It’s always busy when a show like Search Engine Strategies is in town thought it turned out I didn’t go to any of the sessions planned as the promised press pass never materialized (as it turned out, I was too busy to go to anything  this time – not having a press pass didn’t turn out to be a problem) and I got what I needed just talking to certain people at the exhibition hall (such as Eric from Compete.com and David Meerman Scott, Author of   World Wide Rave.

I got my free signed copy from David Meerman Scott, as I stumbled to the front of the line (without realizing it) and heard him mutter …. “I make 25,000 a day to give advice” …. and then I thought .. and said  aloud to him …. “Yah, and I wish I had that problem“.   Then again, maybe I don’t want that problem.

I heard his keynote was great but I missed it – so I looked at the book itself  World Wide Rave – while on my way to work and decided it was too much of a “feel good” / motivational message and I’m more of someone who likes to be shown details (he did show some) – but still, overall, the tone of the book didn’t really resound with me – so I decided to just put it on the shelf for now.

Yesterday I went back to SES to talk with Eric Austrew from Compete.com and got to see a preview of the new release that will be taking place on May 15th – I can’t talk much about it – he wanted to share what Compete was working on because the idea was originally mine (though I was not the only one who asked for this new feature – which will involve categorization).   I went out of my way to connect with Eric Austrew because i wanted to see what it was that he did with some of my ideas (we discussed the features that will be released in May over a year ago).

While there will be issues with categorization – Compete.com keeps getting better and better – and of course – I’m glad to help.

I also heard that some people wanted footage of my talk at Jeff Pulver’s 140 Meetup earlier this week (FourSquare was the featured speaker along with me) – I think it was recorded but I also had a friend shoot video which I’m thinking of  put up (though the sound is slightly out of sync with the video) and sharing here.

The main points I spoke about are below – besides agreeing with someone in the audience and Jeff Pulver that Social Media is boring and we need to  rename it.

I set up  Radian6 alerts set up on Havana Central that sends email status every 10 minutes  when anyone tweets or mentions the restaurant chain in any way.  Got and alert from a customer who was saying she was in the restaurant – via Twitter.  When I read my email alert from Radian6 I immediately realized the customer was in the restaurant at the very same moment we are.

The alert took place in real time – the customer and her friend were given free drinks and discounts – we used Social Media and Social Media Monitoring (via Radian6) to reward a customer who was having a great time – and we made that time better.

TWEET FROM: KIMBERLY819
Source: twitter.com, Posted on: Mar 01, 2010 9:36 PM by KIMBERLY819
Chillin with my girl Yesenia in the city!! Great restaurant Havana Central!! Great Live salsa band!! Oooooooowwwww!!!!
Following: 86 | Followers: 65 | Updates: 270 | Sentiment: Positive

TWEET FROM: KIMBERLY819 Name: KIMBERLY819 Posted on: Mar 1, 2010 1:07 AM Followers: 66 Following: 87 What a GREAT night at Havana Central!!!! My new favorite spot!!

Link http://twitter.com/KIMBERLY819/statuses/9811482654

We gave Kimberly and her friend a free drink immediately – thanks to Radian6 -that sends us alerts frequently (with a picture of the tweeter when it’s available from a profile) we had no trouble finding her – she was right around the corner from the receptionists table as you enter the 46th Street Havana Central entrance.

THAT gesture was worth it in my opinion … look what the customer tweeted after the evening was over …..

You want Social Media ROI – you got ROI – a new loyal customer – perhaps a loyal customer for life – and you know what that is worth – a lot of money.

Read more: http://www.webmetricsguru.com/page/3/#ixzz0ijDzkfdF
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

In fact, for tonight’s talk on the Analytics of Real Time Location data I decided to take a look at how often the Kimberly819 could happen and what it might mean to Havana Central if we could reward a customer when they are actually in the  restaurant and are either tweeting they are present or announcing to their friends on FourSquare they are in one of the 3 locations.

At least 20 times in the last month a customer tweeted they were in one of Havana Central’s locations:

For those customers who have linked their FourSquare accounts with Twitter and Facebook the numbers are even higher with about 5% of the total conversation recorded as having happened at one of the restaurants  – and I can swear the number is closer to 10% as we get 2 or 3 tweets a day from people who are announcing they are at one of Havana Central’s locations.

Suppose we go with the higher number (around 60 individuals a month say “I’m at Havana Central” in one slang way or another) and estimate the typical loyal customer will return a certain number of times and spend a certain amount in per visit – we can get a approximate ROI number.

