May 11, 2009
The social media phenomenon has attained a perception of commercial value because of how it has quickly generated a massive world-wide audience within a certain demographic profile. Combined with a relatively intimate framework, social media is now a prolific sub-set to every media buying opportunity.
In short, social media (including that rather quaint term, micro-blogging) has become a type of arterial network through which so much of our 1st and 2nd degree knowledge (friends and family first, interests and curiosities, second) relies.
Attached to these streams of consciousness are product and marketing statements. These commercial elements weave their way through online discussions, opinions and comments, but rarely are they tackled in terms of what value (or lack of it) the associated products receive from being part of this intimate, personalised network.
In the case of the music eco-system, social media has become an integral part of talent discovery, marketing and sales. Because commerce and art are so intertwined in this instance, it is logical that online ‘chatter’ should be measured or indexed, which in turn, produces the necessary insights to affect marketing strategies and sales results.
In this example, Music Sentiment Index or MSI, is now being applied to music artists and their album releases. The MSI is quantifying the chatter in a given time period based on the number of mentions, as well as the ‘quality of exposure’ of each mention. The former is relatively straightforward, the latter, however, less so.
In this case, quality refers to the ‘authority’ number carried by each site, blog and forum; a number based on a similar ‘links-in’ algorithm used by Google, though in this instance, the links originate from social media properties only.
In this example, the MSI for Eminem’s Relapse album in the weeks leading up to its launch on the 19th May has been something of a roller coaster ride, beginning with an initial burst of venom between fans and detractors about the album’s first single release. With traditional news sites blasting out headlines about Eminem’s first album in four years, the blog and forum space went ballistic, pushing the MSI beyond 1,000 in weeks four and five.
Eventually, every product, individual and event with its fortunes tied to social media ‘chatter’, including the leverage of the much-hyped ‘influencer’ segment, will require an index measure to validate performance and an ROI. The really interesting work begins when digital agencies, advertisers and publishers attempt to build MSI-type standards, or a common currency, to allow for benchmarking. Something else to add to the IAB’s to-do list!
May 4, 2009
Ok, so Victrix is a little late jumping onto the Twitter bandwagon, but given the hysteria surrounding Swine Flu - with little justification as to why the WHO went to DefCon 5 - maybe a little ‘late to market’ isn’t such a bad policy after all?
This is a case study of how Twitter Intelligence (TI) can sometimes having a profound impact on our (the brand’s) understanding of the consumer’s perspective as well as the questions and concerns which are typically raised in a word-of-mouth scenario.
And this is a major point: I’m not aware of anyone yet describing Twitter technology as a method to measure and monitor word-of-mouth, especially in metric terms such as ‘rate of diffusion’, ‘positive/negative’ sentiment, brand and competitor awareness.
In this example, we have comments, opinions and chats associated with one of Samsung’s most recent mobile phone releases, the Omnia touchscreen. Using PeerIn’s Sentiment Metrics platform we have tracked and quantified these references online - across typical websites, but more interestingly across social media and user-generated content. Included in this catch-all is Twitter communications.
This analysis captures references to “Samsung” and “Omnia” and identifies more than more 20,000 items across blogs (including micro-blogging), forums, websites and news services. In percentage terms, the split is 51%, 26%, 15% and 8% respectively. Micro-blogging, or Twitter, accounts for just over 1% of all comments, which is relatively high for a product-related ‘event’.
However, what it lacks in scale, the Twitter channel more than makes up for in sheer chutzpah. In others words, when you’re limited to 140 characters, your opinions, questions and answers are going to be couched in a very concise, direct and forthright manner. There’s simply no room or patience to waffle, procrastinate or pontificate. Though there’s plenty of opportunity to market, or dare I say it, spam.
In the context of understanding a mindset, the Samsung-related Twitters are pure gold.
“Phones I have my eye on Samsung Omnia and HTC Touch Pro2″
“got lots of games and most importantly a GPS for my Samsung Omnia that is free…holla!!”
“Does anyone want to swap a Samsung Omnia for an iphone?? It would make my day and I would actually think you are crazier than me”
“I returned the samsung omnia and got an htc touch pro…spent all day yesterday unlocking and flashing it…sweet as betch now”
“Goddamn Samsung Omnia. You’ve broken my heart and I’m thinking about leaving you for a Blackberry Curve. It’s not me, its you.”
“Nokia N97 comes with disappointing hardware. Samsung Omnia HD looks better and better every day.”
In these few examples, you have cases of competitor positioning (and awareness) as well as consumer insights into hardware and software configurations.
There are many other examples, but one thing Victrix has learnt very quickly about Twitter: don’t take everything on face value. While no doubt a flexible, responsive and convenient communications channel, Twitter is also increasingly susceptible to astro-turfing techniques, where product placements clumsily infiltrate innocuous Twitter comments. Case in point:
“What a beautiful sunset. I’m sitting by a blue lake and listening to Michael Buble from my Samsung Omnia.”
And you thought the close-up of the Ford badge in Casino Royale was gratuitous!
