A 50% stock price plunge finally spurred Netflix’s CEO into making a public apology recently for not understanding or respecting customers after a sudden 60% price increase in earlier in the month and other company missteps.

But it was too little, too late- by by 4 p.m., about 6,000 people had commented on Netflix’s Facebook page, with critics appearing to far outnumber supporters. Some vowed to join the flight of customers that Netflix acknowledged obliquely last week when it said it expected to serve 24 million U.S. customers in the third quarter rather than the 25 million it projected in July.

Walmart’s labor relations lawsuit resulted in the company’s net sales falling in the fourth-quarter for the first time since the company went public 41 years ago.  The court of public opinion has never seeped so strongly into bottom line profits and the court of law than it does today.

Social media discussion groups, You Tube and traditional media can turn a rumor into fact with lightening speed. How can litigators keep a handle on it all?

Media Masters has customized a software tool that provides attorneys with a comprehensive understanding of what the public understands about thier cases.  This software includes:

• Coverage – quantify and contextualize the amount of coverage your organization receives during a specified time period to evaluate the success and measure ROI of marketing and PR campaigns.
• Product & Brand – analyze how products are performing and your brand is resonating with its intended audience by measuring coverage in the media.
• Prominence – more granular analysis of stories enables users to determine the prominence of their brands and products within a single story, and discern the business value behind its mention.
• Resonance – discover how your message is traveling across various media outlets, both regionally and globally. By doing so, you can measure whether your message is reaching intended targets, and identify key trends to gain control of how your message is delivered in the media.
• Tone – evaluate if your coverage or media response is positive, negative or neutral
• Exposure – Meltwater’s integrated viewership data enables users to get an in-depth look into the quality of exposure and the online audience numbers their coverage receives.
• Topic and Trend – identify changes and developments in an industry, as well as new sources, to implement more effective communications strategies and campaigns.
• Competition – analyze competitors to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and gain a better understanding how they stack up against other brands and products across the globe.