Innovation around what consumers want is essential, but identifying what consumers want requires listening. The explosion of social media intelligence offers a vast opportunity to listen and engage with customers to shape products and services that tap into unmet demand.

Social media is the fastest growing media in history. Today, more than three in five Internet users engage in social media and usage continues to grow every day. In fact, NM Incite research reveals that one-quarter of social media and online discussion mentions a product, service or brand. And this exposure to positive buzz can drive additional sales.

The opportunity to engage with and listen to consumers via social media is clear, and more and more brands are finding it essential rather than optional. “However, the wide range of opportunities given by social media creates uncertainty for many reasons,” says Brad Little. “How do we engage the right way? How do we measure the influence of paid media against earned media? How do we implement what we learned from social media into our organization?” While there are many examples of both hits and misses when it comes to social media, using the right tools, metrics, and appropriate strategy, brands can leverage social media intelligence for competitive advantages and build successful demand.

One success story demonstrates how social media was used to reshape a baby diaper campaign with enhanced results by combining both listening and asking research. The traditional survey results showed that the majority of consumers believed that “environmentally friendly” was the most important product attribute. But in authentic, online conversations, consumers indicated that “organic” and “avoiding diaper rash” were the most important product features. The social media analysis revealed a more accurate picture of consumer sentiment around product desires. This lead to a new campaign theme centered on “Caring,” which produced phenomenal results for the brand.

To win in this new business model, a company must stop fine-tuning the supply chain and shift to an information model built around the rapidly changing demands and needs states of their most profitable consumer groups. It means an end to constantly pushing products to consumers with one-way advertising and move to a new model where adding customer value, transparent two-way feedback loops and conversational skills are the focus.

Companies that harness social media to collect customers’ feedback on products and services aren’t just ahead of the curve — they’re part of the “contribution revolution,” Pete Blackshaw, Nielsen Online Executive Vice President, argues in his latest Ad Age column.

Blackshaw cites a recent Harvard Business Review article by Scott Cook, founder-chairman of software developer Intuit, that credits customer participation with generating “tangible enterprise value.”

Intuit, Blackshaw notes, has created an innovative user-participation model that places “Live Community” user forums on every page of its TurboTax software.

Intuit has also put company resources behind the forums. General managers oversee all of its online communities, gathering consumer insights and funneling feedback to Intuit engineers and strategists.

That innovation — building a “pipeline” from consumers to product creators — is the real revolution, Blackshaw emphasizes.

“We must get more disciplined in listening to the consumers who are already reaching out to us,” Blackshaw writes. “These are, after all, the original ‘contributors.’”

Read the October installment of Pete Blackshaw’s regular Ad Age column on the convergence of service and marketing.

That lack of Spanish-language online content has left many Hispanics out of online consumer discussions, Blackshaw argues.

“If you survey the landscape of brand websites, mini-sites and Facebook brand pages, you’ll be struck by the surprising absence or marginalization (intentional or not) of Spanish-language content,” Blackshaw writes.  “I wonder why, even for brands where Hispanics and Latinos dominate the buyer or emerging buyer set, Spanish-language content is so sparse or even nonexistent.”

Advertising and enabling feedback in Spanish — and eventually, other languages — are two immediate ways companies can bring Spanish-speaking consumers into their online fold, according to Blackshaw. 

That advice is pragmatic, but the real goal, according to Blackshaw, is much bigger.

“What’s most important is that we dignify all consumers with whom we have a loyalty or advocacy-driving opportunity,” he writes.  “We’re not even close, but the potential is huge — nay, gigante.”

Read the September installment of Pete Blackshaw’s regular Ad Age column.