The individual today has more influence than perhaps any other time in history on the success or failure of a company and it’s products. Blogs are playing a critical role in our ability to communicate our thoughts and preferences to those interested. Twitter is making instant information ubiquitous 160 characters at a time. Mass marketing is quickly losing relevance to the sea of information. According to recent stats released at Blog World Expo

• over 12 million American adults currently maintain a blog
• over 57 million Americans read blogs
• blog readers average 23 hours online each week

With such massive potential reach and connectivity of the blogosphere, the internet has finally become the global village. In the same way that word quickly spreads around a small village about how great or terrible a vendor is, word of mouth spreads rapidly on the internet in these connected communities. I’ve seen this so many times now it’s like an act of violence in a Quentin Tarantino movie : Dell burning laptop, Edwards haircut, Guitar Hero Rocks, and on and on and on. Yes, it is the community of the long tail. Communities naturally form around topics that people are passionate about. These passions bleed across each other however, and connect disparate communities together. On average, the bloggers we track participate in 25 different communities. These bridges expand the network providing serendipitous interconnectivity and are crucial to the viral spread of messages.

Tags: Analyzing Consumer Generated Media, Brand Management // 1 Comment »

A Variety post from last night is sparking conversation in the blogosphere about which Hollywood studios are advertising in Super Bowl XLII, and what movies they are promoting.

The first post commenting on the news came from SuperHeroHype.com and obviously covers the two superhero movies that have been announced in Iron Man and Hancock. Iron Man needs no introduction, but Hancock - Will Smith as a bum with super powers - will surely be the must-see blockbuster bust of the New Year.

For a more in-depth look at Variety’s story, Chris from MovieMarketingMadness broke down the different studios and tacked his thoughts on the end for good measure.

My favorite passage from the blog: “Both of these make sense, but “Zohan” needs to be in the fourth quarter, when people are good and drunk. That will help make the trailer funnier. No, I’m serious.”

Tags: Analyzing Consumer Generated Media, Brand Management, Mass Media/Culture // Add Comment »

When Leopard first launched, there was a great rush to compare it Vista. Mac fans being what they are, the problems associated with Vista migration just tend to egg them on.

Now that Leopard has been out for a while we can take a look at a more long-term comparison between the two operating systems, at least in terms of how they fare in social media discussions.

The graph below shows the percentage of positive blog sentiment over a 30-day period for Vista vs. Leopard.

The rising sentiment for Leopard and falling sentiment for Vista have also had an effect on how Apple and Microsoft are both viewed in social media. The graph below shows the sentiment for Apple and Microsoft over the same 30-day period.

For the month of November, sentiment for Leopard and for Apple has risen, with the overall Apple sentiment being impacted by positive Leopard sentiment. Though sentiment for Vista has steadily dropped, overall sentiment for Microsoft has held steady. With Microsoft in so many markets, the impact of just this one — albeit a very big piece of their market — hasn’t impacted the overall trend for sentiment across the Microsoft brand. It will be interesting to see how that changes as more people migrate to Vista and get new PC’s loaded with Vista.

Tags: Analyzing Consumer Generated Media, Brand Management, Mass Media/Culture // Add Comment »

One of the questions that inevitably comes up when talking to customers about social media marketing is “How does Collective Intellect determines who the influencers are in social media?” This is a great question, because unlike traditional media — where you have existing criteria — circulation, source credibility, advertising rates based on impressions — social media influence is dynamic, not static. If you take away the top 3% of bloggers — the “A” list, if you will — what a marketer is typically left with is really difficult to figure out. Depending on what you’re tracking, there may be lots of posts from different bloggers, and heavy discussion on certain message boards and forums, plus video post sites such as YouTube might garner high interest in your area. The question is, which posts, which conversations in social media are the most important to you right now?

There may be lots of results associated with a keyword you search on in Google, or any of the low-priced keyword-based tools, but which results are the most important? Time-based search gets you just that — the most recent information. Certainly valuable, but how do you know of those recent conversations, which hold the most weight, which will spread the farthest, where will you get, so to speak, the most bang for your buck?

The question to ask is not who has the largest audience. The question should be: who — right now (today, this week, this month) — has the widest influence within the area I hope to impact?

So, if you’re interested in issues around dog food (to use a favorite topic of DK) what matters is finding the influence communities that have the greatest opportunity to impact current discussions around dogs, and more specifically dog food. Finding influencers in a general pets area might be helpful to a degree, but the more laser-focused you can get, the more relevant you are. This means what you are looking for are those social media content creators and commmunities where the content is really high value.

What do you think? I have some successful examples of this idea in action that, hopefully soon, I will be able to blog about.

My main point: Social media is a moving target — what today is an influential source or community might lose that status by next week or next month. Waiting for a quarterly report from market research may not be the best approach when pulling together campaigns.

