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Brand monitoring 2.0; Feeling increasingly overwhelmed by the never ending stream of information? Prefer sticking your head in the sand and wait for it all to go away?

The good news is that with the new media outlets, new tools emerge to leverage value from this endless flow of information. Learning how to use such tools can save time, avoid online reputation issues and help identify new business opportunities.

Lets start with the time management issue. Sure, there’s times you just want to browse around, check out some mainstream news or funny videos, but when it comes to specific monitoring activities, focus is the name of the game. Unless you have a clear idea of what you’re looking for, and a strategy for what to do with the data once located, you’ll quickly get distracted.

By identifying keywords that are important for your business, you will be in a position to find conversations about your brand, competitors and industry trends. Next step is to filter out the useful information and decide what to do with it. Oftentimes, brand monitoring data will be forwarded to a colleague in customer support, who will take action, addressing unhappy bloggers or forum participants. Positive mention will be of interest for the person in charge of SEO link building and the PR and marketing department. Other data, such as competitive intelligence and market trends, will be of interest for the R&D department.

Over the last months Imooty has developed a tool facilitating this type of work. Through a social media listening dashboard, users locate information on keywords across different social media sources and save posts to their media library. Users create projects, delegate responsibilities and define milestones, creating a sense of accountability when dealing with online media intelligence.

Want to take the Imooty tool for a test drive? Sign up for a free brand monitoring trial today!

From time to time, we get the question “what’s the risk of not having a social media monitoring tool?” The question reveals a perception that “social media is just an add-on to other media outlets”. It’s not. Social media has a different set of rules and is reshaping entire markets.

With social media, people are engaging and interacting around context, not necessarily personal relationships. Whereas we used to connect around place (neighborhood, community, schools, associations, etc.) we now link to online personas that share our intellectual interest and emotions. For many, traditional media is no longer the main source of information. Increasingly people turn to social media looking for “someone just like like me” and consequently, many blogs and forums discussions are more important in shaping opinions and perceptions than traditional media outlets.

Likewise, PR and marketing campaigns are no longer about one-to-many communication by distributing press releases and pushing “call to action”. Via social media monitoring tools, companies connect and interact with people that have expressed interest in a particular topic.

Still, the strategy of reaching out to people of influence has not changed. PR and marketing efforts still try to connect with “trust agents” that are likely to pass on a particular message to their networks. In effect, successful campaign management is engaged in one-to-one-to-many communications. The PR or marketing message gets forwarded from one-to-one-to-many if it connects with the interests of the person receiving it, AND if it provides value to his/her network.

The main challenge for companies using social media is therefore the blurring between marketing and communication. Marketers want to use it to sell, communicators to build relationships. Of course, social media is very much about being a real member of a community and providing value, rather than just chasing the next sale. That increases the number of people a company has to deal with, requiring more time and investment in building relationships.

The effect of social media monitoring and interaction will have a profound effect on the PR and marketing industry as we know it. PR and marketing efforts is increasingly about connecting with real people and because everyone is involved in a network, it’s not just up to the people working in the PR and marketing departments. A well thought out strategy will leverage the connections of the entire organization, leaving a more profound, valuable and documentable impact than any traditional campaign could ever hope for.

Want to start listening in on social media conversations? Sign up for the free trial of the Imooty social media monitoring tool today.

Why monitor social media keywords?

First, because search engines have turned into reputation engines. Today, people use search engines to “shop around” and check a brand’s reputation before making a purchasing decision. Locating discussions around your brand and identifying important opinion makers can avert brand attacks before the reputation is affected.

For example, media mointoring can lead you to spot negative comments in a blog or forum discussion, putting you in a position to interact directly with the dissatisfied customer. A proactive PR effort is the best medicine against crowdsourced social media complaint movements and on the other hand, locating positive mention is equally important. It too can be crowdsourced and distributed via social media, generating a number of back-links from fans or supporters of your brand. In turn, back-links and bookmarks will increase the visibility of positive brand mention in search engines.

Second, keeping an eye on what your competitors are up to, is always a good idea. Monitoring how they invest in media exposure will give you clues about their overall market strategy: By looking at where their brands show up (industry journals, newspapers, blogs, social media forums, portals, bookmarking sites etc.), you can assess their investment size and which market segment is being addressed.

Also, by measuring media exposure for different products / services you may establish what their strategy is for each line of business. Systematic media monitoring of your competitors social media keywords will enrich both short- and long-term knowledge of their commercial intent. That is valuable market intelligence when you fine tune your own social media marketing strategy.

Third, defining keywords that generically describes your products or services will enable you follow industry news and trends in social media. Whereas it normally takes several hours to collect and categorize data, a media monitoring dashboard will dramatically reduce the time required for locating valuable information…

In locating social media keywords, you first need to define your monitoring goals. Is it measuring ROI on online PR and marketing efforts? Online reputation management and locating competitive intelligence? Tracking industry trends and buzz? All of them? In which languages? The classic phrase is “garbage in, garbage out”. You are only as good as your data, and your data is only as good as your algorithm for getting clear about what your social media keywords are going to be.

