Determining the Impact of Customer Relationships: Social Media Measurement & Analysis

www.crimson-consulting.com © CRIMSON CONSULTING 2009

Determining the Impact of Customer RelationshipsSocial Media Measurement & Analysis

Karen O’Brien, Partner

Chris Terschluse, Analyst

Crimson Interactive Services

September 2009


If Organizations Aren’t Saying Something About Their Company or Brand…. Someone Else Is!

The Internet has become a vibrant social space where individuals communicate, collaborate, and share

While many consumers remain skeptical of traditional advertising techniques, many embrace the transparency and authenticity of the social web

Source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007252

“Total US Social Network Users will Grow 44% by 2013”

- eMarketer


Effective Measurement is Necessary as Social Media Marketing Continues to Grow in Importance and Use

In a recent poll by MarketingProfs, 70% of marketers do not believe they adequately measure their own social media campaigns

Creating highly measurable campaigns will provide value both strategically and financially

Social media marketing requires listening and learning, engaging with customers and building relationships, while measuring the marketing effectiveness of our efforts

Source: MarketingProfs, ROI Success Stories August 2009


Strategy Development is Critical while Standard Social Media Measurement Practices Remain in their Infancy

Understanding what we want to accomplish & who we want to target, defines the strategic objectives of the marketing

strategy & determines the relevant metrics used to measure success

The Customer

Who is the target audience?

What is their online behavior?

What motivates them to buy?

The Business (Product/Service)

What are we trying to accomplish?

How do we position ourselves?

What actions do we want them to

take?Strategic Business Objective

s

Relevant Success Metrics (KPI’s)

Soci

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Str

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Establishing Impactful Relationships via the Social Web Requires a Social Media Marketing Cycle….

Listen

Discover real-time insights from

relevant, impactful conversations

occurring online

Measure

Create measurable objectives based on

web analytics & social media metrics

to analyze online conversation

Engage

Create an active dialogue with

customers and establish impactful

long-term relationships

Optimize

Organizations should consider starting with one or more of the following strategies :


There are a Number of Reasons Organizations Listen to the Online Audience

Source:http://www.radian6.com/blog/80/top-10-reasons-brands-should-listen-to-social-media/

The Complaint

The Complime

ntThe Crisis

The Expressed

Need

The Competitor

The Audit The Thread

The Influencer

The ROI

The Crowd

Listen

http://www.radian6.com/blog/80/top-10-reasons-brands-should-listen-to-social-media/


Listening to the Internet as a Real-time Online Focus Group Can Reveal:

Insight into satisfaction through online sentiment

Customer demographics and segmentation

Share of conversation and brand health

Customer needs, desires, brand associations, and brand loyalty

Competitors actions and consumer response

Opportunities such as product ideas, product improvements, and market opportunities

Listen

Source: Nielsen Global Online Survey 2009


Communication Platforms Blogs

Micro-Blogs

Social Networks

Social Network Aggregation

Event Networks

Collaboration Tools Wikis

Social Bookmarking Sites

Social News Sites

Opinion Sites

Multimedia Photo Sharing Sites

Video Sharing Sites

LiveCasting Sites

Audio & Music Sharing Sites

Reviews/Opinions Product Reviews

Q & A

Employer Reviews

Entertainment Media & Entertainment platforms

Virtual Worlds

Game Sharing Sites

Begin Listening by Identifying Relevant Conversations Across Multiple Components of the Social Web

Listen


Marketers Should Measure Both Conversational Data as well as Traditional Web Analytic Data

Web Analytics:

Social Media Analytics:

Traffic, unique visitors, click rate, bounce rate, inbound links, click through path, time spent on site, & number of

subscribers

Satisfaction, product reviews, motivation, brand positioning, consumer opinions, unmet needs, customer demographics

& segmentation

Source: http://www.visibletechnologies.com/solutions/trucast.php

Measure


Traditional Web Analytics ProvideAnswers to Questions About the Media

How many visitors came to the site? How long did they stay? Where did they go? Where did they come from?

Measurement Goals • Reach & Frequency

Key Metrics

• Traffic • Unique Visitors• % Return Visitors• Bounce Rate• Inbound Links • Click Through Path• Time Spent on Site

Information Source

Web Analytics Tools:

• Google Analytics• Omniture• Alexa • Quantcast

Measure


Traditional Web Analytic Tools Collect DataAbout Use of Individual Web Pages

Measure

Source: http://www.webtrends.com

http://www.radian6.com/


Social Media Analytics Provide Answers to Questions About the Audience

Who are they? What are they talking about? Why is it important to them? Where did they hear the message? How did they share the message? How engaged are they?

