This is a guest post by Ben Smithee. [tweetmeme]

In the world of market research (you know…that mythical land of statistical analysis, in-depth interviewing and the warm and fuzzy focus group) we are seeing a new type of shift in measuring ROI, impressions, likes, RT’s and all of those other mystical social media metrics. In the evolving social economy (also known as the interwebs) I see new marketing and advertising strategy leading to new forms of measurement. I like to think of it as “social measurement”, or the measurement of your campaign or initiative’s ability/likelihood to be shared on the social web.

Think about that last statement again, “the ability/likelihood for your campaign or initiative to be shared on the social web”, what do you think?

It’s no secret the emphasis on social advertising and marketing is taking an influencer approach. We see things like Mayors on Foursquare, friend, like and comment counts of Facebook, and follower and klout scores on Twitter. Companies and brands are looking to make marketing and advertising impact through interruption and inclusion in conversations and experiences that are already occurring between you and your friends. They seek to maximize efficiency of message spread, aka virality, by identifying the core influencers to target on a personal level, and having them act as brand champions, heralding the horns of influence.

So, in the land of influence we as researchers, marketers and advertisers are starting to look at new forms of identification and measurement. As people become the medium for the message, and brands seek out influence, we are tasked with identifying those who are most likely to move the word of mouth needle.

Social Measurement Factors

When creating campaigns and initiatives around influencers and brand champions, 3 main key factors come into play:

Relevance
Shareability
Conversion

Everything starts with relevance, and I think many marketing and advertising blunders can be avoided if you just simply head the relevance warning. Relevance can be the difference between the trending video on YouTube and an #EpicFail. People do not naturally avoid or hate advertising; they just expect it to be relevant. With the evolution of truly targeted platforms, such as the plethora of location-based apps, there is no reason for disconnect in the land of relevance.

“Shareability”, or the ease of sharing information, is something I see many companies forget about. They come up with great campaigns and extremely creative ideas, but fail miserably by not allowing me to easily share it with my friends! It’s hard to have an influential effect if the influencers cannot EASILY share the message.

Conversion is what it all boils down to in the end. Impressions are great, and having 500,000 “likes” is a great accomplishment, but if it doesn’t have a level of conversion attached to it, what is the real value? Conversion starts in the strategic planning phase and rears its ugly head throughout the entire campaign. From the very beginning, you must establish end-goals and identify what it is you actually want people to do. It sounds like a simple concept, but I have seen so many brands get caught up in the search for cool and making a viral video that they forget that the end goal is to cause people to buy something, adopt an animal, or some other tangible and measurable action. Identify conversion points early, and make sure you have the ability to specifically attribute each end-action back to specific initiatives and channels.

The future of marketing, advertising, and social measurement is still in a fast-changing mode, but as things evolve and expand, those three metrics of relevance, shareability and conversion will remain as core foundations for success.

What are your thoughts, and how do you see the metrics of buzz and influence changing over time? We would love to hear your comments.

image credit

About the guest blogger: Ben Smithee is a Managing Partner at Spych Market Analytics, which provides innovative solutions for companies seeking a better understanding of the Gen Y and Millenial market segments. He can be found on Twitter here.

[tweetmeme]
Our weekly post is not here. Rather, we jumped on a chance to guest blog on Colin Alsheimer’s Social Media blog. The topic? How to build an effective editorial calendar for your blog. Head on over there and tell us what you think!

Image credit

[tweetmeme]

Screw #FollowFriday. One, it’s oversaturated now. How many people do you actually follow as a result of one of those tweets? Two, you can’t explain why they are worthy to be followed. So, why not start the week out right by following these brilliant netizens, tweeps, and bloggers:

North (Detroit, MI)
Scott Monty. He’s the head of social media marketing at Ford Motor Company, and host of iHearofSherlock.com (who knew?). Why do we follow him? Because we tend to work with medium-sized companies and non-profits who want to be big one day, we appreciate his insights on how he communicates for a global brand, and how he combines a fast moving industry (social media) with the gigantic bureaucracy that is Ford. His blog: ScottMonty.com

South (Austin, TX)
Aaron Strout. He’s the CMO at Powered Inc. in Austin, our second favorite city besides Dallas. Why do we follow him? He has the uncanny ability to sniff out the latest trends in social media and separate the wheat from the chaff. He stirs up the pot on Twitter – his twitt-ersations keep us hitting the refresh button. His blog: Citizen Marketer 2.1.

East (Boston, MA)
Tamsen McMahon. She is the Director of Digital and Strategic Initiatives at Sametz Blackstone Associates, and is the partner-in-crime with Amber Naslund at Brass Tack Thinking. Why do we follow her? She is always thinking about what is next, and how to apply those thoughts to practical marketing and PR applications. Our favorite post that she’s authored: 4 Things You Need to Know about Influence.

West (Silicon Valley, CA)
Jeremiah Owyang. He’s a partner at Altimeter Group. Why do we follow him? His reports from Altimeter are mind-blowingly deep, and the things that they produce influence us immensely in the way that we think about reporting and monitoring, two things that are vastly overlooked in the digital marketing world. His blog: Web Strategy.

