Talk it up

The web turns up the volume on the consumer voice. Brands and retailers better listen.

All the places marketers need to keep an eye on

“Consumers have a range of tools at their disposal today that allow them to let their voice be heard through consumer-generated media,” says Dana VanDen Huevel, director of new business development at Pheedo, an online advertising platform that delivers contextually relevant ads along with subscribed content such as blogs to consumers’ RSS readers. Among the tools he notes:

• Blogs: Customers that write blogs can be evangelists, vigilantes or both. Whatever side of the fence they’re on, it pays to get to know them and read their blogs.

• RSS: Subscriptions to the blogs and web sites of sources that consumers trust give them a constant flow of information on products, services and experiences from across the web.

• Opinion and review sites: Statements about marketers’ products and services are scattered throughout the web. Places like Amazon.com, complaints.com and epinions.com have thousands of customer reviews that are worth mining for insight.

• eBay: Some companies are using eBay as a pricing research tool because the potential consumer data is immense, especially for second-hand and grey-market products.

• Testimonial sites: Web sites and services like KudosWorks are making it easy for customers to offer testimonials on a brand’s or retailer’s products, and those of their competitors.

• Newsgroups: While blogs get most of the attention these days, newsgroups and USENET are still alive and well. Searching groups.google.com can yield insights from engaged customers.

• Flickr and BuzzNet: Online photo sharing sites where customers take pictures of the products they use in their daily lives can yield a treasure trove of data that would never be found in a focus group

• Tagging: The words consumers use to describe or refer to a product or brand may be different from the words used by the brand or product manufacturer itself. Using sites such as Technorati.com to search on a product’s associated keywords can unearth blog posts and photos that customers have tagged in this way.