Social Media Marketing

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UNDERSTAND THE C
ONVERSATIONS T
HAT M
ATTER
That’s the catch (Yes, there is a catch!) to all of this “free data.” For well-known
brands or cause-related groups, and increasingly for many smaller brands and orga-
nizations, the amount of data can be overwhelming. Someone has to filter through it.
Hopefully, that someone is not you. If it is, and in all seriousness, even it’s not, there
are tools available that make this work much easier.
Just as a social analytics dashboard, for example, will save you work by auto-
matically displaying selected KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) around conversations
in an organized and revealing manner, and as well automatically routing conversations
and discovered issues to the departments where they can be acted on is an essential
efficiency in making effective use of conversational data. This is where workflow enters
the picture, and where you begin to transition from “listening” to “active listening”
and from generally “free” to generally “paid” social analytics tools.
Workflow, which you reviewed briefly in Chapter 2, “The New Role of the
Customer,” includes the processes by which the filtering, routing, and tracking of lis-
tening results are automated so that you can manage large amounts of data (and often
filter out larger amounts of noise). Active listening, which is described in the upcoming
section, is all about doing something with the information you gather, and doing it in
a structured, replicable manner that ties the conversations about your brand, product,
or service to your business. Figure 5.2 shows schematically how all of this fits together,
around a typical conversation.
Detect via keywords, score
for sentiment and popularity
Based on keywords, score and route into
the appropriate person or team
Figure 5.2 Workflow and Automation