My sentiments exactly

A few years ago, companies were massively reliant on the efficacy of their marketing departments, specialists and gurus to ensure brand reputation, recognition and respect. In turn, consumers were entirely dependent on the information supplied by those departments, specialists and gurus for their 'informed' opinion.

However, times have changed. The traditional segmentation and profiling of the population based on, in part, location and race, is no longer a viable solution. The old ways don't work anymore, and marketing departments the world over have come to the realisation that the 'one-way' flow of information from company to consumer has now become a full-on conversation that can take place outside of their sphere of influence. Certainly, as more and more people take to engaging with social media as their primary form of communication, consumer opinion is no longer in the control of big corporations.

In South Africa alone there are over 5 126 860 registered Facebook users, 2 435 528 registered 'Twitterites', 1 933 723 registered LinkedIn users and 466 828 Google + users^1. That is a staggering volume of potential opinion, and vitriol, and is the main reason why some big businesses have completely re-launched themselves or their product offering, after using sentiment analysis to determine consumer opinion.

Sentiment analysis is the method of automatically locating and analysing digital content in real-time, from across multiple channels such as Web sites, e-mails, forms and surveys in an attempt to hone in on customer sentiment buried within textual data. The goal of sentiment analysis, otherwise known as opinion mining, is to determine the attitude, opinion, emotional state, or intended emotional communication of the message.

There are a few companies that have managed to harness the inherent power of a well designed, well understood social media strategy. Internationally, when Sony launched its VAIO laptop, it used social media monitoring, sentiment analysis and word trends to track consumer opinion, and there were some very surprising results.

After the launch, Sony expected its customers to be talking about the technical specifications or the hardware of the VAIO. However, what they were actually hearing was emotion - words like 'love' were replacing words like 'processor' or 'CPU'. People were naming their laptops - 'VAIO-licious' was particularly popular. And mostly, people were talking about 'design', 'style', and 'colour' - often prefaced with strong emotion-bearing words like 'love'.

Consumer opinion is no longer in the control of big corporations.

So Sony did the only thing it could in the circumstances. It completely changed its marketing plan and words like 'style' and 'design' became the exact words that were used in e-mail campaigns. Colour images became more prominent. Decorative accessories were added to the product line as it became clear that its customers enjoyed decorating their VAIOs. It even went so far as to change the plans for retail displays to place a greater emphasis on colour, as well as introducing colour to the VAIO product pages on the traditionally sleek platinum-and-black Sony Web site^2.

Locally, First National Bank (FNB) launched on social media Web sites as the first point of contact for complaints, compliments or information. @RBJacobs and @MichaelJordaan quickly became the first line of defence, as well as one of the main information providers for the bank's 35 000-plus registered followers.

Its massive online presence allows for sentiment analysis and social media monitoring, which gives FNB a distinct insight into its consumer base that banks traditionally do not have access to. This has allowed it to launch product offerings not associated with banking institutions, and is one of the main reasons why FNB^3 was recently named the most innovative bank worldwide for 2012 at the BAI-Finacle Global Banking Awards, in Washington, DC.

There have also been some well publicised instances of companies not responding timeously or appropriately to social media commentary of late. However, one stands out above the rest as a true Cinderella story - one in which a company with absolutely no social media strategy took a massive online hit, yet still managed to successfully rise above the viral vitriol.

When a social media storm hit one of South Africa's largest retail companies in response to a perceived product theft, the retailer was wholly unprepared for the viciousness of the online and anonymous attack. It was left reeling and on the back foot, desperately trying to combat the tide of negative sentiment that swept the South African market.

Yet, a few short months later when allegations around the same retailer's HR policies exploded in a blog that went viral - its reaction showcased all the lessons that had been learnt thus far. There was immediate reaction from management, and a well thought out social media strategy was immediately set in motion - e-mails and SMSes refuting the allegations and setting out the retailer's side of the story were sent to its entire database; there was direct response to negative tweets; policy explanations went up in all stores; there was a huge focus on customer service via twitter during this time; Facebook was disabled after it was labelled a hate speech zone; and the negative sentiment was not allowed to flourish unchecked.

Yes, the retailer still took a hit - but it was nowhere near as damaging as previous social media crucifixions, primarily because the retailer had invested the time and money in developing an appropriate social media strategy.

The long and the short of it is that marketing strategies are vital to the continued success of any company - the how, the why and the when have simply changed. Any company, any business, any individual concerned with online reputation and recognition simply cannot afford to let unchecked sentiment run rampant.

^1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixgE8Ay99eE/ http://www.worldwideworx.com/socialmedia2012/
^2 http://raventools.com/blog/how-sony-connects-social-media-monitoring-to-roi-and-you-can-too/
^3 http://www.techcentral.co.za/fnb-wins-major-innovation-award/35457/