If a Volcano Erupts in Your Industry, Social Media Monitoring Can Help

Ash cloud from the volcano in Iceland (Reuters)

On April 14 a volcano erupted in Iceland, spewing ash in the air for hundreds of miles and canceling flights across Europe for days. As with other recent emergencies and natural disasters, social media is helping to spread the news and helping those affected by the event. This article by Tracy Staedter in Discovery News, “Social Media Sites Help Volcano-Stranded Travelers,” documents several of the Facebook pages, Twitter hashtags, and other online resources that are keeping us informed.

Biz360 social-media dashboard of the topic, "volcano." Click to enlarge.

I used Attensity360 social media monitoring software as a service to analyze social media activity around the topic, “volcano.” Not surprisingly, use of the word “volcano” in social media skyrocketed from under 3,000 per day before the eruption to around 27,000 per day on April 14 and on the days following the eruption. The dashboard I created allows me to directly access the posts, interact with the authors, identify the sites with the highest number of posts, and monitor sentiment. I can also qualify topics, such as adding “Iceland” to the “volcano” search string.

You can use the same solution at your organization to monitor any erupting volcanoes (good or bad) in your industry or about your organization. What if you could shape market perception, understand the buying process, respond to competitive threats, evaluate trends and issues, and improve the return on your marketing investment from product positioning, branding, PR, and marketing campaigns? What if you could help marketing to quickly determine whether their messages are gaining traction in the marketplace and which of those communication vehicles—including spokespeople—are most effective at delivering those messages?

Social media monitoring can help you answer the above questions, gain insight into the discussions about the topics you select, and address issues, just like the travelers in Europe and their families are using social media to help them navigate their situation and return home.