Social Media Monitoring Tool to Listen to Customers and Measure Engagement

I just spent two days learning about customer engagement at the Engaging Times Conference sponsored by Alterian.  There, I discovered a cutting-edge tool to monitor, measure and track social media engagement called TechrigySM2.

After a brief description, I’ll show you insights from a quick test drive for my nonprofit.

Social Media Monitoring, Defined

“Social media monitoring” is the tracking of Web 2.0 discussions (on sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs), in order to understand the tone of these conversations, identify individuals who influence discussions, and use the resulting insights to improve market research, positioning, and overall marketing strategy.

Databases Tracked

Techrigy’s Social Media WarehouseSM contains over 1.5 billion social media mentions in blogs, tweets, posts, images and conversations from October 2007 to present.   This includes platforms like Facebook, Blogger, Linkedin, Ning, Twitter, Typepad, Wordpress, and YouTube.

Engagement Monitoring Tool

According to company lit, TechrigySM2 can help you:

• Understand consumers’ reactions to all marketing campaigns irrespective of channel
• Monitor brand reputation
• Identify influencers
• Undertake proper competitive analysis and market research
• Support loyalty initiatives and programs
• Engage directly with customers online

“SCORE Counselor” Test Drive

To do a quick test, I ran a search for my nonprofit organization, SCORE.  We offer free business counseling to small business owners and entrepreneurs.  So what are people saying about the “score counselor” in the summer and fall of 2009?   I reprint various screen shots to show you the results.

WHEN are those conversations about “score counselor” occurring?

Here’s a chart showing the dates of the use of “score counselor.”  I can click on dates and see links to conversations on that day.

What is the CONTEXT, the SUBJECT, of those conversations?

Here’s a “theme” report which aggregates search results by topic.  I can click on any word and see posts, articles, forum comments, tweets etc that mention “score counselor” in that context.

WHO is talking about “score counselors”?

The software can identify who is talking about our brand on the web, as the graphic below lists.   These are likely people from our organization and key influencers.

What is the TONE of those conversations?

I can also see whether people are using words that indicate whether the mention is positive or negative.

And I can click into the negative to see who exactly is saying what and where.  For example, I can sort results by top authors of those negative comments, or by platform — Blogger, Linkedin, Ning, Twitter, Typepad, Wordpress, YouTube.  This allows us to identify and address trouble spots.  Make contact with the sources of the negative.

On what DOMAINS are people talking?

Exactly where are people mentioning the “score counselor”?  Let’s look at those domains.

The domains report shows where the conversations about your brand are happening. This is where you can, and should, jump in and join the conversation.

Of course, I can click on any link and see the detail.  SCORE Chicago should assign people to participate in those domains, to engage with users there.

Social Media Listening

What about listening over time?  I can set up searches on various brand names, keywords, or competitors, and have results sent to my inbox.  This is real social media listening.  Google Alerts on steroids.

Is this software hard to use?  No.  I watched a 5 minute video on how to set up a search and then started to play.  What you see above is the result of maybe an hour’s work.  And I haven’t scratched the surface of this tool.

Shouldn’t you be listening for the conversation on your brand?  To your customers?

TechrigySm2 is sold to anyone  — companies and brands, resellers, and marketing agencies.  No info on website on pricing, so I guess that depends.

Comments?

Not convinced yet?  If you are using social media on the web, click that SM2 free trial link and put in your name (use quotes, i.e., “peg corwin”), your personal brand.  I can promise you are going to learn something.  What do you think?

Related Posts

Sm2 Analyst Guide on Slideshare

The penalty of not listening:  Customer Power in the Era of Social Media:  Your Business Can’t Run and Hide

Web 2.0 Marketing:  Friedman’s 4 Steps into Social Media

What I Learned about Engagement and Customer Loyalty at Alterian’s Engaging Times Summit

Tagged as: sm2, social media monitoring, techrigy