Who do you follow?

(image credit: flickr)

[tweetmeme] There’s been a lot of talk about online influence lately, as seen in the buzz around Klout, the backlash against Fast Company’s Influence Project, and even an Influencer Project Conference, billed as “60 speakers, 60 seconds, and 60 ways to increase your online influence.” As much as we want to measure, quantify, and increase our (or our client’s) influence, the question still remains: what makes someone influential? Is it their message, their charisma, and/or their medium?

We found a little short film that tries to look at the essence of influence. They take a look at people like Jay-Z, the New York Times’ Bill Cunningham, and Steve Jobs, as well as the places, like SxSW, Coachella, Bonnaroo, and the TED conference, to see what makes people so influential.

From the directors:

INFLUENCERS is a short documentary that explores what it means to be an influencer and how trends and creativity become contagious today in music, fashion and entertainment.

The film attempts to understand the essence of influence, what makes a person influential without taking a statistical or metric approach.

INFLUENCERS via R+I creative.

The filmmakers identified three things that make someone influential:
1) Confidence/comfort in what they are doing, whether it is inventing/originating, curating, or popularizing/promoting a concept, idea or brand
Influencers are usually comfortable in their own skin. While they may have a need for approval, they likely know what they like, and what they don’t like.
2) Respect for their thoughts within their niche or industry, regardless of whether they are liked as a person or not
Influencers don’t give a damn about what people think about them, but they are heavily invested in what people think of their ideas.
3a) The ability to see outside the mainstream thought, AND….
3b) The ability to pull it back into the mainstream conversation.
Influencers aggregate and curate unique thoughts and ideas and then, because they straddle mainstream and innovative worlds, translate and popularize those new concepts.

We loved what the film tries to capture in an offline sense, and we are trying to process how a film would be made were it to focus on online influencers. Is it all about compelling ideas in written or video form, or is there something (or someone) more? How does charisma translate online (Gary Vaynerchuk immediately comes to mind in terms of social video)? What do you think? Who are the influencers in your life? Why are they influential? How are you trying to become an influencer?

[tweetmeme] We often think of San Francisco as the home of the newest and best technology. However, it’s also a place where old school, handcrafted tools are used and respected. Take, for instance, the SF Fire Department ladders:

Ladder Shop for SFFD via AdamKaplan

Building wooden ladders for 21st century firefighting? On the face of it, that doesn’t make a lot of sense. However, in San Francisco, where ladder trucks can’t access many streets, electric wires are strung in the air, and a stiff breeze comes off the bay, aluminum ladders don’t do the trick. On the contrary, wooden ladders, heavy enough to stand the wind and non-conducting for electricity, make a ton of sense. And since the ladders are handcrafted, some of them are over 100 years old.

Likewise, we hear a lot of talk in social media about how Facebook or Twitter (or both) campaigns are the answers to all marketing questions, online or offline. While we should be big proponents of those tools, we need to also realize that nothing beats a bespoke, sustainable marketing strategy. We should look at all the available online and offline options, tailored to individual situations. This usually involves light, flexible email and social media tactics, combined with offline, “old school” marketing, like handouts, advertising, and face-to-face interactions. The end goal: to have movements, not campaigns, that endure and stay relevant to your communities.

So what is the lesson? Maybe we, as innovators and users of the latest and greatest tools, shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water when it comes to traditional methods. Maybe we should look to combine the best of both worlds. Sleek new fire trucks with 100 year old ladders? Makes total sense to us. What do you think?

Next week, Cameron will continue our fire-fighting theme, so stay tuned by subscribing to our RSS feed.

[tweetmeme] Now, we here at Buzzshift have a decent amount of style, some of us know The Sartorialist, Fashionista, and Brog NOT Blog cold, and one of us even knows how to properly pronounce “Givenchy”. And while we have seen our fair share of quality or luxury as a differentiator, or customer service as a marketing tool (a la Zappos), we have rarely seen the combination of a luxury brand using customer service as an effective marketing tool. Many companies have a generous return policy, but few have a “no questions asked” policy, and fewer still have a proactive return policy that is worth raving about.

Enter Coach Bags. This purveyor of mass luxury handbags is best known for its high quality leather goods and distinctive “C” logo on its handbags and wallets. They also have a great customer service experience that is remarkable, in every sense of the word. About a year and a half back, I bought a nice little cloth and leather purse for my wife (brownie points), and she has used it with semi-regular frequency. Recently, however, we noticed that the cloth was starting to fray around the edges, slightly unusual for the amount of usage and level of quality. So, on a whim, we took it back to the store, thinking that we could get some advice on how she could avoid further damage to it, or get it repaired. Almost immediately, the sales associate said that “We have seen this before with this style of bag, and it happens when the bag regularly rubs against the wearer’s arm or against itself.”

