A social media monitoring tool can help companies reduce costs and shorten product development cycles by gathering feedback directly from consumers. It provides insights into what customers want by analyzing online conversations. Companies can use this information to create more desirable products, reduce marketing expenses, and identify influencers to help with development. Monitoring social media also allows companies to get post-launch feedback and find new potential markets.

1. Whitepaper
LET’S TALK:
Social Media ROI
With Connie Bensen
Creating Products
They Want:
Consumer Driven
Innovation via Social
Media Monitoring
8th in the Social Media ROI Series
Authored in Conjunction with Deb Robinson

2. Consumer Driven Innovation via
Social Media Monitoring
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
Executive Summary:
A company’s prime objective is to take a product to market and sell as much as possible. Imagine if the product was not only snapped up,
but consumers eagerly recommended it to their friends. This would significantly reduce the company’s marketing and public relations costs.
Whether a product is in its conceptual phase or near refinement, it is important to consider the wealth of insight available in social networks.
A social media monitoring tool can gather the conversations and tap into the collective intellect of consumers at large. It provides brands
with the opportunity to learn directly from their customers, target markets, that of competitors and the industry as a whole. In addition,
companies can take it to the next level and invite their advocates to give their input and help them create new products. In this world of
emerging media and technologies, users expect to be more engaged with the companies that make their products of choice.
Dell is an excellent example of how a brand can gather and utilize customer’s ideas. In 2007 Dell implemented IdeaStorm, a social media
outreach project. Dell consumers provided invaluable feedback and voted on their favorite ideas. While listening to their customers, Dell
was able to create customized PCs that met the needs of consumers. Since IdeaStorm’s inception, Dell has gathered more than 10,000
ideas and implemented approximately 400 of them. It has allowed them to connect their product development directly to their customers.
This Whitepaper is the 8th in Alterian’s ROI series. Let’s Talk! about using social media monitoring for product development and finding
new markets.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

3. Consumer Driven Innovation via
Social Media Monitoring
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
Introduction In order to be successful, companies must maximize their product development cycle and reduce excess
cost. In lean economic times, it becomes more important than ever to leverage the wisdom of the social
web. Can you afford to take a product to market that does not fit what consumers need and want?
A social media monitoring tool provides specific demographic data about consumers as well as the
sentiment around the conversations they’re having. It provides measurable returns by shortening the
product development cycle, creating more saleable products and reducing marketing costs. This white
paper will provide an overview of the following ways that a social media monitoring tool directly impacts
the return on investment in product development:
• Reduce traditional market research costs
• Shorten the product development cycle
• Post-production feedback
• Identify influencers & advocates
• Discover new markets
Objectives of Using Social Media Monitoring for Product Development
The overarching theme of this series of white papers has been listening. It is one of the first places to start
when creating a new product or improving an existing one. It is tempting to limit input to that of the
developers and the engineers. They know what they want to build, but will it be innovative enough to win
over consumers?
Every company should take some time to consider what people are saying online about their brand,
competitors and the industry. Online conversations provide a wealth of information about consumers’
opinions of your brand, products and the direction your company is taking. Many companies are working
directly with consumers to improve their products by gathering feedback from online conversations during
the development phases and at pre- and post- release. If there are no conversations about your brand,
then gather industry related conversations; they provide a high-level look at direction that your products
need to go and the differentiators that the market is demanding. Lastly, a social media monitoring tool also
can provide considerable insight into what your competitors are doing. This insight is invaluable when
considering product direction. The next white paper in the ROI series will cover competitive analysis in-
depth.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

4. Consumer Driven Innovation via
Social Media Monitoring
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
Reduced traditional The social web creates the perfect incubation area for new product ideas. People from all walks of life
market research costs gather in social networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to share information about their likes and
dislikes of products and brands. Traditional market research relies on surveys, focus groups, filtered content
sources and aggregate data about a particular consumer “profile.” The selection process of the
participants, survey-writing and usage of acquired data are all based on the subjective bias of the
researcher. In addition, traditional market research is very expensive.
In contrast, the organic nature of social media conversations provides unique value. Consumers openly
share information about brands, comparing them and making suggestions in real time. They contribute to
the conversation at large with no reservations or filters in place. Most importantly, they participate because
they want to. Rather than focus groups that are pre-selected, consumers gather in social networks based on
common interests. They are frequently passionate about their beliefs and more than willing to provide
feedback in order to improve the products they use. In many cases, they are so knowledgeable and
influential that they are selling the brands’ products for them.
A social media monitoring tool allows one to segment the data and identify demographic trends around a
brand.
The following Theme Clouds show the words that women used in regard to McDonald’s McCafe products.
The larger the word, the more frequently they were used in the conversations about the brand. The second
diagram shows how each word can be drilled in to view specific results and gather direct feedback.
The following words offer excellent opportunities to gather product development ideas: iced, free, mocha,
love, chocolate, breakfast, tea, vanilla and cheese.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

