TMW Ideas

A big thanks to Don at Creston for finding a great article in the New York Times called “Brands for the chattering masses”.
Unfortunately, unless you subscribe to the New York Times online, you wont be able to view it, so I'll provide you with a brief synopsis.

It's about a company called Nielson BuzzMetrics. Many of you will no doubt already be aware of Nielson, tracker of media usage, well BuzzMetrics is their blog monitoring division.

Now, as regular readers of the TMW blog, I know you are all well aware what a massive impact blogging is having on brand perception and how seriously brands are taking it (See Sony and MacDonalds for starters). We at TMW are also taking it very seriously, and the launch of our e-influence product is testament to that.

So where does BuzzMetrics come in? Well BuzzMetrics is one of the tools we use to find out what's being talked about in the blogosphere and how much. You put in a brand name, and it'll tell you how much “Chatter” there is. And it doesn't stop there. Through cunning techie stuff, it can even tell you if the chatter is positive or negative. It's like knowing what people are saying about you behind your back!

The implications of the development of tools like this are huge. Firstly, we can see very easily how brands are being perceived in the ever more influential world of blogs. And secondly, it has the potential to overhaul the way market research is carried out. Why spend thousands of pounds asking 10 people in a focus group if they like your new ad, when you can put it online and see what millions of bloggers and commenters think about it?

I should point out that this isn't a 360 solution. It only tells you what's being said, not what to do about it - which is where our e-influence product comes to the fore. It's one thing knowing you're being slagged off, but that information is close to useless unless you know how to make them love you again.