“We have seen a clear evolution in demands from our customers. They are better informed and far more sophisticated in their expectations and requirements.”- Mark Redgrave of Hapax.

True!! With the advent of social media they now have their own platform to express their views and opinions. The main intention behind social media monitoring is to track these conversations as I have mentioned earlier. Determining if these conversations are positive or negative is called Sentiment Analysis.

Listening to the sentiments behind a customer’s voice is very important for any company that wishes to act upon these opinions. According to me, sentiment analysis is very important to any social media monitoring initiative. It is vital to analyze whether good or bad conversations are driving your brand in the social media space. In fact, tracking sentiments is one of the real reasons why businesses enter social media. At iridium, we use several tools to do this.

Automated sentimental analysis tools are generally used to give numbers to these customer sentiments. It is good if you dig deeper than the statistics to get a clearer picture. Also you will need to compare sentiments across several brands over a time period.

If the consumers have positive sentiments with a brand, its all good, but when there is negative sentiment it makes the analysis interesting when you have to uncover the reasons behind this particular sentiment. Sentiment analysis coupled with social monitoring tools make this study even more interesting. It is more like stepping into your consumer’s mind and understanding what drives their thinking about your company.

I would not like to confuse you further, so I conclude by stating that sentiment analysis is nothing but social media monitoring with a qualitative twist.

Here are some free Social media monitoring tools that you can use to assess all social media metrics.

1. How Sociable: it is a free tool that defines simplicity. Just punch in the brand you want to measure metrics for and you will get the visibility score for it across 32 social networks. http://www.howsociable.com/

2. Addict-o-matic: This tool provides you with a comprehensive view of discussions on a topic across the most popular social networks. In just one view you can see all the discussions on all popular social networks and blogs. http://addictomatic.com/

3. Technorati- This tool is used to find top blogs and posts on any searched item. http://technorati.com/

4. Google Blogsearch- This is also a blog oriented tool that generates top discussions happening in blogs on a topic you want to search for. http://blogsearch.google.com/

5. Googletrends- Shows the worldwide traffic/searches of this particular keyword. http://google.com/trends

6. Twitterstats-  This is one tool that serves all my twitter purposes. It shows all the relevant twitter stats for the Iridium account and allows comparisons with other accounts too. One stop for all twitter analytics is what this tool is all about. Check it out on http://www.twitterstats.com/

7. Quantcast- This tool is apt for tracking traffic to a particular website and gives Graphical display and demographics wise data segregation. http://www.quantcast.com/

There are numerous free tools available but its your requirements that defines your choice. After my stint in social media monitoring, these are the top 7 tools I frequently use.

Follow us on @iridiuminter or my personal twitter @sbharatam.

Iridium has created microsites that combines all the success stories and medical breakthroughs done by Wockhardt.International Patients are now able to avail Wockhardt’s services with the help of the new section incorporated in the new website solely for them.

This new website not only created brand visibility for Wockhardt, it also showcased and marketed their services and expertise to all their patients and users from different parts of the world.

“iridium’s extensive experience of working with the stalwart of medical care industry was made full use of while designing Wockhardt’s website.” As stated by one of iridium Interactive’s team members.

• Aggregate the presence of multiple cities in one single website.
• Create brand presence for Wockhardt’s select specialties.
• Cater to specific stakeholders, particularly- international patients.

iridium has created microsites that combines all the success stories and medical breakthroughs done by Wockhardt. International Patients are now able to avail Wockhardt’s services with the help of the new section incorporated in the new website solely for them.

This new website not only created brand visibility for Wockhardt, it also showcased and marketed their services and expertise to all their patients and users from different parts of the world.

“Iridium’s extensive experience of working with the stalwart of medical care industry was made full use of while designing Wockhardt’s website.” As stated by one of iridium Interactive’s team members.

Moolchand has a half-century-old tradition of caring healthcare. As one of India’s foremost names in healthcare, Moolchand has been setting standards for the past half century. At the Medcity campus, Moolchand offers more than 40 super-specialties, round-the-clock services: Emergency, Ambulance, Radiology, Pathology, Blood bank, Pharmacy and Healthcare education. Various departments of Moolchand, with large numbers of users needed an efficient way to chronicle events and happenings, manage intellectual property in the form of reports and documents and enable online conversations among employees and administration.The management, always aware of the pulse of the organization and sensing a need to empower the employees, approached iridium Interactive. For us it was an opportunity to apply and enhance our expertise in multiple arenas-the healthcare domain where we have time and again proven our strength and Enterprise 2.0 -one of our core practice areas.

