'Net Features : social influence

BlogFrog Jumps to Active Analytics

Michael Garrity — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 14:00:00 GMT

You may not be aware of BlogFrog yet, but as social influence becomes a more highly sought after commodity on the Web, marketers may be interested in this influencer marketing technology provider.

BlogFrog offers a Social Influencer Marketing platform that brands can use to identify and then mobilize topic-based social media “influencers." These are users who create content for blogs or social platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and others. In theory, these influencers can be used to initiate and distribute valuable content to engage millions of target consumers within one technology platform.

This system automates these so-called influencer marketing campaigns to more easily aid marketers in establishing social conversations to increase awareness, drive engagement, support brand initiatives and improve ROI.

In order to make this system more effective, BlogFrog has added new Integrated Analytics capabilities that come with an online dashboard that presents a “comprehensive view” of a campaign’s effectiveness. It also monitors real-time influencer reach and content impressions and provides a detailed analysis of the brand’s social engagement. All of this data is presented through a series of graphical reports with details about who reviewed content and took an action based on it, in addition to tracing how that content was shared across various social networks.

The addition of Integrated Analytics moves the BlogFrog platform from simple traditional reporting techniques to more active analytics by looking at a series of measurement dynamics.

It starts by tracking everything an influencer does across the social Web, such as posts and Facebook shares to tweets and Pinterest pins and beyond, but it also looks at earned media by an influencer’s audience, which includes things like comments, Likes, re-pins and retweets.

Next, the platform will measure these figures to provide insights about an influencer’s reach, like the number of readers, fans, followers, impressions and actions that they can provide. Once that happens, Integrated Analytics sends reports that come chock-full of real-time cumulative data gathered across different time resolutions (e.g. seven days, 20 days, start-to-end dates, etc.), along with aggregated data about the individual pieces of influencer content created in the program. Of course, this all comes with access to visual reporting techniques (e.g. charts and tables), as well.

Finally, BlogFrog’s Integrated Analytics will then analyze this social influencer data so marketers can point out key trends to help them set up and measure their program performance against their pre-defined targets across a variety of key performance indicators (KPIs). This will help highlight those influencers who provide the most value to marketers looking to spread the word about their brands across the social Web.

ShopIgniter Starts Measuring Commerce Influence

Michael Garrity — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:00:00 GMT

The hot new trend in online metrics seems to be the incredibly hard-to-measure and largely situational statistic of influence. ShopIgniter, the social commerce software provider, is trying to take it a step further with their introduction of a new solution for measuring commerce influence across the social Web.

This new feature is made for enterprise brands and retailers who want to identify and nurture their most influential customers by tracking the social impact that each of them develops by doing things like sharing, linking, or referring, or by the referred revenue they generate and friends they can reach.

What makes ShopIgniter's influence measuring system different from others on the Web, like the very popular Klout, is that it is not meant to be calculated as a generic statistic across various industries and customers, but rather it is a system that is geared towards specific retailers or brands and in the context of their specific business. As an example, a Starbucks customer who may have a low Klout score but shares about products or promotions in their network will have a much higher commerce influence score. The opportunity to purchase products within one's network will also affect his or her influence score.

Commerce influence scores are determined by over 10 social, product and commerce-related activities, such as one's quality of sharing and his or her direct impact on revenue generation.

It's also not only applied to individuals, but also products, coupons and promotions.

This product promises to give retailers and brands insights into who their most influential customers are (and how to create rewards for them), what their most viral products are (and adjust their stores and collections to reflect that) and test and optimize the virality of their promotions.

Click here to check out ShopIgniter's new social commerce software.

Social Influence and the SIM Score

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 20:15:00 GMT

A recent report from Razorfish released today indicates that about 33 percent of consumers are not connecting with brands on social networks. There are of course two ways to look at this. One, it could be that this large untapped audience presents a terrific opportunity for marketers. The second scenario is that brands are avoiding social media because it's difficult to measure and channel engagement is complicated. Fortunately, Razorfish provides some guidance.

The report "Fluent: The Razorfish Social Influence Marketing Report" urges marketers to change the way they build relationships with consumers by abandoning one-way messaging and engaging with them on an authentic, personal level.

"Social media has quickly become one of the most talked-about topics in marketing. We didn't want this report to just be more of the same, so instead we took a different, more scientific approach to evaluating this phenomena and measuring its effects," said Shiv Singh, VP and Global Social Media Lead at Razorfish. "Today, a brand's actions speak louder than its words and pushing out messages is no longer enough to excite and engage consumers."

Razorfish developed a new index, the SIM Score, to determine how a brand is being talked about online. Collaborating with partners TNS Cymfony and the Keller Fay Group, Razorfish measured two factors, "reach" and "likeability," to establish a brand's SIM Score relative to its competitors. Recognizing the obvious problem of discounting offline influence, Razorfish also factored in word-of-mouth data from the real world. The report determined a SIM Score of 5-6 companies within four industries- financial services, pharmaceuticals, media and auto. In the auto industry, for example, Ford comes out on top with a SIM of 31, beating out Honda, GM, Nissan and Toyota.

"We believe that in time a brand's SIM score will be just as important as other industry indexes, like a Net Promoter Score, are today," Singh said. "Being able to quantify and track a brand's relative health on the social Web provides marketers with a vital benchmark not previously considered in Social Influence Marketing."