Social Network’s New Data Offer Useful Insight on the Rules of Engagement

Among the weirdness Facebook’s existence has loosed upon the world is the idea that it’s OK, and perhaps even good business, for brands to sidle up and give you verbal balm for your case of the Mondays, ask for predictions on the big game and offer random thoughts on things that have not a whit to do with their product or service.

The touchy-feely strategy is meant to be conversational — human, even. But new data from Facebook itself tell us that what looks good on the social-media guru’s presentation deck isn’t the best approach for making Facebook work for the brand.

Facebook recently ran a monthlong study that looked at more than 1,200 posts from 23 brands. After tagging each post for various attributes, the measurement team plugged them into a quantitative model that turned out to be quite effective at predicting which posts will yield more engagement in the form of likes, comments and shares.

“By far, the biggest predictor of engagement was that the post was on a topic relevant to the brand,” said Sean Bruich, head of measurement platforms and standards at Facebook. “It impacts everything, from lightweight likes to more invested shares. It’s actually one of the most important things a brand can do. People are seeing the content because they liked the brand, and it makes sense that content about the brand will get them engaged.”

Despite this evidence, Facebook isn’t explicitly telling marketers to ditch their most purely conversational posts. “In general, unrelated posts are not predictive of increased engagement,” said Mr. Bruich. “That being said, we’re not arguing against those types of posts being a nice change of pace. ”

But, of course, not every brand can be Skittles, and the average brand, according to Facebook, will do best to hew closer to the topic at hand.

Another important finding was that asking people to like a post indeed yielded more likes, but it didn’t do much for the other forms of engagement, including the all-important share action that sends a brand’s post into a users’ timelines for all of their followers to see. Compared with likes, shares represent a bigger investment from the consumer and occur less frequently. Thus, shares are often going to be more meaningful from a marketing perspective. After all, they suggest the brand is tapping into that friend-of-fan network that’s central to Facebook’s viral proposition.

To get more precious shares, Mr. Bruich advises posting more photos and videos. Asking questions of your fans increases commenting, but not liking and sharing.

These findings hold true across verticals. “There’s some order to this universe,” said Mr. Bruich. “There are general truths.”

The notion that a stable body of knowledge is building up around Facebook should be comforting to the many marketers that are plowing more money and attention into it. And this isn’t the only evidence that we’re moving past the days of fly-by-night observation about what works.

Buddy Media, the analytics company that works with more than 600 brands and agencies on their social-media presences, is set to reissue a year-old paper on Facebook best practices. The company, according to a spokesman, has found that the report is standing the test of time, with its industry-specific advice on posting schedules and thoughts on using “softer-sell” keywords still relevant. It mainly needs a new introduction.

Buddy Media found that brand fans are more willing to comment when asked a question, especially if the question begins with “where,” “when,” “would” and “should.” But other interrogatory words don’t work as well.

“Avoid asking “why’ questions,” advised the Buddy Media paper. “”Why’ has both the lowest like” and comment rates and may be seen as intrusive and/or challenging.”

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Mobile marketing has become an essential component of the overall direct marketing experience as more consumers adopt smartphones and tablets. As the technology has evolved, run-of-the-mill mobile marketing practices such as SMS and push notifications have given way to more sophisticated practices such as quick response, or QR, codes and location-based services (LBS).

A recent comScore report showed that of the nearly 98 million U.S. smartphone users — which represents 42% of all U.S. mobile users — one in five scanned a QR code in December 2011. LBS marketing is also projected to increase to $6 billion by 2015, according to a 2010 Borrell Associates report. This includes laptops, tablets and GPS, in addition to mobile phones. A Berg Insight report, released January 2012, had a lower prediction of LBS marketing revenue in North America at $710 million by 2016. LBS was defined as location-based apps and ads.

Hence, the opportunities for marketers are many, but a well-conceived strategy is crucial.

Location is key

QR codes are cropping up on just about everything, from magazines to packaging, from billboards to moving vehicles, the bikini bottoms of Britain’s female Olympic volleyball team to tombstones in Germany.

