8 Steps to Begin Your Social Media Measurement Program

Social media measurement programs are custom and unique for each company depending on their business objectives. Clients often ask me when they begin a measurement project “Here are the brands we want to monitor, what KPI’s should we include in our reports?” There are an unlimited amount of KPI's that you can use when trying to measure your brand in social media. You could have a crack team of 20 marketing pros with access to 10 different vendors, have an unlimited budget, and you still could not report on everything in a digestible fashion. You need to go into your program with a plan and a purpose in order to produce valuable and repeatable results.

1. Objectives: Have a clear business objective before you step into any measurement project. Are you looking at the competitive landscape? Monitor opinions of a product launch? Increase Brand Awareness? Customer Engagement? or Tracking the success of a specific marketing campaign?
2. Identify Channels: Understand that all channels are not equal and should not be treated that way. Total volume for every mention of your brand over the internet usually does not give you a clear picture on what is happening. Create publication/website groups to improve the relevance in your volume based KPI's.
3. Value: Only use KPI's that add value. Sure your graph looked really impressive in the slide deck, but what happens when your boss asks where that data came from, or why is that figure important? Have these answers ready for any KPI you plan to use in a social media measurement project.
4. Repeatable Metrics: Make sure that you are able to repeat the production of your KPI's. If it takes you the better part of your week to produce one metric,  you should find a metric or collection of metrics that are easier to produce.
5. Change: Be open to change. The social media landscape changes every day, you should be ready to as well. I think you can stop writing to your customers on Friendster now.
6. Weighted Metrics: Apply weighted values to each metric. Every metric has a different meaning to each company. Don't get stuck using a methodology that was built for an organization in a completely separate marketplace. Use the thought process behind the "Forrester Wave" as an example. Apply a specific weight to each KPI to reach one single score that can be easily shared with your executive team.
7. Relevancy: When creating your goals and identifying channels you want to track, it is just as important to identify content you don't want included in your data. When using a social media measurement vendor, make sure they are filtering out spam, press wires, or any other unwanted content that could skew your data.
8. Manual Effort: No social media measurement vendor will be able to automatically produce every piece of data that you need to reach your business objectives. There will always be a manual aspect to a quality social media measurement program and you should designate specific resources for this.

Turning Insights Into Foresight

Last week, The Advertising Research Foundation hosted the inaugural meeting of its Research Transformation Super Council.  To be certain, it was a thought provoking meeting of the minds. Many key points, way beyond the scope of this post, were made during the meeting. My focus here is on the question of how to make market research more germane to the executives and others who utilize the information. Naturally, getting beyond the data to valuable insights which can then be turned into recommendations are critical ingredients, and perhaps stating the obvious at this point.

Throughout the discussion, I kept wondering if the real challenge lay in the simple directive “tell me something that I don’t already know.” Accomplishing that goal captures attention, provokes thought, and creates the perception that there is value in funding and listening to the research. This, of course, does not imply that there is not value in research that validates what the stakeholders already believe. In fact, most market research should be on target with existing positioning and messaging, aligned with the consumer’s current needs and motivations.

The insights get really exciting, however, when the market research can point to evolving or undiscovered needs, beliefs, or motivations. So, how do you turn insights into foresight? To a certain degree, it’s serendipity. And, you clearly won’t find those nuggets every time. Nor can you rely on stumbling on them. Rather, I think it comes down to asking the right questions, following hunches, and not being afraid to follow interesting paths in the conversations.

Social media is an ideal vehicle for getting to those insights which can be considered foresight: it’s conversation not prompted by you, nor does it answer your direct questions. It’s not grounded in a need to validate. But, to use social media for this goal requires going beyond the quantitative measures. It’s about identifying which dialogue is likely to have the themes in the posts, following interesting threads, and using what you find as the basis to ask additional questions. When we tell our clients “something they don’t already know” through the insights we extract from the dialogue, it immediately captures their attention and everyone feels rewarded.

FourSquare and the Venue Sponsorship Multiplier

Everybody that’s anybody in social monitoring has been talking about FourSquare, Gowalla, and other “social geolocator services” over the past couple of weeks. Following the South by Southwest festival and some pretty astounding user growth rate reports from FourSquare, popular digital media channels such as Mashable and ReadWriteWeb have been pushing the importance of this new trend. Add reports that Facebook will be soon entering the location-based services game – in addition to Google’s long-standing Latitude feature – and there’s probably more to this than just hype.  (For the record, we at Cymfony have measured a SUBSTANTIAL jump in FourSquare mentions over the past 2 months.)