Measurement Goals • Influence & Engagement

Key Metrics

• Sentiment • Brand Associations• Trending Topics • Consumer Opinions • Product Ratings/Reviews• Download/Uploads• Embeds• Bookmarks/Tags • Viral Forwards• Time Spent on Page• Comments/Posts

Information Source

Social Media Analysis Tools:

• Radian6• Google Alerts • Visible Technologies • Teligent• BuzzMetrics

Measure


Social Media Analytic Tools Collect Conversational Information Across the Social Web

Source: http://www.radian6.com

Measure



Analyzing the Rich Data Set Provides Valuable Insight into the Target Audience

Sources: http://www.visibletechnologies.com & http://www.radian6.com

Number of Posts & Online Sentiment by Topic or Product

Time series charts measuring online conversational activity and buzz

Tag clouds identify brand associations, related topics/trends & discussions

Share of voice online among competitors

Measure

http://www.visibletechnologies.com/



“Companies that are both deeply and widely engaged in social media

surpass their peers in both revenue and profit performance by a significant

difference” - Wetpaint/Altimeter Group ENGAGEMENT db Study 2009

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the Online Audience Leads to Effective Relationship Building

Engage


Identify and Target Connections with Online Influencers to Begin Engaging the Market

Source: http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2009/08/social-technology-growth-marches-on-in-2009-led-by-social-network-sites.html

Consumer technographics reveal segments or touch points among the online community

Find the sources of influence in your market: forums, blogs, videos, social networks, Twitter etc.

Determine online influencers to utilize word-of-mouth marketing and engage the target audience

Provide influencers with relevant content and allow them to spread messages into the online community

24%

37%

21%

51%

73%

18%

Engage


Benchmark Against Previous Tactics to Develop More Effective & Impactful Engagement Strategies

Tracking changes in the level of content engagement & syndication over time, allows marketers to optimize social media marketing

Marketers can work to adjust their content strategy to increase interaction on their website

Marketers can discover optimal methods and locations for seeding content by measuring spread of shared or viral information

Optimize


Track interaction through actionable items such as RSS subscriptions, social bookmarks, tags, diggs, downloads, uploads, newsletter subscriptions etc.

The Conversational Index (ratio of blog posts to comments and track backs) offers valuable insight into the effectiveness of a content strategy by subject or a topic of conversation.

Metrics for word-of-mouth spread of shared content:■ Social Velocity – (Distance/Time) Rate a message travels over a given time

■ Direction – Where the message is heard/discussed and who’s listening

■ Amplitude – The size of the conversation around the brand/product

■ Period – The duration of the conversation around the brand/product

Source: YouTube Analytics

Tracking Metrics of Interaction & Syndication Provides Direction for Social Media Optimization

Optimize


The Sales ROI of Social Media Marketing May Be Determined by Understanding the Effect of the Web’s Quantitative & Qualitative Impacts on Key Business Outcomes and Objectives

Measurement Goals • Actions Taken, Insight to Sales

Key Metrics

• Direct Sales from SM• Sales Leads from SM• Satisfaction • Brand Loyalty • Product Positioning• Market Share• New Customers • Customer Yield • Purchase Frequency• Risk Reduction • Time to Market• Number of Ideas • Efficiency

Information Source

Analysis Tools:

• Surveys • Market Mix Modeling• Trend Modeling• Cost Analysis

Have sales increased over Q1? What is the change in online sentiment?

What are people saying about your products?

What kind of customer evidence exists?

What web content has led to sales conversions?

What was the response for viral efforts?

How many Facebook fans or Twitter followers have made a purchase online?

How has an increase in online voice impacted sales?

What are the conversational trends that are impacting sales?

What engagement efforts were used to cause change?


Through Careful Benchmarking, Sales Trend Analysis, & Cost Analysis, Marketers Can Assess the Bottom–Line Impact of Relationships

Financi

al Im

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s of

Soci

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M

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ng

Cost Reduction – improved efficiency for research & development, service & support teams, problem solving, or internal communications

Reach (Breadth) - Increasing sales revenue by increasing net new customer count

Reach (Depth) - Increasing sales revenue by helping customers buy deeper into the product line

Frequency - Increasing sales revenue by shortening the time interval between transactions

Yield - Increasing sales revenue by driving customers to increase their average per transaction spending

ROI can be determined by layering data sets together, linking changes in web and social media measurements to their impacts on sales metrics

Establishing KPI’s around reach, engagement, and influence metrics, will provide quantitative & qualitative insight into key business outcomes such as sales, market share etc.