Looking for a media monitoring dashboard? Try Imooty’s free media monitoring trial today!

Looking back at 2009, it was decidedly the year to get started with live search media monitoring. If you don’t know what “live search” is, think Twitter.

Never understood what Twitter was all about? Well, then think about this: If I was to go on a little R&R skiing vacation in Bad-Gastein (Austrian Alps), I could do one of two things: Check Google for pages mentioning Bad-Gastein, or search Twitter for the same term.

For the better part of 2009, Google would return a bunch of Bad-Gastein sites optimized for selling travel packages, hotels, spas etc. That’s where live search media monitoring comes into play. Although commercial service providers are relevant for my planning, I’d first of all want to know what the snow conditions were like, preferably from some unbiased source. The hotels, skiing resorts and service providers are unlikely to give me that, which is what makes people so exited about Twitter. It returns real life impressions from people who are there right now!

Google is of course not passively sitting back and has already struck a deal with both Twitter and Facebook which includes search results from them alongside their index and adwords.

This has significant PR implications and companies increasingly need to pay attention and interact with social media users. If a customer service representative is stonewalling customers the word will soon be out on Twitter, which in turn will reveal an unfavorable impression in Google search results. On the flip side, speedy interaction and online reputation management may have the opposite effect.

In other words, now more than ever, it pays to set do live search media monitoring of company and product names. And not just proprietary names, other keywords associated to the products and services should be monitored too. For my Bad Gastein example, it would make sense to monitor, “Skiing vacation in Austria”, “Skiing in Hohe Tauern” and “Austria ski resort guide” too.

For a comprehensive live search media monitoring system, take this opportunity to try out the FREE Imooty.eu trial.

An important element of Online Reputation Management is developing a social media policy for your employees. Social media behavior can certainly influence how your brand or company is being perceived.

Traditionally, creating a “policy” focuses on restricting action, i.e. outlining things that cannot be done. However, the whole point with social media is engaging your customer! Therefore, in the interest of promoting engagement, focus on what contributors CAN do.

First, make sure that the idea of community is well understood. The idea is to participate in a network where you can support others that in turn will support you. It should be a place where people will be comfortable with connecting, sharing experiences and asking for advice.

Transparency will play a major role in establishing trust and finding the balance between personal and professional information will be the main challenge. Still, transparency does not mean unrestricted sharing of company trade secrets for example. Employee’s are obliged to protect confidential information.

Also, make sure your employees understand that they will bear full responsibility for what’s being contributed. There’s no implied right to say stupid things under a disguise of “self expression”. Sure, it’s all good to share your opinions online, however, contributors need to consider each audience and ensure that statements will not be misunderstood as narrow minded or discriminating.

Specifically, contributors need to understand that what their social media activities will be part of the company’s overall online reputation management. Their actions will influence how they are being viewed within the organization, as well as how external parties will perceive company culture. Make it clear that their activities will be part of your company’s overall social media monitoring efforts.

Finally, provide value to your community! Many companies seem to have a hard time speaking about anything else than their products and services… Find topics that connect to the bigger picture, such as general industry news, developments and FAQ’s.

Want to try Imooty’s Online Reputation Management tool? Sign up for a 4 week FREE trial at Imooty.eu!

Online reputation monitoring has become a standard tool in a PR industry constantly adjusting to change. One commonly hears that new tools and practices have everything to do with changes in technology. But is that really true?

Sure, technology has pushed a paradigm shift on traditional media. Long gone are the days when radio, TV and newspaper’s had a monopoly on expressing opinions. However, sudies show that the main change taking place is sociological.

PR professionals are faced with the task of reaching out to a new generation of youngsters that grew up online. Their perception is one of suspicion to anything that smells like “official” opinion or advertising. Forget about conventional press releases, their opinion-makers are bloggers and fellow members in online communities. They are media savvy, value honesty, transparency and engagement.

In order to reach an online community, you have to join in as an exited and engaged participant - welcome to the new PR, a.k.a. community management!

As a PR consultant you will advise community managers (a full time in-house position) on how to conduct online reputation monitoring, participate in community forums discussions and interact with bloggers. Look for a community manager that has:

• ability to reach out to people, “step into the other person’s shoes” and build trust
• deep knowledge of product/service details and problem resolution skills
• an understanding of the organization’s social media goals and ability to communicate strategically to achieve them

In other words, it’s not the geeky knowledge of all the latest social media tools and platforms that makes for a competent community manager. Social media is all about people skills and being able to execute according to strategic goals. More than anything, this means investing in someone who will refrain from responding reactively and with impulse.

Have you started with online reputation monitoring yet? Register for a free trial with Imooty.eu now!

In a recent survey of over 2000 German media intelligence professionals, respondents answered questions centering on three topics; impact felt from the financial meltdown, gender issues and professional ethics.

Not surprisingly, it is the media intelligence professionals from the automotive and metalworking industry that are hardest hit by financial crisis. Particularly challenging is a rising communication need (45%) combined with a decrease in available resources (30%). The average yearly income has furthermore decreased with €6500 compared to 2007. Challenges are a further focus on added value communication aspects (36%), concentration on legitimation over image related aspects (35%), intensified internal communication (21%) and increased efficiency control (29%).

