Digital Brand Reputation and Social Media Monitoring: two key factors in the social web era. Some empirical evidences

DIGITAL BRAND REPUTATION AND SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING:TWO KEY FACTORS IN THE SOCIAL WEB ERA.

SOME EMPIRICAL EVIDENCES.

Supervisor:Prof. Monica Faraoni

Candidate:Tommaso Bartali

A.A. 2012/2013

Master Degree Course:Business Management

Thesis object:Online Business Tools

Usage of the main social platforms (%) beyond world population with access to Internet. (Source: Global Web Index, 2013).

Candidate: Tommaso Bartali 1

Interactive communication and social media

“Social media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the

ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of

user generated contents.” (Kaplan A., 2010)

What is social media?

The main objectives of Social Media Marketing.(Source: Awareness, 2012).

“An intimate long term

relationship with the customer.”

(Economist Intelligent Unit, 2007)

Candidate: Tommaso Bartali

Social Media Marketing

“The way of promoting a website, brand or business by interacting with or attracting the […]

customers through the channels of social media.” (Saravanakumar M., Sugantha Lakshmi T., 2012)

What is Social Media Marketing (SMM)?

2

CustomerEngagement

Cycle


Social Media Marketing

“The way of promoting a website, brand or business by interacting with or attracting the […]

customers through the channels of social media.” (Saravanakumar M., Sugantha Lakshmi T., 2012)

What is Social Media Marketing (SMM)?

3

BrandReputation

4Candidate: Tommaso Bartali

Digital Brand Reputation

“Nowadays digital brand reputation has become a strategic element for the companies.”

(Moffa G., 2013)

BrandIdentity

Brand Image

+WOM


Social Media Monitoring

“Social Media Monitoring is the process, systematic and scheduled, of identifying and assessing

what is being said on the Web [...] with the goal to understand and measure when, how and how

much the customers talk about an issue, a person, a company, a brand, a product or a service.”

(Graziadei S., 2011)

Social Media Monitoring may be considered a tripartite activity:

2. Comprehension1. Listening 3. Analysis and Reporting

Acquisitionof the

conversationsClassificazione

Quantitative analysis

Qualitative analysis

- How much?- Who?

- How?- About what?


Online Crisis Management

“It’s a sudden and unexpected event, able to produce negative effects on the online reputation of a

person or company, therefore able to interfere with the personal activities or in the business.”

(Agostini A., de Nardis A., 2013)

What is an online reputational crisis?

Characteristics

The unpredictability of the event

The exposure of the event

Crisis management

6

Web monitoring

Crisis management plan


Online Crisis Management

“It’s a sudden and unexpected event, able to produce negative effects on the online reputation of a

person or company, therefore able to interfere with the personal activities or in the business.”

(Agostini A., de Nardis A., 2013)

What is an online reputational crisis?

Characteristics

The unpredictability of the event

The exposure of the event

Crisis management

7

How much time does your company need to get out of a crisis?(Source: Burson-Marsteller, 2012).


The luxury brand monitoring – Empirical inquiry (part 1)

8

Armani Bottega Veneta

Burberry Céline

Dior D&G

PucciGucci

Vuitton

Brands consideredThree cluster

High Social

Medium Social

Low Social

Question 1:Could a brand reduce the risk of a possible online reputational crisis by deciding to use, in the

social media area, a simple strategy based on a presence without any type of activity/interaction

with the users?


Burberry Céline

Dior D&G

PucciGucci


The monitoring


The variables

Number of users registered on the official profiles (on 10/11/2013)

Number of posts/tweets/videos published (10/09/2013 10/11/2013)

Vuitton

10/09/2013 10/11/2013

Medium Social

Armani

D&G

Gucci

High Social

Burberry

Dior

Vuitton


The monitoring


The variables



Low Social

Bottega Veneta

Céline

Pucci

10/09/2013 10/11/2013


The monitoring


The variables



10/09/2013 10/11/2013

Number of posts/tweets/videos published in the period(10/09/2013 10/11/2013) aggregate per clusters.


The inquiry has been possible thanks to the monitoring platform called Talkwalker, owned by the

company Trendiction. This tool is able to manage informantion written in 187 languages from 250

coutries and is characterized by a very user-friendly interface.

Thanks to the user-friendly interface the software is really easy to use.


“As social media has become a key element for any of

our campaigns,Talkwalker has proven

itself to be the most powerful tool for tracking, analysis

and reporting!”


The inquiry has been possible thanks to the monitoring platform called Talkwalker, owned by the

company Trendiction. This tool is able to manage informantion written in 187 languages from 250

coutries and is characterized by a very user-friendly interface.

Elected by Goldbach Interactive as one of the five best

social media monitoring tools in 2013


Mentions Analysis

Sentiment Analysis

How much people talk about a brand?

How people talk about a brand?



14



15

A more intensive activity carried out on social media means more mentions.

Brands poorly active or totally absent on social media, anyway, are object of discussions and

comments from users.

Brands hardly active on social media get higher negative sentiment

and minor positive sentiment.

The data collected brings us, with regard to the field considerated,

to answer negatively to the first question.



16



Question 2:Do social media marketing activities really encourage the customer engagement?

Reference period

10/09/2013 10/10/2013

The social media analyzed

17


Burberry Céline

Dior D&G

PucciGucci

Vuitton

Brands considered

To achieve the best evaluation of customer engagementwe think it should be considered

the following ratio:



Question 2:Do social media marketing activities really encourage the customer engagement?

Reference period

10/09/2013 10/10/2013

The social media analyzed

18





Burberry, Dior and Louis Vuitton (High Social) get the highest percentage of customer engagement

while Pucci, Bottega Veneta and Céline (Low Social) get the lowest.

The data collected brings us, with regard to the field considerated,

to answer positively to the second question.

Conclusions

21

This activity could not be neglect neather by the fashion luxury brands that decided to implement

a simple strategy based on a presence without any type of activity/interaction with the users.

Social media monitoring is fundamental for all brands in luxury field.

This kind of approach does not protect brands from the users’ judgement.

The definition of a good communication strategy could never ignore a constant social

media monitoring activity.
