Molecular Voices » Evan Gerber

Evan Gerber

Posts written by Evan Gerber

October 14

How to Make Twitter Measurable

More than ever, hard numbers are necessary to demonstrate success; they are incontrovertible, easy to communicate, and can point out what is or is not working. For new media darling Twitter, marketers are finding more tools to help them understand how their efforts are performing.

There are five tools to consider, but first you have to know what to measure. Not all of the tools out there are going to be helpful. Some are introspective, looking at how the Twitter campaign is presented. Others are quantitative tools to analyze traffic, trends and follower count. First, make a measurement plan, noting what is important to the organization and how to justify the success of the campaign. What does success look like? What are the key things that need to happen? List these goals and then determine reliable tools to measure progress.

Five Useful Tools for Tracking Twitter Success

TwInfluence. Track not only how many listeners you have, but also how concentrated your audience is, and the rate at which your campaign is growing.
TwitAlyzer. Measure your popularity, signal-to-noise ratio, and how many times you’re being cited. This is valuable if your aim is to become a thought leader. Twitalyzer also lets you tie into Google Analytics and collect information on site traffic coming from Twitter. This can provide insight into how the digital marketing channel is being influenced by a Twitter campaign.
TwitterFriends. Get detailed insight on who you’re interacting with on Twitter. This includes everything from a map indicating where your followers are to the average length of a given tweet. This helps provide clarity on who is responding, how frequently and the nature of these interactions. This information can be useful in the planning stages of a Twitter campaign, as well as tracking once the work is in progress.
Trendistic. Get an understanding of trends in Twitter. Enter a keyword and see how it is referenced in the space over time. It’s possible to see up to 180 days worth of information.
TweetEffect. Find out how individuals are reacting to your posts. By entering the user ID and clicking search, you get a summary of recent changes, as well as adds or losses based on specific tweets. It’s an excellent way to see what is resonating with followers and what is not.

As more users flock to Twitter, developers are coming up with tools that enable marketers to measure a multitude of interactions. While the information may not be 100% accurate, it is close enough to accurately capture trends in the space.

posted to: Data & Analytics, Web 2.0 & Social Media | No Comments »

September 15

3 ways to justify spending on social networks

by Evan Gerber

To demonstrate social network success, savvy brand marketers must identify what success means, and then understand how it can be tracked.

To justify spending and ensure budget for future projects, it is crucial that marketers can demonstrably prove the success of a given campaign. As the economy sputters, and the struggle for budget becomes increasingly more challenging, it becomes even more important. While the majority of digital marketing can provide highly quantifiable results, social media can prove challenging. These networks are nebulous webs of people friending one another and sharing select information, and they frequently can’t be measured in clickthroughs or conversions. This article will explore how to create a metrics program to track the success of a campaign, using examples from major brands to illustrate different approaches.

1. Determine what to measure
The first step is determining what to measure. Start by considering why social media is being used in a particular campaign, and then look for ways to measure the results. It is important to set the campaign up for success. Don’t track data that is hard to gather, but do set your sights on the low-hanging fruit that will yield meaningful results. For example, many sites offer a tool enabling users to post content to their Facebook or MySpace pages. By using a tool such as Omniture, it is possible to track the frequency with which users are posting, and which networks they are using. By tracking this information, meaningful insights into the resonance and value of material on the site can be gauged.

2. Take advantage of existing tools
Social networking sites recognize that they live or die by their user base, and they understand that advertisers on these sites want specific insights into who they are talking to and how the message is being received. By using Facebook’s sophisticated tool kit, it is possible to track specifically who is engaging, and what they are doing there.

Even if the numbers aren’t hard, it is still possible to use social networking to track brand perception and better service the consumer. Twitter is a platform where users post 140 character updates on what they are doing, either through a mobile interface or via the web. Unlike Facebook or MySpace, it’s not a forum for emailing or playing games and, as such, provides fewer hooks to a brand marketer seeking to promote a message unless they have a decent amount of followers. Yet, there are ways to integrate the platform onto the site (take a look at the Betty Crocker clip below, as an example). Using tools like TweetScan, it is possible to see how frequently the brand name is being referenced on the site, and to react to any kind of coverage.

