Entries Tagged 'Consumer Generated Media' ↓

Please join me for an upcoming webcast on May 22 at 10AM PST/1PM EST featuring Peter Kim from Forrester Research and Marty Collins from Microsoft where we will discuss how companies can “Unlock Social Media’s ROI through Monitoring and Participation.” We will address the following:

• The latest industry and vertical trends in brand monitoring and social media participation
• The benefits that can be gained from engaging with online communities and customers directly
• KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) for measuring success in social media engagement
• How Microsoft’s Windows/Windows Live group is driving results by monitoring, tracking and engaging in social media

Register here to attend

Blake Cahill

Visible Technologies

Just arriving in Sonoma for the start of a three day conference organized by the Society of New Communications Research. Attending the advisory board meeting that is comprised of Fellows, Board Members, and Researchers as we speak. An incredible collection of individuals involved in this association. I am really looking forward to contributing at the conference and being part of the board. A shout out to Jen McClure who manages this organization, connects everyone, and pulled this event together for another year.

Blake Cahill

Visible Technologies

Both Mike and I have been talking about Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff’s, at the time, up-coming book groundswell lately. This highly anticipated book really solidifies the importance and power of social media, which we are all actively working to understand, define, and harness.

While I was at the Forrester Marketing Forum last week I was able to pick up a copy as well as a couple signatures from the authors. Returning to Seattle I was bombarded with requests to borrow my new book. Being that my signed copy may eventually put a child through college I went over to Amazon (just down the street) and picked up 25 copies for the office.

Congratulations Charlene and Josh on a great addition to the growing library on social media and technologies.

Blake Cahill

Visible Technologies

I am not sure how this one slipped by me late last week but thought I would share the update from the IPA in the UK. Effective on the 26 of May 2008 certain activities will become a criminal offense when the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations becomes effective.

Seeding positive messages about a brand in a blog without making it clear that the message has been created by, or on behalf of, the brand will be an offense. Using “buzz marketing” specialists to communicate with potential customers in social situations without disclosing that they are acting as brand ambassadors will be an offense.

Seeding viral ads on the internet in a manner to suggest you are an ordinary member of the public will also be an offense. Legal Director at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) Marina Palomba warned agencies and marketing departments that not assessing their activities could lead to hefty fines and potential prison sentences. She said, “If advertisers and their agencies ignore the ethics of responsible advertising, the damage to the advertising and marketing industry generally will be considerable, undermining all commercial messages, their effectiveness and the self regulatory systems.”

This is one of the foundational elements and principles of the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association based in Chicago with affiliates in the UK and my company. Marketers globally are continuing to understand and embrace transparent conversations with consumers - it is the only way to have dialogue otherwise governments will begin to regulate as we are seeing happen in the UK.

Blake Cahill

Visible Technologies

Peter Kim, a lead analyst at Forrester, is kicking off a session on Word-of-Mouth Marketing with Janet Eden-Harris from Umbria and Dave Balter from BzzAgent. Pete opens with some updated stats about the decline of mainstream media consumption and the increasing amount of time consumers are spending on the Internet. The time consumers are spending is increasingly spent around creating, sharing and consuming content in ways they hadn’t before. With respect to content that is passed along not all content is equal - it is important to remember it is a reflection of the sender.

Janet from Umbria, now a division of JD Power & Associates, shared a variety of case studies from SC Johnson and a major jeans manufacturer - some interesting insights around some of their client engagements. Dave shared what his definition of WOM is “the sharing of an honest opinion between two people”. He then explained their “BuzzAgent” process which is consumer enrollment, campaign invite, product/service shared with folks invites, then feedback reporting for the agents. Everything is transparent and non-scripted. An interesting stat - “40% of WOM interactions include another media form”. WOM is a high-effective in compliment to traditional media - you need a mix. Also, remember a large portion of WOM actually takes place offline verses online. Very interesting stats as measured by BzzAgent about the effectiveness of WOM’s viral nature. The example provided was that when they start a program with say 10k agents they then reach out to 12 individuals on average who then speak to 4.14 individuals for a total WOM effect/factor of 628,000 conversations. Naturally, these happen over a period of time and generate the equivalent of 1.4M hours of conversations.That is pretty impressive but results scaled down a bit as you move away from B2C and tangible products. Some solid questions and audience participation about whether it can really work in B2B or for services verse tangible products.

Good session - Pete, Janet, Dave.

Blake Cahill

Visible Technologies