Interpreting Social Customer Data

In any instance where the objective is to learn something, actually listening is the first step. No on ever learned anything new by doing all of the talking. The same applies to companies and brands when they are using social media to learn more about their consumers needs and wants. Some important questions companies should ask themselves to assess what customer data is important are:

What kind of issues are my customers struggling with and talking about online?

When are people talking about me?

Who is complaining about what?

Constant monitoring of a company's social media presence will reveal the answers to these questions, but interpreting and understanding what it all means is something different altogether.

1. Listen First Before Replying: Develop an understanding of your brand’s reputation, who your customers are, and when your community is most actively talking about you.
2. Structure Incoming Questions: Divide the incoming questions in logical categories by adding tags to individual social media messages in order to identify the most important pain points about your product (complaints, questions, positive buzz, etc.). 
3. Create Reports and Bring Your Management Up to Date: Create reports for your management to inform them about the bigger picture and acquaint them with the general sentiment of your incoming messages, your community’s demographics, when your community is active, your community’s tone of voice, etc. This usually is a true eye-opener: this type of information opens up new perspective, which is incredibly useful to starting creating or adjusting your social media strategy.

Blog Comment #4 http://sarahcthoughts.tumblr.com/post/110540865033/what-kind-of-wing-nut-are-you 

Awesome idea! I am huge fan of Amicis, and usually go every Wednesday when they have their wings special. I mat indeed enter the contest this week!