Some placements obviously work better than others. “I’ve never understood why codes would be placed in TV ads,” says Chia Chen, SVP of digital atDigitas. By the time a consumer opens the app needed to scan the code, the commercial is probably over, he explains. Codes on moving vehicles are another head scratcher.

Proximity to codes plays an important role in their success. Chen says codes should be within arms’ reach and big enough to register easily. While codes placed on subway ads seem like a good idea, the size of the code may not be big enough to scan unless the person is sitting directly by the poster. The same goes for codes on billboards — people will be too far away.

Additionally, a person sitting next to an ad on the subway might be underground and not have an Internet connection. The same goes for codes placed in airline magazines.

Still, Chen says codes in magazines have been the most successful placements.

“When we talk to publishers doing this, they’re saying they’re getting hundreds of thousands of people snapping codes because consumers are able to hold the magazine close enough to see it,” Chen says.

Last year, Digitas worked on the Eclipse ad campaign for Jenn-Air, a high-end kitchen appliances company, for the March/April edition of Architectural Digest. Brian Maynard, Jenn-Air‘s director of marketing, says the four-page magazine spread featured a 3-by-3-inch die-cut piece of an oven that invited consumers to remove it, stand in front—but several feet away — of their current ovens and hold the die cut to block or “eclipse” their oven so they could instantly see what the Jenn-Air appliance would look like in their kitchen.

The cutout had a QR code on the back where buyers could snap to learn more about the product.

“People still read magazines — especially in this segment,” Maynard says. “The trick is to drive them to go online and go to the retailer.” Maynard says the percentage of people interacting with the ad was greater than a typical ad inArchitectural Digest.

The campaign was further enhanced by creating a mobile app with similar functionality, allowing people to take a photo of their kitchen and insert a Jenn-Air image of an appliance. Maynard says consumers have started to have fun with the app by taking photos of their friends lifting “heavy appliances,” and the appliance manufacturer is considering inviting people to share the photos on Jenn-Air’s Facebook page to further keep consumers engaged.

Chen says clients are using location to get a sense of what consumers are doing, to see if there is a moment relevant to a brand and to see how marketers can engage consumers in those moments.

Location-based marketing also offers more opportunities to target consumers based on exactly where they are. In marketing a new high-end thermometer to savvy moms and expecting mothers, Sarah Van Heirseele, VP of digital at Blue Chip Marketing, says from

January through March this year the firm targeted women based on geography, weather and proximity to a three-mile radius of a retailer that sold the product. Also, the mobile ad was only launched if the flu levels in specified locations were high or severe.

Van Heirseele says consumer clickthroughs were four times higher than expected.

“I think the women embraced the customization,” Van Heirseele says. “We’ve all been burned by the past and how bad banner ads were. But as targeting gets better, consumers will appreciate it more.”

Providing relevant information

Marketers say one of the most important aspects of using QR codes is that the content they provide should be relevant, informative and offer something different than what is immediately available to consumers.

One of the most common mistakes companies make is to simply have the QR code direct users back to a company website.

“You shouldn’t have a QR code just to have one,” says Kate Coultas, senior manager of corporate communications at JCPenney Co. Inc. “You have to make sure it’s connecting to relevant information. And if it’s local, then it should be affecting the local.”

For example, last summer the QR codes in the Manhattan JCPenney store offered shoppers a list of fun events happening in the city throughout the summer.

Macy’s first began using QR codes when it introduced eight in February 2011. Veras says Macy’s now has 18 codes, which also include other product segments.

“[QR codes] were quite successful for us and we learned that we needed to create more of them and expand into other [departments] like home and beauty,” Veras explains.

Joe Torpey, marketing communications manager at Jaguar North America, says the company uses QR codes at auto shows so consumers can learn more about a particular car or sign up for more information.

“We’re also looking at ways to leverage QR codes at the point-of-sale to increase access to critical information when customers encounter our vehicles in the showrooms,” Torpey says.

For example, if a consumer is looking up grocery stores, marketers can send shoppers coupons for specific products. That kind of real value provided on the spot and in the moment is important. Joe Chasse, director of media and analytics at digital advertising agency Modea, says marketers need to go beyond simply offering badges to consumers for checking into locations using services such as Foursquare and Shopkick and provide real offers, such as discounts, that are immediately relevant.

