Advertisers try to track online "buzz" - Warc News

News: September 16, 2009

NEW YORK: Advertisers such as Coca-Cola, Microsoft and Whole Foods are taking a varied approach to tracking the "buzz" about their brands on portals like Twitter, and are also attempting to utilise this information in a number of different ways.

Coca-Cola has adopted a service called Scout, provided by Scout Labs, which enables the soft drinks giant to follow relevant comments on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

According to Adam Brown, the Atlanta-based firm's head of social media, it also applies to blogs and websites where content is written in languages other than English.

Scout, which attempts to determine if this material is critical or enthusiastic, is available for a minimum of $99 (€68; £60) a month, but the price increases in line with the number of search terms used.

Brown has previously argued that "as the world's most-recognised brand, we feel like there's an obligation or a responsibility when people are talking about us, we have a duty to respond."

In an effort to aid this process, Coca-Cola has developed its own system to measure clickthrough rates on the links contained in its Twitter posts.

Microsoft, the IT giant, is utilising a tool provided by CoTweet which allows brand owners to track and respond to "tweets" quickly and easily.

Marcus Schmidt, the senior marketing manager and community manager at the company, uses the Tweet Assignments programme to monitor activity on two different Twitter accounts.

The Redmond-based firm receives around 300 messages a day from consumers, and Tweet Assignment means Schmidt can send these directly on to the appropriate department and ask for their feedback.

Similarly, the recipient is able either to respond to the original enquiry themselves, or give Schmidt the requested information to add to the social network.

Whole Foods, the natural and organic food chain, employs another application developed by CoTweet, in order to stay on top of the 500 messages it receives on a daily basis.

The Conversion Threading package registers which “tweets” have been already responded to, and when, as well as keeping a record of any previous correspondence with the same member of the site.

Winnie Hsia, Whole Foods' social media specialist, argued this helps the company acquire "a better sense of what our past interaction has been" before it engages directly with its customers.

Southwest Airlines uses a bespoke search tool provided by TweetDeck in order to monitor the sentiment regarding both its own brand that those of its rivals, such as Frontier Airlines.

In August, a thread appeared on Twitter saying a Southwest flight was about to make an emergency landing in Baltimore.

Despite the fact the air carrier had not made this information public, Christi Day, its emerging-media specialist, added regular updates to its Twitter account with the latest news.

"The landing was uneventful, but Twitter followers appreciated the transparency and timely information," she argued

Some companies are also using HootSuite, developed by Invoke Media and launched in December this year, both to plan and measure their activity on this website.

Animal Planet, part of Discovery Communications' portfolio, employs this system to schedule and input Twitter posts, and thus ensures they are spread evenly over a set period.

Grace Suriel, its "social media scientist", said "if I tweet them back-to-back, it's going to annoy people and turn them off. This gives them a chance to consume" each one individually.

Data sourced from Wall Street Journal/AP/Fast Company; additional content by WARC staff, 16 September 2009

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