Objective analysis of subjective content

It was only a matter of time. In the age of analytics, we have grown accustomed to the idea that any can be measured and that everything should be boiled down into a set of empirical values. I find myself not surprised that several companies are now crawling the web, attempting to quantify… feelings.

In an emerging field called “sentiment analysis,” firms are working to scour chat rooms, blogs and social networks... in search of mentions about their company or products. Moreover, they seek to harvest information about whether those mentions came from passionate fans, or unhappy consumers who might use their blog or “friend list” to vent about a products, services, or experiences that failed to meet expectations. Read more on the matter from a recent story in the New York Times.

Implications: Once upon a time, advertising was a one-way street. Companies ran ads that would be seen, read, or heard by the consumer, and that was that. If a consumer was unhappy, they might write a letter to the company, and receive a letter of apology in return (if they were lucky), or maybe even a discount coupon or other incentive from the company, designed to encourage the customer to “give our company another chance to earn your business.”

The web has made advertising a two-way street. If unhappy, the consumer can talk back to the company through email or a web site. If the company doesn’t listen or respond satisfactorily, the consumer can take-up arms, in the form of a keyboard and mouse… and start a campaign of their own.

Smart companies don’t fear this feedback… they embrace it, knowing consumers long to be satisfied, and the more satisfied they are, the more loyal they will be. Use the web to tell you what’s going right. And use it to learn what you could be doing better (at least, in the minds of your vocal and digital-savvy consumers.)

Want a cheap, easy way to tune-in to the web? Visit http://www.google.com/alerts, and fill-out the prompts, perhaps using the name of your company or a few key products. The search giant will scour the web for news stories and blog entries that include the topics you have told it to look for. If you have a nice research budget to work with, you could hire a firm that is much more scientific about harvesting information from social networks, blogs, etc.

Yes, it can be both gratifying and terrifying to listen-in on the consumer conversation—or lack thereof—that is happening on the web. But intelligence is a much better vantage point than ignorance.

Mike Anderson