http://www.mywebsitenow.com.au/

I'm hoping that someone accidentally misrepresented Greer in that tweet. I maybe should have been more explicit in the post—those types of comments do nothing but distract. How are we to measure social media brand engagement anyway? I'm leery of trusting numbers without a credible URL or a data set.

Second, I think that it's necessary, before we look to large scale trends (as Stuart said, “fire hose”), that we look at the microtrending stories the data we've gathered from customers is telling us. If an organization has a very low cost of new customer acquisition, but a very high retention rate, then I think that organization's focus in their social strategies should primarily reflect their need to retain customers.

I've just seen far too many institutions writing social media engagement plans through their own intuition, without looking to what their data tells them they need to do better.

But on society need a year out, I think we're doing some of this prediction when we look at microtrends (a la Mark Penn – http://www.microtrending.com/ ]. Penn was able to find a small faction of women who he called “soccer moms” that helped to elect Clinton. This without social network data.

I think that too often we focus on the “next big thing,” when in fact, businesses can sometimes benefit more greatly from creating a product that fit the needs of 2000 hardcore fans of some obscure form of scrap booking.

But I do have an honest question on trending, because your point has made me curious: Is there anyone you see out there who is moving in the right direction in terms of data-gathering and fast action?

The first one is dead on. Can't even remotely dismiss it. I think Ann Greer may have been on meth when she came up with that figure.

Second? No. That kind of analysis is best done internally via a walled garden of customers/consumers. You can't drink directly from the fire hose. If you take aggregate data from a larger network…you have to use some type of filtering method to discern which data is valuable and which isn't.

I'd put more credence in a consumer who uses your product then a so called “social influencer”. After all…they have first hand knowledge.

Second, I love your focus on tracking. But there is a BIG problem few have addressed — how do we listen to social media to observe real trends? Most chatter goes up and down quickly. Balloon Boy and Skittles both crested and fell within a week. So how can a brand really listen to assess what consumers will need a year or two from now — required, since big companies take a year to move products into a production pipeline.

Trending. Real trending. That predicts societal needs a year out. Throw that question out at a guru or two at your next conference and let me know if they have a coherent answer. Until we can use the data to make predictions beyond our noses, the data won't help us very much at all.

I'm hoping that someone accidentally misrepresented Greer in that tweet. I maybe should have been more explicit in the post—those types of comments do nothing but distract. How are we to measure social media brand engagement anyway? I'm leery of trusting numbers without a credible URL or a data set.

Second, I think that it's necessary, before we look to large scale trends (as Stuart said, “fire hose”), that we look at the microtrending stories the data we've gathered from customers is telling us. If an organization has a very low cost of new customer acquisition, but a very high retention rate, then I think that organization's focus in their social strategies should primarily reflect their need to retain customers.

I've just seen far too many institutions writing social media engagement plans through their own intuition, without looking to what their data tells them they need to do better.

But on society need a year out, I think we're doing some of this prediction when we look at microtrends (a la Mark Penn – http://www.microtrending.com/ ]. Penn was able to find a small faction of women who he called “soccer moms” that helped to elect Clinton. This without social network data.

I think that too often we focus on the “next big thing,” when in fact, businesses can sometimes benefit more greatly from creating a product that fit the needs of 2000 hardcore fans of some obscure form of scrap booking.

But I do have an honest question on trending, because your point has made me curious: Is there anyone you see out there who is moving in the right direction in terms of data-gathering and fast action?

The first one is dead on. Can't even remotely dismiss it. I think Ann Greer may have been on meth when she came up with that figure.

Second? No. That kind of analysis is best done internally via a walled garden of customers/consumers. You can't drink directly from the fire hose. If you take aggregate data from a larger network…you have to use some type of filtering method to discern which data is valuable and which isn't.

I'd put more credence in a consumer who uses your product then a so called “social influencer”. After all…they have first hand knowledge.