On May 23rd from 2PM - 3PM the @MidMarketIBM handle hosted a Tweet Chat around the topic of "The empowered customer requires the retail industry to predict market disruptions and react accordingly – is your business ready?" Listed below are our expert panelist answers, top answers from others in the community, and an analysis of each question. 

Answers to our first question show the importance of social listening for retail today. Social media has shifted the balance of power, putting customers in control of the conversation, and retailers need to follow their consumers in these discussion. Consumers are highly influenced by their friends and followers on their digital channels, and for retailers, social media measuring is a cost effective way of deriving business insight.

For question 2, our panelists very much agreed on the idea that social media helps companies react to negative sentiment faster than ever before, and in a more focused way than ever before. By really hearing what angry customers are saying, retailers can turn issues into opportunities by plugging into negative conversations and solving these problems quickly. Retailers, and business of all types, can use social media to refine product development and help retailers adjust or update their offerings, all in an informal digital way that consumers love.