While there really should end up being just a few repositories of the data - instead of a zillion networks, Facebook is the closest to realizing a cloud that can touch most sites:
MySpace, Yahoo and Google have all announced similar programs this year, using common standards that will allow other Web sites to reduce the work needed to embrace each identity system. Facebook, which is using its own data-sharing technology, is slightly ahead of its rivals. I think that’s a good thing, at least, for now.
In the next few weeks, a number of prominent Web sites will weave this service into their pages, including those of the Discovery Channel and The San Francisco Chronicle, the social news site Digg, the genealogy network Geni and the online video hub Hulu.
Facebook Connect is representative of some surprising new thinking in Silicon Valley. Instead of trying to hoard information about their users, the Internet giants have all announced plans to share at least some of that data so people do not have to enter the same identifying information again and again on different sites.
Supporters of this idea say such programs will help with the emergence of a new “social Web,” because chatter among friends will infiltrate even sites that have been entirely unsociable thus far.
I’m just about to go to bed, but, after a long Thanksgiving day I wanted to get out a few thoughts today about something I noticed, and it may relate to Social Media, in a direct way.
Found it hard to post much to any of my blogs today, even thought I tried - my mind was “tired”, yet I did post - but mostly to Facebook.
What I found was that I had ideas that I shared with a friend or two, or responded to my Facebook News Feed, either to sign up for events I’ll go to next week or to comment back on posts to my wall, or as a comment to something I posted earlier.
And that got me thinking of what I was doing was giving back though interacting with my Social Media feeds as opposed to blogging, so to speak.
In fact, that’s one thing I notice about Robert Scoble, with all the posts he shares in Google Reader with me, sometimes, what he’s doing in that way, touches me a lot more than his actual blog posts - and his notes on the posts he is sharing is often more contextually relevant to me than his writings, which I tend not to read all that much.
In like manner, I found myself putting more energy into sharing stories in Google Reader and taking the time to post a note with the share (that gets picked up by Friendfeed and also goes into my Facebook Profile (feed)), plus developing relationships with real and virtual friends that might not be immediately tangible yet, function as a precursor or co-enzyme, to action.
I could have as easily just written focused on posting to my blogs - but instead, I found my self interacting with my Facebook News feed - or emailing a friend, or perhaps I would twitter something (I didn’t, today) - and much of that activity would appear to be invisible (even though it’s not) - maybe some of it shows up in my Friendfeed - but all the work I did - what I gave, is just as important as any blog post (what about an iPhone painting?) I might do.
So, I want to put forward two ways of looking at giving, along with if that co-relates to Engagement, or not.
Today, my “giving” or engagement with interacting with my Facebook News Feed, was externally driven - today is Thanksgiving Holiday (or was the Thanksgiving Holiday - it’s actually early Friday morning as I write this), if I was at work, or if it was another day, maybe I’d not be interacting with my Social Media feeds as much; I don’t think the externally driven factor and be ignored - it has to be a factor.
The other thing I want to put forward is a way to evaluate involvement in Social Media - the simplest way, at this point, is to co-relate the following :
1. Time spent on Social Media Site (compared to all the time spent online) - note, that can be looked at individually (all the time I spent on Social Media vs. all the time I spent online, period) - or in mass, all the time the internet population spent on Social Media vs. what they spend on the rest of their online activities.
I’m even willing to forget the number of times Social Media sites are visited vs. all sites. By the way, looks like MySpace is having a problem since February - people are spending substantially less time there.
2. The number conversations taking place (this could be measured by the instances of interacting with a feed, such as the Facebook News Feed, or Twitter (Feed) or Friendfeed. You can probably add them all up - and compare them to the overall internet audience.
The problem is that most of the conversation activity won’t show up - it’s AJAX, every time I comment on my Facebook or Friendfeed - a new page is not generated - for now, I need a proxy for conversations and the best I can come up with is Page views per visit - but it’s a poor proxy - but better than none at all.