I’m going to make an deduction the typical “rewarded customer” we find via Twitter, FourSquare and Facebook might spend $300-$500 a year at the restaurant in addition to anything else they might have spent there if they had not been rewarded.

That might end up meaning that reward customers with a drink or something could yield close to 30K a month in additional revenue – and over a year that could mean as much as 360K – just by making someone’s visit a little bit friendlier and better for them.

I believe  FourSquare is becoming a major factor in changing how business perceives  Social Media.  Recently FourSquare announced a new real time dashboard for business owners to interact with their customers in real time.  The New York Times had a few case studies it shared about FourSquare’s new dashboard and how it’s been used.

AJ Bombers, a burger bar in Milwaukee, tested the new statistics tool and plans to use it to choose specials and promote new menu items, said Joe Sorge, co-owner of the restaurant.

“If I’m in another location, I can actually sit and look at that screen and see who checked in last, and I can reach out via Twitter and say ‘Welcome. Have you been here before? What kind of food do you like?’” said Mr. Sorge. “It makes the experience more enjoyable for the customer.”

Shelley Bernstein, chief of technology at the Brooklyn Museum, sees promise in the Staff pages. “Basically, the new statistics tools give us the ability to promote a personal face for our staff so we’re not just seen as an institution,” she said. “We’re wrapping all of this into our Web site through Foursquare’s A.P.I.’s, and we allow people to interact with staff and have the opportunity to engage with them in new ways.”

Another test customer, P.C.C. Natural Markets, a Seattle-based organic foods company, saw a large number of new Foursquare users coming to its stores over the weekend and used the analytics tool to figure out where they were coming from.

“By using the Foursquare dashboard, we figured out that they were coming for a new organic doughnut that had been advertised on TV,” said Ricardo Rabago, social media specialist for the company.

Mr. Rabago hopes to use the new tool to figure out when people are coming for lunch and offer coupons and specials to entice them to return

Hoping to get access to the dashboard to use with Havana Central, shortly – in which case, I’ll write about it here.

Finally, last night I went to Converseon for a wine party that also included an announcement of Converseon’s new Chorus offering.

CHORUS combines, organizes and reports data gleaned via these two methodologies to create a set of unique actionable insights to improve media and message optimization and allocation. This includes:

• Social media and offline word of mouth value: How word of mouth and social media impact purchase behavior and interactions
• Relationship: How online conversation drives offline word of mouth, and vice versa.
• Sentiment drivers: The sentiment towards brands and campaigns, as well as the drivers by channel or topic
• Target reach and Influence: The social media venues that have the greatest impact on my audience
• Amplification: How online social media conversation amplifies and impacts offline sentiment
• Segment behavior: How online conversation impacts various segment activity and behavior offline
• Messaging optimization: The messages that resonate most with the audiences, and across which channels

According to Dr. Walter Carl, “With CHORUS, marketers can now understand which media fuels discussions and decisions. It’s more than a post-mortem reporting system. Brands will be able to optimize media mix and messaging based on social media and word-of-mouth purchase drivers.”

I spoke with Dr. Walter Carl for about 20 minutes to get the lowdown on how CHORUS works – which is a whole post in and of itself – clearly this is a solution for measurement that is customized for a brand that wants to measure the online and offline influence of it’s own product(s) against it’s competitors.

I was about to go home after the Converseon meeting but saw there was a Charity Party for Search Engine Strategies and decided to go – turns out hardly anyone else was there but for 10 people – but it made the conversation all the better.

Charity Party – 8:00-10:00pm
We Build Pages 2010 Charity Party to Help the Homeless

$30 entry fee covers beer, wine, soda and hors d’oeuvres. All proceeds go to commonground.org to help the homeless in NYC.
Location: Hurley’s, 232 W 48th Street – Upstairs

I was glad I went as I spent about 90 minutes talking with the We Build Pages people including Jim Boykin, who’s blog I read.

Link Building – Methods and Risks with Jim Boykin

This isn’t your grandma’s link building session. Jim has been an industry leader in the area of link building for over 10 years as the founder and CEO of We Build Pages (www.webuildpages.com). Jim also won the search engine journal’s “Best Link Building Blog” in 2006 and 2007 (Jim rarely blogs anymore). Jim has seen and done it all when it comes to link building, and he knows which links effect search engine rankings, and the types of risks involved in certain types of link building. If higher search engine rankings are a major focus of yours, this is a “must attend” session.

• Speaker:
  Jim Boykin, CEO and Link Building Ninja, We Build Pages Internet Marketing Services

Location: Sutton North