Chasse says he has checked into places only to get messages saying he will get a discount the next time he visits. “I can see the rationale behind that, but that’s a huge missed opportunity,” he says.

Enhancing the shopping experience

QR codes should also make the shopping experience easier for consumers, rather than more complicated or time consuming.

During the back-to-school season, Coultas says shoppers who scanned a JCPenney QR code got a dorm room checklist to ensure shoppers purchased everything they needed in one visit.

“JCPenney already had a checklist online, but we were keeping it separate. We thought, ‘Why not make it easier and provide it in the store?’” Coultas asks.

The department store has also offered instant coupons or more information on particular products through the codes. In addition to placing them on signage throughout the stores, Coultas says the codes are also placed in JCPenney’s catalog to offer more information about the products.

“QR codes will continue to play an important role as we try to merge the online and offline experiences,” Coultas explains.

KIDzOUT is an iPhone app that uses the device’s native navigation capabilities to show parents diaper deck locations, family-friendly restaurants or the nearest emergency room, among other children-related needs. Seth Heine, president of KIDzOUT, says the company uses QR codes to lead people to the iTunes app store so users can download the app.

“Currently, it isn’t as easy to search for the app on iTunes, but the QR code takes you directly to the destination. We found a clean way to get people to the ultimate place they want to go,” Heine says.

Heine says initially two QR codes were built. The second code took users to their Facebook page, but the company realized it did not want people to go to the Facebook page on their first experience because you cannot download the app from there, he says.

Similarly, Mandar Shinde, AOL‘s senior director of mobile monetization, says AOL also uses QR codes to send users straight to the website where they can download apps leveraging location for AOL products, such asMoviefone.

“We found QR codes were still the preferred way of downloading apps,” Shinde says. Modea’s Chasse says retailers face staffing challenges. The days of having salespeople that really know the products well are gone, he says.

“Manufacturers have a difficult time making sure they have salespeople available to speak with consumers when they are making their buying decisions,” Chasse says. “At least consumers can use their mobiles to get information about the products and supplement the store experience where companies don’t have sales people available, or if the sales people don’t know a lot about the product they’re selling.”

Likewise, Jenn-Air’s Maynard says because their appliances are big purchases, the company found consumers spent about eight months researching items before making a purchase.

“It’s not an impulse purchase, like packaged goods,” Maynard says. “The important thing is to get them information, and this includes retail information.”

Providing useful, accurate and the most up-to-date product information, as well as company location, especially becomes critical at the all important point-of-purchase. Marketers cannot afford to miss an opportunity in these areas.

Challenges remain

It is tempting to want to develop a QR code for everything, though the risk is redundant information and straining resources.

Blue Chip Marketing’s Van Heirseele says while QR codes are free, the budget needed to build the different landing pages (i.e., a sweepstakes), produce the content (i.e, videos) and the time needed to maintain the sites, remain a big challenge.

Heine agrees, “Every time you create a code, you then have the obligation to support and keep it relevant.”

Marketers also have to think about the entire user experience — taking into consideration factors such as placement, context and location—when thinking about using QR codes and location-based efforts. Digitas’ Chen says the goal of the technologies is to provide additional information and extend engagement so consumers go deeper with a brand. However, marketers must pick their moments. For example, encouraging consumers to snap codes while driving is not the best time to engage them with a brand.

“One of the reasons why magazines work well is because consumers are in that browsing, leisure time,” Chen says. [Snapping a code] is not a giant or different behavior to take in that moment.”

An important challenge is that some consumers do not know what a QR code is or how to activate them. Additionally, brands do not always clearly communicate what consumers will get if they snap a code and whether the content will be valuable. Therefore, marketers have to be clear and upfront on the ad or signage itself about what consumers can expect.

To educate customers, both JCPenney and Macy’s created YouTube videos explaining how to interact with the codes. They also offered incentives for snapping codes or signing in through LBS partners, like Foursquare or Shopkick.

Macy’s shoppers were also entered into shopping spree sweepstakes when they snapped codes, and offered Shopkick’s participants special offers and discounts if they signed in.

