I have canceled my Google Alerts for “Capgemini.” I changed the parameters for daily media monitoring to focus more heavily on competitors and industry issues than the company. And I am revising our communication metrics to more heavily weight the % of conversations (share of conversation) we are involved in than the % of mentions compared to competitors (share of voice).
To many in-house marketing and communication professionals, this is heretical. We listen for when people are talking about us and when they mention us, right? I can count on one hand the number of times when real-time monitoring for mentions led to an immediate action. I would need to use the hands of the entire Capgemini marketing and communications team to count the number of times real-time monitoring for conversations about technology strategy, systems integration, business strategy consulting and IT outsourcing led to immediate and beneficial action.
Brian Solis at PR 2.0 described the goal of online listening in the world of B2B better than anyone else I have interacted with. Here is an excerpt from his post “the Business of B2B Social Media:”
Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of listening to focused online interaction, is the ability to breakdown the decision making process and how customers and influencers impact behavior. To say it blatantly, social media makes it possible to identify and segment the specific stages of decision making online and how to in turn, respond in ways that steer interest in your favor.
Put down your clipping report and go cull the “Page Source” view (option under view in browsers) of your competitors. Talk with your SEO people about which keywords you should listen for in social media conversations. And repeat after me – “it’s not about us the company, it is about us the network of people doing research.”
Photo courtesy of Niclindh
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