SOCIAL MEDIA SUPREME?

Social Media may not drown out world of mouth. So Brands should take note online comments but also follow offline chatter.

When President trump sent an angry tweet in February blasting Nordstorm for dropping his daughter Ivanka's clothing line from its stores-

His supporters took to social media to intensify their previous calls to boycott the retailer.

Nordstorm had reason to worry : Previous tweets from Mr. Trump calling out other brands, such as Lockheed Martin had hurt share prices.

Instead, Nordstorm's shares rose and its business outperformed many of its rivals in the troubled retail industry in the months that followed.

It was an example of the ''dichotomy'' between what people say in the heat of the moment online and how they're offline, said Jay York, a senior digital marketing strategist at EMSI Public Relations.

And it showcases the need for companies to monitor both online and offline conversations to get a true picture of how people feel about a brand and any controversies it may find itself embroiled in.

On average, 19 percent of a brand's sales -or between $7 trillion and $10 trillion in annual consumer spending in the united States -are driven by social conversations, both online and offline, according to a new study conducted by  Engagement Labs, a Canadian company that analyzes conversations around brands.

The study which looked at 170 brands, found that companies often wrongly saw social media as an accurate and sufficient guide for tracking consumer sentiment.

Often, though, that  social conversation might be much different from what people are saying in private conversations with friends and family, the study said.

''The danger is you can make some pretty big  mistakes if you assume the conversations happenings online are also happening offline,'' said Brad Fay, chief research officer at Engagement Labs and a co-author f the study.

''Very often, they're heading in different directions.''

The most negative and most outrageous comments often get the most traction on social media.

And sometimes people get comments about a topic just to get a reaction or to reflect an  ''image'' or  appear ''cool'' to their social media followers, when their actual views may be the opposite.

Social media is a valuable tool for detecting early signs of trouble.

''It's a wake-up call, a warning that something is afoot and there is negative force there,'' said Elissa Moses, chief executive of neuroscience and behavioral science for Ipsos, a market research company.

But a brand then needs to dig deeper to see if offline chatter matches it and if not, why not.