Sometimes the problem is as simple as the technology not working properly. For instance, GPS maps don’t always provide the correct user location. And, having LBS on your phone drains the battery more quickly, so consumers are reluctant to use it all the time.

Similarly, while smartphones in other parts of the world, like Asia, automatically have QR code scanners built in, U.S. phones do not, so users first have to download one of several apps. Additionally, users have to exit out of whatever program they are currently in on their phones, locate the scanning app and wait for it to load before they can snap a code. This may further dissuade users from snapping codes because it may be too much of a hassle for them.

“The app download is a barrier in itself,” Van Heirseele says.

Digitas’s Chen believes it is the responsibility of the hardware and software manufacturers to improve upon the technologies.

Furthermore, Brian McClary, social and emerging media analyst at the Ford Motor Co., says Ford used LBS with Foursquare during a car show to reward the first 20 people who signed in with a poster. However, they experienced a connectivity issue because there were too many people using the same signal, preventing people from checking in. McClary says they remedied the situation by allowing people to check in through Twitter.

All these things combined make up the user experience. Several marketers caution if the initial experience is bad, users are less likely to give the technology a second chance. Therefore, all marketers have a responsibility to make the QR code and LBS a good experience each and every time, especially the first time.

Make or break year

While some marketers anticipate using LBS technology more and in more creative ways, QR codes may be a harder sell going forward. The codes have been around for a few years, and new technologies are quickly emerging that will be direct competitors.

“This is the make or break year for QR codes,” Van Heirseele says. “Retailers are asking for them and we will supply them, but if we don’t see people adapting to them and interacting with them, something else will come along to take their place.”

Chen, who also believes QR codes may only be around for another 12 to 18 months, says image recognition is getting better, to the point that users will be able to snap a photo of the product itself and search for more information that way, rather than having to use a QR code.

Also, as people begin to expect companies to have mobile-optimized browsers, Chen says they will also get more accustomed to typing URLs into their mobile browsers, which could make QR codes less relevant.

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Every year, as a marketing and media services company, we monitor client-planning trends as well as how those mirror trends in the greater marketplace. Recently, I shared our observation that with our clients, social has increasingly become the “spark” within the media mix of choice. That not only is social in the mix a majority of the time – it is driving it. We’ve long believed that this is an indicator of what is going on in the marketplace at large. Social as a whole has been busy proving itself and growing in favor.

So, in Online Media Daily last week, we were fascinated to spot a few affirmations in research released by Strata, the agency media software and processing firm owned by Comcast. This research showed that social has finally overtaken search and is expected to soon eclipse display, as the “focus” by most media planners at agencies, when developing client media plans. After all, with their hands on many of the purse strings, it is with this group that social has had to prove itself. This idea of social “focus” in planning is exactly what we have been seeing in the strong social orientation of all our plans.

“Social media has surpassed search, and is poised to overtake online display advertising as the No. 1 source of digital media planning and buying [as far as planning preference or intent to include] , according to the latest edition of a quarterly survey of U.S. advertising agencies. The survey […] found that 69% of agency executives now consider social the “focus” of their digital ad spending — up 32% over the past year, and now a close second behind display (71%) as the dominant digital media-buying platform in the minds of agency executives.”

These are important stats – illustrating a market shift we’ve all been feeling over the past couple years. Planner preference absolutely has long been an indicator in our industry. For the better part of the last decade, charts like this have shown that when asked their preference at the outset of a planning season, planners tend to point to email, search and display as top choices. For example, eMarketer has long published such a chart, essentially ranking planners’ media type choices and their intentions for the year ahead. It’s a handy chart, because in some ways, it’s a predictor of likely industry spend and revenue trending, for the coming year by media type, for all of us. We take notice of these rankings, because agencies have so much influence over spending.

The Path to Media Preference is Paved with Intentions

But, with digital, as we know, once a media plan is established, that’s just the beginning. We go to work optimizing it – shifting placements, allocations and dialing in the mix, based on performance. So, if we are in the planning position, what we ultimately see over the course of the year sways how we answer questions about our intentions, and where we plan to place our bets, in the following year.