There’s plenty of public information already available on the value of location data. After all, customers are effectively saying “I’m visiting your business…right now” from their social-enabled mobile devices. Aggregate this data for a particular industry over time, look at “Top Visitors” for specific locations, or mash it up with Google/Bing Maps. There is no scarcity of analytical or customer engagement possibilities.

I’d like to take a novel slant on this issue, however – namely, the effect location-based services have on venue sponsorships. Over the past several weeks, we have been discussing the importance of Twitter/FourSquare posts in client reporting following the jump in volumes. Beyond brand mentions of retail locations (i.e. “I’m at so-and-so store”), there are a staggering number of mentions of brand-sponsored concert/sports venues as well: the Bank of America Pavilion, TD Garden, and Comcast Center (these are just examples in/around my Boston locale, so don’t read too much into them). 

Here’s how it works:

·         Primary venue sponsors are featured prominently as part of the venue name.

·         These names naturally find their way into the FourSquare/GoWalla location directories, including the brand name itself.

·         When users visit these venues, they “check in” to let others know their location

·         As a result, thousands of “check ins” are published to FourSquare, and users inadvertently drive brand impressions on behalf of venue sponsors. Because most novice users default to publish their “check ins” to Twitter, this channel can become easily flooded as well.  Example.

At first, we were reluctant to use these posts for analytical treatment – the customer wasn’t visiting the brand’s location but rather an unrelated venue. But many marketers at global companies know there’s a lot more to branding than retail visitation. Having thousands of people Tweeting, updating their Facebook status, or otherwise mentioning your brand (in a positive context) has value, even if it’s just to relate “the great time we’re having at the Stones show.” Like the giant signs and advertisements at the Garden, the name of this game is “more eyeballs,” and in this case, every location tweet counts.

Then, should marketers re-value their venue sponsorships based on this extended branding? Should venue owners charge an additional premium for sponsors? Can we come up with a “venue sponsorship multiplier” to quantify the effects of FourSquare and other location services? We’ve been mulling over these questions and others… what do you think?

(Worldwide FourSquare Day is held annually on April 16^th… Four, Squared…  get it?)

Short Musing on the Internet and the Evolution of the Mind

“The Internet is a brain. There, I said it. It has taken me far too long to publicly utter those words.” - Jeffrey M. Stibel

Comparing the Internet to the central nervous system, to a “hivemind” has become something of a cliché over the years. Yet in thinking about the realm of Social Media, the increased proliferation of the myriad options people have to connect to the world and each other using the Internet, I became fascinated with the converse – how really UNLIKE the human nervous system the Internet actually is. While perhaps no single model or comparison may do justice to the complex system of human communication and information processing that has developed, a discussion about this may guide the understanding of certain aspects of it.

The nervous systems and ultimately brains which developed in organic creatures and finally humans were essentially tools enabling adaptation to the environment: i.e., survival equipment. While initially designed and used to enhance human activities, the complex web of information networks that exists today has de facto become an environment in its own right. We as humans must acquire skills, upgrade our (individual and collective) technical arsenals to adapt to it, to keep up with it – to survive.

One key element (defense mechanism? usability feature?) of the human mind is the sometimes uncanny ability to filter, categorize and selectively process information. If our minds and bodies responded to every stimulus from the environment, our systems would overload in no time – so the brain is able to filter out irrelevant “noise”, focus on and respond to threats and rewards. Harnessing the potential of this fantastic and ever-growing construct that is now the broadly defined “WEB”, and more specifically Social Media networks, requires that same ability to segregate, filter and classify endless stream of stimuli that courses within them. To do otherwise invites inevitable paralysis or incorrect conclusions and adverse (re)actions by the participants – be they individuals, groups, corporate entities or nations.

We as a human race now possess a new, constantly growing and evolving tool that has potential on par with the one that gave such unprecedented advantage to the Homo sapiens over other forms of life on the planet - the original computer encased within each of us: our brains. The ever-growing, highly complex, adaptable and fast system of information transmission and processing is now in the form of the global telecommunications network. We also have at our disposal something never present in the natural world (the very real limits posed by our ultimate energy consumption laid aside for the moment): a nearly complete lack of constraints in the potential complexity, speed and energy in using this system. However, realizing the promise and benefits offered by this network is very much an active, conscious process. 

