Gauravonomics Blog

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20:20 WebTech was recently featured in a CNN-IBN story on consumers using social media for complaining about brands.

My view is that consumers will increasingly use social media platforms like blogs, forums, consumer review websites, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to complain about brands. Brands need to monitor these conversations and respond to complaints, to resolve them before they spread out of control.

However, brands also need to use both positive and negative social media conversations as an input into their product and process design, and make changes wherever necessary. That, in my opinion, is the true value in listening to social media conversations.

Here is the video of the CNN-IBN story. Between 1:15 and 1:30, along with the voiceover about  “social media specialists”, there’s a screenshot of the 20:20 WebTech website –

Introduction: The Problem With Social Media Analytics

The 20:20 Social Media Analytics Blog aims to become your preferred resource on the best practices in social media monitoring and measurement, by cutting through the confusion on what to measure and how to measure it.

Let me assure you that there is much confusion to cut through in the area of social media analytics.

The discussion on social media analytics is dominated by three different narratives.

According to the first business-as-usual narrative, the metrics we measure on social media should be the same business metrics we measure otherwise. The metrics might include lead conversions for the Sales function, brand loyalty for the Marketing function and customer satisfaction for the Customer Support function. The decision on whether to invest in social media programs should be taken based on the relative effectiveness of these programs to achieve business objectives.

According to the second ad-value-equivalence narrative, buzz is the single most important metric to track on social media. The decision on whether to invest in social media programs should be taken based on whether the value of the buzz created by these programs is higher than the visibility generated by spending the same money on advertising.  Read More

Quick Summary: Check out my new book-as-a-blog ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’, a year-long experiment in why we choose to consume, or not.

Why would a twenty-something, single, eligible, IIM-educated, upwardly mobile marketer on the corporate fast-track in India’s business capital decide to go ‘off consumption’ for a year?

Will a year off consumption (no eating out, no going out for movies or music or plays, no television or newspapers, no shopping except for necessities) leave him ill-equipped to handle life and work in Mumbai?

Or, will it leave him with invaluable insights into what drives us to consume, or not, into the nature of consumption, into human nature itself?

‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ is a blog in which I document my year off consumption. It is also a book-in-progress, in search of a publisher with a multi-million dollar advance.

Do spend an hour reading it, do subscribe to it, and don’t forget to tell me that you absolutely adore it.

As marketers, we often forget that consumers are people too.

Adam Crowe’s Facebook group called Stop Calling Me a Consumer! might serve as a timely reminder (via Get Shouty).