The media intelligence profession furthermore see an increase in female practitioners. In 2007 53% were men, whereas in 2009 we see a 50/50 split. For professionals under 30, 78% are female and between 30-39, 55%. As the professionals come of age, over 40, we see increasing male dominance. For those over 50 there is a 2:1 ratio between male/female practitioners. On average women earn ca. €22.500 less per year than men (€75.876 vs. €53.301). This discrepancy can in part be attributed to the fact that on average women practitioners are younger than men.

In recent years, corporate transparency has become a top-, front- and center issue for the media intelligence profession and 88% of the respondents agree that it is a condition for communicating trustworthiness of their organization. Only 4% of the professionals work in a department subordinate to another department. Consequently, about half of the professionals see their strategic influence on the media intelligence policy of the company as high or very high (and thereby presumably also on corporate transparency). Still, many of the respondents also criticize senior management’s understanding of the strategic importance of a consistent media intelligence policy.

Check out Imooty’s next generation media monitoring and media intelligence tool at Imooty.eu

The first step step beyond social media monitoring is developing listening skills. Needless to say, companies have a lot to gain from understanding the customers problems. By providing solutions and sharing knowledge, content is likely to be passed on and advocated by consumers.

So what’s the problem?

When you say that you have an open and receptive online presence, it creates an expectation. Specifically, an expectation of being heard. Active social media monitoring and a policy for when/how to respond to feedback, is priority number one for building customer relationships and trust. Do not make the mistake of ignoring a customer who expects being heard.

Most companies hesitate to take the step from social media monitoring to active interaction because of perceived risks. A fear that everything will spin out of control if people start communicating via Twitter. However, there are also risks associated with not participating. The indecisiveness is an expression of sticking with the status quo and keeping with the old hierarchical communication structure. However, adapting to social media is unlikely to undo the company. Mistakes will be made, sure, but that is part of what makes social media appealing.

Companies seem to have a hard time speaking about anything else than their products. To avoid looking pushy, or worse, boring, find topics that connect to the bigger picture. Kodak’s photography blog for example isn’t just about their products.

Also, users increasingly expect websites to be interactive, not just an online version of the company brochure. They’re looking for fresh content, articles, videos, podcasts and links to the latest developments in your industry. Content generation is unlikely to work very well in a top-down structure. If the IT department needs to recode the website every time someone wants to contribute, social interaction will never happen. It is important to have an easy to publish CMS. Once the new PR and communiation policy is in place, everyone should be able to share and contribute.

Taking the step from social media monitoring to participation doesn’t have to be a major undertaking. It doesn’t take hi-tech tools to connect with your customers. Think corporate blog, Twitter and a Facebook page.

Media intelligence : Analyzing how your company name or brand rates in online reviews, vs. those of your competitors’, most definitely belongs on your media intelligence to-do list.

Or does it?

The New York Times article, “On the Internet, Everyone’s a Critic But They’re Not Very Critical” reports that the average online review rating is 4.3 stars out of 5. That’s of course far away from being even remotely close to the “bell curve”. How come the average distribution of statistical data is so far off? Does media intelligence practices play a role here?

The article seems to indicate that yes, they do. Printer paper, boots and dog food in particular have bloated online reputations and the same can be said for hotels being reviewed on TripAdvisor.com.

However, media intelligence practices, such as a manager’s puffing up the average rating of this own product or service, is not the only factor. Someone is also minding the store. Several independent Amazon reviewers for example, suspect that the online megastore is involved in selective review vetting.

Translation: Negative reviews are simply deleted in order to sell more products. Ed Keller, CEO of the Keller Fay Group, has found that ca. 65% of word-of-mouth reviews are positive, whereas only 8% are negative!

At the end of the day the question then becomes how “good” is a good review. Do you have the strength to give a 4.3 review its real (average) value in your media intelligence matrix?

Proactive social media monitoring deals with minor social media flames before they turn into forest fires. When spotting a negative comment on your brand in a discussion forum the question quickly becomes, “how big is this”?

You don’t want to engage a diper rash personality who is using social media to symptomatically complain. However, DO pay attention if the comment resonates with other forum participants.

Next, find out who placed the comment. Is it a real person with a social media following? Is his/her audience likely to have resonance with your target group? In short, in doing social media monitoring, try to establish what level of influence the person posting the comment has.

It’s time to pay particular attention when social media monitoring shows that members of your core audience are posting negative comments. If some of your evangelist users are unhappy now, more are likely feel the same way in the near future.

When you find that comments and forum posts spread to a blog post, you need to take a closer look. The fact that a message makes a channel shift, from a forum discussion to blog post, is a red flag.

The blog may at that point be a good place to actively respond to criticism and do some active online reputation management. Start by getting in touch with the author and establish rapport. Explain your side of the story and ask to contribute with a comment.

With some luck, the blogger may issue an update on the previous post and report your solution to the problem. Proactive social media monitoring could prevent the issue from making another channel shift, for example to other blogs, online news sites, video and/or picture sharing sites.

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