The creative and technical heads put their heads together to craft Veda – an intranet solution that is a perfect blend of visual appeal and technology powered by Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007. Veda offers a range of innovative and well thought out services such as document management, enterprise search, e-greetings, discussion forums, suggestion boxes, event announcement section and employee directory.

While the “Knowledge Bank” empowers employees with the information they needed, the “Moolchand Management System” allowed them to view/upload/download the documents categorized under various department An interesting and useful add-on provided by Veda here is the provision for adding any relevant supporting documents needed. Another highlight of this solution, which again focuses on employee welfare and satisfaction is the “Complaint Management Database ” which facilitates the employees to register a complaint for a particular service requirement and also incorporates a workflow to enforce corrective measures and track the status of each complaint.

Today, Veda has opened up many conversations -be it among employees or between employees and administration. Nearly every employee, having experienced the power of knowledge and the benefits and joy of online collaboration and conversation, interacts with Veda on a daily basis.

The website is an interactive platform built on the action scripting technology, where it also provides access to people to view their dreams taking shape through photographs and videos of the selected suggestions being implemented in Moolchand.

The website is powered by iridium Interactive, which specializes in offering unique user centric e-commerce solutions varying from Strategy and Design to Technology and Marketing.“In conceptualizing this initiative, we threw out all our previous practices and decided to play it straight and keep it simple”, said Mr. Manish Kumar (manish@iridium Interactive.com), Practice Head, iridium Interactive Ltd. He further added – “It was a pleasure interacting with Moolchand; their brief was clear and goals direct.”“We look forward to redefining healthcare by creating the world’s first ever dream hospital. Moolchand is inviting public opinion where every desire, every aspiration, every suggestion will be heard to create the hospital that anyone has dreamt of”, says Vibhu Talwar, COO, Moolchand Medcity.care, integrity and affordable prices.

About MoolchandAs one of India’s foremost names in healthcare, Moolchand has been setting standards for the past half century. Located in the heart of the capital, the plans are to develop Moolchand Medcity as Asia’s largest single site multi specialty hospital complex (6 specialties, 1000 + beds).Moolchand has a half-century-old tradition of caring healthcare. As one of India’s foremost names in healthcare, Moolchand has been setting standards for the past half century. Moolchand aspires to be your lifelong health care partner by delivering your health care wish list: superb physicians, cutting-edge technology, compassionate

As one of India’s foremost names in healthcare, Moolchand has been setting standards for the past half century. Located in the heart of Delhi, it plans to develop Moolchand Medcity as Asia’s largest single site multi-specialty hospital complex (6 specialties, 1000 + beds).

Objective
People have an inane fear of hospitals and doctors, perceiving them in a negative light. In actuality, this dislike stems from a fear of disease and not the hospital per se. Moolchand is well aware of this, and hence wanted to create a hospital and healthcare environment where people could be comfortable and feel at home, putting their fears side. And what better way to ensure such an experience than ask the people themselves how they would expect the ideal hospital to be? Out of this was born the “My Dream Hospital” project. Moolchand decided to launch an innovative campaign to hear the voice of India, and to find out what patients and caregivers expect from healthcare today.

Solution
Moolchand Medcity launched its ‘My Dream Hospital campaign’ in Delhi. The idea behind it is to push the consumers for suggestions, and queries, and of course their dreams, so as to incorporate the selected ideas in the making of their dream hospital. This was implemented by building a creative and interactive website that would act as a launchpad.
iridium Interactive (ii) was chosen to carry out the task of building a website to capture the dreams and expectations the consumers have from their ‘dream hospital’. On the website, people can post their wishes, as well as view other people’s expectations in the ‘Hall of Dreams.’ Additionally, ii built the website on an interactive platform with action scripting technology, providing access to people to view their dreams taking shape through photographs and videos of the selected suggestions being implemented in Moolchand. The highlight of the website is that it is fully interactive experience. The website has an innovative and ‘fun’ look to it, as opposed to other healthcare websites that tend to be relatively clinical.
The site also uses viral marketing tool, allowing and encouraging visitors to share their experiences with their friends.