There is some interesting research on Facebook that says that some activities you do are more “engaging” by nature than others (see this video clip to get a sense of that)
Perhaps this can all be combined into one metric - but what this really gets back to is there are many activities that are precursors to Social Media, to Engagment, in fact, but that are not measured - you can say the act of “Engagement” makes the assumption what ever needed to preceed it, happened.
But I would think that you do need to measure what preceeds an event or action - hey, I can take an exam and ace it, but doesn’t it also count how much I studied for it?
Anyway, enough of this for tonight - I just wanted to close out today by giving Thanks to all my friends, to my family and give form to the idea that we need to look at the whole picture.
Some of the content may be more on the data modeling level - but I’ve found that I can take in the basic points well enough and I’m keen to learn if there’s a way of organizing social network data that I might be able to tap into via the Analytics accessible to me - or just finding a new way to look at information.
On another level, I’ve been to several conferences this year, though I’m not going to SES Chicago or LeWeb3 08 (wish I could but fact of the matter, LeWeb3 is all out of pocket and last year, as a member of the Press, I was treated OK, but would have liked more access to events surrounding LeWeb, and that didn’t happen - for me to go now I’d need to know it’s really worth it - given the Global Recession and all - and I got the impression from what I’m seeing around me, this is not the time to take trips that don’t yield a definite return - and Paris would just be a repeat of Museum visits to the Louvre - but I’m not sure I need to go back just for that - just now), so I might as well attend a conference that is somewhat different and fairly close by - therefore, inexpensive for me.
Please note, registrants must be invited to the event and students are admitted only through special arrangement. Space is limited.
This conference will be the first to convene leading experts from industry and academia to help define, build mathematical models for, and provide ways to better utilize data arising from social networks. More specifically, we will focus on:
(i) leading-edge methods for building, comparing, and evaluating models for analyzing data,
(ii) discussing approaches for the subsequent monetization via improved prediction and resource allocation, and
(iii) helping practitioners develop best practices to explore network value and establish standards. The conference will be comprised of presentations of new research papers by top scholars, as well as panel discussions featuring leading practitioners.
Join this esteemed group of speakers as we dig deep into the meaning of data generated by this global phenomenon.
In addition to the live presentations we will build a repository of research papers in multi-media formats.
I hardly make it over to Philadelphia - last year I stopped by for a few hours on my way back to NYC from Washington, to see a friend - yet Philadelphia is pretty close to NYC, relatively speaking.
I’ll also be going to see The Barnes Foundation sometime in December - haven’t been over to The Barnes in a long time and it’s time to go again, for a visit to Marion, PA.
Really enjoyed Tuesday night’s event - Gary Vaynerchuk Videos from Motivational Meetup - 11-5-05; it’s the first time I got to meet Gary in person but I’ve been following him for a while online - and he was exactly in person what you see in his videos.
Now, I had heard “rumblings” recently that Howard Stern “attacked” Social Media, but I haven’t followed Howard Stern for a while, and while I used to find him funny 20 years ago, he seems to have
“not gotten it”. Sometimes, people, however “innovative” and “cutting edge” they once were, will tend to become the “establishment” if they survive long enough and stay in place. I think that’s what happened to Howard Stern and his brand - I’ll do some analytics to investigate that Howard Stern is “losing it”, by becoming, less and less “relevant” - watch
Besides what Gary Vaynerchuk said, above, what would lend substance that Howard Sterns “Brand” is on the decline? Let’s draw on what Web Analytics we can, here.
I’ll also stay in the same room for the last session of the day on expanding your Online Community. I know Laura Lee Dooley, who joined the Social Media Committee I started at the WAA and read Beth Kanter’s blog which is an excellent resource for Non-Profits who wish to leverage Social Media (and honestly, a lot of what Beth Kanter writes about could be applied to for profit businesses just as well as non-profits).
