXACTLY what the expected answers are, especially when dictated to us, er, rather me, by a 50 year-old-woman who reminded me of my mother) or whether I could try to express my frustration with how the survey was packaged via answer C. (No opinion).

I and my fellow consumers have been inundated by such traditional marketing since the womb. And we know what these marketers really want. Like politicians, these marketers want your money and support (in that order). They don’t really want your opinion.

And while packaging is indeed an aspect of a Brand, I know when I’m being sold a “cool” copycat. A cool copycat is something that is the same old substance packaged in a “new” style “borrowed” from the latest trend to do well. And, despite appearances, a copycat is not cool.

That’s why I’m shocked that this type of traditional marketing survey is still used. It’s ineffective, stereotypical, and can be perceived as patronising. The answers that the consumers give to traditional marketing surveys may be true, but they are not accurate. The survey costs a lot of money but earns very little real consumer insight or engagement. If anything, I will be less likely to buy the copycat Brand because I was first asked for anwers and then more or less ignored.

Now for the real answers. Brands should be plugged into social media. Consumers there explain what they like and why, and they don’t and won’t do it within the traditional boundaries of A to E. These days, Consumers can and do create their own parameters when evaluating the Brand. They share these parameters with fellow consumers, constructing real-time, real word discussions about what they like and why they like, and also what they don’t like and why. There are millions of Brand insights offered freely online, and a million opportunities to engage with customers and find out what they really think.

Like, for example, that copycats are NOT trendy and attractive.

F. The grade given to my multiple choice marketer.

How to manage Brand reputation online or Why monitor a Brand online?

Social media makes Brand reputation management impractical and yet absolutely necessary. A Brand’s reputation is at the mercy of the media online. It is impossible to spin every single story someone posts about a Brand. And it’s also not smart. Trying to hide or withold information undermines consumer trust. Consumers WILL find out any story that a brand tries to suppress, and these consumers WILL decide that either

A) the Brand team did not know something that it should have or

B) the Brand team tried to take advantage of the consumers’ erstwhile ignorance.

Neither of these conclusions reached by consumer are good for the Brand or the Brand team.

Instead, Brands online need to engage with their consumer communities and work to establish Trust. With social media, Trust is an investment that develops over time into a sustainable, social relationship between the Brand and the Brand’s consumers.

That’s why the Brand HAS to manage, or rather monitor, its online reputation. The Brand has to know what’s being said where and how. The Brand can’t spin all its own stories, but it can respond to those stories that are spun–if the Brand team is paying attention.

Attentio software offers Brand teams the “ears” and “eyes” needed to monitor and manage a Brand’s reputation online. The software’s sources span blogs, forums, news, and online video channels like YouTube and DailyMotion. Sign up, log in, and start listening.