Listening With Purpose:Social Web Research

February 3

Why Are You Listening?

Foundation First!• What is your goal? (business + communications objectives)• Who is your target audience?• What do you need to find out?

Listening Goals

Initial• Find out whether your audiences are already talking to each

other online, where, how much and what about• Understand perceptions of your organization and issues• Learn how to improve your services• Determine the best way to engage with your audiences –

opportunities and hurdles

Ongoing• Support your community by resolving issues, responding to

feedback, and improving relationships

SWOT 2.0

• Your Brand• Your Issues• Your Constituents • Your Competition

Map First, Directions Second

Guiding Questions: Technographics (Best tool: Survey + secondary research)

• What are the online media habits of my target audiences? • What are their online activities (sending email, watching

videos, blogging)?• What are their most trusted sources of information online?• What is their comfort level with social media?• Would they like to engage with my organization more online?

Guiding Questions: Social Media Landscape (Best tool: Your own research)

• Is my target audience actively engaged in social media? • What is the volume, tone and topics of their conversations

related to my issues?• Are they talking about my organization?

– What are they saying?– Is it surprising the hear – whether good or bad?– Are there any fans? Any major detractors?

• Where are they talking? – What types of social media?– Any specific sites, or is the conversation dispersed?

• Are there any strong, prominent champions for my issue?

Guiding Questions: Competitive Analysis (Best tool: Your own research + case studies)

• What are my competitors doing online?• Are they being talked about?• How do perceptions of them measure up with perceptions of

my org?• Are they present in the conversation?• What are they doing well, and how can I learn from their

success?

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Finding Your Community

bloggingsocial networksyour

community

Search Tools

• Blogs: Google Blogs, Technorati, Blog Pulse – Blog Pulse Graph

• Social networks: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter• Do-good socnets: Razoo, Care2, Change.org,

Idealist.org• Issue-based online communities: Google• Message boards: BoardReader, Board Tracker• Multimedia: YouTube, Flickr• Search Visibility: Keyword results in top 3 pages• Site Traffic: Quantcast, Compete, Alexa

Searching Smarter

• Keywords: Know upfront and build on them as you search• Timeframe: The last six months of data• Audience: Specifics (age, sex, geographic location, interests)• Metrics: Assess the influence of websites and conversations • Do a top-line scan, then go back and dig deeper based on

what you find

Measurement Metrics

Reach & Engagement• Page views, visitors, time spent

on site, traffic referral sources• Inbound links from blogs/sites• Video/photo views, audio plays• Friends, members, sign ups,

Diggs, entries, petition sigs

Word of Mouth• Mentions, posts, comments• Tell-a-friends• Inbound links

Media• Offline & online mentions

Search Visibility• Higher search results• Greater “share” of search results• 3rd party mentions

Feedback• Stakeholders

Housekeeping