“..S04 Tuesday, 5:10 - 6:00
Followers, Friends, and Fans: Expanding Your Online Community
If you aren’t on facebook, twitter, friendfeed, technorati, and delicious, should you be? And once you jump into social media, how do you track and measure success? Tips, tools and stories from the trenches from three people who focus on online engagement and have more links, friends and followers than some small countries have citizens.
Anyway, here’s my notes on Beth Kantor’s presentation. She looks at AideRss and the statistics and see’s what posts do best.
Also Beth looks at Technorati and noted her ranking goes up and down and says she says she’s noted when her rankings go up or down and what triggers it.
Btw, Beth raised 215k for Cambodian refugees as non profit. Beth goes and friends a lot of people who follow alerts on her name, or “Cambodia”.
Laura Ann - she uses Twitter a lot and suggests we all create Twitter accounts.
But….But… Most companies are not prepared to handle interactive feedback. That’s a major roadblock.
Ambient Awareness - Listening Post Exhibition. Post Ratio: 1 : 12 (once about yourself and 12 times about others)
Laura handles two Twitter accounts
She used several metrics including twitter clickthrough and posts.
Xefer and Twitter Grader.
Is twitter multiple relationships or a single one to Twitter?
A lot of concerns about Twitter downtime but the service continues to grow.
laura points out the person who has the Twitter account for your company needs to be a senior person who knows the Brand well. No Interns, that’s not a good idea for several reason.
Nature Conservatory Case study using DIGG
One thing to note was the Digg traffic wasn’t worth much though they got a lot of that traffic.
Digg is good if you want to reach new people but it can lead to other things that are valuable.
Results of Social News Campaign on Digg. Normally they get 20,000 visits a day but 76,000 visits for the day when a Digg story ran on Digg homepage.
But ….. Our goal was to spur conversations about the enviornment plus tons of links, which in turn drove new visits of higher quality plus SEO juice.
How much time required? A few years to become a crediable source on Digg, or whatever large Social Networks.
The ad itself, took a few hours to set up. But Digg helped reach people we normally would not be able to contact.
Nature Conservatory also uses Radian6 to listen to the conversation.
My take is that social media is a lot of work, learning to leverage relationships.
Many organizations are too stoggy to adopt Social Media but once they see the results you usually get but it’s a culture change.
Digg changes make it harder to get a story on the first page but many top Diggers have interests in causes.
Fact is that Digg has been gamed so much the top keyword in Google for a search on Digg is “gamed”.
Monitoring response and creating policies to respond. Plugging in ratings and reviews, intergrated social tools and internal communications.
How to handle authentication and user identities. Targeting popularity engines with your content.
Jason cited the case of a Sony camera with a review on CNET, and the feedback is mixed, you can respond in a fair way.
ZAAZ Web Analytics and ZAAZ Social Media approach are the same, defining what success is.
To be honest, so far, I am not hearing anything different on this talk then what I already know.
But here’s what I make at of this perception - Social Media Marketing is essentially web analytics, but with different inputs and outputs.
ZAAZ has a Social Media Conversion Calculator which is available on it’s site
-not a big deal, but you can fill in your own actions and related prices.
Both brand perception and shopping have always had a social context. Three years ago we accessed the opinions of 5 friends in the consideration process, today we can access the opinions of 5 million fellow customers. Measurement on the social web presents analysts with new challenges: How do you measure word of mouth? Can you model the relationships between online research and offline purchase? What is the value of a comment on a blog post? A connection in a social network? A question in a support forum? A tag on YouTube? How does engagement affect lifetime customer value? Jason Burby and Ryan Turner of ZAAZ will present some insights from their experiences grappling with these issues, and they’ll put forward some ideas about where businesses need to focus as the social web grows in importance over the coming years.
