I have previously written about the new element in webanalytics; monitoring and surveillance. But what do you do with all this new data? What actions can you conduct?

Analytics tools create a foundation for making rational actions and choices, but do rarely create actions on its own. Some CRM-tools do, but not many, yet. So what do we do with this new data from social media and web 2.0 applications?

There’s two ways to react, the reactive way and the proactive way.

The reactive way is the way of protecting your brand and your reputation. You want to monitor the web, so that you can identify mainly negative word of mouth about your brand. You need to understand when individual blow-outs are only that (most cases) and when they turn into massive network campaigns against you.

Time will be of essence to reduce the damage. And how can you do that?

Honesty and humility is usually the way to contruct the message, while press releases, contact with explicited bloggers and comments on blogs, in groups and forums are the resources to use to get your message out. The same media that spread the critique in the beginning. In other words the reactive method is a counter-measure.

This is a very important feature for large brand-driven corporations. Millions have been spent to strenghten the brand, but seconds and it could all be gone. Word of mouth is not new, but the new dynamics is in the speed of transfer of the message. Before word of mouth was one to one or one to a few. And that was it. Now it could be one to millions, in a chain of events, multiplying. Fast. Time will be of essence to reduce the damage.

This willn’t happen often, but when it does … you better be prepared
(If you have links to cases like this, please enlighten me with you comments).

So how can you be prepared? You need guidelines. Who is going to act on the company’s behalf? And you need good judgement. In large corporations it will most naturally be the communication department, the same people who are allowed to speak to traditional media. But are these people also geared towards how the new social media work? They need to be!

But the more exciting opportuinites, in my opinion, is the proactive possibilites this new data provides.

You can identify small communities, websites or networks where your products are being discussed. Then you can target them, with ads or through participating in the networks yourself. Perhaps can you even identify the most influential people, who can be invited to participate in your business concept; in research, interviews or with perks like early access to products. Be careful, good judgements is needed… you can’t just buy your way in, that could turn the whole network against you.

Proactive customer service would be to contact those who complain, preferably solving the problem and adding a bonus into the deal. Then there is competitor surveillance and the possibility to follow the scent of the game; is your word of mouth generally positive or negative, and are we seeing sudden changes?

And what about the opportunity to participate in forums where it is happening. Your things are beeing discussed, and you are present to “guide” the discussions in your favour. Of course, openly and with true colours. Web 2.0 is about honesty and transparency, break with that – and “they” will breake you.

Are you on the ball? or is this just Fantasy in your corporation?

Disclaimer:
The suggestions and conclusions in this posting are pure reflections, not experiences. Any insights from real life or links to real life cases will be greatly appreciated.