Gauging Brand Impact through Social Media

Posted by Vaibhav

October 29, 2008

Through various communication technologies like blogs, social networking sites and discussion forums, consumer voices are much more amplified in the digital age today. This poses a major challenge for companies to monitor user conversations either online or through research panels to meet their goals and objectives.

As a step towards providing products and services as per the customer’s needs, one can find tremendous participation levels from major firms such as Toyota Motor Corp., General Motors, Nike, Dell, etc. through help of communities and social networks. By hosting their own communities, these multi-nationals are able to understand their consumer’s needs and requirements and interact with them better.

With an aim to facilitate the discussions, companies have started creating platforms wherein consumers are encouraged to support each other. Moreover, efforts are put in to stimulate additional conversations by involving influencers or people who worship their brands and are extremely brand loyal.

The focus area for any business operation is customer. He is the central point around which various activities such as production, marketing and sales, etc. rotate. This encourages firms to engage their customers in the decision making process, allowing them to design the product and conveying it back to the companies by way of feedbacks and suggestions. The result is ‘co-creation’ where such ardent consumers are rigorously taken into consideration by companies in the creation of their brand/product along with marketing messages. However, the manner in which this exercise is conducted differs from one corporation to another.

But the main question is “Is this activity viable for companies in the long run?” As a business person, this is a valid question as gauging brand impact through online activities is not only difficult but also time consuming. Moreover, calculating ROI is another issue, as a substantial amount of money is spent by companies in understanding their consumer’s requirements online. In such cases, it is the amount and nature of posts or comments that need to be considered through the discussion threads. For instance, it is possible to calculate the percentage or number of posts that are positive vis-à-vis the number or percentage of negative posts. More the people in favor for the brand/product more are the chances of positive word of mouth (WoM).

It is amazing to know the rate at which word of mouth messages spread. One satisfied customer means hundreds of additional customers queuing to buy your product or service. However, one unsatisfied customer means hundreds or maybe thousands of customers neglecting your product or service. A positive WoM helps converting the potential buyer into an actual buyer, who influences others to go for your brand, and the cycle continues. This in turn helps companies to gauge the impact their brand has on the market.

Social Media Optimization