Alterian Announces First Integrated Solution For Social Media Monitoring

Chicago, IL – May 18, 2010 – Alterian (LSE: ALN), the leader in customer engagement technology and solutions, announced the availability of a comprehensive suite of social media engagement solutions– designed to help marketers monitor social media channels, collect and analyze customer data online, and drive more relevant and influential conversations through multi-channel marketing.

While there are several, fragmented services on the market that aim to help organizations listen to and join customer conversations, only Alterian offers a complete solution that allows marketers to identify conversations, analyze customer data and then create and distribute content to the right customers at the right time.

Alterian SVP Sales and Marketing, The Americas, Michael Fisher, comments: “Organizations are faced with the ongoing socialization of their brands. The defining factors in brand loyalty are word of mouth, and online conversations have a huge part to play. Our social media engagement solutions enable brands to harness the power of the social conversation in an attributable, measurable way".

The need for more targeted online engagement is highlighted by a new Alterian report written by Professor Michael Hulme of the Social Futures Laboratory, which found that only 5 percent of consumers trust advertising and 8 per cent believe ‘what the company says about itself’.  This equates globally to nearly $426 billion spent on ineffectual advertising activity in 2009 alone.

In stark contrast, the research found that consumers actively engaging in the use of social media feel more in control of relationships and more positive about their connection with brands in general.  A third of respondents think that an organizational engagement through social media means that ‘companies are genuinely interested in them’.

Alterian CEO, David Eldridge says: “In a world of shrinking margins, commoditized service and individual empowerment, better customer engagement is the primary source of competitive advantage. There is a strong chance a customer has interacted with your brand and formed impressions long before they’ve proactively engaged with you directly. Your customers are social and you need to be too. When it comes to multi-channel engagement, however, most marketers are simply taking pot luck.”

Alterian’s customers include large, customer-facing businesses such as retailers, leisure companies, restaurant chains, banks and the fast-moving consumer goods industry. Alterian solutions address the problems marketers face in trying to understand and react appropriately through online and social channels.

RAZOR, an Alterian partner, has already committed to implementations of Alterian social media solutions with three large US customers. RAZOR Chief Strategy Officer, Michael Harrison, says: “Alterian offers the first comprehensive social media engagement services for marketers. With Alterian’s range of social media engagement solutions, digital marketers get an incredibly clear picture of customer location, conversations and spot opportunities to join, shape or create the right conversations. It allows our clients to focus on what they do best – engaging with their customers, rather than trying to identify conversations or creating content over and over again.”

The comprehensive Alterian portfolio can be implemented separately, or blended depending on the level of engagement required. Customer needs addressed by Alterian’s social media solutions include:

Social Media Monitoring (SMM) – Listening and monitoring are the fundamental building blocks for extracting learning from the social space.  Alterian, through its renowned SM2 software, gives marketers the ability to listen to conversations from across the social sphere, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and other social media channels.

Analysis Services – Turning data into insight then takes time.  From client report production to detailed search setup and analysis, Alterian has social media experts to help digital marketers.

Social Media Intelligence – Extracting understanding from social media lies in the ability to connect it with other performance and promotional history data.  Building on marketing intelligence heritage, Alterian has an enterprise class tool that can integrate organizations’ email, web, and social data along with traditional, offline data.

Social Media Publishing – Old world distribution of content is expensive and time intensive. Through online channels Alterian helps marketers tap into their existing library of content and republish it across the social world in a traceable, measurable format – all at minimal cost.

Social Direct Response – used in the right way, social automated response can be an effective tool. Service updates, confirmations, or high value offers are all examples of response mechanisms that are made more efficient and targeted through Alterian solutions.

Social Customer Care – the most direct, obvious way to engage with customers is to simply talk to them.  Use Alterian to listen to conversations about your brand and then selectively identify people you can help and respond to them in real time.  With Alterian you can reply from a common interface while leveraging all your corporate assets.

For more information, visit http://webcontent.alterian.com/campaigns/social-media-engagement/