JWT Panel Discussion

The JWT (J. Walter Thompson) agency hosted our Social Media class on Thursday, April 14, 2011. The panel discussion included: Kyle Monson (who is a director of content strategy), Chris Kooluris (who is an earned media specialist), and Libby Shaub (who is a social media planner). 


The discussion that resonated with me the most was Kyle Monson's "The Role of Social Listening" or "Brand Journalism." 


Social Listening consists of generating a daily report of what people are talking about the company/brand and what can we do about it. How can we monitor conversations related to our clients and what is the best way to react to them: to ignore, to contradict the conversation by publishing an article or to engage with customers? Kyle Monson calls these type of professionals Subject Message Expert (SME) and their work is to listen to the noise (there are too much noise out there) and to interpret these conversations and know what matters.


What I took out of the panel is that the role of Social Media in the Communication Strategy of a company is to monitor the conversation. And the best way to react to these conversations is no matter what we do, our job is to make sure these conversations are tied to the brands' objectives and mission in order to make them effective and beneficial to our clients.


There are three ways to monitor and listen to what's been said about our clients:

1. Basic Keyword Tracking: Google Alerts, Twitter search, Backtype, Social Mention.
2. Advance Tracking: Radian6, Sysomos, and other tools.
3. Super-Advanced Tracking: Radian6+, Subject-Matter Expert.

The goals of Social Listening are:

1. Listening for Intelligence: To use the web as your focus group. Is the audience responding the way you want them to?
2. Listening for Customer Service: He used the Time Warner example. How a company can improve its customer service by listing to customers' feedback in Social Media and at the same time how Social Media empower customers (they are finally able to complain about companies in a large scale and make the company take action).
3. Listening for Action: Things that are going to inform your strategy (not only monitor but respond to them). In order to take action we need someone credible (an expert) and the authorization of the PR team to send the message out. We may also need add support (pay Media).

By just showing up on Social channels doesn't mean that our brand is social. We must earn people's attention, engage with them, and make them talk about our clients. To make people talk about a brand is much more valuable than payed advertising. And the right way to do so is to make companies stop to talk about themselves and engage with customers in authentic conversations. In reality, companies are terrified of real-time conversations with customers. This is the role of the Social Message Experts: to guide companies and teach them how to listen and talk to customers.


WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Do you have any thoughts on the topic? How do you thing Communication specialists can use Social Media to make companies achieve their objectives and Mission?