Joining the social media conversation

Somewhere online right now -- in blogs, discussion groups or on Twitter -- customers may be talking about your brand, your products or services. Or those of your competitors.

Maybe you'd like to listen in to what they're saying.

Or even pull up a virtual chair and join in the conversation yourself, to answer questions or offer information about what your company has to offer.

If that sounds complicated, time-consuming and expensive, it doesn't have to be. Sure, corporate giants (even local ones like Best Buy) are doing it. But with some free online tools that take minutes to set up and a minimal time to manage, even small and medium-sized companies can monitor what customers, prospects and other are saying -- or not saying -- about them in social media.

Doing so can be rewarding, as McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul discovered after engaging in a social media listening program with Risdall Marketing Group, a full-service agency in New Brighton.

McNally Smith brought in Risdall to analyze online conversations about music colleges in general and specifically what people were saying about larger, aspirational competitors such as the Berklee College of Music.

"If someone raises their hand and is asking about your product or service or something that you provide, it's your responsibility to jump into that conversation," said Jared Roy, president of Risdall Integration Group and co-author of a white paper on setting up what is known as a social media listening dashboard (available at www.risdall.com/listen). "Chances are if you don't, your competitor will."

McNally Smith then would step in to offer information or highlight key messages to help raise awareness and inject the school into the same discussions as its competitors.

As a result of the monitoring program, which started in 2009, website visits, requests for information and enrollments increased and McNally Smith's online "share of voice" in conversations about music colleges rose dramatically, said Kareem Ahmed, Internet marketing manager at the college, which has 750 full-time students.

Speaking of what others are saying, though in this case in print and not online, McNally Smith got the attention of Forrester Research's Josh Bernoff, co-author of marketing and media bestseller "Groundswell."

Bernoff and co-author Ted Schadler, also of Forrester Research, highlighted the McNally Smith effort in their book, "Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers and Transform Your Business." The book also highlights local social media leaders Best Buy and General Mills.

Listening is not enough

Forrester Research also named the McNally Smith project as a business-to-consumer finalist in its 2009 Forrester Groundswell Awards, which recognize social technology applications that drive business success. Other finalists included Walmart's "SmartMoms" online community and a NASCAR fan council.

"We're spending probably half as much money as we did before and we're getting more results," said Ahmed, noting that the college still does traditional marketing through print and radio. "Just take the time and do the research before jumping in."

Before taking that jump, Roy said, companies -- especially those in regulated industries -- should establish their objectives -- driving sales? managing reputation? -- and the key messages with which they will respond.

"When you're jumping into those conversations, make sure that you're adding to the conversations versus just trying to sell products," Roy said. "It seems obvious, but a lot of people will jump in there and say, 'Buy me, buy me."'

Roy's white paper spells out how companies can use free online tools -- paid services such as Radian6, used in the McNally Smith project, also exist -- to set up a listening dashboard that aggregates online conversations. The dashboard combine tools, for example, to geo-tag Twitter mentions of your company or industry enabling companies to reach out to nearby customers or prospects.

Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Woodbury. His e-mail address is todd_nelson@mac.com.