The Internet is a pool of information about our consumers, from which we can learn about their needs, perceptions, habits, or opinions, amongst many other things. Yet, how can we convert this data into useful information that guides us when making decisions?
Firstly, it is crucial to have a clear understanding of what our information needs are. Although it may sound obvious, simply listening to see what is said on the Internet will only leave us with an abundance of superficial and generic information, which is neither valuable nor actionable. We need to start from an existing hypothesis or question, an unknown that determines our actions.
How has the Minister for Consumer Affairs´ latest statements impacted my target audience? What needs are we not meeting with our customer service system? Within a communications department, we face questions like these daily: questions whose answers determine our strategy and for which we need to have accessible, real-time information.
Secondly, we must interpret the data to answer our questions. Dashboards and metrics are one way to visualize data; however, to appropriately make a decision, we need to gain perspective about the topic. We need to extract learnings that, when combined, help us understand what options we have.
For example, after analyzing the social media comments following Minister Garzón’s recommendations about reducing meat consumption, we identified the following:
- Within a week, the digital conversation reached more than 230,000 mentions in Spain, a significant number compared to other social impact conversations occurring simultaneously, such as Moderna’s vial contamination in Japan (< 7,000 mentions).
- During the first two weeks, only 17% of the mentions were original content (37,000 posts), with 83% retweets. More than 80% of the activity consisted of retweeting comments, indicating that it was an interesting topic for the public since the diffusion achieved was much higher than the original activity itself.
- Around 57% of the conversation supported the minister’s statements, echoing the positive effect that reducing meat consumption would have on health and environmental sustainability. The purpose of these comments was to persuade the audience to change their habits. In other words, the issue was an ideological one and was linked to two of the most relevant social and political trends of the moment at a global level.
- Only 1% of the comments in favor of reducing meat consumption had to do with animal welfare and animal rights. In fact, even organizations such as the Animal Equality Foundation, whose primary purpose is animal protection, put out messages that talked about the issue in terms of health and sustainability. Moreover, nutrition, health, environmentalism, and sustainability influencers, among many others, were also participating, indicating that the issue had the potential to act as a catalyst for their demands and interests.
- Approximately 25% of the conversation criticized the minister’s statements, mainly regarding political and economic issues, such as the harmful industry and economic impact that such a reduction would cause or the government’s intervention against citizens’ freedom. The primary purpose of these comments was to delegitimize the sender rather than refute the arguments provided; for example, by pointing out how often current politicians had consumed meat. This finding indicates that the conversation was unbalanced in the degree of alignment between supporters of each position and the strength of the narratives employed.
- None of the industry representatives were among the most influential authors in the conversation. In fact, there was no significant activity concerning the industry’s standpoint. Therefore, the ideas and opinions of people who stood up for the industry were attributed to the industry´s representatives despite not always aligning with their interests. Their vision was not personally shared with the public.
With these lessons in mind and other sources of information available to us, it is time to develop a plan and make decisions. In this case, some of the possible courses of action we could have implemented are as follows:
1.- Damage control by providing an immediate response based on data and with informed statements, allowing the sector’s companies to participate in the debate and share their stance and concerns firsthand.
2.- Develop a co-creation and social listening plan to improve communication and connection between industries and society, helping to bring the parties’ positions closer together.
3.- Consolidate the sector’s position and dismantle any myths or misinformation, mitigating risks and negative criticism that are not specific to the industry to adjust the perception to its actual positioning.
4.- Communicate with decision-makers and informed audiences to define the debate’s context and offer the industry’s expertise and knowledge.
Of course, we could have designed an action plan without the information gathered from social networks; however, if we had conducted the analysis based on public statements or through media content, we would be ignoring the social aspect, which does not seem very appropriate seeing that we are in the ESG era.
The Internet has become the 21st century’s social hub, consolidating itself as a platform for citizens, consumers, politicians, and all participants on the stakeholder map to express their opinions and communicate with others. By paying attention to their comments and conversations, we can gain knowledge beyond the mere content of their messages, building a context that reveals patterns and trends that are evident in the offline world and affect our organizations.
Social listening is a crucial strategic communication tool as it allows us to obtain a snapshot of our environment quickly and easily, either in real-time or in retrospect. This methodology enables us to incorporate the public’s perception into our vision when applied to day-to-day business. It provides us with the overlook needed to develop effective and focused communication to best connect with our environment.
We can observe our audiences in real-time, with a naturalness that characterizes daily conversations and activities such as discussing a movie, chatting with a friend, or talking about one’s interests and life experiences, as we have never before. Above all, through the Internet, we can observe our audiences with unprecedented accessibility and a magnitude during a time when uncertainty has become the most certain thing in our strategic plans
Contact: rrico@atrevia.com
Click here to read the full article originally published.