The main reason that any given media type rises up on this type of ranking – is because it delivers. This “delivery” may amount to brand visibility, share of voice, click or other conversion volume, when it comes to display. Or, direct response performance and efficient cost per conversions, when it comes to email and search – old favorites by planners charged with those goals and metrics. So, why is social climbing for preference?

We like social because when thoughtfully executed it allows marketers to pursue awareness and performance objectives all at once. It allows a brand to extend a mix – by working a core social concept across platforms, threading it all together. And, certainly, as it pertains to women, whose lives are increasingly not only more social but more cross-platform – the ability to leverage a cohesive socially driven mix is appealing. When it comes to women, we are expecting a lot out of social, in all its varieties.

But, as Social Matures, So Must the Analysis

To really get a clear picture of what’s happening with social spend trending – we’ll need to get a bit more granular. When referencing or ranking any media type, the specific methods do matter. We’ve gradually seen this same improved breakout on industry charts and spending reports for display, search, and all media types in the mix. The same needs to happen for social. As we all become better acquainted with social approaches, we will need the detail

As an industry over time, as we think about these stats on what planners are choosing – and “social” rising to overshadow display, search, email and others – it is important to know which methods are achieving what, and what kind of place they are earning on planning budgets, as a result. This is all part of social proving its value and maturing as an approach.

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Regional advertising is the go-to method for brands that want to support their retailers. A brand would turn to national advertising for branding, online, and national sales. Knowing how to play the two together will serve a brand marketer well. But the approach and specific tactics of a great regional execution are what truly make or break a brand striving to achieve scalable sales volume. Let’s start there and take a look at the mechanics of doing “regional” right.

Regional advertising works great for tests and to boost new retailers. To launch a new brand that would have regional distribution in 75 stores, we decided to implement hyper-local marketing to drive sales in a very concentrated, high-volume way and give the retailer justification to take the distribution national the following season.

Specifically, for regional marketing, digital advertising and out-of-home are a powerful combination. Ads can run near the retailers you want to support, on billboards, taxi tops, and in the form of erasable graffiti on walls and sidewalks. Audiences can be targeted digitally by IP address, ZIP code, or in local publications relevant to the brand and market. Events that combine the virtual with the real – such as in-store appearances, parties with local bloggers, contests, and scavenger hunts – get the word out virally via social media. You are only as limited as your imagination given the abundance of integration options.

To craft your regional retail strategy, consider these four factors:

Distribution

When you consider where your brand is sold, the world gets smaller and you can focus your budget.

Budget

The size of your budget and your strategy will help shape your approach and media mix, such as whether to do television versus radio or billboards versus buses.

Objectives

If you’re trying to influence shoppers at a particular store, consider buying bus routes that go by it. It’s much less expensive than billboards. On the other hand, if you are promoting a celebrity brand with regional distribution, you might buy one billboard in Times Square and target the rest of your spend locally.

Media consumption in the markets

Each regional area has its own variations and demands its own strategy. For example, it doesn’t make sense to buy billboards in sprawling Los Angeles because so many would be required to make an impact, but geo-digital is a good tactic. New York might be less of a radio town than, say, Baltimore and D.C. because most people take the subway rather than drive to work. Take time to consider each market for its consumption realities.

We walked through these factors as a team when helping Danish jewelry maker Trollbeads make the most of its advertising budget for a recent campaign. Trollbeads is a national brand, but it has strong regional followings in areas of the country where its products are distributed.

The company has a following among a wide range of women age 18 years old and up. Internal research revealed its advertising was most effective when targeting women 35 years and older with a household income of $75,000 and up. The product is sold and purchased through independent jewelers and gift shops.

So, the company decided to combine national and regional campaigns for maximum effect — and then it decided to integrate tactics within the regional execution. It ran a print campaign in national fashion and lifestyle titles read by its customers, such as O, Glamour, More, InStyle, Redbook, and Lucky.

At the same time, Trollbeads ran an out-of-home campaign in local areas where it has wide distribution and loyal customers. This included billboards, malls, and transit media in the markets they wanted to strategically target. It also ran some print ads in regional magazines such as Texas Monthly and Columbus Monthly.