3. Track how social networking impacts other channels
Tracking the number of daily users is a no-brainer, but mapping in-network interaction to external behaviors becomes much harder. There are, however, a few ways to skin the cat, given creativity and tenacity. If a brand creates its own social network, using a pre-existing platform such as Ning, in conjunction with metrics tools, it’s possible to track entry and exit points on the site. If a clear destination has been identified as a project goal, it’s possible to drive the user there and track the volume. If a social networking campaign launches, look outside the web to see if there is a correlation between sales and the viral growth on the networks. Bacon Salt, a purveyor of foods, launched on Facebook and MySpace. Within a few days, it had sold out of product.

Conclusion
Social networking is more than just a profile page on Facebook. The power of the consumer’s voice can be harnessed in multiple ways, to serve many goals. The information can be incredibly valuable to judge the value of content, track user opinion, and propagate a brand message.

But in order to demonstrate success, the savvy brand marketer will create a thorough metrics campaign to measure the effort. The first key step is to identify what success means, and then understand how it can be tracked successfully.

Take advantage of the tools provided by the networks that are out there, see how the brand is fairing, and what can be done to get involved with the conversation. Try to track how the social networking campaign impacts other channels. Even if the numbers are not rock solid, there can be definite trends.

posted to: Data & Analytics, Digital Marketing, Digital Strategy, Industry Trends, Web 2.0 & Social Media | No Comments »

September 9

4 low-cost methods for creating innovative campaigns

by Evan Gerber

In our worsening economy, the concept of leapfrogging is very applicable in the marketing space today. Marketers must adapt, in some cases quite abruptly. But funds dry up, and dollars are scarce. This is where innovative thought becomes especially crucial to survival. The bad news is that the stakes are higher, the resources are scarce, and some will find themselves burdened with implacable constraints.

The good news is that innovative output is driven by creative thought, and leapfrogging is doable even in challenging circumstances. By exploring the creative process, marketers can use the tools they have at hand to succeed under even the most challenging circumstances.

Think small, in a big way
Often, consumers and marketers alike have trouble seeing beyond their current world, or adapting to things which are totally foreign. It’s not always about the epic change that blows their mind, but more about the smaller tweaks that can change everything. Think about online social networking. Social graphs are not new phenomena — they have been around for ages — and the Web has been commonplace for a decade. But new combinations of existing technologies and functionalities provided consumers with new opportunities to communicate, and new ways for brands to reach their constituencies.

Another example is rich internet applications; revolutionary applications like GoogleMaps leverage technologies that have een around for some time. But how does this translate for a marketer with a limited budget and a stressed executive team? In a few different ways.

For example, leveraging best practices from other fields can provide a competitive advantage when upgrading a web site or other digital promotion. Consider that insurance companies don’t have the best brand perception among consumers. People find them intimidating, and think that the service provider is out to get them. By adopting a rich interface more commonly seen in a retail site, insurance provider HumanaOne surmounted these challenges and created an award winning experience.

Don’t win the game, change it
Innovation isn’t always about finding a solution to a particular challenge so much as changing the context of the problem. In this economic environment, risking a new approach may well prove to be more successful than embracing a known challenge. Think of gaming, for example.

Forced to compete with the consumer electronics giant Sony and the software behemoth Microsoft, Nintendo was faced with a costly, grueling deathmatch with no guarantee of success. Instead of running a risky approach to create costlier machines with better graphics and compelling gameplay for the typical console audience, it developed a platform with a different, kinetic style of play — the Nintendo Wii. By promoting console gaming in a whole new way, Nintendo managed to dominate market share and create a growing niche for itself.

Cut costs, not corners — track and react to digital users for free
In today’s environment, metrics become increasingly important to justify scarce resources. But in the perfect Catch-22, companies are spending less on marketing budgets, making it harder to track the success of their digital channel. However, free tools are available that enable marketers to keep tabs on how their site is performing, and on the sorts of things that are being said about them across other digital media for free.

For example, Google Analytics provides tools for site owners to tag and track traffic, referrals, and segmentation data. A valuable tool for tracking competitors, Alexa provides demographic information on the end users visiting any site. Keep in mind though that these solutions aren’t perfect. While the suite is comprehensive and the price is unbeatable, Google has its shortcomings. It is important to note that Alexa relies on a subset of the Web’s user base, as the system relies on a voluntary end user install.

