JitterJam – Integrated Social Marketing Software for Business

When it comes to listening in social media, searches on common terms can produce an ear-splitting amount of volume. Here at JitterJam, we’re trying to sell a product that incorporates social media listening and engagement, and that means that we’re searching social media channels for the term “social media,” which, it turns out, is a term that gets used a whole lot.

A human being can only participate in so many conversations per day, and a search on “social media” alone brings in too many results to be useful to us, so refining our social searches makes the conversation load much more manageable.

Possible refinements include adding words (like marketing and best practices), and modifying words (like searching on “social CRM” or “social marketing” instead of “social media”). But something I hadn’t experimented with as much before today was adding limiting words to a search to restrict results.

What’s the biggest cause of clutter for us when listening for mentions of the words “social media”? Links. Plain and simple, the amount of links being shared via social media about social media is immense. This is useful to us when we’re looking for great content to share. But, when we’re looking for people and companies who we think could benefit from the use of our product, the links get in the way. So, this afternoon, I did something simple and tried excluding “http” from a search.

The results narrowed substantially, but were still so vast that I needed to further refine them. I added the word “help” (figuring that this would bring up users searching for help with their social media efforts) and Bingo, I had a manageable search (about 300 results expected per day) to begin mining for potential customers.

What search terms are giving you fits or have given you fits in the past? How have you refined your searches to get more useful results? Let us know.

Every company engaged in social media should have a list of high-risk words they’re monitoring. And whenever your company or brand is mentioned in conjunction with one of the words on your list, you should be alerted. Responses to high-risk comments and conversations should be swift, but well reasoned. They should be consistent with company policy and tone, but should never be cold or emotionless. And your responses to high-risk conversations should always make it plain that you’ve been listening to the customer—your messages should never sound like canned or automated apologies.

Here are a few other things to keep in mind:

Bad isn’t always bad. Be aware of your audience and of how they speak and write. In certain situations, something that’s “bad” is actually good. And it’s always possible that the word in question is being used in a comparative way, casting a competitor in a negative light while promoting you (“Brand Y is a total fail! Brand X FTW!”).

Customers can forget you’re out there. In the heat of a rant about a bad cable installation experience or a failed DVR, it’s easy enough for consumers to forget that Comcast is out there. Remind them! Remind them that you are there to listen and help, even though they may have been unsuccessful in getting through to a sympathetic human being via your other customer service channels. And, if you can—and if it makes sense—do this publicly. That way you remind all of your other customers (or potential customers), as well.

Some things just can’t be fixed. Southwest Airlines found themselves in a no-win situation recently, after film director Kevin Smith was removed from one of their flights for being “too fat to fly” (Smith’s words, not SWA’s). Smith was so embarrassed and so upset that it was essentially impossible for Southwest to fix the situation. The director was all over Twitter within minutes of his ejection, recorded two podcasts on the debacle within the week, and publicly picked apart every blog post and tweet that SWA offered in response to his complaint. Could Southwest have handled things more honestly, more intelligently, and with more transparency? Certainly. But, even if they had, there are certain situations where things are so out of a company’s control that to try and control them might do more harm than good. Attempts should be made to fix any situation, but every company needs to establish parameters for when they absolutely must stop trying to fix the unfixable.

How do you monitor and react to high-risk conversations? If you have tips, please share them in the comments below.