It’s no secret that social networks are the center of consumers’ online worlds. They’re where consumers spend the majority of their online time. Many believe that the social networks are here to stay, and companies need to learn how to make the best of this.

If you are a company today, people are out there talking about your brand. If you don’t listen to them, you’re not only ignoring valuable feedback, you’re damaging potentially positive relationships.

To see why it’s extremely important to listen, look at what happens when a company blatantly does the opposite. Intel, for example, freaked out when protestors of conflict minerals flooded their Facebook wall with comments. Instead of interacting, they ended up reacting, and deleted all of the comments. It ended up being a huge social media mistake that did two terrible things at the same time — it made them look like the bad guys, and it gave the issue even more publicity than it had before.

To start listening to what’s being said about you online, there are some great, free sites that exist to help you search the social web:

• Setting up Google Alerts is an easy way to be notified every day of anything that comes up on the search engine about your brand.
• Addictomatic is a great way to get a quick high-level overview of what’s going on.

Once you see what areas are getting the most activity, you can delve deeper with these next four:

• For searching through blogs, try either BlogPulse or IceRocket 
• For searching discussion forums, check out Boardtracker
• To scour the comments of all of the web’s blogs, check out CoComment 

Even more important than listening to your customers is doing something with what you hear. Use all of this unsolicited praise and/or criticism to improve everything — whether it be the company’s product or future communications. And always speak back in real-time — vocal consumers are speaking out for a reason, and, more than anything, they want to know that they’re being heard.

Recording personal data isn’t new, but the ease with which data can be recorded, organized and displayed for analysis is. And it’s gaining in popularity. New websites and apps that help people monitor their habits, feelings and behaviors are being released every day. According to the New York Times Magazine article, The Data-Driven Life, over one million people are on the geo-tracking site Foursquare and over 30,000 personal tracking projects are started every month on MedHelp.

Self-improvement and self-insight
People track their data to aid in progress toward goals such as quitting smoking, losing weight or being more productive. Seeing the raw data removes some of the emotion from the process of change and can also, over time, offer personal insight into correlations between activities, moods and outcomes.

Community
With the popularity of Facebook and Twitter, people don’t seem to have many qualms about sharing their data. Many online communities are built around the exchange of personal data. For example, creating a profile on a dieting site that publishes your food intake, exercise patterns and weight loss progress for like-minded individuals to view. Or personal data can be published manually via Twitter or Facebook (tweet your breakfast) or automatically (check in at the Pizza Parlor via Gowala). The social aspect of the web actually promotes the collection of personal data. From The Data-Driven Life:

“The more they want to share, the more they want to have something to share.” Personal data are ideally suited to a social life of sharing. You might not always have something to say, but you always have a number to report.”

Where is this all headed?
In this fascinating video, Carnegie Mellon Professor Jesse Schell talks about how score keeping and tracking devices will creep further into our everyday lives (skip to the 20:00 mark if you are short on time). Sensors will get smaller, more powerful and be embedded everywhere. Just brushed your teeth? The sensor in your brush awards you 10 points. Brush twice a day for a week? You’ve earned a bonus – redeem your points for a toothpaste coupon.

But can you trust companies with this much information?  
It’s all well and good as long as they are using your data so sell you things you want. But what happens when your grocery store threatens to use your buying habits against you in a legal case? Or maybe your health insurer offers them big money for your data — could your rates go up because you buy too much junk food?

In summary
If recording your personal data benefits you in some way, do it. Enjoy the insights and benefits the modern technology can provide. Just be aware that your data may not always be private and you should be selective about what you record.

Popular personal data tracking sites, apps and devices to check out: 

• Daytum uses Google API to track and publish just about any type of data.
• me-trics is where Google Analytics gets personal.
• RescueTime is time management software for individuals and companies.
• Trixie Tracker can track and monitor your baby’s habits.
• Sleeptracker is a wristwatch-like sleep phase monitor and alarm clock.
• FitBit is a small device that tracks exercise and sleep.
• Moodstats allows you to record and rate how your day is going.
• MedHelp is a medical community and forum with tracking tools for pain, sleep, etc.
• Traineo tracks food, calories, exercise and fitness goals.
• FitDay is for tracking and analyzing your nutrition, weight loss, diet and fitness goals.
• Calorie King has detailed food, nutrition and exercise trackers.
• MotionBased is a web app from Garmin that translates GPS data into functional analysis and online mapping.
• Nike+ captures running stats (distance, pace, time and calories), which can be uploaded into the Nike+ community.
• Foursquare and Gowala are geo-tracking applications where users “check-in” at locations.
• Mint is a personal finance tracking software.
• CarChip is a device for cars that collects driving and engine performance data from the on-board computers.
• My Mile Marker tracks mileage and fuel consumption.
• The Energy Detective is an energy consumption device/monitor.