Internet based communities have been widely discussed since the arrival of the concept Web 2.0. So far, opportunities and risks of business models based on such user groups are not fully clear. Therefore a more fundamental understanding of community-based social structures is needed. How can web analytics and social network analytics help to analyze communities? Is it possible to create segments within the user base? How can we address attractive groups like multipliers and furthermore is it possible to describe special profiles like expert, salesperson, spreader, etc.? During the session Fred Türling will discuss these topics and show first results for two top forums and one collaboration network. Fred was invited over from Germany after his presentation was so well received at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in Munich.
I spoke a lot with Fred after his session and he suggested many ideas. Mostly, without giving away too much information Fred’s company can produce a data cube model from search and customer data that can predict, with a high degree of confidence, if a free member will turn into a paid member, and how long that will take, andwhen it’s likely to happen.
But the same methodology can be applied to sales calls, to predictive analysis of search results, to name a few.
Anyway, like usual, I missed a few sessions but had meaningful conversations, instead.
In fact, interestingly, Fred’s company does analysis of how to identify meaningful conversations using predictive analysis,and he did share some general info, but the actual results, which sound like they are even more impressive, are confidental.
I’ll be attending Emetrics Summit DC next week, a must for anyone that wants to maintain or increase their connections in the Web Analytics industry - I’ve attended every US based Emetrics since October 2006, about 6 months after starting this blog.
I just want to say this on the onset of what is turning out to be a very long post - Jim Sterne has done an EXCEPTIONAL JOB of rasing the bar, and adding new and better content at this Emetrics Summit. One of the biggest problems larger conferences face is they tend to get old and stale after a few years - Jim has really outdone himself with this program - I can testify to that - and this conference, especially now, in a lousy economy, is probably the best investment anyone can make in their career - I’d suggest attending - it’s still not too late to register (up till Monday, October 20th, that is).
By the way, here’s a painting I did on my iPhone that contains many of the feelings and ideas I’m posting about - enjoy!
Thought I’d publish my itinerary - and any thoughts that come to my mind about it - tonight (I can still change what I attend - and often, I end up in a conversation with someone at the conference and don’t make it to all the sessions I planned - figuring the connecting with someone is the most important thing about being at a conference like this, but I will try to attend most of the sessions I list here).
Having a seat on the current Board of Directors of the WAA, I make a special effort to attend community meetings at Emetrics and I enjoy meeting old and new friends at the WAA Reception afterwards - being at Emetrics has been an exceptionally rewarding experience for me.
And honestly, I don’t know what time I’ll end up going to bed Monday night - there’s usually people up pretty late …. talking about Analytics and the Economy, I’m sure.
I want to say that all of Tuesday, I’ll be focusing exclusively on the Social Media track - it seems to me that Jim Sterne has really honed in on Social Media, given the attendees more of what they’re interested in - updated content and, I think, has done an excellent job of putting this track together - along with the rest of the conference.
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
9:00 - 9:45
Keynote: Jim Sterne, Founder, eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit - Plaza Ballroom
Definitely, making the Jim Sterne keynote is a must, Jim is a wonderful speaker that brings the subject of Web Analytics alive - what could be a dull, arcane subject becomes very alive and interesting when he speaks about it.
I’m attending Social Network Analysis - Fred Türling - that’s a must, even though Eric Peterson is also speaking at this time, and normally I’d go to that, I have directed the Social Media Committee at the WAA for some time, have started the ball rolling in defining Social Media Metrics, and therefore - Social Network Analysis is a must attend for me - if nothing else, to see what Fred has to say. Here’s the Marketing notes from that session:
Internet based communities have been widely discussed since the arrival of the concept Web 2.0. So far, opportunities and risks of business models based on such user groups are not fully clear. Therefore a more fundamental understanding of community-based social structures is needed. How can web analytics and social network analytics help to analyze communities? Is it possible to create segments within the user base? How can we address attractive groups like multipliers and furthermore is it possible to describe special profiles like expert, salesperson, spreader, etc.? During the session Fred Türling will discuss these topics and show first results for two top forums and one collaboration network. Fred was invited over from Germany after his presentation was so well received at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in Munich.
