More proof! We love it when places like Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management are the source of research that confirms what we know and continue to learn about the validity and implications of research derived from online conversation. (Hope that didn’t sound over-confident, but, hey – we’re confident!) A graduate student at the school recently published a paper about “the measurable connection between what’s being said about a product online and real time customer behavior.”

The juicy heart of the findings, or the takeaway rather: it is possible to demonstrate how online word-of-mouth relates to actual market performance.

For example, when the number of people who said online that they planned to buy a product spiked, so did the corresponding sales figures for the particular time period being examined. Now that’s valuable information to have.

The school blog post that reported on the research pointed to the value such information represents to a marketing team, as the data could possibly be used as an early indication of sales months before the actual sales figures would be available. Think of this information as the marketer’s crystal ball; it would allow you to determine much earlier than previously possible if a campaign were positively or negatively impacting sales — and to adjust accordingly.

But beyond this, we see the research as one more piece of evidence proving that the opinions people share online are very often authentic. And it speaks to one of the nagging questions that still claws at many marketers’ brains as they grapple to determine not just how to connect with consumers online, but what exactly to do with the information being shared. Do people say one thing online and then do something completely different when they area away from their keyboard? Research says? No. So if you’re not already, start listening to the chatter. And closely.

- Angela