More Evidence That Social Network Marketing Can Work


Just over a week ago, Gam Dias stumbled upon the unexpected when he checked into a Chicago Hyatt: a room with a view.

In fact, the vice president of product management at software maker Overtone of San Francisco was so impressed he Tweeted his good fortune.

A short while later a message came in reply – from Hyatt – asking if there was anything else the hotel could do. Apparently, Hyatt had been monitoring micro-blog site Twitter and responding when its name was mentioned.

Dias said he was impressed with the efficiency the hotel’s operation. But he said Hyatt is not alone in mining the wealth of customer data on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Social networking represents a challenge for companies. Many don’t have the resources or know-how to fully monitor, process and respond to the millions of posts generated every day by the hoards of people frequenting the sites.

But perhaps they should consider allocating them, says Dias, whose company offers systems for culling data from consumer-generated postings.

Among his corporate customers are two of the nation’s most prominent: Wal-Mart Stores and Microsoft.

Wal-Mart uses Overtone technology to help customers find items in online catalogs and to route consumers with problems to staffers who can help.

Microsoft keeps close tabs on what people say about its products online and uses the information to improve its software.

“There is a huge amount of feedback that comes in,” Dias said Tuesday at the Semantic Tech Conference in San Jose.