Making Sense of the Noise

It’s a bit of a paradox.  On some level, we are still waiting for a greater percentage of the population to start generating new media content that will give companies further insight and direction on future product launches and opportunities.  On the other hand, many people think there is already too much noise floating around on the web.  What are we really waiting for, and will tools exist in the market to enable companies to quickly identify relevant posts, ignore the useless and act on the urgent?

I think between social media monitoring, social CRM and community tools, we are beginning to build the toolset necessary to cut through the noise.  This is why companies should start paying attention today.  This is not a one-size fits all type of approach.  Organizations need to understand what they are listening for before they can fine-tune these tools to help them take the appropriate actions.  In addition, this is a good starting point for companies to find out which types of conversations will affect their various business units.

When I talk to clients, I think they are still trying to figure out which parts of their organization will be able to use social media.  This is good, but clients also need to start thinking about social media as the communication channel that it is.  Ask each of the major functions in your organization which areas they think would benefit from two-way communications with the consumer, vendor or competitor.  This is a very different question than asking which function would benefit from social media.  By asking the first question, your organization can really begin to understand the value of the new medium, and thus can focus on using it to drive their businesses in a way that makes sense.

As the market matures, data volume increases, and enterprises ask for more out of social media, new products will emerge that have components of monitoring, CRM and community engagement.  If you have already had the experience and battle scars of working with these tools, I think your organization can be well ahead of the curve.