The Art of Strategic Listening: Finding Market Intelligence through Blogs and Other Social Media

Citation

Tewari, J.K. (2009), "The Art of Strategic Listening: Finding Market Intelligence through Blogs and Other Social Media", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 26 No. 7, pp. 531-532. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760911001583

The web has brought new forms of social conversation through blogs, web forums, and many forms of internet‐based social networking. Robert Berkman, Associate Professor at the Department of Media Studies and Film, New School in New York City, gives us the tools to use the diversity of this social communication as a credible source of information for marketing research. In his book The Art of Strategic Listening: Finding Market Intelligence through Blogs and Other Social Media, Berkman says that while most of these consumer‐generated conversations may not be substantive “a certain percentage will contain true and invaluable market intelligence” (p. 3) that is actionable. The book is a very instructive and readable guide on accessing this real time market information at little or no cost, making a contribution that is of value to marketing research practitioners as well as media pundits. The latter can use the many tips in the book to refine their skills in media monitoring and assessing public opinion. The book is commercially relevant and discusses aspects of competitive intelligence, marketing, and product and brand management. It also goes beyond the realm of product‐based commerce and elaborates on issues of reputation management, communications, and public relations in a broader media context.

The first part of the book, consisting of five chapters, discusses the various forms of social media on the web, introduces us to the tracking of blogs, their credibility, and some ethical aspects of social media monitoring. This section also functions as an eye‐opener to traditional marketers who may not be so web savvy, and lays forth the context of the changing landscape of consumer communications.

Part 2 of the book deals with contracting out the monitoring of web‐based communications to vendors. The three chapters in this section discuss a number of alternative blog monitoring solutions, as well as the accuracy of vendors in the detection of sentiments and trends. While the author seems to be a strong advocate of a “do‐it‐yourself” approach to monitoring, he does not ignore the blossoming blog monitoring industry and its vendors. He admits that while it may be ideal to do the tracking and monitoring yourself, yet, “a roomful of PCs crunching away on millions of bits of data and consumer conversations will do an immeasurably faster job” (p. 73). This particular section gives a good look at what you get when you work with a blog monitoring vendor, also indicating the difference between media monitoring firms and the specialist blog monitoring vendors. Further, some of the major firms in the field are discussed with respect to their specialty areas and capabilities, and the discussion helps users to develop parameters that are useful for evaluating such services.

The third part of the book is its “heart” and provides the essentials of a “do it yourself” approach to blog monitoring. This section, which consists of eight chapters, is a compendium of monitoring methods, their utility, as well as their evaluation in the context of different scenarios. Chapters 9 and 10 in this section deal with the use of Google and Technorati as monitoring tools. Berkman's observations are replete with pointed practical observations. For instance he writes:

Google's Blog Search retrieves only Blog posts, but only just a couple of Blog posts make it to Google's web search. So the bottom line is if you want to filter out lesser known blogs, using Google's standard web search engine can be a good option (p. 112).

There are other pieces of information that are useful to all readers, such as pointers on choosing keywords, the use of Boolean search terms, and expanding searches to communications in languages other than English. In chapter 10 Berkman discusses the specific differences between Google and Technoratis's search and observes that as of “April 2007, Technorati had indexed over 80 million blogs and was indexing well over 1.6 million blog postings daily.” Such observations guide us to analytical alternatives that we may not be familiar with.

The 11th chapter of the book goes beyond “blogs” to more conventional forms of web‐based social networking, including forums and discussion groups. The three largest sites that offer forum‐ and discussion‐based searching identified by the author are Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, and BoardTracker, the latter being the product of a less‐known Israeli company. Further, the chapter discusses the advent of searching podcasts and videos and how the search methods have reached “part way up the hill in figuring out how to incorporate speech to text technology” (p. 139). Tidbits such as this act as directional arrows to the future.

The process of letting technology “do the work for you”, by using Alerts and RSS, is explained in chapter 12. “RSS is a way to be automatically notified on your desktop whenever a blog or other frequently updated site you follow has published new content” (p. 153). The process of identifying or subscribing to RSS news feeds, keyword tracking via RSS, and reading practices that improve and enhance analysis are discussed. While chapter 12 is based on “specific topics or keywords that you have predetermined” (p. 184), Chapter 13 talks about Buzz Trackers that are the tools that “are designed to surface the hot topics and spot the latest trends” (p. 185). Buzz trackers reveal the “wisdom of the crowds” (p. 185). Here too Robert Berkman does not shy away from specifics and discusses individual tools such as Nielsen Buzz Metrics and IceRocket Trends in useful detail. In fact it is this specificity of discussion that helps this book to become one that introduces us to an emerging industry yet also serves as a practitioner's manual.

The concluding sections of the book are surprisingly useful. Chapters 14 and 15 provide both answers and approaches to issues relating to the credibility of social networking information. The three appendices provide a list of suggested readings, productivity tools and URLs of key sites. These well‐researched and identified sources enhance the armory of any market or media research practitioner. They also are excellent references for individuals seeking to develop their capabilities in this field.

While the area of communications is changing rapidly with greater social communications on the internet, rapid data transfer and consumer video web presence, Robert Berkman's book is a starting point and resource compendium that can be appreciated by both “newbie” and research professional alike. In fact, it is a “must read” for any marketer who wants to stay abreast with the revolution in communications and possibly make a few moves to stay ahead of the pack.