David Alston is the VP of Marketing of Radian6, a social media monitoring company based in Canada. David recently commented on my blog post about social media and customer service. Through that comment we struck up a conversation in Twitter which led to David’s gracious acceptance of my interview request. The full Q&A is below.

One thing to note here before the interview is that David’s interaction with me though a comment on this blog is exactly what all marketing people should be doing. There are three camps that marketers are in, but only one where we all should be:

1. Some marketers don’t monitor what people are saying about their company or topics related to their industry.
2. Other marketers are monitoring the discussions but aren’t joining the conversations. This is better than the first camp because at least they’ll know when something is said about them, but it’s a very reactive posture as well. The monitoring seems more akin to just keeping an eye on social media to put a fire out rather than to serve to expand awareness of the company proactively. Monitoring potential fires is one thing, it’s just not the whole thing when it comes to social media monitoring.
3. A few marketers, like David, are raising awareness of their company by finding the conversations they wouldn’t otherwise know about and influencing people who wouldn’t otherwise know about them.

So consider this a case in point for the right way to do not just monitor social media, but to engage it as well. Here’s the interview with David…

MicroExplosion: Do you think companies are simply not monitoring their brand at all (meaning across all media…traditional and new) or is it more a neglect to pay attention to social media only?

David: Well, if you look at the 1000’s of companies that have been using traditional media monitoring companies (TV, print, radio) I would have to say that it’s probably more of an awareness thing. For example, if a company decision maker didn’t read the newspaper, watch TV or listen to the radio he/she probably wouldn’t consider monitoring traditional media channels all that necessary. The same goes for social media (blogs, online video and images, forums, opinion sites, micromedia). It’s usually when a company decides to dip its toe into social media from a corporate or personal level that the need finally crystallizes. Conversations about brands and issues are happening all the time online in social media with or without brand owners. Its probably best to be at least aware of these so engagement can be considered.

MicroExplosion: In large companies do you find that any particular departments are more interested in your services than others? For instance, is the corporate communications office more interested in social media monitoring than the marketing department or vice versa?

David: Each department has a different reason to be monitoring social media.

• Public relations – crises breaking online, monitoring effective of outreach campaigns
• Marketing – tracking brand voice vs. competitors, tracking a marketing campaign’s effectiveness, looking for possible trends, understanding the most influential sites to partner with or advertise on, discover competitor initiatives or positioning
• Customer Care – discover customer complaints and reach out, help with those clients requiring how-to assistance
• Sales – discover potential leads based on posts that declare “a need”, respond with offers of assistance for clients of competitors having difficulty
• Legal – uncover potential misuse of copyrights or patents, stay on top of any issues regarding inappropriate communications from an SEC perspective
• HR – discover potential employee candidates based on the expertise they are demonstrating or the comments they make about looking for work in a specific area of expertise/location
• Business Development – uncover potential channel partners

MicroExplosion: You mentioned in a comment on my blog that companies should “answer the social phone.” I think that’s a great phrase. Do you see organizations viewing this new task of social phone answering as something else to put on employee(s) full plates or are they carving out time and/or hiring new personnel to do this?

David: It is still early in the game for many companies deciding where the “social phone” should be primarily answered. The key thing would be at least assigning it to someone as a start. This could be someone in PR, marketing or customer care. Once a company gets a feel for the types of “social web calls” coming in and the volume they could better assess the best fit for this role within their company. Radian6 is working with leading companies now to help determine the best approach for them and how our platform can best serve each of their own unique situations.

MicroExplosion: How do you recommend a client respond if they have found their brand to be unfavorably mentioned in a blog, podcast, or some other social medium?

David: I guess it entirely depends on what is said, who is saying it, and whether or not the company has developed a relationship with that individual or with the community that individual belongs to. Generally I would say that the response needs to match up with the company’s brand promise for all other communications with clients and potential clients. Responding quickly in an appropriate way can also show that you care to listen and you want to help out. Not only will this buy a company credibility with the person who posted but it will also with those who read this person or are part of his/her network. In the end its about developing and maintaining relationships with people.

MicroExplosion: What does Radian6 do for a company that Google Alerts doesn’t?

David: Certainly most people usually start out this way. It can at least give them a snippet of what’s out there involving their brand. Our clients generally tell us that Google Alerts don’t get them the entire coverage they need across all social media types, don’t allow them to understand which posts and sites to pay more attention to, and can’t show them which trends are happening. They also find that Google Alerts don’t always get delivered in a timely way – which is important if you plan on engaging on a post with a majority of commenting and viewership happening in the first two days.

Our solution covers all types of social media (not just blogs) and delivers findings in real-time as discovered. It tracks conversational dynamics on each post (viewership, total comments, total unique commenters, and calculated engagement) which enables sorting ability to zoom in on the most viral conversations. With all of the posts on a topic in one place, users can then run ad hoc analysis charts and graphs based on keywords. Analysis capabilities like this enables a client to see trends and potential issues (ex. “forest for the trees”). Finally we can also determine the top influential sites on a topic based on a user-defined formula that includes conversational dynamics as well as total on-topic posts and on-topic inbound linking. Determining influencers allows a client to focus their engagement and outreach efforts for the best ROI.

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David, thanks for the interview. You provided some great insights here. Check out the Radian6 website to learn more about their company and services.