Marketing For Power Packed Business Growth

Marketing trends picked up through the Internet?

That’s the way it’s going reckons Steven Levingston in a Washington Post article titled “Blog Buzz Helps Companies Catch Trends in the Making”.

As Steve says in the article,

“To capture the chatter, Nielsen BuzzMetrics, a giant in the industry, uses software that collects hundreds of thousands of comments a day. The technology can scan for specific companies, products, brands, people -- anything searchable. It can slice data into a range of categories to quantify the number of times a subject was discussed online, the individuals who mentioned it and the communities where it appeared”.

So Big Brother has finally arrived!

Listen To Your Customer’s Voice

Having said that companies need to use this information. It’s the authentic voice of their customers.

Remember in marketing you lose customers and often you don’t know why. Now on the Internet people are complaining about poor service, inferior products or bad design. That allows companies that are listening to plan and implement improvements.

Steve notes that ConAgra, a vast American food group, is exploring not just the new trends in food, such as lowering interest in low-carb meals, but also news relating to its products - like how avian flu might affect its customers perceptions of their chicken dishes.

That’s not to say that everything that is said in blogs or forums is to be taken as absolute truth.

But as the volume of regular bloggers grows the accuracy of predictions made on their content will rise.

Companies in the Uk that would benefit from such Buzz analysis would include British Airway, BP, BAe-Systems, Dixons, Hertz, ICI and Unilever, and other large consumer goods and service companies.

The Rise Of Fake Blogs

The downside to companies taking an interest in blog posting is going to be a rise in fake blogs and fake posts.

Ryan May who runs the Minnesota Public Relations Blog wrote an article last year called Small Company? Better Blog!. that explains how running your own blog can defuse the PR nightmare of Internet gossip stopping a marketing campaign or even a company in its tracks.

Why Must A Company Blog?

Almost any company needs to blog for the following reasons:

• Positions your company as the expert


• Defence against fake blogs


• Monitor the blogosphere for comments relating to it, its products and its competitors.

Those companies who don’t have the time to research and create blogs in their own market need to employ a blogger who can provide a blog service. I already do this for a client and am monitoring the statistics from the posts. You need to get doing the same.

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