Results
ii’s efforts were very well received, offering as they did a novel experience for users. ii and Moolchand have together created a customer-focused portal where user experience and user suggestions are of the utmost priority. The website has become the perfect gateway for dreams and their making. Visitors now share and post their suggestions, recommendations and expectations they have of an ideal hospital.

About ii
iridium Interactive Limited (ii) specializes in providing online business solutions. With a presence across three continents, it has been at the forefront in integrating strategy, design and technology to build unique and robust user-centric e-business solutions. At ii, a holistic approach is adopted towards complex business problems to arrive at a complete solution. ii’s talented team has worked on a variety of disciplines for a multitude of clients drawn from various industries, and has a number of award-winning works to its credit. ii offers it services in the areas of interactive marketing, web marketing, e-learning, enterprise consulting and web accessibility initiatives.

EHIRC (Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre), New Delhi, is the premier heart and research institute in India. The hospital is backed by the most advanced laboratories performing the complete range of investigative tests in the field of Nuclear Medicine, Radiology, Bio-chemistry, Haematology, Transfusion Medicine and Microbiology.

Objective
Escorts aims to always live up to its high reputation of providing the best and latest in healthcare. The hospital wanted to bring this same edge in innovation to the customer’s doorstep, by increasing responsiveness and interaction between doctors, patients and visitors. And the ideal way to do this: through the online medium.
Escorts sought to create a transaction-based web front by integrating the existing hospital management system with new web initiatives. The website would also provide basic information on, and create a knowledge base of heart related diseases accessible to all visitors. And finally, Escorts wanted to upgrade its existing basic hospital management services via web assistance.

Solution
iridium Interactive has tremendous experience in the healthcare domain and well understands the importance of seamless interaction among the various entities- the doctors, patients and visitors. Accordingly, we went all out to build Escorts a simple yet efficient web presence.
ii took operational and tedious procedures online. We set up an online payment module whereby bills could be paid online, precluding the need to stand in queues. The appointment procedure was made available online as well as through mobile SMSes. Further, ii’s mobile media experts worked to exploit mobile technologies to achieve the client’s goals – from SMS alerts to help connect to customers, to context-specific ads in mobile search environments. This led to highly personal and interactive patient services over the net.
Another interesting feature of this engagement – ii created, designed and built animations of many surgical procedures that go a long way in educating and reassuring visitors and potential patients. We hen took this a step further, disseminating information to the visitors by creating a learning section ‘All about Your Heart’ which links to one of the best and most popular cardiac knowledge websites- Heart Centre Online.
Other innovative features include tracking an in-house patient’s progress online, sending patients e-greetings, and posing queries to cardiologists online.

Results
By creating an architecture that assimilated online appointments, bookings, payments, information on procedures, services, facilities, patient tracking information, e-greetings and animation modules, ii was able to upgrade into the hospital management system making it more transparent, efficient and cost effective. The host of mobile-accessible features created and integrated into the system has led to an increase in customer satisfaction.

About ii
iridium Interactive Limited (ii) specializes in providing online business solutions. With a presence across three continents, it has been at the forefront in integrating strategy, design and technology to build unique and robust user-centric e-business solutions. At ii, a holistic approach is adopted towards complex business problems to arrive at a complete solution. ii’s talented team has worked on a variety of disciplines for a multitude of clients drawn from various industries, and has a number of award-winning works to its credit. ii offers it services in the areas of interactive marketing, web marketing, e-learning, enterprise consulting and web accessibility initiatives.

The Moolchand Hospital in Delhi has a 50-year tradition of providing excellent healthcare. At its Medcity campus, Moolchand offers more than 40 super-specialty round-the-clock services like Emergency, Ambulance, Radiology, Pathology, Blood bank, Pharmacy and Healthcare education.

Objective Moolchand has a number of departments with a large user base of around 300 members. The hospital administration’s main objective was to reduce the prevalent internal communication barriers, and thus enhance employee retention strategies. This meant chronicling events and happenings in an informative manner, managing intellectual property by documenting it appropriately, and enabling online conversations among employees and administration. An underlying objective was to reduce operational costs and build a system that would help lower future costs.Sensing a need to empower their employees, the Moolchand management approached iridium Interactive (ii) to build an integrated platform to meet their objectives. And for us at ii, it was an opportunity to apply, and build on, our expertise in multiple arenas – the healthcare domain, where we have time and again proven our competence, and Enterprise 2.0, one of our core practice areas.