5. Consumer Driven Innovation via
Social Media Monitoring
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
Shorten the product A traditional product development cycle can take many quarters, if not years, and the investment of
development cycle resources considerably increases the cost of a product. This excess needs to be recouped when the
product is taken to market. It is now possible to shorten the development cycle and, at the same time,
increase the probability of having a more successful product life cycle.
Again, the answer lies in having the product team listen to online communities. Consumers are more likely
to provide feedback, and it is the perfect opportunity for the product team not only to listen, but also to
participate. This will reduce the time needed to research new product ideas, vet feature lists (provide the
opportunity to vote) and test the pre-release version (beta). Many companies find that when they engage
their customers, not only do they lower production costs, but they build brand loyalty and generate
excitement about the product.
When consumers talk about the products you are creating and express their anticipation, they can reduce
your marketing costs significantly. Consumers will share their excitement with their friends, which builds
your brand visibility. This phenomenon can greatly assist with your information gathering phase as your
informal online focus group grows.
For example, a brand can create a private or public community and use a social monitoring tool to identify
main themes and sentiment. Many social media monitoring tools allow the ability to add custom RSS feeds.
This allows you to analyze the content of the conversations. Specific topics of concern to the user
community can be identified. It also offers the ability to see patterns in feedback on sentiment about the
products.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

6. Consumer Driven Innovation via
Social Media Monitoring
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
Post-production feedback There are additional benefits from utilizing the social web; once the product is on the market loyal
customers engage others by sharing their experiences with the production process. These brand advocates
are influential because they had direct experience in the creation of the products. Consumers shopping
online are more likely to purchase a product when it is recommended by a friend; this is especially true if
the friend helped in the product development phase.
Additionally, post-production feedback can help work out any bugs. Loyal followers who were part of the
process will reassure those with concerns. They can confidently speak on behalf of the company, thus
preventing customer backlash and negative feedback when there is a problem.
Toyota provides a great example of failing to listen and refusing to address negative
With a strong online community, feedback. When the public heard Toyota was trying to save money by not recalling
self-support among the defective cars, the outrage developed into thousands of comments, discussions and
articles across the internet. Toyota’s failure to listen and build a community was not only a
community members reduces
missed opportunity in terms of product development, but a costly mistake when the public
customer service costs and helps learned of the product recall. Through listening to customer feedback earlier, Toyota would
a brand identify negative and have saved more money and prevented the costly response from consumers.
positive tone.
Another benefit of post-production feedback is that real-time feedback enables companies
to make changes in the supply chain. Brands no longer need to wait months to see the
fruits of market research. Changes to a product can be made at iteration based on
consumer feedback. With a strong online community, self-support among the community members
reduces customer service costs and helps a brand identify negative and positive tone.
The following chart shows the tone of the results. The negative ones offer the obvious place to dig into. It’s
also important to not overlook the positive ones. They will provide many clues as to what is effective along
with hints as to what additional features consumers desire.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

7. Consumer Driven Innovation via
Social Media Monitoring
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
Identify influencers The ability to find influencers and engage with them and their communities takes product development to
& advocates the next level. As you work with them to understand their needs, you build customer loyalty in addition to
developing a better product.
Influencers, also known as brand champions, are out there promoting your product, and identifying them is
key. Reviewing the demographic data associated with the search results can help you learn who and where
they are. Prospects are more likely to adopt your product if they read a peer review or get a reference from
family or friends.
Relationships with influencers and online communities are based on trust. People buy products when they
learn from others’ positive experiences. By following influencers and their communities, companies can
expand their reach as they learn the sentiment towards a product, as well as the demographics and
geography of those who use it. This information can be used to create customer profiles.
A review of the domains where your product is most frequently being discussed will pinpoint online
communities that can provide assistance with product development.
Case Study: Microsoft Crowdsources LiveWriter
Development
In 2007 Connie Bensen was blogging about effective online social media
tools. She blogged about LiveWriter, a Microsoft product in beta. Her
community experienced some problems and left comments on the post.
Sean O’Driscoll, GM of Marketing at Microsoft, was listening to the social
channels. He commented on the blog post and forwarded it to the development team. The lead
developer contacted Connie and asked for suggestions on what would make the tool better. Connie
surveyed the community and compiled a list of problems and feature requests.
One morning Connie awoke to a message on Facebook from the lead developer of LiveWriter
letting her know about the changes they had made to the updated release that had just come out,
including changes they made based on her suggestions and those of her community.
This simple note resulted in Connie heavily advocating for LiveWriter. She blogs about it on a regular
basis as a must have tool. She has also continued providing feedback.
Key Takeaway: Microsoft not only listened, responded and requested feedback, but most
importantly, they followed through! This created an advocate that has been influencing people to
use the product for three years!
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

