The recent Carnival Cruise Lines ship disaster is one illustration of the need for businesses to have CRM analysis tools to take control and manage the effects of negative sentiment in the social media world. In the case of Carnival Cruise Lines, which generally promotes their fun and spirited image, the tragic grounding of one of their ships led to an immediate response on the company's Facebook page in which they took a proactive position of concern and responsibility, according to an article in The London Free Press.

Although Carnival appeared to have effectively managed their public image in light of the disaster, not every company is as fortunate in escaping public outcry or ridicule in the social world. A recent marketing attempt by McDonald's on Twitter quickly turned ugly when the company's promoted hashtag #McDStories, intended to be used by Twitter followers to share their positive McDonald's stories, was quickly overtaken by a slew of negative comments. As reported in an article in Time, McDonald's was forced to abandon a campaign that they obviously had no control over.

A similar fate was in store for actor Woody Harrelson, who seemingly had little understanding of how Reddit's "ask me anything" forum worked. As reported by CNET, Harrelson thought he could use the social platform to promote his movie, but he was quickly harangued by angry users insulted by Harrelson's attempt to use the platform for "unauthentic" purposes and worse, ultimately forcing the actor's publicist to attempt to salvage the session without success.

Good social media management should start with the proper analysis tools to understand the business' target demographic, to track marketing campaigns, and to stay on top of social trends, particularly where negative sentiment is involved. The sooner negative buzz is seen or even anticipated, the sooner damage control can be initiated. This rightly implies that the tools need to be in the hands of the IT analyst who can best use the tools to correlate and examine the data that models the customer and his experience. Unstructured data, such as text data from social media sites, needs to be analyzed in depth to spot negative trends before they can cause damage.

Although some may argue that marketing or other business analysts should be the ones with the tools, IT professionals in midsized businesses often find themselves in a broader role--with those tools. They may find that they carry overlapping responsibility when it comes to creating CRM social media strategy, particularly when it comes to extracting meaningful results from the data and explaining the significance to the larger team. Certainly, when it comes to managing negative sentiment and protecting the brand, everyone in the midsized business carries the responsibility.

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.