The mere presence of opportunity is insufficient; to be “lucky”, one must also be thoroughly prepared. We all need better skills and sharper tools in this new environment – the first of which must be an accurate understanding of it. The evolutionary leap has just begun, only now in many ways humankind is both the selector and the selectee in this new process of evolution.

Social Media Helps You Understand the Price-Quality Formula

Throughout the troubled economy, I observed the impact of the recession in people’s attitudes towards consumer packaged goods, technology, communication, travel and other services.  One of the most common themes in social media discussion highlights the fascinating relationship between cost and quality of goods and services. How much is one willing to forego in terms of benefits to achieve savings is a key question.  As I listen to these conversations, I begin to glean distinct personas that appear to have a specific threshold when negotiating between cost and quality. 

Let me give you an example comparing two personas.  

First, bargain hunters.   We all know who they are.  They are easy to spot and relatively simple enough to convert.   Their propensity to buy is driven primarily by a low price point, and this attitude is magnified by the lousy economy.  They predictably go for the cheapest available option, thanks to having the lowest expectations on quality and other attributes.  In social media, they usually drive the positive favorability towards bargain brands.

A slightly more complex group of consumers are those that appear to be willing to pay more for better quality or better experience (as they have had the opportunity to enjoy premium brands in the past), but are guilt-ridden with the idea of splurging due to the current state of the economy.  In conversations, they oscillate between mid-tier and premium brands, weighing the cost-quality benefits.  Unlike bargain hunters, their decision-making is more nuanced and less predictable, but discussion in social media does glean an interesting finding about their propensity to buy.  A premium brand becomes more attractive than ever to this group when they feel that they are getting the product or service at a lower-than-usual price point, even if, technically, it is more expensive than anything else in the market. A mid-tier brand, however, will not be quite as compelling to them even if the price drop is more significant.

The learning: amidst the recession, there is still opportunity to appeal to what consumers want beyond what they simply need, and social media will tell you how.

Marketers know that the price-quality formula is more important than ever in these economic times, and the resonance of this topic in social media substantiates its influence in purchase decisions.  The winning brands – those that generate the strongest sentiment overall – appear to have found the sweet spot in a price-quality structure that appeals to the market majority.  

Many reports claim that the economy is getting better.  To a degree, social media commentary will reflect this.  I look forward to witnessing how the trend in conversations and brand sentiment shift as market conditions (continue to?) improve.  This optimist can hope. 

Hello (Social) World.

I could probably talk for weeks at a time about printing, publishing, and enterprise content management (ECM) as a former technology research analyst. In fact, that was largely my job until 3 weeks ago, when I first joined the Cymfony Insights team. Researching content management, social media, analytics, and automation technologies; I focused on improving companies’ internal and external communication processes - from print to digital to social. Turning my attention to Cymfony, I intend to take advantage of this technology and research background to deliver unique insights about the social media channel, where it’s headed, and how to extract as much market information and leverage from it as possible.

While we are only on the cusp of the social revolution (no Marxist commentary intended), social media monitoring has already catalyzed a vast methodology shift in market research. No longer limited to standard measurement approaches such as surveys and focus groups, burgeoning online content – both social and traditional media – enables a new kind of monitoring. Focused on mashing disparate data sources, dynamically analyzing them, and responding in real-time, perhaps “listening” is a more appropriate term for this methodology.

As we get comfortable in the third millennium, it’s worth considering how far we’ve come from the first blog post and how much farther social media will take us. Penetrating every aspect of our culture, social media has the potential to re-define the way we work and the way we live. In the meantime, the Insights team (and this new member) is dedicated to providing visionary and credible studies of this exciting new world! (Twitter: @omriduek)

Traditional Media Still Rules!

This article in the NYT yesterday shows that traditional media still leads the blogosphere in breaking news by an average of 2.5 hours.

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Social Media's Role in Healthcare Education, and the Implications for the Marketer

Recently, the Pew Internet and American Life Project published a study entitled The Social Life of Health Information.  The study is quite informative, but as Cymfony's resident healthcare analyst, I found two of Pew's findings to be especially signicant:

1) Over half of what Pew calls "e-patients" (those who rely on the internet for health information) are turning to social media in the course of their research.

2) While 66% of "e-patients" research specific diseases or medical conditions, 55% research specific medical treatments or procedures.  The percentage of "e-patients" who research specific diseases has not increased significantly since 2002, however the percentage who research specific treatments has climbed from 47% in 2002 to 55% in 2008.

