When an industry event's held after hours, and within a week of receiving the invitation the web link says the event is fully booked, you know it's a topic people are really interested in. That's exactly what happened with the recent Meltwater 'Outside Insights' launch event, held at the African Pride 15 on Orange on 18 June...
Big data can be overwhelming to most. Especially when one of the most detailed aspects of reputation management is knowing just what's been said about your company, especially with the rise of social media giving everyone a platform on which to voice their opinion. That's why Meltwater has released its 'Outside Insights' - here, 'Norwegian serial entrepreneur' and Meltwater CEO Jorn Lyseggen explains what went on at the recent event and gives us some insight into how Meltwater helps demystify the technology and social media mentions that get so many corporates flustered...
Lyssegen in action the the recent Meltwater Brainfood event at the African Pride 15 on Orange
1. Let's start with a brief history on Meltwater itself. Tell us how you got started and grew to what you are today, as well as about your leadership approach.
Lyseggen: Meltwater started with two guys and a coffee machine in Norway. From there, we have grown to a global business now counting more than 1,000 employees and 54 offices across Europe, Americas, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. In Africa, we are present with two sales offices in South Africa and our philanthropic arm, the Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), in Ghana. MEST, which was started in 2008, is a school for software entrepreneurs, a seed fund, and an incubator. In our Ghana incubator, we currently house 15 tech start-ups all graduates of MEST.
That's because at Meltwater, we pride ourselves on recruiting and nurturing top talent. Our philosophy is to recruit local talent and develop them into local business line managers. All the line management at all levels in Meltwater has been trained and promoted from within. We are proud to have developed a strong base of leaders in Africa. This leadership talents will play a strategic role in Meltwater's continued development across Africa as well as other continents and in the process take part in shaping the landscape of our digital industry.
2. That was a key point of discussion at the recent Meltwater marketing brain food event. Tell us more about the event, for those who missed it (my overview will be published next week).
Lyseggen: The event was an opportunity for us to demonstrate Meltwater's new state-of-the art big data platform, which enables current and future clients to mine the wealth of business insights found in online news and social media. We call this 'Outside Insights'. We had a varied range of speakers, from Toby Shapshak, Editor of Stuff Magazine to Ahmad Kajee, Head of Emerging Markets at Old Mutual Bank. Each speaker gave a short, TedTalk-style presentation, followed by a panel discussion. The evening was a mix of influencers and professionals enjoying appetising conversation, canapés and cocktails.
3. What's the ultimate benefit of media monitoring in the mobile/social space for brands?
Lyseggen: There is a multitude of data that is currently in the mobile/social space, but it is not easy for brands to find the valuable insights because of all the 'noise'. Meltwater's technology uses smart algorithms to comb through the plethora of information and present key insights in a user-friendly and actionable dashboard.
Meltwater's technology can help brand owners handling crisis, detecting changing user behaviours, measuring share of voice development, and a whole range of other use cases. In this time of information overload, it is actually impossible for a brand owner to stay on top of the issues without the help of sophisticated technology.
4. Indeed. What's feedback on the event been like?
Lyseggen: We were overwhelmed with the positive response from the 150+ guests, who found the presentations enjoyable as well as insightful. People also enjoyed the social mingling and the opportunity to see demos of the Meltwater product.
For a little more insight, view the video embedded below:
Hopefully this served as a suitable taster for my overview of the actual presentations at the Meltwater event, coming your way early next week - watch this space!
For more on Meltwater, follow their Twitter feed or visit their website.