12:00 - 1:05 Birds of a Feather Lunch - Upper Foyer, Lobby Level
Katie Paine is someone I’ve met a few times this year, first at the Social Media Roundtable in Toronto last May, then again, a few months ago in NYC for a tweetup dinner and speaking spot at Converseon’s Social Media Roundtable in NYC. I also appeared with Katie on a panel at First Tuesday in Toronto when I was attending the first Social Media Roundtable.
Lately, I’ve needed a little lift - and I’m looking forward to getting some of that lift listening to Katie talk about Social Media PR and pick up some of the subtler points of what she’s been saying for a while about Semantic Analysis, Engagement, etc. Here’s the Marketing Notes:
Social media has turned communications on its head. HITS stand for How Idiots Track Success and even unique visitors no longer have credibility. What’s a communicator to do? Measure the true impact of social media on the business, on your reputation. A classically trained PR authority, Katie is back by popular demand to give you seven simple steps to measure your social media program in a credible, actionable way.
I’ll also attend Hitwise University - Plaza Ballroom at 3:20 - 4:20 as well as Social Media Metrics - Jason Burby between 4:20 - 5:05 - here’s the notes on Jason’s talk:
Both brand perception and shopping have always had a social context. Three years ago we accessed the opinions of 5 friends in the consideration process, today we can access the opinions of 5 million fellow customers. Measurement on the social web presents analysts with new challenges: How do you measure word of mouth? Can you model the relationships between online research and offline purchase? What is the value of a comment on a blog post? A connection in a social network? A question in a support forum? A tag on YouTube? How does engagement affect lifetime customer value? Jason Burby and Ryan Turner of ZAAZ will present some insights from their experiences grappling with these issues, and they’ll put forward some ideas about where businesses need to focus as the social web grows in importance over the coming years.
I’ll also stay in the same room for the last session of the day on expanding your Online Community.
“..S04 Tuesday, 5:10 - 6:00
Followers, Friends, and Fans: Expanding Your Online Community
If you aren’t on facebook, twitter, friendfeed, technorati, and delicious, should you be? And once you jump into social media, how do you track and measure success? Tips, tools and stories from the trenches from three people who focus on online engagement and have more links, friends and followers than some small countries have citizens.
I would not want to miss the New York Times Presentation (Keynote) by James G. Robinson, who directs Web Analytics at the NYT; in fact, there was an excellent presentation from the NYT at the last Emetrics Summit in San Francisco, one of the best, if not the best session I attended then - I definately will not miss this one. Here’s the marketing notes on James Robinson’s keynote:
“…Web Analytics as a Value Driver Across Media
James G. Robinson, Director of Web Analytics, The New York Times - Wednesday, 9:00 - 9:50
A massively well-received presentation in both London and San Francisco, you’ll learn how The New York Times uses web analytics to grow both their print and online audiences, improve web engagement, and increase revenue and profit. The presentation will trace the development of the Times’ web analytics strategy which is mapped directly to value drivers for customer and the business. Learn how The New York Times:
Integrates online and print data to better track and profile users
Uses web data to make the print newspaper more profitable
Shapes insights to flow through “the last mile” to senior management
Again, I find myself drawn to attend the Social Media Analytics Session(s) at Emetrics on Wedensday, including Making Marketing Analytics Work in a Web 2.0 World - Douglas Brooks; here’s the marketing notes on that one:
“..S05 Wednesday, 11:10 - 12:00
Making Marketing Analytics Work in a Web 2.0 World
While research in the area of social networks is considered leading edge today, it will become required research for savvy brands in the very near future. As marketers continue to discover new sources of information that get them closer to their customers in near-real time, the need becomes even more critical for creative solutions combining new data sources with advanced analytics. Being ahead of the curve in this area will lead to valuable insights and a competitive advantage for those who establish the capability early. In his presentation, Doug Brooks will discuss how some industry leaders are using advanced analytics to translate actionable customer data into business results.
