As companies experiment with customer engagement through social media, they're discovering how much they can learn by mining the valuable nuggets of data and feedback from these channels.

Companies like Quicken Loans, Coke, Ford, and Intuit have already figured out what many still struggle with: social media sites contain rich fields of customer data. In fact, in a recent survey "New Media, New Influencers and Implications for Public Relations," from The Society of New Communications Research,  57 percent of respondents said social media is more valuable today to their marketing activities, while 27 percent reported that social media is the core element to their social media strategy.

In the recent issue of 1to1 Magazine, three organizations revealed their strategies for mining customer insight from social media.

Atkins, the weight loss program that includes a book and other dieting products, realized that consumers using the program were getting together online and talking about their attempts to lose weight, so the company created a social network to bring those conversations within the Atkins brand. "There's a real leadership within the community itself among people who have [lost weight] and want to help newcomers along and give them encouragement," says Colette Heimowitz, vice president of education and research.

Late last year Atkins overhauled its Atkins Learning Center site and built community.atkins.com with social network provider Powered. The site gives Atkins a two-way dialog with consumers and provides members with tools to interact with each other and learn about the company's products.

Atkins doesn't directly sell products on the site (though there is a link to the company's online store); the primary purpose of the network is engagement and building brand consideration, loyalty, advocacy, and retention. Currently the site has approximately 200,000 registered members; 5,000 members joined during the first two months of the updated launch. Members have posted more than 15,000 comments on the forums, and site visits have more than tripled on the new community versus the same time period on the old site.

"We really wanted to roll out these new features to give people a chance to not only talk to each other, but so that we could qualitatively collect feedback and have something to give to our development team," Heimowitz says. "We added the blog, but we also added ratings and reviews of products, as well as online courses that people can take to help them lose weight."

The next phase of the update, scheduled to launch in February, will include more personalization and tracking for members. They'll be able to create a journal, track their weight electronically, measure their carbohydrates and BMI, and create a more detailed user profile.

Atkins plans to mine the ratings and reviews, as well as the feedback from message boards and surveys, from this and future updates, to change its products, learn about how and why people diet, and develop new services to address member needs.

"We haven't decided everything we're going to add because we want to survey our members and make sure our decisions are data-driven based on the needs of our audience," Heimowitz says. "We want to be different than our competitors because we create a safe, comfortable place [our customers] can go to help them lose weight, and especially make them feel like they're having fun at the same time."

Del Monte leverages customer insight

While Atkins was mining its learning center site, Del Monte Foods was considering new ways to gain insight from its Meow Mix cat food customers.

 "We were looking to do some innovation and new product ideation work," says Michael Steve, senior market research manager at Del Monte Foods pet products division. The company had been using traditional focus groups, surveys, and other market research, as well as communicating via email with an online research panel comprised of thousands of cat owners, but wanted to take that communication to the next level.

Members of the research panel were invited to join a more robust online community called "Meow Mixer." The goal was to gain customer insight about new products within a two-month timeframe. Members were told of the site's objective and duration ahead of time.

Working with MarketTools, Steve's group recruited by email more than 300 members to the online community, which ran through July and August of 2008. There, participants could comment on a message board, vote in daily and weekly polls, share pictures of their cats, and most important, suggest new product ideas. As an incentive, members accumulated points based on their site activity per week. The site's dedicated moderator awarded three winning members Hallmark Insights gift certificates, redeemable at many stores and restaurants. This approach generated a "game-like" feel that kept members interested and inspired to participate.

The community generated more than 300 new product ideas for snacks, treats, weight control, accessories, and packaging. Members voted on each idea, and the 15 highest votes were further refined by the community. Of the final 15, 11 passed Del Monte's research screening criteria for new product development.

Steve says he definitely has plans to use online communities for customer insight and new product innovation in the future for other pet food brands. "It's been a great experience," he says. "People are passionate about their pets, so it's a perfect environment." 

For Sloan-Kettering, social media bridges sensitive topic

Del Monte is a good example of a company mining social media from a broad group with a shared passion, but some organizations face the challenge of broaching a sensitive topic. At Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, cancer is a sensitive topic, so the organization tries to be aware of its patients' emotional needs.

"It's an amazingly private time, a personal and traumatic experience, and I could see no way to insinuate myself into the process." says Ellen Sonet, vice president of marketing at Sloan.

Sonet started casting her net for new ways to reach the cancer center's patients and other cancer patients. Then came a chance meeting with online community service Communispace at a conference. Communispace appealed to Sonet because the invitation-only approach can create a comfort level that generates openness that may exist in a public community or focus group.

"Our main objective [in working with Sloan-Kettering] was to get access to the right patients and caregivers, invite them to talk about the challenges they face, and find out what influences what they do, where they go, and who they trust in these situations," says Andrea Evans, vice president of client services at Communispace.

Communispace typically posts links on relevant Web pages advertising for members of a particular community, who are then required to take an online survey before being approved to join. Communities are limited to 300 to 500 people, with the Sloan communities topping off at about 300, according to Evans.

Evans and other Communispace executives met regularly with Sonet to determine the types of information that Sloan wanted to provide, as well as to discuss recurring questions or topics. "Then on a weekly basis, we publish new topics...in the form of discussion boards, surveys, brainstorming sessions, and so on, which are put out to the community," she says.

Though the amount of time and money needed to adequately oversee such communities ultimately was exceeded in early 2008, Sonet says the insights gleaned continue to inform Sloan's marketing decisions.

"We're undertaking a large website redesign project right now," she says, "and one of the things we asked our community was how they would identify the ideal website. We've pored through hundreds and hundreds of responses, to the point where we feel we have a much better understanding of what someone's looking for."

As a result, Sloan now offers online resources that may not necessarily answer a particular question, but elucidate the range of possible responses to a broad topic. For instance, Sonet says she's now adding content to the site on end-of-life issues. "We tend to focus on survival, and research shows that two thirds of those diagnosed now live for five or more years," she says. "We want to accompany them on their cancer journey, whatever it may be. We're cognizant of the spiritual and emotional needs involved, and offer much more information, contacts, and links than previously."

Though she doesn't see returning to online communities in the short term, Sonet says the lessons learned about collaboration can be applied to other industries. "Being able to share these experiences and leverage resources across businesses makes such good business sense," she says. "This is something that patients need and expect from us."

These examples prove that the trend is toward providing forums for your customers to voice their opinions, asking questions, and using their feedback to cultivate relevant communications and products. The bottom line is that when developing a social media strategy, companies should have a clear picture of what they hope to give and gain from customers.