Gleaning free insights from the digital channel does not stop at the Web. It is possible to get a feel for how a brand is performing in blogger buzz through tools like Technorati or Blogpulse. While this isn’t the same as having a fully trained staff and all the tools in place, it is better than nothing and provides vital information that can frequently be actionable, or create better touchpoints with the client.

As Twitter gains in popularity, brands are beginning to use the tool to gauge consumer sentiment and respond quickly on an individual basis. Take JetBlue, which uses Tweetscan to keep an eye on when its name pops up in the streams, so they can interact with clients on an as-needed basis. This innovative tool helps JetBlue reinforce their friendly, approachable brand persona, and helps them leapfrog from the traditional image of a monolithic, unresponsive airline.

Analyze your approach
All too often, stakeholders focus on the end results — without thinking of the means to get there — or rigorously apply a strict methodolodgy with no analysis or forethought. Stop for a moment and think about the team, the goals, and the constraints. Chances are there are ways to inject creativity into the process, and inspire the team to foster ideas ranging from the very tactical to the highly strategic.

One useful tactic is to have participants in a brainstorming session write ideas instead of blurting them out. This approach not only encourages a greater number of responses, but minimizes the likelihood of stale groupthink. On a strategic level, changes can be made to the entire project process, to add more collaboration or open thinking into the process. At Molecular, we perform creative imagining sessions with key stakeholders and larger audiences to inspire great ideas and drive enthusiasm for a project. Carefully timed to coincide with the completion of data gathering, the output from this work leads clients to identify new opportunities and means to achieve success.

Conclusion
Economic times are rough, and marketers must respond to this situation quickly and decisively to stay on top of the challenges and changes. Innovation is core to survival, but funds are scarce. Fortunately, there are ways to make substantial progress without dropping a bundle of cash. Think about what innovation truly is — there is room for big change without redoing everything from the start. Look past the current business constraints and think about how to apply strengths in new places. Search for ways to lower overhead, such as free tools to track digital performance. Finally, remember that innovation happens from the very start to the very end of the project. Imbue the fabric of every day with room for creative thought, and plan the project to remove constraints and encourage creativity.

posted to: Creative, Digital Marketing, Industry Trends | No Comments »

January 22

Don’t go there! Critical business mistakes in social networking.

by Evan Gerber

Many brands are eager to jump into social networking, after all, it’s relatively cheap, and it can be insanely successful. But there are many more failures than successes in the medium, and it’s important that brand managers pragmatically consider the risks and rewards for the business. It’s not all about building the perfect widget; it’s about careful homework, smart decisions, and thinking comprehensively. It requires an understanding of how social networking campaigns work, and if the campaign will fit in with larger business goals. Brand managers must justify the expenditure by setting goals, and minimize risk through research of users, networks, and the competitive landscape. This article will explore the critical strategic mistakes that brands must avoid on their road to social networking nirvana. Along the way, we’ll use some real world examples that illustrate the successes– and failures — of marquis brands.

Understand social networking, and what works for the business
Like many other business ventures, success in a social networking campaign revolves around using good information to drive smart decisions. Gather qualitative and quantitative information, and then use it to define project goals. An ill-defined project is substantially less likely to succeed. To get context, research what competitors are doing in the social networking space, and identify best practices relative to the specifics of the campaign. Perform research into the target demographic and determine how their interest in the campaign will help the enterprise. Define measurable success metrics and track them carefully through the life of the project. For a Facebook widget, it might be total number of active users. For a MySpace page, it could be the number of friends the brand has. If possible, identify hard numbers that can be pointed to that substantiate revenue or conversions. These are key steps on the business end of a social networking campaign. Without proper research, it is doubtful that the campaign will reach the intended audience. If success metrics are not defined at the very outset of the project, the project will lack focus, and you’ll be unable to identify what is or is not working. This makes it very hard to justify future expenditures on similar projects.

