Social Media Impact
What is social media? Let’s face it, there is a buzz about social media. Everyone is searching for it, but what is it? For simplicity’s sake, social media is user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM) shared via online communities, social networking sites, microblogs, review sites, and other collaborative web properties, and it is becoming increasingly accessible and intertwined with everyone’s daily lives.
Why is social media important to you? Social media has become a channel for consumers to voice their opinions, concerns, praises, and frustrations about your brand, products, services, and other aspects of your enterprise. This user-generated content contains valuable information that, if collected and deciphered, will provide you with actionable business intelligence.
Emerging trends in Social Media require immediate action.
- Total Transparency — The good, the bad, and the ugly of your brand is plain to everyone and your consumers will know EVERYTHING about you.
- Connectivity Thrives — A massive increase in consumer conversations is emerging as a result of increased connectivity. Everywhere, all-the-time, people can just type on the net book or speak into their handset and express their opinions on products, goods, or services and automatically post their opinions in multiple locations.
- Consumer Ideation — Consumers expect and will get a larger say in the feature set and roadmap for product lines through the use of collaborative communities and platforms.
- Consumer Sentiment Is King — Consumers are becoming the arbiters of taste while analysts and editors become the recorders of consumer sentiment.
- The Future is Now — Customer-centric organizations are already embracing these trends to continually improve their customer and community listening processes.
What business functions can Social Media analysis help you with? Social media listening will tell you what is on consumers’ minds in an unfiltered and unbiased way. These insights will provide value for Customer Experience Management, Product Management, Reputation Management, Promotional and Sales Effectiveness, Customer Service, Customer Research Efficiency, Net Promoter Scores, and anywhere else your brands touch your consumer.
