“But… but why would anyone want to talk about this shit?”

As a marketing manager, agency suit or small business owner this is a common and overwhelming question when presented with snippets of online conversation.

This is a natural reaction and very understandable. Why are these mundane conversations happening? Why does anyone care what a stranger thinks? Why would people choose to have these conversations so publicly? But you must put these questions to the back of your mind. You’re asking the wrong questions and the reality is that you might never ‘get it’. But this doesn’t mean that you have to rule out social media as part of your marketing strategy.

Instead of going straight for the ‘why’, uncover the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘where’ and ‘how’. The answers to these questions will likely lead to the ‘why’…

If you’re new to social media or it is not your day job, collecting this data will make it easier to uncover the insight. Ask yourself:

Who is doing the talking? How old are they? Where do they live? What do they do for work? What are their interests?

What are they talking about? Which product attributes are they talking about? Are they associating your product with other products? Is there an element of your business which is continually referred to?

When are they talking? Is there a certain time of day they are talking? Do they talk around particular holidays or events? Does the amount of conversation fluctuate depending on other marketing activity?

Where are they talking? Are there geographical boundaries or hot spots on where conversations are happening? Do they talk about you while they are doing certain activities? Are conversations happening on certain sites or in certain communities (online and offline)?

How are they talking? Do they tend to like you? Do they hate you? Are the conversations centred around your brand or is it just a component of the conversation?

There are plenty of tools to help you with answering these questions. Look at your website analytics, follow search trends, analyse Facebook groups, set up keyword alerts or sign up to a monitoring tool (warning: Dialogix plug).

Once you have an answer to these questions, you can have a crack at the ‘why’.

Why are people talking about you? How are they feeling? Do they want acknowledgement? Do they want ammunition? Do they want answers? Do they want you to connect them?

It can be a long road to understanding the ‘why’. Focus your energies to understanding the answers to the other w’s first and you’ll be on track to finding an insight to embrace your community.

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3. Help Name a Social Media Guy