Tags: Blog Analysis, Social Media Best Practice, Social Media Monitoring // 1 Comment »

Last week’s Society for New Communications Research Symposium apparently discussed the findings of a study they put together on social media influencer research. The most interesting piece to me is that PR professionals struggle to find effective metrics for deciding who are the most influential players. I will be interested to read the full study when its out.

New Influencer Study Initial Findings Shared At Society for New Communications Research Symposium

Adoption Strong but Companies Struggle to Identify Influentials

Boston, MA – December 6, 2007 – As more companies adopt social media, they struggle to find effective metrics for deciding who are the most influential players. This is among the initial findings of a study, “New Media, New Influencers and Implications for the PR Profession,” presented today at the Society for New Communications Research Symposium in Boston, MA. (www.sncr.org/symposium). The study was funded by the Institute for Public Relations and Wieck Media (www.wieck.com).

Nearly 300 public relations, corporate and marketing communications professionals experienced in social media participated in a survey focused on how influence patterns are changing and how communications professionals are addressing those changes. In addition, several case studies have been collected.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents said that social media tools are becoming more valuable to their activities as more customers and influencers use them. Twenty-seven percent reported that social media is a core element of their communications strategy. Only 3 percent stated that social media has little or no value to their communications initiatives. Respondents believe that social media is most effective for the following sectors: arts, entertainment and recreation; communications; computer hardware; and education.

“Blogs, podcasts, and social networks are changing the way we think about media and influence,” said Jen McClure, executive director of the Society. “We wanted to learn what criteria communications professionals use to define new influencers; how social media is being used to communicate with these influentials; and how to measure the effects of such efforts. The ultimate goal of the study is to offer a set of recommendations to the PR profession.”

Respondents reported that the most effective tools for their social media initiatives are currently:

• Blogs
• Online video
• Social networks

The top three criteria for determining the relevance and potential influence of a blogger or podcaster are:

1. Quality of content on the blog or podcast
2. Relevance of content to the company or brand
3. Search engine rankings

Surprising to the researchers was the fact that criteria that measured online engagement for blogs and podcasts were among the least important to the respondents.

However, for online communities and social networks, the top three criteria for evaluating influence do reflect the importance of online engagement:

1. Participation level
2. Frequency of posting by the community member
3. Name recognition of the individual

Fifty-one percent of respondents are formally measuring the effects of their social media initiatives. The metrics they value most are enhancement of relationships with key audiences, enhancement of reputation, customer awareness of program and comments/posts relevant to organization/products. Close to the bottom of the list was traditional media coverage.

“The respondents are admittedly power users, but their thinking on new media and influencers will be instructive to all communications professionals,” said McClure.

Detailed results of the study will be published in the upcoming issue of the Journal of New Communications Research and a full report will be made available via the Society and the Institute for Public Relations in early 2008.

Tags: Public Relations, Social Media Best Practice // Add Comment »

As I briefly mentioned in my previous post, music fans today live on the Internet. Thus, artists must build themselves online. For all intents and purposes, a band is to listeners what it resembles in its web presence. Granted an artist should be judged by its sound, this is far from the only factor that affects the success of a band. The social scenes and festivals the band is lumped into pave a path to a target market.

Since radio and tv are no longer the media forms of choice for many consumers, the Internet has shrunk the world for musicians and dreams have become seemingly more attainable. The playing field is leveling as artists equally can make music available to anyone in the world in the same way any major record label can. With that comes the responsibility of making the artist’s image follow. The art of splashing free music across the web, linking to major events and players in the scene, slapping sharp-looking ads and highlighting tour and press releases on major genre-related sites and making it all spread like wildfire can truly build the success of an artist. Within tight genres such as jam and indie music, the reputation and popularity of an artist is often the result of the image that has been fabricated for that artist. In some respects, web presence has become the entire music business. Name recognition no longer is forged by radio play and American Bandstand appearances, the Internet is the true home of music and artists must take advantage of it to gain strength.

You don’t have to look far to find examples of such success. The jam and indie scenes are loaded with such bands. RAQ, a member of the jam community hailing from Burlington, VT, has taken leaps in the scene through great promotion and name recognition. The band’s unique logo is recognizable across the scene and is now easy to spot in ads and places of interest. RAQ’s live recordings can be easily found on Archive.org, merchandise and music can be found on hip sites such as Home Grown Music Network, and the band frequents many of the major festivals such as Bonnaroo, Wakarusa, and High Sierra. Of course it also helps to be on a major booking agency such as Madison House.

Ultimately the efficacy of the work put into creating a web presence will be evident in concert attendance and perhaps on a lesser scale, album or track sales. However, along the way the details of this process may be measured and monitored both qualitatively and quantitatively through online media tracking. Whether it is a small artist following its name, a record label following the spread of an album, or a management company covering every corner, the data is out there to figure out exactly how well the artist name and popularity is growing, which will, in turn, directly relate to the success of the artist.

Tags: Mass Media/Culture // Add Comment »