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] 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] Don’t be fooled by the all time high of Social Media Hype.  Coming from the tech world of Solution Based Selling I can see how easy it is to rush into using Social Media platforms before strategically building a Digital Strategy (aka Shiny Object Syndrome). Of course you need a Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Flickr page for your company … right? I get it.. you might assume that by jumping on the Social Media bandwagon you will drive a good amount of traffic to your site… That’s not realistic unless you put a strategy in place first.  SXSW Interactive and Blogworld opened some eyes to a new breed of “Social Media Agencies” and “Social Media Experts” who primarily speak and consult about what they are doing for clients on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, etc.  Typically these “Experts” have a Tech, PR, or traditional marketing background which led me to the question a few things… Have these “Experts” ever run a successful business before? Do they even understand fundamental business processes? It seems so often that “Social Media People” talk up the Social Media Fluff but lack a understanding in key business principles and objectives.  Our Digital and Social Strategy always starts with Forrester’s POST Methodology.

P is People. Don’t start a social strategy until you know the capabilities of your audience. If you’re targeting college students, use social networks. If you’re reaching out business travelers, consider ratings and reviews. Forrester has great  data to help with this, but you can make some estimates on your own. Just don’t start without thinking about it.

O is objectives. Pick one. Are you starting an application to listen to your customers, or to talk with them? To support them, or to energize your best customers to evangelize others? Or are you trying to collaborate with them? Decide on your objective before you decide on a technology. Then figure out how you will measure it.

S is Strategy. Strategy here means figuring out what will be different after you’re done. Do you want a closer, two-way relationship with your best customers? Do you want to get people talking about your products? Do you want a permanent focus group for testing product ideas and generating new ones? Imagine you succeed. How will things be different afterwards? Imagine the endpoint and you’ll know where to begin.

T is Technology. A community. A wiki. A blog or a hundred blogs. Once you know your people, objectives, and strategy, then you can decide with confidence.

(Thanks to Jeff Bernoff of Forrester’s Groundswell Blog)

I tend surround myself with business and thought leaders, along with a great mix of Digital Strategy Rockstars. These business leaders and Rockstars leverage Social Media to help grow both their business and their clients businesses.  At the same time I run into daily “Social Media People” that talk all about “Social Media Stuff” and don’t understand business principles behind their message. So before you go out and build a Facebook fan page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account, make sure you know where your audience is and have clear defined objectives. That way when you start diving into your strategy you be able to leverage the right technology to help your business grow.

The term Socialnomics was coined by Erik Qualman @equalman who also wrote a book this year titled “Socialnomics”. It talks about how social media transforms the way we live and do business. If you haven’t picked up a copy of the book you should, as it does a great job of describing the massive socio-economic shift that is fundamentally changing the way consumers and companies communicate/interact with each other. We all understand how everyone leverages Social Networks to post comments, updates, upload pictures, videos, etc etc but many younger people truly lack the understanding of the amount of power Social Media has on businesses. Socialnomics inevitably will be one of the next classes added to accredited school curriculum but the time is now for students to learn how to leverage social media as it relates to business. This allows this generation a clear opportunity to leverage Social Networks that they are already familiar with and taking that to the next level of engaging audiences from a business prospective. Time to put together some curriculum for Socialnomics 101.

How cool is Myspace? Well 3 years ago you would have said it is the greatest social media tool ever. The facts are Myspace is now merely a deserted island.   In the ever changing world of marketing and technology companies fade. Twitter and Facebook are the hottest things going right now but whats next and how long will they last? Social Media Strategy and Branding is geared toward these sites because that is where the people are.

In order to be successful with your social media strategy you must pay attention to the shift in where the people are. BuzzShift listens to these audiences and shifts to sites where your customers are.

BuzzShift is an Online PR and Social Media Agency.  Much of what we do is Content Creation, Content Optimization, SEO and Social Media Tactics.  We don’t follow trends but as much as staying in the Pulse of what is going on “Now”. BuzzShift uses a variety of Rockstar quality marketing techniques to help you influence and engage people.

What are we good at?

Indentifying, Engaging, and Influencing Online Conversations.

How do we do it?

How else, other than our Tasty Bag of Tricks:  Using Social Media Intelligence, we identify and monitor the influencial communities that you need to be a part of. Our job then is to encourage them to do the things that you want them to do by engaging the right people. Causing them to fall head over heals in love with your product or cause. This is what we call Generating Effective and Measurable Online Buzz.