Profiling audiences based on knowledge of where discussions take place

Whitevector’s latest research piece looks at how brands can benefit from knowing where online discussions are happening.

Online discussions tell us a number of things about consumers. Among other things, these conversations enable a marketer to analyse a brand’s position in consumers’ minds against its competitors, measure the impact of a marketing campaign and receive consumer insight. There is also another factor that reveals a few things about those taking part in these conversations: the sites where the discussions take place.

Whitevector’s Chat Reports service enables a marketer to rank the most influential blogs and forums for desired brands and product or service categories. The influence is determined by the discussion activity and the audience participating in the discussion. Thus, influential blogs and forums tell the marketer where the most important discussions for his or her brand or category occur.

Knowing the sites that are the most influential and where the most discussions about one’s own brand occur has two main benefits:

1. Profile target groups – who are the most active consumers for your brand?
2. Improve online planning – where to target digital marketing?

By analysing the most influential sites in more detail, one can identify what types of people are interacting there. Sometimes the sites provide statistics about their users to boost ad sales but even if they do not provide any information about a site’s visitors, a skillful analyser can fairly easily figure out what the typical profile of those participating in the discussion looks like. It is interesting that sites sometimes profile their audiences in a more in-depth way than traditional demographic features and segments: many sites are able to segment consumers according to their true interests.

Thus, influential site analysis can help a marketer find entirely new target groups and strengthen their understanding of the current ones. We have, for example, come across a project where a car producer analysed discussions about its SUV model. Surprisingly, we found an unexpected consumer group discussing the car: horse hobbyists. These discussions took place at riding related forums and those taking part were discussing which SUV model is best suited for hauling a horse trailer. In this case, if the advertiser had settled for analysing only their prescribed known target groups, they would have missed out on a potential opportunity.

Besides the more explorative approach of profiling influential sites, there’s also the possibility to plan online marketing based on knowledge of the most influential sites for one’s own brand or category. The information can be used for planning where banner ads should be targeted and other marketing activities with the sites.

As an example, we can look at different sites that are especially influential for the cosmetics brand L’Oreal and the whole cosmetics category. The source for this information is Whitevector’s Chat Reports service. In actual projects, Chat Reports usually provides its users with at least thirty of the most influential forums and blogs, depending on discussion volumes.

The most influential British discussion forums in July for L’Oreal were:

When it comes to the whole cosmetics category, the most influential ones in July were:

By analysing the sites more closely, one can see what types of people are taking part in the discussions on these sites, and which L’Oreal products or cosmetics themes, for example, were appreciated the most. In an actual analysis, it is recommended that the brand owner and its media agency (who usually conducts the analysis and gives recommendations to the brand owner) look for more diverse sites to gain a better understanding of the sites that make a difference for the category in the online world.