Attendees of this presentation will learn how marketers are using this new data and analytic tools to:
Understand the impact of WOM/buzz on their brands
Track for leading indicators and trends
Inform innovation and product development
Understand the strengths and weaknesses of a brand, as well as those of competitor brands
After the Birds of a Feather Lunch - Upper Foyer, Lobby Level between 1:05- 1:55 PM, I’ll have my first real conflict in what I want to attend - my good friend, Gary Angel, will be on a panel on DIY SEM: Your Agency May Not Be the Best Resource - Gary Angel, Mark Ruzomberka, David Harrod = and that might be useful for me to attend as well - BUT … I also see myself at the Voice of the Customer Panel - John Fernandez, Lance Jones, Mark Brooks at the same exact time. Honestly, I don’t really know for sure what I’ll end up attending - maybe I’ll try to split myself in two and go to both - or spend a few minutes going back and forth … not sure.
However, considering that I’m working on matching up Paid and Organic Search from the Analytics perspecting at Monster Worldwide, among the things I do there, attending Gary’s session might make the most sense, so here’s the marketing notes from that session:
Tracking the ROI on thousands of keywords seems overwhelming and managing them against business goals feels overwhelming. But outsourcing the task to an agency might not be your best move. Traffic.Com manages a significant ($1M annualized) search engine marketing program that is one of the primary drivers of traffic to their site. Facing competition from Google in their core business, Based on the optimization opportunities revealed by a Semphonic audit, Traffic opted to bring their program in-house and run it themselves. Mark Ruzomberka of Traffic.Com and Gary Angel of Semphonic will describe the process of an agency process review, outline the key decision-factors in bringing a PPC program in-house, and discuss Traffic.Com’s experience managing the program. You’ll get a better understanding of how to audit your existing SEM program, how to identify the optimization strategies that make sense for your business, and some of the benefits and barriers to managing your own SEM program.
And Jim Sterne really makes it hard for me - he puts two equally interesting panels at the same time, again - I really need to clone myself (or get someone to go to the other session and take notes). At 3:25 - 4:15 there’s Word of Mouth Marketing Metrics Panel - Gary Stein, Ann Green, Todd Parsons AND Mobile Marketing Metrics - Michael Bayle BOTH sound really interesting.
However, I know Todd Parsons fairly well, consider him a friend, use Buzzlogic on this blog - and honestly, I can’t not attend his session, so it’s Word of Mouth Marketing Metrics Panel here I come -
The voice of the customer is very valuable for learning what your customers think. But they are not just telling you what they think, they are talking to each other. The voice of the customer can also be a powerful outbound communication tool if you tap into it as a marketing instrument. How do you measure the impact you can have on the discussion about your products and services that happens in the wild? This panel describes their efforts to compute how receptive customers are to referral-based advertising in order to determine how much of their promotional budgets should be allocated and how to determine their return on that investment.
Actually Todd Parsons and Breanna Wigle of Military.com, a Monster Worldwide subsidary, were on my Social Media Metrics panel at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose - and the presentation that was put together - which I had a hand in (more to bring the parites together and then step out of it and let them do their work) was exceptional. People where really happy about the panel I put together and I’m hoping to do it again at Search Engine Strategies Chicago in early December (haven’t heard back yet if that’s going to happen or not yet). BTW, I still haven’t decided if I’m attending LeWeb03 08 in Paris, which is at the same time as the SES in Chicago.
Finally, on Wednesday late afternoon, I’ll attend Web 2.0 Metrics in Today’s B2B World - Joshua Sile. Here’s the marketing notes on that session:
Based on real-world experience integrating traditional direct marketing with social media (with companies like Intel and Sterling Commerce), Joshua will deliver an overview of the data and analytic challenges involved in making social media accountable for driving revenue. He’ll explore Social Cultivation, the process of building long-term relationships with prospects, and how to manage the databases, analysis and business decisions involved in making social media work. Joshua will also provide overview of the successful business strategies and execution considerations, and follow with anecdotal examples of data workflow, analytic results and integration pitfalls.
