If social media is changing anything, it is, one, redefining the timetables of new product ‘launches.’ The timetables are ongoing. Companies want and need rolling thunder, not IEDs (Insignificant Event Driven Splurges). And two, the whole process is astonishingly more inclusionary than exclusionary; more transparent than secret; and more realistic because to assume a new product can be developed in secret by a few people and achieve first-generation market perfection is delusional.

Turns out, users know this… they don’t expect perfection. But when that’s what they are promised by way of glossy news releases and other promotions and then they learn firsthand or from others about various flaws, a significant level of market trust is squandered.

In this whitepaper you'll find a brief comparison of the 'old way' and the 'new way' some small and medium-sized companies are benefiting from evolving social media strategies and tactics to develop and launch new products in the technology space for better Public Relations and Private Relations results. Private Relations is our term for making contact and having conversations with target audiences directly rather than passing everything to and through the trade and mainstream media.

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An early-stage Massachusetts company by the name of Lexalytics is developing advanced technology that, in their words …focuses on adding structure to unstructured information, so that it may be leveraged using traditional analysis and reporting mechanisms. This includes the ability to extract entities and relationships from content, summarize content and in the newest release determine the sentiment or tone of documents or even the tone of entities within documents.

To demonstrate the power and performance of their advanced technology the company has launched a free online site, PoliticalTrends.info, which, to paraphrase how they describe it, monitors some of the more active political blogs — 300 or so now, with a goal of 1,000 eventually — and looks for the hot trends and points of discussion in the political arena. This site is also starting to measure the tone of discussion to understand which politicians are hot and which are not. Don'tbe misled or put off that this is about political coverage and tone. The Company isn't in the business of politics, per se… the site is merely a timely demonstration of an underlying technology with widespread potential application in many areas across the board.

The site is new and it is a work in progress so also don't get overly frustrated by the home page. Explore the side bar and examine this section which focuses on the Democrats (showing coverage volumes, positive and negative sentiments for each of the candidates and overall tone). Similiarly, go here to see the same for the Republicans. Another really interesting section is this one which gives you the list of souce bologs they are using and their calculation of the blog's leanings.

Imagine what an engine like this could do for your understanding of what people are saying about you or your company and products, where, how often, and with what tone?

And lest you think this is some fledgling's techno mumbo-jumbo, Cisco, among others, is a major user and very vocal advocate for the Lexaltyics solution. [Lexalytics, by the way, is not a client and we have no vested interest in the company. The product came to my attention because an acquaintance of mine, a seasoned marketing pro, recently joined the organization.]

Also, this organization of about a dozen people is also garnering some terrific visibility in the media and the metasphere. Here are stories about them in The Boston Herald, The Republican out of Springfield, Massachusetts, and in blogs like Chattering Classes, TroySchneider.com, VentureBeat, and BPM Today.

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