Why Aggregating Real-Time Conversation is an Opportunity for Brands
December 21st, 2009Author: Saurabh Wahi
The real-time web is creating thousands of conversations about brands and products. These conversations, ranging from tid-bits of opinions to live mobile streaming videos, aren’t fleeting away as fast as they were created. Instead, they’re indexed, archived, streamed and searchable. Combined together, these conversations form a collective intelligence that is influencing choices, opinions and purchase decisions.
Can brands find opportunity in these streams of chatter? Can they use them to reach more customers or build greater loyalty?
We think the answer is a resounding yes as long as certain criteria are met.
But before we go into our reasons, let’s consider why brands should even care about this topic.
Why should we care? 
When Seth Godin announced his Brands in Public Project, it drove plenty of discussion. The project automatically aggregates real-time conversation and trends about a brand on one side of the page. The other side is handed over to the brand, allowing them to feed their own content, add commentary and curate the page as they see fit. Godin faced some Brands in Public Project, it drove plenty of discussion. The project automatically aggregates real-time conversation and trends about a brand on one side of the page. The other side is handed over to the brand, allowing them to feed their own content, add commentary and curate the page as they see fit. Godin faced some criticism about the idea’s execution, fee structure, and legal/ethical issues.
However, there was very little discussion about the aspect we felt that mattered most: implications of a real-time collection of opinions for brands, CMOs and consumers.
Fact is, real-time conversations are increasingly becoming sources of information for consumers. Google’s introduction last week of real-time search shows how easy it is for consumers to access real-time conversations – even if they’re not participating. In fact anyone can use simple feed aggregators to quickly create public portals that track conversations about a brand from sources like twitter, backtype and blogsearch.
Trying to control, restrict or discourage such aggregation or expect company permissions will probably prove to be naïve in the long run.
Take Wikipedia for example. Brands have no control over what’s written about them. They can persuade, influence and educate but they cannot control. A parallel for the real-time web is inevitable.
Taken a step further, if technologies like Google’s sidewiki find popularity, millions of users will be empowered to have conversations about your brand, right on your home page (well, next to it) without any permission or control from your company.
This underscores why we ought to focus on finding opportunities to embrace conversations rather than trying to control them.
Where’s the opportunity? Where’s the risk?
Opportunity and risk go hand-in-hand with real-time conversations, especially when they are aggregated in one place. Let’s break some of these down:
Opportunities
- Powerful endorsement: We trust each other’s opinions (or even strangers’) far more than we trust advertising. By simply streaming the genuine excitement and opinions your customers express for your brand, you can get powerful endorsements for prospective customers.
- A chance to chat: A central hub that aggregates conversations about your brand also offers you the opportunity to join in. You can educate, influence and persuade people to see your point of you.
- Steer a situation rather than be steered by one: Issues will occur. But when customers know where to go for answers from the official source and from other customers, they can resolve issues faster.
- Real-time research: You can continue to spend thousands on market research but don’t ignore the powerful insights you can get for free and in real-time by listening in on the conversation.
Risks
- Conversations can be biased: Though every member of a community can voice opinions, sometimes only a fraction of them actually do, making conversations susceptible to biases. Often times a vocal minority dominates a majority of the conversation and tone.
- Anonymity can skew tonality: Anonymity online can lead people to act in extremes (online disinhibition effect) and the resulting conversations can skew the (usually negative) tone or gravity of any situation to extremes.
Should You Capitalize on Real-Time Conversations or not?
There is obviously no template answer to this question. Developing a strategy that leverages conversations online depends on variables such as brand, reputation, culture and internal support, among others.
That said, if the current tone of conversation about your brand ranges mostly between positive and neutral, then it’s likely you can leverage this conversation very successfully. On the other hand, if current conversations are mostly negative, measures to fix this are critical.
Ultimately, every marketing manager will sooner or later need to deal with real-time conversations about their brand in one central location. And they will have neither the ability to impose permissions nor control.
So how can we take advantage of the opportunities created by the real-time web?
We’ll explore this in greater detail next week. But meanwhile we’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you see opportunities? If so, how would you leverage these?
Endorsement deal: Real-time conversations about Avatar aggregated by Google’s real-time search show average folks raving about the movie – the most powerful endorsement you can get.
