Millennials are using social media in droves — and businesses are listening. But how do businesses turn all that communication into profitable engagement?

MutualMind, a startup using IBM’s Bluemix developer portal, made it work, attracting angel investors and eventually getting acquired by forward-looking marketing firm Shapiro+Raj.

The vast majority of millennials use digital channels to research, criticize, or get support from companies, and social media significantly affects their purchasing decisions. 85% of millennials use social media to research products and services. MutualMind’s approach to hearing and activating this conversation, manifested through Bluemix, is what attracted investors.  

Here are three features that led to MutualMind’s success:

The feature: Integration with Watson, IBM’s cognitive computing system.

Why it’s important: Sentiment analysis is a critical tool in analyzing the casual speech that rules social media.

The feature: The Adaptive Listening interface allows businesses using MutualMind to spot and react to mentions immediately.

Why it’s important: 42% of consumers who make a complaint on social media expect a response within the hour. When millennials have a chance to interact with brands in a meaningful and timely way, they’re much more inclined to be loyal to, or even evangelize them.

The feature: A Command Center that pulls a business’s relevant social data into one dashboard, with real-time visualizations.

Why it’s important: With constant activity on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and more, millennials don’t just use one platform to communicate. To get a handle what they’re saying, you have to defragment the landscape.

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