Our partner J.D. Power & Associates recently published their 2013 Social Media Benchmark Study of consumer perception toward companies and their use of social media.  J.D. Power surveyed two kinds of social interactions—digital marketing and customer service. To build on their findings, I took a look at this same question but through a different lens.  At NetBase we are currently in beta testing with our Digital Channel Intelligence solution for Twitter.  Customers had been asking for a way to measure their effectiveness [...]

[This is part of a series of recaps on this Sennheiser Social Intelligence report] The thing about analyzing data from social media is that there are possibilities that I could have never imagined with traditional surveying techniques. With social intelligence, you can see what people want, exactly when they want it. That capability sometimes gives us tunnel vision, though—narrowing down on specific authors, or specific dates, or specific words—and we forget to take a look at the bigger picture. Instead [...]

[This is part of a series of recaps on this Sennheiser Social Intelligence report] Surveys are usually touted as being anonymous. Nothing you say can be traced back to you, so you can feel free to complain, gush, or troll to your heart’s content. Customers who don’t file complaints individually but express their frustration in anonymous surveys probably won’t get their concerns fixed right away. This is why being able to zero in on individual authors of posts is pretty [...]

[This is part of a series of recaps on this Sennheiser Social Intelligence report] Social intelligence is more convenient than general surveying because you can easily get information on not only how your brand is doing, but also how your competitors are doing. Just by creating a few more topics to search, Sennheiser can be compared to the other brands in the market like Skullcandy, Bose, Beats by DRE, Plantronics and Koss. According to the report, Beats by DRE dwarfs [...]

[This is part of a series of recaps on this Sennheiser Social Intelligence report] I always like a good deal, especially when I can get more than what I paid for. So when Sennheiser promotes itself as “True Sound,” I’m hoping that it’s bargain-priced true sound. Unfortunately, the “What People Dislike” widget shows that “expensive” is, without contest, the leading negative comment about the brand. When just looking at likes versus dislikes, the “expensive” image could be countered by the [...]

This is the first in a series of posts by Candy Chang, an intern from my alma mater whom I had the pleasure of hosting this past week. She put together a summary of NetBase’s social intelligence report on Sennheiser, a German headphone manufacturer. My generation has grown up with parents always tugging earphones out of our ears or yanking headphones off our heads, warning us about our imminent deafness. That being said, I’ve been using those cheap, free earphones [...]

This is one technique among a series I’m covering on conversation mining for lead generation. This application of conversation mining is quite different from the other techniques.  It’s based on the premise that if you create interesting content, the leads will come to you rather than you having to go to the lead.  So where does conversation mining fit in?  Answer: use conversation mining to produce the interesting content.  Think of a topic relevant to your customers and chances are, [...]

This is one technique among a series I’m covering on conversation mining for lead generation. Once you’ve got a lead you can use this next technique to build a profile based on what they talk about in social media.  It could be a lead you’ve gotten from one of the previous lead gen techniques or it could be a long-term client whom you just want to get to know better.  With NetBase, you can set up a topic on a [...]

This is one technique among a series I’m covering on conversation mining for lead generation. What if your customers have an online forum where they discuss topics related to their profession, hobby, disease, or interest area?  If so, you can analyze the conversation to reveal the most influential targets and establish a beachhead in their community. There are two ways NetBase can help with this technique.  First, you can use NetBase to identify the relevant forums.  Second, you can mine [...]

This is one technique among a series I’m covering on conversation mining for lead generation. The debate raging out there today is whether or not social media is an effective lead gen source for B2B, and for good reason.  How many mining industry executives, for instance, tweet about needing cheaper industrial equipment?  In my opinion, not many.  But there is one time of year when B2B professionals get a bit more social, and that is at their annual conference.  Name [...]