Cerebra

When I mention the word ‘research’ you would be forgiven for yawning, as yes, traditional research with qualitative and quantitative methods can be laborious and overly time consuming. While I am not trying to dispute the amazing insight and results that can be yielded through investing resources into research, I do wonder if traditional researches are capatilising on modern online research tools.

These new school techniques and methods that I am taking about refer to that of Online Reputation Management, or ORM as it is commonly known. ORM tools afford the user the ability to track online mentions of just about anything, including their brand, competitors, people and events.

The majority of companies who have chosen to conduct research are doing so mainly because they have identified a problem or opportunity and are seeking insight to make business decisions based on measured facts. From a brand perspective, this research would typically include current position in the market place, brand positioning or opportunities for new product development.

ORM can deliver impressive results in this field based on its ability to source and aggregate a multitude of online mentions providing companies with both a quick snapshot and deep insight into the identified communities’ sentiment towards brands, people and products.

Outside of this insight, one of the primary draw cards of ORM when compared to traditional research methods is the immediacy element in that results and insight can be achieved in near real-time. This coupled with the fact that these tools are not labour intensive, with built in sentimenting and analytics features. With most companies, time (speed and resource) plays a crucial factor when it comes to decision-making. These tools provide the immediacy element at an affordable rate.

The online audience of active ‘prosumers’ (one who simultaneously produces and consumes content) are becoming more broad and diverse across age, race and location. These communities can be brutally honest and open brands up to broad insights, opinions and viewpoints not tainted by having been asked to take part in a survey.

According to Saidwot (one of the ORM tools available), there are three basic steps to ORM:
• Listen - What do consumers want from you, and where are you mentioned?
• Analyse - Where are they hanging out, who’s talking about you, what are they interested in and do they like competition? (Competitor analysis)
• Engage - How do they feel about you?

While ORM is an impressive standalone technique and online research can serve to replace traditional research methods where applicable, it also has massive potential when used to compliment, support or test traditional results by using the two methods in conjunction.
The reality is that consumers are seeking information online, they are multi-tasking and multi-screening. Digital media is no longer a new trend; the consumers are already at the party and brands are quickly arriving. ORM is the tool to assist those brands to gauge opinion and interest before targeting this ever-growing online community.