8. Consumer Driven Innovation via
Social Media Monitoring
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
Discover new markets Are you interested in new markets? Social media monitoring reveals potential markets by identifying
demographics and online communities with a need for your products. It is important to set up broad
searches for industry keywords. Don’t limit the language to specific brands, but include products and
features. A social media monitoring tool can also help you identify unexpected uses of your products.
Conclusion Social Media Marketing provides key data that enables a company to refine a product and expand its reach
at the same time. Listening to your market and online communities helps guide market research and
customer engagement in the process, and it builds brand loyalty for post-production. Having been
involved in the product development process, many influencers will sell your product for you. Beyond
developing existing products and markets, using a social media monitoring tool leads to identifying new
markets. Instead of limiting idea generation to an internal team and costly market research, the ability to
leverage existing online conversations leads to innovative products that consumers need and want.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

9. Consumer Driven Innovation via
Social Media Monitoring
The ROI of Using a Social Media Monitoring Tool
About the “Let’s Social Media marketing is providing a whole new dimension for brands to connect with consumers. The
Talk” Series with social web is a vast entity and every marketer needs a tool to harness the information in the most cost
Connie Bensen effective and efficient manner. A social media monitoring tool offers the ability to maximize the digital
portion of your marketing budget in order to create, execute, measure and report on a social media
strategy.
The Let's Talk Series, by Connie Bensen, is a series of 10 whitepapers describing the variety of ways that
marketers can increase the ROI of their marketing efforts. Topics will include how to use a social media
monitoring tool for SEO, Lead Generation, Social Media campaigns, Customer Service, Competitive
Insight, Corporate marketing, PR and reputation management, etc.
Connie is the Director of Social Media and Community Strategy at Alterian, which provides marketing
software to help brands engage with their customers. She is a key voice amongst online Community
Managers. Her blog, www.conniebensen.com is recognized as a leading resource for cultivating online
communities, providing best practices for this emerging role and it is listed in Forbes.com as one of the 20
Best Marketing and Social Media Blogs by Women.
The 8th paper in the ROI series was written in conjunction with Deb Robinson. Deb is an
SM2 Social Media emerging media consultant who helps organizations integrate and build new media
communications plans and strategy. She is an early-adopter, trail runner, and baker, and
Monitoring (SMM) she lives in Denver, CO.
Alterian’s SM2 is a social media monitoring and analysis solution designed for PR and
Marketing professionals. SM2 helps you track conversations, review positive/negative
sentiment for your brand, clients, competitors and partners across social media channels such as blogs,
wikis, micro-blogs, social networks, video/photo sharing sites and real-time alerts.
About Alterian Alterian (LSE: ALN) empowers organizations to create relevant, effective and engaging experiences with
their audience that help build value and reinforce commitment to their brand, through the use of the
Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform. Alterian drives the transformation of marketing and
communications, making it practical and cost-effective for companies to orchestrate multichannel
engagement with the individual.
Alterian’s unprecedented integration of analytics, content and execution through industry leading tools,
such as the Dynamic Messenger email platform, SM2 Social Media Monitoring platform and the award
winning Content Management solutions, enables companies to build integrated communication strategies
which create a true picture of the individual.
Alterian works with marketing services partners, system integrators and agencies who recognize the need
to plan and deliver coordinated customer engagement services in partnership with their clients. For more
information about Alterian, products within the Alterian Integrated Marketing Platform or Alterian’s Partner
Network, visit www.alterian.com or the Alterian blog at www.engagingtimes.com.
© 2010 Alterian. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

10. White Paper
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