Make sure that the business is right for social networking
Social networks have inherent limitations, and certain brands will have a much harder time succeeding than others. In short, people share what is interesting, exciting, or funny with their friends. When users spread a message about a given brand on a social network, they are effectively co-branding themselves, and tend to be very particular about which messages they will propagate. A well-defined brand such as Puma, where users seek to identify themselves with the business, is more likely to succeed than other brands which lack the same levels of affinity. On the other hand, a brand such as ‘I can’t believe it’s not butter’ is going to be challenged. For the brand to succeed, the enterprise must have a relationship with the consumer that inspires and promotes co-branding. However, it becomes tricky; if brands are cool, people want to identify with them, and spread the message. If it becomes too cool, it begins to feel co-opted and people will shy away. While the team that produced this site took the right steps tactically, such as creating a poll which propagates interactions through the news feed, it’s unlikely that the page will ever have a huge number of fans.

Choose the right social network for the brand
Another possible mistake is to engage with the wrong social network. MySpace and Facebook are the two names everyone knows, but there are plenty of other platforms out there tailored to more specific demographics. Ending up on the wrong social network wastes time and money. For example, Bebo is very popular with a younger audience in the US looking at lifestyle related content, while Dogster is targeted at an older audience which dotes on their pets. Simple exploration of the sites, as well as some demographic research from free tools like Quantcast can help corroborate the conclusions reached. The key first step is to understand who is using these tools, how they interact, and why. Primary research can shed valuable information on how a particular audience interacts with their social networks. User interviews, surveys, and active participation in social networks are key first steps to understanding who, how, and why people use these tools. Secondary research such as competitive analysis and case studies shed light on what is happening in the field. There are some very big differences in who is using which tools, and what they are doing there. Use this information to guide decisions around which platforms to use, and the best approach to succeed.

Understanding why people might be using a particular network greatly influences the direction of a campaign. Think beyond what is happening on the Web, and reach out to platforms that resonate with the particular audience. For example, if a specific demographic contains a lot of mobile users, consider ruling out platforms that don’t offer a mobile interface.

Set up the technical platform to avoid charges or performance issues

Success in a social network is less about the number of individuals friending a certain page, and more about the creation and viral spread of brand-related content. It is crucial that the team behind the endeavor think about creating content users want to share, and being sure that the technical infrastructure is optimized for this sharing. For example, marketing groups might want to let users pull web content off of the company site and onto their social networks. Great videos are relatively easy to repurpose, and with a snippet of code, are available for the world at large. The good news is that it could be successful, and suddenly people everywhere are viewing the site. The bad news is that if it’s not set up properly, the content can be pulled off of the company’s servers, instead of the file itself propagating. In this case, there are considerable risks, such as drastically increased bandwidth charges from the hosting provider, or performance impacts as unprecedented numbers of users access their servers. The best bet is to work closely with the IT staff to make sure that the site is optimized for content sharing, or consider other alternatives. Uploading the content to YouTube minimizes the risks of inordinate traffic breaking the bank, or bending the backbone of the site. Another approach is to store content in a format that enables the easy sharing of content. A services oriented architecture (SOA) can facilitate the movement of content without causing the tech team to perform coding gymnastics to free data.

Embrace the limitations of the medium
Social networks are inherently constrained by the relationships they consist of. This is nothing enw, actually; research from Paul Lazarsfield and Elihu Katz in their book “Personal Influence”, penned in 1955, demonstrated that the bigger a user’s network grows, the smaller the influence of other members becomes, while the amount of noise on the site increases. If a user has a lot of friends on Facebook, and an application is trying to leverage the news feed to spit out messages, it’s unlikely that they will be paid anything more than scant attention. Social networking friends are not always close; they are cursory buddies who scan through vast fields of data looking for interesting tidbits. If a brand attempts to surmount these challenges through increasing the frequency of their messaging, they can be perceived as spammy. Repeat postings on a user’s news feed, especially if they are not solicited, will damage brand perception and leave the social networker wondering if they have a virus. Spraychel for President, while not the best brand for social networking, does make good use of the newsfeed, and ensures that it is not overdone. Ultimatley, for messages to propagate, they must stick out among all of the other data passing across the network, and be generated by the user, not the system.

