Preface

In the world of Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp, water-cooler conversations with co-workers and backyard small talk with neighbors have moved from the physical world to the digital arena. Previous exchanges with familiar and trusted individuals have been replaced by large-scale chatter accessible to acquaintances and strangers. Discussions that once went unrecorded now leave traces that can be explored years later. The way in which we share information and opinions has changed irrevocably.

In this new landscape, organizations ranging from Fortune 500 companies to government agencies to political campaigns continuously monitor online opinions in an effort to guide their actions. Are consumers satisfied with our product? How are our policies being perceived? Do voters agree with our platform? Brand managers, marketers, and campaign managers can potentially find answers to these questions by monitoring the opinions shared through social media.

But measuring online opinion is more complex than just reading a few posted reviews. In this book, we move beyond the current practice of social media monitoring and introduce the concept of social media intelligence. While social media monitoring is an essential step in developing a social media intelligence platform, it is by nature descriptive and retrospective. That is, social media monitoring describes what has already happened. It does not prescribe or guide an organization’s next steps.