Social media is creating new challenges and opportunities for brands including a bewildering array of new touch points and potential approaches. How should brands approach this media landscape? This session, based on real case studies, builds the business case for using buzz research as the ideal starting point for social media engagement and integrated planning

1. Learning to listen: the benefits of buzz
Ann Longley, Digital Strategy Director, 17 November 2009

2. Focus for today
Why we listen
How we listen
What we need from providers

3. Focus for today
Why we listen
How we listen
What we need from providers

4. Why we listen
Why listen?
Problems…? Everyone knows about it

5. Why we listen
Social media and UB brands
Social media is word of mouth on amphetamines
No such
thing as local
Product and
Bad news
share price
travels fast
may suffer
Bad news can damage your business quickly
Protests can Messages
be organised can be
quickly undermined

6. Why we listen
News not all bad

7. Why we listen
Many brands have fans online

8. Why we listen
Smart brands cultivate their fanbase

9. Why we listen
And get them involved in their business

10. Why we listen
Earned media is now the most influential
Paid Owned Earned
Source: COMPOSE 2008

11. Why we listen
Marketing has changed
Complexity lies at the centre of the marketing funnel
Peer Competitive
reviews alternatives
The traditional marketing funnel
Buyers
Eyeballs
Eyeballs Buyers
Contributors
Recommendations User-generated
from friends content
Old New

12. Why we listen
Online recommendations influence purchasing
behaviour
• 85% used search last month
to look for a specific product
• 49.5% looked for a
recommendation
Half• of people researching online seek
“Sony Ericsson w960i” > 10
out of top 10 results are social
recommendations

13. Why we listen
Marketing is now a two-way street

14. Why we listen
Reputation in the digital age
Strength of
network/
fanbase
Coke has 3.5M friends
on Facebook; fans run the group
Starbuck‟s invites its customers
to provide regular input
Market REPUTATION Responsive-
Leadership 2.0 ness
Product and
service
innovation
Walker‟s let its customers McDonald‟s lets its customers
create a new flavour report on its operations

15. Why we listen
The new brand stock exchange:
Most talked about brands
UK Superbrands (volume of buzz over the last 6 months)

16. Why we listen
Top UK brands by sentiment score
http://www.superbrands.uk.com/
Score is the average sentiment weighted by site credibility
Credibility is determined by page rank, in-bound links, page views.

17. Why we listen
New world calls for a new approach*
2. PLAN
1. LISTEN Based on the insights gained from Listening,
Conducting online buzz Our recommendations inform integrated
research is a cost effective way Plan communication planning. These are typically
to identify online conversations shared with a wide range of client stakeholders
that may impact your and agency partners. Clear goals aligned with
organisational performance. organisational goals informs all activity.
Competitor benchmarking of
key buzz metrics is an
important ongoing business
requirement for many
businesses today. The levels of
buzz help inform ongoing
requirements.
Listen
Integrated Respond
Strategy
3. RESPOND
4. EVALUATE This is the implementation phase based
This phase addresses the evaluation of previous on an agreed action plan.
phase and will include key buzz metrics and other MEC can play a coordinating role if required
KPIs. This stage leads into Listening again and Evaluate and help set the evaluation framework.
refining the strategy accordingly. Cross media activity should be undertaken
to ensure an integrated approach.
*MEC approach to reputation management

18. Why we listen
The benefits of paying attention
Here are just a few:
Identify and manage Improve products
risks and services
Evaluate campaigns Find new influencers

19. Focus for today
Why we listen
How we listen
What we need from providers

20. How we listen
Overview of tools
Free online buzz search tools Fee-based online buzz monitoring /
‘listening platforms’

21. How we listen
Overview of tools
Free online buzz search tools Fee-based online buzz monitoring /
‘listening platforms’
Good for finding indicative buzz
but not very accurate or sophisticated

22. How we listen
Overview of tools
Free online buzz search tools Fee-based online buzz monitoring /
‘listening platforms’
Much more professional and useful
but still far from perfect

23. How we listen
How we listen: Professional listening platforms
Key strength: Weaknesses:
They help make sense of the data They are machines not human
Provide sophisticated dashboards with X Automated sentiment is not always
easy to use reporting capabilities accurate due to technology limitations
Facilitate early detection of problematic X They do not capture everything that is
issues which could negatively effect relevant although they get better with
sales/share price training and they are subject to time
delays
Provide a good „temperature check‟ on X Assessing who is influential is hotly
a wide range of issues and metrics contested with no consistent
methodology
Increasingly help manage engagement X We need to supplement tools with
through response management tools and human analysts to properly vet and
workflows classify the data

24. How we listen
Vendor screening and selection checklist
Technology costs versus analyst costs?!

25. How we listen
Social media fits within a wider planning ecosystem
What does it all mean?

26. Focus for today
Why we listen
How we listen
What we need from providers

27. What we want from providers
What we need from buzz monitoring providers?
Transparency Clarity Coverage
About the strengths but Relating to your offer What you can pick up
also the limitations of and your plans and what you can‟t pick
the tools up; don‟t just blind us
This is what we do
with big numbers
now; this is what we
will do later.
Services Responsiveness
Work with us to develop
Training
your offer based on our
Workflows and data requirements.
integration
Work with us and the
Vetting/classification industry to create agreed
measurement standards.

28. Thank you!
Find me:
ann.longley@mecglobal.com
http://www.annlongley.net
www.twitter.com/AnnMargaret