GDC
GDC
Itamar Rogel

Understanding mention peaks

“There’s no such thing as bad publicity, as long as they spell your name right”. That famous quote is credited to American showman and circus owner P.T. Barnum (1810-1891). A similar saying came from Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) who claimed that “there’s only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about”.

 

Such a need to get free (or paid) publicity served marketers and advertisers for decades. However, there is one major issue with both of these quotes: they became famous in an age with no digital platforms. While both sayings were already debatable in a day and age with much fewer media outlets, since bad publicity could destroy a company or a man’s reputation even then, in today’s world such a situation is a lot more complicated.

Understanding mention peaks

The need for businesses to control their brand reputation is constantly on their management’s mind. But with millions of customer comments and conversations appearing on many different digital platforms all at once, such control becomes more difficult. The fast pace in which we are living leaves organizations with no choice but to collect and analyze their customer reactions quickly for actionable insights. And then follow up on their customer reactions to such actionable insights. And so on.

 

Affogata’s AI-powered platform enables companies to track customer sentiment, regarding their products and services, with multiple features. One key feature deals with showing businesses mention peaks on a timeline. That enables them to understand what caused such a mention peak and how high was its volume, indicating how good (or bad) the event’s effect was on the consumer’s mind. Seeing the mentions’ volume and knowing what caused it makes companies always stay on top of things, figure out if they need to react and if so, treat a situation right away.

 

A positive mentions peak is obviously a cause for celebration, meaning customers are accepting a new product’s feature or embracing a brand awareness campaign well. The situation may get complicated, however, when a negative mentions peak is registered. This can be the result of a slew of things, from technical bugs to platform access problems, a design that does not bode well with customers, or even a public relations crisis stemming from a CEO’s problematic remark.

 

Now, any or all of these examples can cause a real “bad publicity” issue. Companies just wish they didn’t have to deal with such problems. But since damage control is called for in that type of situation, the following four steps are recommended:

 

Always track and analyze your customer feedback

 

Following your customer feedback enables you to constantly stay in touch with what they say, want, and need. A company is never surprised when it knows how its actions and other market trends affect the sentiments of its customers. In a dynamic and fast-moving world, there is no choice but to always be informed of how your customers view your brand’ products and services.

 

Be alert

 

Mention peaks, whether good or bad, happen in an instant. When comments accumulate, they form a customer opinion, and companies must know it asap. Affogata sends alerts to cover such peaks, enabling companies to always stay on top of what their customers are saying.

 

Figure out mentions’ peaks (quantity and quality)

 

Affogata lets companies see the number of mentions (quantity) and the nature and content of those mentions (quality). That enables businesses to measure just how strong the reactions are (quantity) and of course what customers like or dislike about a specific product action or any brand situation.

 

Take actionable insights

 

Analyzing the data peaks calls for action in some cases. Obviously, if many customers report a technical bug or a platform access issue, the company needs to act quickly and fix it. The good thing about this type of insight is that it serves as a “safety net” for the QA team, meaning that companies may learn about bugs directly from customer conversations even before the tech department figures out that there is a problem.

 

In other cases, companies can measure customer opinions about new product features. If reactions are mixed, they may not choose to do something, but as they follow online conversations further, once they sense a sentiment change they can better plan their next moves.

 

So, unfortunately for companies, there is such a thing as “bad publicity”. But with Affogata, they can track customer feedback and analyze it for taking actions based on real-time data.