I think the idea of “social cultivation” is something I want to explore, it has many applications in marketing of the future - and it just makes sense that you want to culitvate (be proactive) with your customers and friends. It sounds like Joshua Siler will tell us, technically, how to set up and track the actual process of social cultivation - and this is entirely new to me, so I’m happy that he’s presenting at Emetics DC.
I’ll also attend the Wednesday late afternoon Keynote: Joe Megibow, VP of Customer Experience and Online Marketing, Hotels.com - Plaza Ballroom and Web Analytics Wednesay following which is sponsored by Coremetrics (I used to work with the Coremetrics platform while at IBM, and Coremetrics bought IBM Surfaid, which I used quite a bit while at IBM).
Thursday, October 23rd
Of course, the Keynote with Kim Johnston, Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing Operations, Symantec Corporation - Plaza Ballroom at 9:00 AM, I’ll attend. Here’s the marketing notes to that keynote:
“…The Big Picture – Global Marketing Metrics
Kim Johnston, Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing Operations, Symantec Corporation - Thursday, 9:00 - 9:50
Marketing optimization did not come into being because of the Internet. People were managing large marketing budgets before the advent of clickthroughs, pageviews and the Submit button. Kim Johnston has been balancing the needs of the brand, the product lines and the sales organization at Symantec for more than a decade. Most recently she has delivered interactive customer engagements that have yield 4x the industry average in response rates. She will share how this software powerhouse manages marketing across four segments focused on selling to enterprises, governments, small and medium-sized businesses, and consumers worldwide.
And Jim Sterne has done it to me again, putting Search from Now On - Mike Grehan and Measuring Social Media and Video - Terry Cohen in the same timeslot, from 11:15 - 12:05, I’ll attend Terry Cohen’s session even though I’d ideally, like to attend both. No doubt, Terry will probably mention Comscore’s new Video Metrix product, and infact, just tonight, I attended a New York meetup of the Web Analytics Meetup Group that discussed Video Metrix. I’m sure she’ll also cover how Digitas measures video and downloadable media. Sorry Mike Grehan, next time I promise to attend your session.
Social media, word of mouth marketing, consumer generated content, video and more have become increasingly proven tactics for building brand and driving purchase. Terry recounts front-line experiences tracking and optimizing the impact of these techniques. She’ll cover methodologies including brand impact research, social media monitoring , panel usage, web analytics, and video measurement and tracking.
And then we have a session on Measuring Virtual Worlds - I can’t miss that one either - for obvious reasons - for anyone who knows me and reads my blogs - I’m very much a part of what Code4Software is doing with Virtual World Metrics - and helped to bring that aspect into the Web Analytics realm, where I believe it belongs. Therefore, you’ll find me at Measuring Virtual Worlds - Jim Bower, Jared Freedman, Matt Bostwick at 1:15 - 2:05 PM. Here’s the marketing notes to that session:
Did that avatar look at your in-world billboard? Are those two feathered creatures listening to your animate presentation? Did that amour-plated dinosaur just recommend your products to the business-suited butterfly? What is your return on investment when promoting your services in a virtual environment? What is the impact on the consumer when they can tour your yet-to-be-built hotel, take a test drive in the online version of your vehicle, or redeem real reward points for virtual commodities? What level of granularity can you capture? What tools might help? How do you integrate real world and the virtual behavior with online and call center interactions? These are just a few of the questions to be tackled by people who have been steeped in virtual worlds since they began.