Marketing professionals in all areas of healthcare must understand the implications of these two facts.  Let's begin with the first fact that over half of all "e-patients" are turning to social media.  Whereas "non-user generated" healthcare content is generally based on academic knowledge, clinical results, and marketing spin, social media healthcare content is built on patient opinions and personal accounts.  Therefore, over half of "e-patients" are making healthcare decisions based, at least in part, on information provided by other patients.  This makes it imperative that the marketer is aware of these online opinions.  Rather than speaking to patients and potential patients, healthcare marketers must listen first and then develop communications that not only speak to consumers but also respond to prevailing attitudes and concerns.  In this sense, an understanding of social media is similar to the insights gleaned from traditional focus group and survey-based research, though social media provides a platform for unsolicited feedback.  Two other advantages of social media are that conversations are peer-to-peer rather than "moderator-to-consumer", and patients are often afforded a greater level of anonymity in social media.  The psychological differences between these two scenarios likely lead to the expression of more honest opinions.

The second fact, that 55% of "e-patients" research specific treatments and procedures, serves to emphasize the importance of the implications mentioned above.  One of the first thoughts that should cross the marketer's mind when developing communication strategies should be, "the chances are very good that my target market will search the internet for specific information about my product."  The natural follow-up question should be, "what will my target market discover about my product in online media?" 

Pew's study shows that without a thorough understanding of the attitudes expressed in social media, a marketer can not develop optimal communication strategies.

Bride 2.0

Although I read blogs for a living, the thought of consulting blogs and message boards to plan my wedding was far from my mind.  That is, until I read a post that referenced a wedding blog in passing.  Now my wedding includes lots of ideas I picked up from other bridal survivors.  One example is table numbers.  I never knew how creative you could get with labeling the tables.  Instead of large numbers or cardboard signs, we will be displaying notebooks at all of the tables.  Not only will the notebooks function as table numbers, but they will also provide guests with a place to record notes to the bride and groom (idea credited to oncewed.com).

This led me to contemplate where else social media would be valuable, and why this would be true.  I settled on: Any industry where a consumer would become emotionally involved.   At Cymfony, we have seen it time and time again, when there is something on the line, whether it be money, a new car, or the perfect tablescape, consumers turn to social media to give or get advice.  Additionally, as they become more prolific, blogs and message boards are gaining a more authoritative reputation.  These aren’t unintelligible rants, but thoughtful opinion.

What I get from bridal blogs that I don’t get from wedding magazines or official websites is advice without strings attached.  I know that when I click through to see how something is done I’m going to get a series of pictures taken in someone’s living room, not an online marketplace.  I have a trust in these women, I feel that they are only there to help me and are looking for nothing in return.  It’s almost like they are my cousin sharing a wedding planning notebook from her wedding last year.

                This changes the media – marketer – consumer landscape.  We are no longer a captive audience looking to follow the methods and ways as spelled out by the publishing house.  Just as banner ads have lost their efficacy in online marketing, so too have magazines and company websites when dealing with matters of emotional importance.

Notes from OMMA Social Panel: Authentic Conversations

I just finished a great discussion about how marketers can create authentic conversations in social media here at OMMA Social. Here are the highlights....

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On Travel: Lower Price vs. Higher Quality

Even in this economy, the cheaper option doesn’t always score high on preference measures.

Hi, I’m Cathy, an Analyst here at Cymfony.  I take the lead on technology clients, but with my marketing background in travel, I recently had the opportunity to work on a study for a travel client and came across an interesting angle on consumer sentiment towards price points. 

Anyone can tell you that consumers are becoming more price sensitive than ever in these economic times.  Across common goods and services, “budget” brands and wholesalers are gaining traction; “premium” brands are struggling.  In social media, positive sentiment is stronger for budget brands. “Value” is the most resonant discussion theme in message forums, indicating prioritization of cost over inherent product attributes.  

Does this mean all companies should work towards significantly lowering price points to compete in the marketplace?  The answer seems to be, “Not necessarily.  In social media, “premium” brands equated with high quality AND high price still trump “budget” brands when it comes to measures of consumer preference.  Looking closely at what people are saying, customers still strongly prefer a better product or a higher quality experience in spite of tough times compounding the price barrier.  While discussion suggest that the pragmatic mind gravitates to cost as a priority, many posts indicate that raw emotions crave goods and services of the highest quality.  Clearly, there is opportunity to tap emotions that are not “selling out” to cheaper alternatives.  

