Earlier this week, Cossette posted the results of a survey they conducted last fall of over 3,000 web users in Canada, the U.S. and UK. You can find the complete report here.

Specifically, one of the findings stood out to me:

Among some 20 online activities surveyed that can be tied back to social media behaviour, two are particularly meaningful:

• Two-thirds of Internet users turn to online information about products, brands or companies that have been produced by family, friends, colleagues and others they don’t know personally.

• 30% have shared something online about a brand or a company in the past week. More specifically, 20% have cited a company or brand in a personal web page or blog. They are the only group that finds advertising as useful as social brand content, and a lot more likely to join various types of sponsored communities

Of course, this has many significant meanings for brand managers and the agencies responsable:

1. You’re no longer in control of your message. (If you haven’t heard that before, it’s time you did.)
2. People are planting seeds on your behalf around the web and it’s up to you to know where they’re talking and what they’re saying, as their positive and/or negative comments can have a profound impact on purchasing decisions.

As a result, you must start a strategic social media monitoring and response program. Without one in place, the public becomes your brand’s manager and, due to the shelf life of search, anyone who can type your product/service name into Google can be influenced by what’s already been said. It’s on you to find the relevant conversations and join in, so you can correct wrongs and misconceptions and have your point of view on record.

So, do you know what they are saying about your brand?

When I talk to people about social media monitoring, they’re mostly interested in how it relates to their overall online engagement strategy. And, of course, that’s perfectly reasonable as you think strategically about planting seeds around the web.

However, what a lot of people aren’t thinking about are all the other reasons why they could be monitoring online conversations. After all, it’s one thing to use a monitoring platform to guide your online participation. It’s a completely different thing, though, to collect information for a wide range of reasons.

Over the next few posts, we’ll be taking a look at the different reasons why social media monitoring isn’t just for monitoring social media. For example…

It’s to help you gain business intelligence.

• Generate leads
Beyond engaging in social media and being ready to act on leads generated through participation, you can learn a lot by listening. Keep your ears open and look for issues people are having with your competitors, needs expressed online, news of events related to your service offering and RFPs that are coming through.

• Keep an eye on your competitors
Knowing what your competitors are up to can help you decide how to differentiate your offer. Run keywords that are directly connected to your competitors’ executives to see what they’re doing. Listen to conversations related to their brands to learn what people are thinking about it and to identify its flaws. Consider listening in on their employees, because you never know what nugget of insight they’ll drop in your lap.

• Feel out the issues facing your industry
Listen to industry keywords to learn what influential people industry wide are thinking. Figure out some of the trends that will affect your business. Learn the language people are using to discuss the field and reflect that back in the messages you prepare.

• Gain key product development insights
People will often give you unsolicited feedback on how you can make things better. Whether it’s in customer service, supply chain, or the product itself, keep an eye out for clues on how to better meet the expectations of your users.

How do you use social media monitoring to gain business intelligence?