Solution The ii creative and technical teams put their heads together to craft ‘Veda’ – an intranet solution that is a blend of visual appeal and technology, powered by Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Veda offers a range of innovative and well-thought out services, including document management, enterprise search, e-greetings, discussion forums, suggestion boxes, event announcement sections and an employee directory. ii also created a “Knowledge Bank” to empower employees through information, and a “Moolchand Management System” which enables them to view/upload/download documents categorized under various departments. Another highlight (much appreciated by employees!) is the “Complaint Management Database” which allows employees to register a complaint and subsequently track its status. A discussion forum for physicians’ discussions and individual workspaces for each employee – these too play their role in encouraging intra-organization communication and knowledge sharing.

Results Today, Veda has opened up many conversation forums -be it amongst employees or between employees and the administration, thus breaking down internal communication barriers. Veda has assured continuous access to documents and has eliminated the manual management and distribution of documents. Veda has also made it easier to find members within a particular department. In a larger context, it has created a sense of community for dispersed users. Above all, from the organization perspective, it has succeeded in increasing employee retention by providing a single platform collaborative space, and encouraging teamwork.

About ii
iridium Interactive Limited (ii) specializes in providing online business solutions. With a presence across three continents, it has been at the forefront in integrating strategy, design and technology to build unique and robust user-centric e-business solutions. At ii, a holistic approach is adopted towards complex business problems to arrive at a complete solution. ii’s talented team has worked on a variety of disciplines for a multitude of clients drawn from various industries, and has a number of award-winning works to its credit. ii offers it services in the areas of interactive marketing, web marketing, e-learning, enterprise consulting and web accessibility initiatives.

Fortis Healthcare is India’s fastest growing healthcare chain, with facilities spread across North India. It offers super-specialty and multi-specialty treatment at its hospitals, creating a world-class integrated healthcare delivery system. The Fortis Group – including the Escorts Hospital Group – has 12 facilities.

Objective

“The sum of the parts is greater than the whole.” Fortis wanted to create several micro sites linked to the mother site in a manner as to allow for future additions. But at the same time it sought to avoid the clutter which would arise from excessive information in the several micro sites. To manage this vast store of content and package it in manageable and web friendly proportions was a challenge. Fortis was also insistent that the websites should mirror and highlight Fortis’ medical and intellectual leadership in the healthcare sector.In a follow up to its success with previous healthcare sites. iridium Interactive (ii) brought to bear its experience in creating multiple micro websites for Fortis.

Solution

ii came up with an overall design that integrated independent micro sites featuring the individual facilities within the Fortis chain. We worked closely to nail down the look and feel of the website to reflect the organisation’s brand image. We created information pages, virtual tours (that load instantly) of all facilities, health tools, guides of common medical ailments and their treatment, physician’s directories, and online appointment pages. In essence ii produced a mini-site for every hospital under the Fortis Healthcare banner, but the design was kept consistent with that of the mother site so that the navigation stayed familiar. Keeping in mind Fortis’ ambitions of cashing in on the boom in medical tourism, ii designed a separate section devoted to and targeted at foreigners looking at medical care in India. This section has specific information addressing the foreign patient’s concerns. Then, the Medical Professionals Section was built with the explicit objective of showcasing the many initiatives undertaken by Fortis. It is targeted at the entire spectrum of the medical fraternity.

Results

ii was successful in creating a comprehensive yet compact site as per the client requirements. The content was split into sub heads and sections eliminating unrelated information and facilitating easy scanning by visitors; especially so for the ‘medical professionals’ section where the highly specific content is rapidly building up Fortis’ image as a proactive leader in the healthcare and medical domain. The creative handling of the Fortis logo (in Flash) was well appreciated, reinforcing as it did the company’s position as a world-class yet caring healthcare chain.

About ii
iridium Interactive Limited (ii) specializes in providing online business solutions. With a presence across three continents, it has been at the forefront in integrating strategy, design and technology to build unique and robust user-centric e-business solutions. At ii, a holistic approach is adopted towards complex business problems to arrive at a complete solution. ii’s talented team has worked on a variety of disciplines for a multitude of clients drawn from various industries, and has a number of award-winning works to its credit. ii offers it services in the areas of interactive marketing, web marketing, e-learning, enterprise consulting and web accessibility initiatives.