THE IMPORTANCE OF SENTIMENT IN SOCIAL MEDIA FOR BRAND

If you want to buy a plasma TV, a mobile phone or a refrigerator, what would you do? If you want to buy a your child's milk, school or vitamins, what would you do? If you want to plan a vacation out of town or overseas, where do you to look for hotel and airfare information? Today many people would answer all the questions above by answering “by searching for information on the internet or social media”. Some of them will ask questions or seek reference from their friends on twitter and facebook, while and others will ask in discussion forums and read various relevant blogs. But almost everyone will instantly "google" their way to find the information. In the midst of the invasion of a wide range of products and information disclosure, customers have the flexibility to choose carefully before making a purchase. Currently, it is not enough for them to just see the ads on TV, newspapers and bilboard to make a decision prior to purchasing goods and services; they prefer believing the sharing of experiences and recommendations from friends and relatives to believing advertisings from companies. We are in such era in which the power to convey messages are not in the hands of company anymore, but shifts to the hands of customers. Therefore, a customers’ disappointed voice or messages (having a negative tone) about our brand in social media can lead to cancellation of potential customers in purchasing our products. Moreover, should the disappointment is left alone by the company. Vice versa, a customers’ satisfied voice or messages (having a positive tone) about our brand will encourage potential customers to purchase our products. Companies must address these conditions wisely and intelligently. They must begin to be 'actively involved' in the conversation among customers. There are several steps that must be performed by the company to be able to begin to be 'actively involved', namely:

Listening

This stage is the foundation of all brands’ activities in social media. The very rapid development of social media today causes brand’s to lose control of communications to customers. But on the other hand social media gives incredible blessing to the brand, which is the ability to be able to always listen to the voice of customers (customer insight). With this capability brand can run all its activities in accordance to the needs and expectations of customers. In the digital era, of course, we require "digital ears" to listen to customers‘ conversations. It is impossible to listen to it manually, all the conversations on more than 40 million Facebook accounts, 7 million twitter accounts, 6 million blogs and hundreds of online forums and various other digital medias. MediaWave is the first platform in Indonesia that can be the "digital ears" for the brand to always listen to the conversations of customers in the digital media 24/7. Every time customers in Indonesia tweets, update their Facebook status, make a discussion on forums or write on blogs, the MediaWave platform will capture them. Similarly, the online news updates and images uploading on the web as well as videos on Youtube. With MediaWave, no customer voice is missed and you will get customer insight at all times, in real time.

Many measurements made in social media are based solely on quantitative aspects, for example, the number of mentions, the number of fans, the number of followers, etc. Various quantitative parameters are important, but we also need to know the meaning of customer conversations in social media. By knowing the meaning of the customer conversation we can measure customer perceptions of our brand. We can maintain our brand presence in the digital realm by always keeping the customer's perception. We must ensure that the tone of the conversations customers are more positive than negative. MediaWave have a method for automatically determining the parameters in providing an assessment of the tone of conversation in social media customers. All conversations are given meanings, whether positive, negative or neutral. And can be monitored online in real time by the brand. By doing this, brand can always monitor its reputation in social media. Brand can detect early event of an unfavorable issue, before it develops in viral, spreading on social media. So in an era of social media, it is the brand’s task to ensure that the number of positive sentiment is greater than the negative sentiment because customer conversations in social media will become a reference for other customers.

Sentiment Analysis

One of the greatest blessings of social media is the ability to communicate directly and in real time to customers. With MediaWave we can find out who's talking and what was discussed, as well as the meaning of the conversation. So that brand can respond to everyone appropriately and personally. Brand can not communicate with everyone using the same language. The response to the positive tone of course differs from the response to the negative tone. The response to the question will differ from the response to a complaint or protest. And in an era of social media customers need quick and personal response from the brand. They will be disappointed to find their complaints responded the next day. On the other hand, a disappointed customer can be turned into a satisfied customer should his complaint be immediately responded and resolved by the brand.

Communication and Interaction

By doing these three steps, your company is ready to compete in the era of social media. Customers will be happy to use your product, because they realize that their needs are always heard and taken as considerations. And in the end they will be happy to give you a good recommendation about your company to their friends and relatives.

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