Finally, I can also not miss the very last session with Sebastian Wensel, my business parnter and friend - we started www.blogspeedway.com as a new blog network focusing around verticals and which we want to be a home for Web Analytics practioners - and so you’ll find me at Mobile Analytics is Calling You - Sebastian Wenzel at 2:10 - 3:00 PM. By the way, I’ve seen the deck t hat Sebastian has put together and it’s fantastic. Here’s the marketing notes to that session:
Sales for smartphones with web capabilities are up each year. Mobile phone subscriptions will reach 5.6 billion by 2013. The mobile revolution is here and moving faster than many anticipated. The web analytics industry will be highly effected and it’s a matter of time until the “third screen will be the first screen”. Are you prepared to measure and analyze that “new” kind of traffic? Do you know which tool fits your mobile analytics needs? Are you able to give usability recommendations for a better mobile experience? Are your Mobile Marketing efforts or your QR Code / Mobile SEO campaign correctly reflected in your KPI reports? In this session you will learn about the challenges and the differences that come with the mobile web. You’ll gain insights and find out how you and your organization can be competitive in the fast-paced mobile web landscape.
The program is TWinfluence and I’m more interested in the “definations” part than the actual social media tracking - but I would like to see this type of analysis translated over to Facebook, and other Social Networks. The problem with doing it on Twitter is that is so easy to have people that you know next to nothing about, following you, that I don’t feel there’s enough involvment or choice, to make the measurements as meaningful, in most cases as with other Social Networks where friending is more “deliberate”.
For example, First and Second Level nodes are applied to Twitter - the API makes it easy to track this, but again, how meaninful is the social capital you get from Twitter?
“….The Twitterer is the primary node (shown in red); its first-order neighbors (shown in green) surround it, and its second-order neighbors (shown in blue) surround the outside.
Given that Reach is defined as the number of followers a Twitterer has (first-order followers), plus all of their followers (second-order followers) and a measurement of potential audience and listeners that a given Twitterer could quickly get a message to. It’s a simple concept, as far as it goes - I guess then, my Facebook “Reach” would be all my friends plus all their friends - and that could be interesting, in a way.
Velocity - I don’t put much stock in - mainly due to Twitter fatigue - but also because people will use something like Twitter, more frequently at some times over others and therefore, that’s going to effect the velocity.
Velocity averages the number of first- and second-order followers attracted per day since the Twitterer first established their account. The larger the number is, the faster that Twitterer has accumulated their influence and is scored from “very slow” to “very fast” relative to other twitterers at your network size.
Also, there’s “Social Capital” which is a measure of how influential are a twitterer’s followers. A high value indicates that most of that Twitterer’s followers have a lot of followers themselves. Social Capital is scored from “very low” to “very high” relative to other twitterers at your network size.
Finally, there’s “Centeralization”, which is a measure of how influential are a twitterer’s followers. A high value indicates that most of that Twitterer’s followers have a lot of followers themselves. Social Capital is scored from “very low” to “very high” relative to other twitterers at your network size.
I think that have practical examples of each measurement would help to put the Social Media Metrics surrounding Twitter more meaningul and easier to apply.
Ok, so here’s some pratical examples.
Reach - If I want to reach out to influentials - it may make sense to find those that have the most reach, first, and try to sell them on my ideas - because they can then pass that information to their network (reach). Again, I think this would be a lot more interesting if we had an analytics tool set and Facebook to play with - but OK, Twitter is a good place to start - and it gets me thinking about the reasons behind why I might be invited to some event by someone who has not yet friended me (I get those from time to time).
Velocity - well, I suppose Velocity is important for a political candidate - @barackobama , for example - the faster the audience (reach” grows, the better he’s doing (more or less). But I don’t think Volocity is as meaningful for most of us - it depends on what you want to do with the information, what your goals are.
Social Capital might be the most important metrics that TWinfluence tries to map - I mean, not all friends are equal, and certainly, from a network node perspective, some friends are simply a lot more valuable than others.
I could go on more but I’ll stop here - point being - TWinfluence took a great first stab in coming up with Social Media Metrics - a lot more needs to be done - and I’m glad someone actually tried applying what the read and studied to real life.
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