Think Holisitcally

Frequently, in large enterprises, the left hand does not know what the right is doing. To ensure that brand voice stays consistent across all channels, is critical that the team think about what else is happening in the business, and how social networking can support other initiatives. Before starting a social networking (or any other) campaign, check with other groups and make sure there are no crossed wires. Also, be sure to educate upwards and outwards; teach executives about the risks and rewards of social networks, and solicit feedback from others in the firm. Not only is it a handy CYA move, but it also generates goodwill and invites valuable feedback. Prepare people for the negative feedback that might show up on in the public forum. Finally, think about the lifecycle of the campaign. Social networks put the brand in the hands of the consumer, so the marketer is relinquishing control, and might not have a say. If it’s truly successful, it will take care of itself. If it isn’t, however, it’s important to think of how to gracefully end the campaign if necessary. A little homework done on sites like http://www.mashable.com/ will provide valuable insights into what is going on in the world of social networking, and provide valuable data into what can happen in the world of the social web.

In Summary:

Social networking can be very tempting for brand marketers, but it can be very challenging for the enterprise. While there are new rules and new challenges in the space, some common sense business guidelines still apply. Start by doing extensive research, and define what success is and means for the project. Shore up support within the organization, and be ready to pull the plug if stakeholders are unwilling to embrace risk. Make sure that the brand is right for social networking; it’s very easy to get caught up in the fad without making sure it’s a good move. Don’t select a social network just because it’s the biggest, instead, look for the one that has the correct attributes for the selected demographic. Do research into everything that is happening within the organization, as leveraging synergies saves both time and money. Social networking is not right for all businesses. Good brand managers will do their homework, set their goals, and base their decisions on solid, justifiable business decisions.

posted to: Experience Design, Industry Trends, Web 2.0 & Social Media | No Comments »

December 19

Social Networking Around the World

by Evan Gerber

Social networks such as MySpace and Facebook aren’t a US only phenomenon; they are being adopted and promoted all around the world. For a savvy brand manager to succeed, it is critical to consider the impact of culture on the essence of social networking: communication. Failing to understand how people interact in different places can lead from bad to catastrophe. This article will explore the global nature of social networking, and talk about some constraints imposed by language and culture. Then, by comparing Facebook to Poland’s popular Nasza-Klasa social networking site, we will discuss how cultural context shapes social networks, and a few key tools that can help global brands succeed when considering a campaign on social networks.

Social Networks are not just for English Speakers

In the beginning, Facebook and MySpace were developed for and delivered to, an English speaking audience. Given that the percentage of English speaking users on the web hovers around 30%, this clearly did not meet needs around the world. As the social networking buzz spread across the globe, entrepreneurs realized that there was profit to be made in creating these applications for other languages. Mixi, a Japanese site, was launched in 2004, and has an IPO valuation of just under $1billion US dollars. Cyworld, a hugely popular Korean social networking platform, has about 20M accounts in a country with a 50M population – 75% of all 18 to 25 year olds have an account! Facebook clones exist all around the world, from Germany to Turkey to Russia to India. Not all of these sites are targeted towards the youth demographic generally associated with social networking. For example, feierabend.de is intended for a much older audience, and boasts membership in the hundreds of thousands.

Clearly, social networking is a phenomenon that enables brands to engage users in conversations all around the world, and all over the demographic map. There is ample opportunity here, but there is a significant challenge if the enterprise does not carefully consider that a social networking campaign is entirely dependent on it’s resonance with the end user. It’s much more than foisting a brand message onto every banner ad in reach, it’s about creating space for a dialogue that users will be willing to adopt and sustain. To do this, an intimate understanding of the constraints imposed by language and culture is a key requirement. Some of these considerations become clear when one compares Facebook, a popular US social networking site, with Nasza Klasa, Poland’s foremost social networking site, and one of the country’s most visited web properties.

Cultural context drives demographics

One important thing to understand is precisely who uses social networking sites, as it varies from country to country. The audience on Facebook skews towards a very young audience, with less representation in the older groups. These young adults are on the site to stay in contact with friends, play games, and make plans with friends in the area. The advertising tends to be consumer brands oriented towards this demographic set, with very little being offered from the likes of banking or insurance.

On the other hand, the Nasza-Klasa audience is coming from a very different background The user distribution, while weighted towards younger kids, is spread out much more evenly than Facebook. Accordingly, the site draws interest from slightly more utilitarian brands, such as Insurance.com or financial institutions. There is a whole section of the site devoted to banking offers. Savvy brand managers will not only research the current metrics of the social networking site they are targeting, but will also try to understand where the users are, and what is driving them to the application. By understanding who is coming to the site, brands can identify and act on appropriate co-branding or advertising opportunities.

