SAS and SugarCRM announcements underline power of social media

More often than not it appears the only time Twitter hits the news is when a celebrity says something stupid or the site crashes, as witnessed on Wednesday.

However, it would be foolish to think that sites like Twitter, or indeed Facebook and LinkedIn, are nothing more than online water coolers around which bored office drones flock, as several announcements from major tech vendors this week have underlined.

At the annual SAS Global Forum event in Las Vegas attended by V3.co.uk there has been a huge focus on social media and the need for businesses to make sure they stay on top of the deluge of data being created on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

As such, the vendor announced the forthcoming availability of a new Conversation Connector tool for its Social Network Analysis (SNA) platform that lets users monitor Twitter for keywords and phrases, and crucially their sentiment, so staff can manage and proactively deal with any complaints that arise online.

Users can also track which customers have the biggest influence when they say something, so they can be sure they are watching to see if a key person is mentioning their brand, particularly with any negative connotations.

There is of course a privacy issue here, at least a perceived one, as many Twitter users may be somewhat perturbed if they realised a retailer was watching and reacting to their every tweet, but if doing so leads to better customer satisfaction, many may find their initial abhorrence wane.

SAS did admit that it perhaps needs to get some of its early adopter customers to talk up their experiences with SNA to help increase its penetration from a mere handful of customers at present, and said most are unwilling to do so because they fear a potential backlash from customers.

Yet SAS clearly feels this is an area worth pursuing and the buzz in Las Vegas is further augmented by the wealth of news coming from California-based SugarCRM which has made a slew of annoucements relating to social media.

The company's updated Sugar 6 product will include a tool called Sugar Activity Streams to help users integrate Twitter and Facebook feeds into their CRM management tool and help users track conversations and reply to comments and posts on key social sites.

It certainly seems as if the winners in the business world will be the ones that don't just track their brand's reputation online but get their hands dirty and start engaging with customers quickly, efficiently and proactively.

06 Apr 2011