Consumers are price-watching across the board but have their eagle eyes on premium brands. Furthermore, conversations indicate that they are more keen on opening the wallet if they believe they are getting a sweet-ENED deal on a better product.  We see statements like “I’ve tried them.  It was more expensive but I had a good experience, so when there was a price drop, I immediately took advantage” or “I heard good things about them, so I’m just waiting for a discount.”  An itty bitty savings can potentially multiply desirability for a premium product (more so than a huge discount on a low end product) and push the consumer over the edge to close the sale. Savvy marketers believe this in their gut. Now social media analysis validates this belief in the voice of the consumer.

'Bye, 'bye those big upfront buys...

Check out this hilarious video. Media and marketing industry veterans will especially appreciate this. (Warning: watch at home or close your office door: you'll be laughing so hard your co-workers will think you've gone over the edge!)

Will Google Wave be the Fifth Wave of the Internet?

The Internet has evolved through four waves since it entered everyday usage: communication, content, commerce and community (aka social media). Will Google Wave usher in a fifth wave: Collaboration?

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Social Media: Strategic Tool 2.0

Social media tracking is no longer just for damage control and seeing what the consumers have digested, it is about looking toward the future and discovering what the consumer wants and how they make their decisions.

Recently the Cymfony CPG team has been working on bringing more of our Clients away from the purely tactical uses of social media and into looking at it as a strategic tool.  Currently I am working with a Client who has been with us for years.  They originally came to us to use our tools to track a negative PR episode and never adjusted the scope of work after things had died down.  For the last three years we were able to give them metrics that allowed them to keep a handle on damage control, but last week they came to us and asked, ‘how are some of your other Clients using the data you give?’

As social media evolves, it is becoming a more strategic tool for businesses and brand managers.  We have been hearing feedback from Clients in various verticals about using our data and insights to make changes in their customer service relations, or as fuel for long-term campaigns.

So for this Client, instead of reviewing the data on a monthly basis, we looked at the first quarter of 2009.   Rather than looking at the same data that we reported on, we looked at everything that was brought into our systems.  And finally, instead of looking at our narrow scope, we did a blanket search for "unbranded" key terms in all social media that is available to us at this time.  By doing that, I was able to describe consumer motivations in the category and identify alternative services outside of the Client’s definition of ‘direct competitors.’  This gave them data that validated a direction they were considering and helped them move forward to execute it.

There's still time to learn how to Put the Social Web to Work

  We've had a great response to our webinar this Wednesday 2/25 at 12 noon eastern time, "Putting the Social Web to Work". But there is still time to sign up -- click here.

Author Dave Evans will take attendees through a straightforward and practical evolutionary process for how to incorporate the Social Web into your marketing plans. He'll begin with listening, then talk about developing a sensible response, and ultimately influencing the markets that are critical to success.

Please join us!

Did Facebook just set the stage for sharing revenue with consumers?

In case there was any doubt before, the backlash against Facebook's change in policy to take more control of consumer-created data and content shows that consumers will militantly protect what they create. Will users next demand a cut of any revenue that Facebook derives from their work?

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February 25 Webinar: Putting the Social Web to Work

I'm really excited to host a webinar next week with my friend and someone I consider a guru of all things digital: Dave Evans. Read on to learn more or click here to register -- and you may win a free copy of Dave's new book!

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Good Rates and Good Neighbors

Hi – My name is Jessica and I’ve worked at TNSCymfony for about a year and half.  In that time I’ve had the opportunity to work in a variety of different industries, finally settling in to the insurance industry over the past year.  Oh yes, I’m talking about property/casualty, auto, life and homeowners insurance. If you’re thinking this doesn’t apply to you, take a moment to think about how much money you spend on insurance in a month, a year.  Or better yet, think about the last time you had to file a claim with your insurance company…  So, yes, it’s that important.

Ok, let’s start off with the obvious stuff – Advertising.

Advertising in the insurance industry is all about brand promise.  I’m sure you can think of a few tag lines off the top of your head (or maybe I just read too many insurance blogs):

Geico - “Save you 15 % or more on car insurance”

State Farm -“Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there”

Do these phrases resonate with you?  Do they make you want to seek out their insurance?  If not, maybe their funny, bizarre, perhaps more serious commercials catch your eye... no?  If you’re like many other people out there, you’d say you’re just looking for the best rate and that’s it.  Well, I’ve got news for you – it’s not all about the rate.

