• by Tom Siebert , December 14, 2006

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Like the cliche says, being a good listener is an important part of a successful conversation. And for companies treading in the word-of-mouth space, it's a terrific way to gain consumer insight. This point was highlighted Wednesday at the "Learning to Listen" panel at the Word of Mouth Marketing Summit & Research Symposium in Washington, D.C.

"Consumer-generated multimedia is a diverse and fast-growing part of the online conversation," said Max Kalehoff, vice president of marketing for Nielsen BuzzMetrics. He pointed out that 26% of search results on Google for the world's 20 largest brands are links to consumer-generated Web sites or comments. (Expert analysis or comments is second, with 22%).

"Search engines are the first and foremost way for today's consumer to learn about a company's product," said Rob Key, CEO of Converseon, a company that provides "reputation aggregation" research. "Search has become the connective tissue between information seekers and information publishers."

There are several ways for companies to maximize this opportunity.

Listen to the positive enthusiasts about your product and leverage them for future opportunities, Key said. Also, engage detractors successfully--just keep the discourse civil. Another option is to become part of the media through a social-network strategy and create collaborative environments where they don't exist.

All of these actions, noted Kalehoff, suggest that today's consumers are actually more empowered than in control.

Maxine Friedman of Brandimensions, a research and consulting firm, said that Google was not the best search engine "to find out what's really going on underneath search." She recommended Linkmap, which provides a root system of links in and out of specific blogs.