Tracking Online

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Tracking Online

• BrandWatch, StockWatch and Crisis Tracking

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Why Track

• Increasingly
• Individuals use online to communicate
• Groups form and pressure companies through online
  media
• Inaccurate and false information and rumors sweep
  through online environments

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Examples

• Intel News of Pentium chip defect was online
  months before company acknowledged the defect.
• Ford Motor Company Pressure group opened Web
  site called FlamingFord accusing Ford Motor of
  manufacturing defective trucks

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Examples

• Toshiba Group on unofficial Infinia owners Web
  site began planning class action suit over
  alleged failures to deliver promised product.
• Pharmaceutical companies Users of products and
  medicines for diseases band together online to
  share information

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Examples

• Iomega High-tech company the victim of
  speculators on America Onlines Motley Fool
• UltraFem Feminine product company victim of
  rumors about fiscal health
• SEC Securities and Exchange Commission has
  expressed concern about online stock manipulation

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Online Tracking

• Huge need to track what people say about you
  online
• The challenge It is difficult.
• Technology not there to watch all online media --
  Web, Internet newsgroups, America online,
  CompuServe, Prodigy, etc.
• Even if you do find forums, there is often too
  much information to make sense of it

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Online Tracking

• Choices
• Track only what you find and forget the rest, OR
• Try to find and track all relevant forums
• Provide clients with raw data, OR
• Interpret data and counsel clients on how to
  respond.

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Online Tracking

• Step 1 Finding the data
• The hardest step. Requires careful searching and
  is slow and difficult
• Use more than on search method
• Select search terms carefully
• Rule of thumb Start narrowly then broaden.
• E.g. Toshiba will give you hundreds of hits
  in newsgroups, too many to cover. Toshiba
  laptops gives you less.
• Identify productive newsgroups, forums, sites

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Online Tracking

• Step 1 Finding the data
• Use a search engine or agent to watch productive
  groups
• Store terms in advance
• Engine or agent downloads responses based on
  terms
• Speeds data capture

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Online Tracking

• Use agents to sort large amounts of information
  according to relevance
• Agents use fuzzy logic and other tools to weight
  responses
• Based on response weighting, agents highlight
  important data.

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Online Tracking

• Example Toshiba on news forums
• Used Dejanews newsgroup tracker
• Stored key terms and checked daily
• Checked Camelot Web site daily
• Downloaded responses and sent to client by e-mail

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Online Tracking

• Step 2 Interpreting data
• Where did it come from? Look at forum/e-mail
  addresses
• Forum can tell you if participants are
  knowledgeable
• E.g., a moderated forum often is comprised of
  professionals while an unmoderated forum can be
  anyone
• E-mail addresses can tell you where individuals
  are from and how many there are
• E.g., On Unofficial Infinia Owners Site, four
  people posted most responses. They were the
  ringleaders.

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Online Tracking

• Step 2 Interpreting data
• What does it say? Classify postings.
• Are most postings about one defect or a range of
  defects?
• Are postings about rumors or personal experience?
  E.g., Does the person write, My computer
  crashed, or Thousands are complaining about
  XXs bad service?
• Are defenders rebutting complaints?
• Are defenders from the company or private?

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Online Tracking

• Step 2 Interpreting data
• When was it said? Note the timing of postings
• Are complaints recent or from a time past?
• Has the volume of complaints increased or
  diminished over time?
• Are postings in response to a company action or
  statement?

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Online Tracking

• Step 2 Interpreting data
• How are participants reacting?
• Are they planning legal action?
• Are they planning to flame across multiple sites?
• Are they starting a letter writing/phone calling
  campaign?

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Online Tracking

• Step 2 Interpreting data
• Why are participants reacting the way they are?
  (Give your best estimate.)
• Is action based on fact or rumor?
• Is action one of pique or is there a good cause?
• Is action inspired by competitors or others who
  want to harm the company for economic or other
  gain?

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Online Tracking

• Step Three Reporting to the client
• List
• most frequent participants
• summaries of topics discussed
• topic frequency counts
• participants proposed actions
• Provide analysis and recommendations

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Online Tracking

• Step Three Reporting to the client
• Online tracking form, page 2.
• List each posting
• Give date of posting
• Give summary of posting
• Note whether you have attached the posting to the
  report.

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Online Tracking

• The value of online tracking
• Early warning to client
• Understanding of how clients customers think
• Definition of the PR task that the client faces
• Ideas for us of how to respond to customers
  needs
• Better feel for what is going on in the
  marketplace

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