After over a year of reading about the ongoing quests for the “best” care/home/life insurance, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not just about price.  Many people post on message boards and blogs about their rates and their experience with specific insurance companies.  For the most part, these people have exposure to at least two or three different companies, switching primarily because of poor customer service, or negative experiences when having to file a claim.

Initially, yes, people want the best deal in town (often asking complete strangers possibly on the other side of the country about what they should be paying for car insurance), but then comes the life change (the accident, the baby, the flood, etc.) and all of a sudden these people are wishing they had better customer service or an agent that was more explicit about their coverage and rates go right out the window.  I’ve read too many instances of people not getting enough money for the house/car because they didn’t know the fine print of their insurance policy. 

Insurance companies are only as good as what they can do for you when things go wrong.  It’s a tough business but there’s a unique opportunity here – to listen and respond to the specific needs of their customers.  

• Companies do not want to compete on rates alone in the market.  Progressive and GEICO have pretty explicitly carved out that portion of the space, so move on.
• Social Media gives insurance companies the opportunity to respond to the needs of their customers, far beyond straight rate comparisons.  
• With so many people asking complete strangers for insurance recommendations, a company could establish itself as a trustworthy knowledge base for people to research their overall coverage needs, breaking free of rate only competition. 

A recent Cone LLC study confirmed that not only are people looking for company involvement in social media, but 85% of social media users believe a company should be present AND interact with consumers via social media.  It’ll be those companies who listen to their customers and evolve to meet their particular needs that end up truly delivering on their brand promise in the end.  

The Big Super Bowl Ad Winners: Not Pepsi, Coke or Bud

This Ad Age article cites our respected competitor, Collective Intellect, saying that Pepsico dominated the social media discussion of the Super Bowl ads. Not so fast. Movies outstripped Pepsico's performance, and Transformers beat brand Pepsi in the immediate post-game discussion.

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A trend emerges in Social Media

Hello, my name is Kate and I have been working at Cymfony for just over a year.  In that time you could say that I have become the go-to person for all of our food clients.  It started with a simple project looking at peanuts and now has exploded to bars, crackers, and most recently cereal.  Throughout this time spent knee deep in food discussion, Jim Nail has been consistently asking me to blog about some of my findings.  Not wanting to bore you with talk about inulin (a particular form of fiber) and high fructose corn syrup, I have been hesitant to put my thoughts on the subject out here until one very dominant trend emerged.

The topic of today’s reading will be on what I call ‘the weight watchers.’  These individuals are not necessarily in the Weight Watchers program, but they are consumers who regularly and learnedly discuss weight management on the web.   In every food study that I have worked on, whether it is about the intersection of food, health and wellness, or an investigation on why one cereal brand has been the most popular brand in the last twelve years, the weight watchers emerge as the dominant voice.

This group is made up of two large sub-groups: weight conscious women* and the body-building men.  Both of these groups are very conscious of what foods and which ingredients they put into their bodies.  Additionally, both groups keep avid food diaries, and in many cases, these are online journals.  The weight watchers have all been through tough times and have struggled to get to where they are.  They are an online community that is simply there for support and encouragement of the new members.

Discussions on food are quite different than discussions of other products that we analyze. Social media tonality for most of our clients is usually neutral**, but with all of our food clients to date, the tonality breakdown has been 80-90 percent positive.  The biggest reason for this is that weight watchers go online to offer advice and to educate, not to complain or ‘bash’ a brand or product.  Additionally, most of the discussion drivers*** for our food clients have also been positive.  This shows that the weight watchers are online advocating products.  This is the group’s most defining characteristic, with all of the things to complain about – high price, high calorie count, etc. weight watchers only comment on what they deem helpful to another blogger.  When comparing two similar products, a post will typically only explain why one product is preferred over the other, and not call attention to the lesser product’s flaws. 

We also see that discussions about food take place on a variety of sites, including general discussion sites and general health sites such as ivillage.com and answers.yahoo.com, as well as specialty weight loss sites you might expect like calorie-count.com.  This shows that food conversations online are diverse in topic and location.

                Next time I’ll talk about where health management fits into all of this and what those trends look like!

* With social media it is very difficult to discern age, gender and life stage.

** Meaning that a majority of the documents collected speak neither positively or negatively about a brand being tracked.

***Discussion drivers are the topics with the highest volume.  We look at a wide range of discussion drivers, including taste, recommend, price, health, etc.