Cultural context impacts churn on social networks

Age distribution can also impact usage statistics on social networking sites over the long term, depending on the culture in question. While performing primary research on social network users in the US, it became clear that younger users were happy on a platform until ‘uncool’ family members showed up. Siblings were a deal breaker, and heaven forbid mom gets an account. One user commented that “My little sister got onto MySpace, and I went to Facebook. Once she gets onto Facebook, I’ll go somewhere else.” To a large part of this audience, Facebook is perceived as a means to communicate with friends, not family. This portends ongoing churn within the social network, as new people join, and others leave as a result. In Poland, however, the culture is more family oriented, and Nasza-Klasa provides a mechanism to support this. Users of all ages actively communicate, share photos, and stay engaged with one another. While there are plenty of factors that drive churn within a social network, having the embarrassing mom show up is much less likely to drive it in Poland. The best way to predict what is going to happen, and how to leverage nascent opportunities is to perform in depth ethnographic research, to understand how the culture embraces technology, and what aspects of a given society might drive churn or other adverse behaviors.

Another factor which drives churn is the number of friends that one has on a network. Until friend lists are portable using a platform like open social, it’s very tough to change from one platform to another, unless everyone makes a mass migration. This is a risk for a longer term strategy involving outreach to a social networking platform in the US; in the next few years who knows which system will be the most popular one? However, for the polish audience, there is no other game in town, and it’s likely to remain relevant for quite some time. Identifying other social networking platforms in a given linguistic or cultural space is very important, as it will help round out any go to market strategies.

Social networking behaviors are driven by functionality and social context

Essentially, social networks all do the same thing – help people stay in touch with each other. This is driven, in part, by what the network allows its users to do. However, it also depends on the larger cultural context. What is driving people to remain in touch? What aspects of their lives do they wish to share? Facebook users perform a variety of tasks on the site, including posting photos, emailing friends, associating themselves with brands, and arranging for parties and events. Nasza-Klasa provides a subset of this functionality, but for different reasons. A substantially higher percentage of NK’s user population is expatriate, living all around the world. These people are seeking out old friends from as far back as elementary school, to catch up and see where they are now. One user of the polish site said that “Much of NK’s success stems from the fact that a lot of people left Poland a while ago, and are now seeking to get back in touch with their childhood friends.” Generally, the polish culture is much more about face to face communications, and posting photos can instigate lively debate within the entire family, and bring groups together who have been apart for years. By recognizing the larger context, brand managers can understand how to best engage each specific audience in a relevant dialogue, and provide tools to encourage conversations.

Different applications, different tools, different user needs.

Ultimately, it’s the social networking application that determines how sophisticated a campaign can be. Facebook provides ample tools for advertisers to create and run their own campaigns, on a self-serve basis. More than just the ability to create a static page, brand managers can also research demographics and target very specific audiences. Despite this great entry point for brands aspiring for social networking greatness, it’s crucial to remember one key cultural point.

Nasza-Klasa does not have this level of sophistication, and advertising is not as heavily integrated into the user experience. Brands cannot create group or fan pages, and the advertising is placed in traditional locations. There are, however, some fun, contextually relevant banners for the visiting user, for example, Olay presents one return user with an ad asking her by name if she would like to be the youngest looking one from her class. Note that Nasza-Klasa has also allowed Olay to set the background image on the user’s profile page, something that Facebook would not allow The best bet is to spend time on the network, looking at the feature set, and trying to observe what tools are used, and how. This should provide insight into how to best reach the consumer and stimulate interaction.

All around the world, users are logging on to social networks, and talking with their friends. It can be a great opportunity for a brand to propagate a message virally, reaching out to multiple audiences through well planned campaigns. There are risks, though. While all social networks are founded on the same basic principles, the cultural and linguistic contexts in which they operate will impact a number of important factors. Why users visit a social network will differ based on their social background, and sets context for which brands might be expected. Demographic bases will differ from place to place, which in turn can affect churn. Finally, platforms in different places will provide for different levels of interaction with the audience. Ultimately, there are plenty of places around the world where a brand might consider dabbling in social networking. Before a brand reaches into a new space, however, it is critical to consider who is on the site, what they are using it for, and how to best empower a dialogue that is relevant, positive, and authentic.

posted to: Experience Design, Web 2.0 & Social Media | No Comments »