At this point, it could have gone either way in terms of what they could offer, and probably could have said something to the effect of “too bad, so sad.” Instead, the store manager came over and said, “Feel free to look around and pick out a new bag worth $X (which was the original price of the bag), or we can give you store credit.”  As @eddiemart would say: Shut the front door! Really?

And in one instant, they turned a marginally satisfied, one-and-done customer into a happy, life-long brand advocate. My wife was THRILLED about shopping around for a new free bag. She couldn’t believe it. We had to go (thanks to our crying kiddo), but she went home, searched for the right bag on the Coach website, and came back the next day to finalize the return. In between, and afterwards, she told every friend to whom she talked, about her experience.

The math on this one: $X (cost of bag) = 1 happy customer + 20 referrals + a blogging/tweeting husband = $4X (conservatively).  I posted it on Twitter, and @Coach even pinged me back for good measure. @elysa said:

So, what’s the takeaway for your business, you ask?

1) Do you have some sort of “No Questions Asked” return policy for your product/service?

If your service is as good as you think it is, you should make it easy for customers to come back to you in case it didn’t work like it should. And you should have enough humility in place to say “I’m sorry. What can I do to make you a raving brand ambassador?”

2) If you do have that policy in place, are you making it really “remark”-able? Like, tell-10-friends-because-it’s-so-damn-cool remarkable?

How you present and execute the return policy is almost as important as the policy itself. Think about how you can make your customer’s day out of an otherwise negative situation.

3) Are you providing channels for your customers to share their “remarks” with others?

This is where we are seeing leading edge companies go crazy, and where you can help amplify their experience. Now that you’ve turned your customer around, help them share it, or monitor for their reactions on your social networks to enhance their experience even more.

We are curious, have you seen/experienced a “No Questions Asked” policy become a “return” on investment? We would love to know if their are other examples out there.

Enjoy this post? Please consider subscribing to this blog in your RSS reader of choice, and follow us on Twitter here.

[tweetmeme] What does War and Peace have to do with executing great online marketing campaigns? Everything. Once you have the most efficient and effective strategies and tools in place, Tolstoy’s General Kutuzov declared,

“the strongest of all warriors are these two: Time and Patience. It is not difficult to capture a fortress but it is difficult to win a campaign. For that, not storming and attacking but patience and time are wanted.”

Kutuzov dismissed a rival general’s accomplishments, saying “Kamenski would have been lost if he had not died. He stormed fortresses with thirty thousand men… Everything comes in time to him who knows HOW to wait.”

We shouldn’t try to win over a client with brute force PPC campaigns, impressive amounts of Twitter followers, Facebook Fans or a website chock full with keywords, hoping for that quick hit and show of appreciation. Establishing reasonable expectations during the sales process is key. Next, setting SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) goals for a client, and then executing them, is the way to go. Finally, being patient while they play out, and providing reporting tools to track those incremental gains over time, will keep your (and your client’s) expectations in check.

Patience and Time. It’s also essential when trying to read War and Peace.

Image via Bengoshi-san.

[tweetmeme] Today, Erik Qualman from Socialnomics released Social Media Revolution 2, an updated version of his fantastic video from a year ago. With over 2 million hits, the first version was an infographic barrage of stats and insights on how social media is changing the game. Version 2.0, while keeping the same soundtrack, has updated the statistics and provides further evidence that social media is changing the way we live, operate, and how we look at digital strategy and communications.

[tweetmeme] Do you remember your best professor in college? What was so good about him/her? Was it his teaching style? Or how she made the subject matter come alive? For me, Jim Olson was my go-to prof in  grad school. While his expertise in international affairs was undeniable, and his stories of his time in the CIA wildly fascinating, what really made him my favorite professor was his open-door policy. When his door was closed, you knew he had work to do. However, when the door was open, he loved having students come in and fire away with questions (within reason, of course. He WAS a CIA officer – he didn’t answer them all.) His office was just down the hall from mine, and it would always put a pop in my step to walk down the hall and see his door propped open, even if it was just to say hello.  Even so, we knew that his time was valuable, so we didn’t waste it with chit-chat, but if we had a question about foreign policy topics, intelligence, or just our careers and possible options, he was totally game. People really valued his office hours.

So, what does that have to do with you, the agency/business/non-profit? Well, do you have “office hours”? Do people who know you, as a subject matter expert on X, have a regular chance to ask you questions in a relaxed setting? Do business owners and colleagues feel comfortable sharing with you what they are excited about, without fearing that they are being “sold” something? Happy hours are great and all, but what if you just need a couch and an ear?

For us at Buzzshift, we want to open our office to our friends, colleagues, and clients. To talk, to bounce ideas, to hang out. Maybe we end up collaborating on something, maybe one of us helps you push your idea forward just a little bit more, or maybe we just talk about trends we are seeing in the marketplace. Whatever. The door will be open.

Buzzshift Open Office Hours

Every Wednesday – 4pm-6pm

5307 East Mockingbird Lane #500
Dallas, TX 75206
214.379.7408

A variation of this is David Cohen‘s office hours  (he of Techstars fame in Boulder). He hosts his availability on SparkCloud.