Organizations Can Leverage IndividualComponents of Social Media Marketing

Listen

Discover real-time insights from

relevant, impactful conversations

occurring online

Measure

Set objectives based on web

analytics & social media metrics to

monitor, analyze and track those

conversations

Engage

Create an active dialogue with

customers and establish impactful

long-term relationships

Optimize


Mini® Listens & Uses Consumer Insight to Position It’s Marketing Efforts

CHALLENGES

BMW’s Mini Cooper faced increased competition in 2006 when competitors Volkswagon and Honda entered the small-car segment with new models

Mini needed to keep the brand relevant without the release of a new model or addition of new features

SOLUTIONS

Monitored online conversation around the Mini brand to gain insight into consumer attitudes and behavior

The Mini marketing team discovered that owners of the car considered themselves a an exclusive club

Marketing efforts were shifted towards Mini owners rather than prospective buyers in hopes to spread word-of-mouth by energizing their influential car owners.

RESULTS

Between February and August 2006 a pattern emerged: when online promoter activity increased, sales increased

Mini sales only declined 4% - which was a considerably good for the tough year

Listen


Salesforce.com Taps Consumer Insight to Improve Product Development

CHALLENGES

Salesforce.com’s on-demand services must constantly be updated to evolve to meet rapidly changing customer expectations

Developers and marketers within the company generally disagreed on new features, slowing product development

SOLUTIONS

Created IdeaExchange, an online community platform which allows customers to submit ideas

IdeaExchange functions as a social news site, in which members can submit and then vote on ideas, allowing the best ideas rise to the top

RESULTS

The IdeaExchange has generated over 10,000+ ideas

Salesforce.com was able to release 4 new updates in 2007 which include over 300 new features, compared two releases in 2006 with half as many features

Listen


Linksys Support CommunitiesDeliver Significant Savings

CHALLENGES

Linksys needed to develop an innovative approach to contain support costs while still offering responsive customer service

SOLUTIONS

Linksys introduced a unique online customer support community that includes a self-support knowledge base “Ask Linksys” and other various support channels

Dedicated a staff to closely monitor the community and answer any questions that community peers could not solve

RESULTS

Four million users visit Linksys’ support community each month to exchange ideas, tips and information

3,000 new threads are generated each month, 1,000 of which moderators are able to answer

An estimated 120,000 cases a month are answered through peers and Ask Linksys

Email support was discontinued entirely, with no negative reaction from consumers

Linksys has been able to save millions of dollars in support costs

Measure


Dell Turns to Blogger Outreach and Twitter to Create a Dialogue

CHALLENGES

In June 2005, Dell faced a negative blog storm around the company from thousands of consumers dissatisfied with their computer products and customer service

Initial online sentiment was at an all-time high of 49% negative

SOLUTIONS

Dell closely monitored conversation around their products and service

Technicians were dispatched to reach out to complaining bloggers to solve their problems

Created Direct2Dell, an extensive community and blog portal, to establish a direct dialogue with customers

Established over 80 branded Twitter accounts

Utilized URL tracking in order to tailor and optimize offerings and products sold via Twitter

OUTCOMES

Negative online sentiment dropped to only 22%

Direct2Dell is ranked by Technorati in the top 700 amongst corporate blogs

Direct2Dell receives over 5 million unique visitors a month

The Dell Outlet Twitter account has reached 1 million+ followers and generated over $3 million in revenue

Engage


Microsoft Uses Social Media to Generate Awareness for a Product Launch

Source: MarketingProfs, Social Media ROI Success Stories

CHALLENGES

In preparation for the launch of Microsoft’s new product Windows 7, Microsoft wanted to establish a direct dialogue with IT professionals and those who were unsure of the new technology. Crimson worked closely with Microsoft to identify and engage the target audience with a dedicated team of social media marketers.

SOLUTIONS

The team began social media monitoring, identifying relevant conversations and influencers among the online community

The @MSSpingboard Twitter account was created, supporting multiple languages

Used Twitter to actively engage IT pros, answering questions and providing links to a number of Windows 7 related websites and a TechNet community portal

Twitter feedback is utilized to optimize content creation and distribution

OUTCOMES

After only a few months the number of engagements per week have reached between 1,000-1,200 (a significant increase from an initial 40-60)

@MSSpringboard has reached over 6,000+ followers

Web traffic to related Windows 7 sites has significantly increased

Engage


Questions? Please contact:

Crimson Consulting4970 El Camino Real, Los Altos, CA 94022650.960.3600 www.crimson-consulting.com

Karen O’BrienPartner, Interactive Services [email protected]: @bondjanebond

http://[email protected]

Determining the Impact of Customer Relationships: Social Media Measurement & Analysis

Business

social media campaigns

social networks

social bookmarking sites

social news sites

social media marketing

social network aggregation

vibrant social space

opinion sites