Digital was another component. Trollbeads ran display ads and banners on Twelvefold Media, the Sugar Network, and Elle.com. It also distributed pre-roll video and video banner ads through the Tremor Network.

The Trollbeads campaign supported its retail partners on the local level while also building its brand nationally. Our measurements showed a good response and reach.

“Trollbeads is committed to an integrated marketing campaign,” said Trollbeads’ chief executive officer Michael J. Belleveau. “This strategy leverages the reach and flexibility of digital media with the image-building power of upscale national print, combined with call-to-action advertising through our large dealer network and to the trade. Using these tools, we support our existing network of retailers and enlarge our distribution network as well as increase brand awareness and consumer pull-through. As consumer demand increases with an ever-strengthening brand, the selling job of the retailer becomes easier.”

In your own campaigns, the power of concentration and repetition in a variety of channels will reinforce your marketing message and drive the point home. The consumer will take notice, you will increase your reach, and your voice will be amplified, as it was for Trollbeads. This ultimately amounts to greater mindshare — the aspiration of most emerging brands.

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The mommy blogger has been around for several years now, but did you know the army of chatty, tech-savvy mothers was this large — and monied?

14% of all American mothers with at least one child in their household blog about parenting or turn to blogs for advice, according to a recent study by Scarborough Research. About 3.9 million moms in the United States identify as bloggers, but just 500 of them are considered to be influential among among other mothers.

The average mommy blogger is 37 years old and 89% of mommy bloggers have kids between the ages of 2 and 11. They’re also socially conscious and are 85% more likely to have supported a politician based on an environmental issue, 88% more likely to buy eco-friendly products and 38% more likely to volunteer than the average mom.

Whether by dint of circumstance, hard work or both, mommy bloggers also belong to a pretty elite social set. The average mommy blog’s household income in $84,000 — $14,000 higher than average income for non-blogging moms. Moms who read or contribute to blogs are also 52% more likely to have college degrees than moms who don’t, according to Scarborough.

The online tax service H&R Block commissioned the infographic below to create a snapshot of the mom blog world and show who some of the field’s most successful writers are. Check it out below for the full picture.

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Consuming content in frequent, small portions means more touchpoints for marketers

Armed with fast, high-powered smartphones, a new class of consumers, 100 million strong and growing, is rerouting the path to purchase and redefining cultural norms in the US.

Members of the “smartphone class” stand apart from other Americans in the way they shop, communicate, consume media—even how they use their spare time. Its members define themselves by their connectedness and their sense of empowerment through unfettered access to real-time information.

“What others do with a PC, they do with their smartphones,” said Catherine Boyle, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, “The Smartphone Class: Connected Consumers Transform US Commerce and Culture.” “Their phone is their workplace, entertainment center and their marketplace. They watch videos in coffee shops, social network at concerts, play games in waiting rooms, scan barcodes in stores and shop with their smartphone from anywhere at any time. Their behaviors are rerouting the traditional path to purchase and they are proving to the rest of America that spare moments can be productive ones, too.”

eMarketer estimates nearly 116 million Americans will use a smartphone at least monthly by the end of this year, up from 93.1 million in 2011. By 2013, they will represent over half of all mobile phone users, and by 2016, nearly three in five consumers will have a smartphone.

The smartphone class is not defined by age, gender, income or race. Instead it is defined by its members’ shared behaviors. Understanding the common behavioral traits that unite the class makes members easy to recognize and underscores the influence this class of consumers is having on how Americans communicate, consume media and shop.

One of those behaviors is to always be “snacking.” The smartphone class doesn’t tolerate dull moments; members turn to their phones for instant gratification. Depending on their mood in the moment, gratification might mean completing a quick task or finding a fun distraction. For marketers, this rising content consumption means an increasing number of touchpoints where they can reach consumers. eMarketer forecasts double-digit growth in mobile gaming as well as music and video consumption among the smartphone class through 2015.

“Snacking on mobile in small amounts throughout the day can be as lucrative to brands as it is gratifying to members of the smartphone class,” said Boyle. “The five minutes grazing on news in the morning, the 15 minutes playing a game at lunch and the two minutes watching a video at the grocery store are all opportunities for marketers to get a message across or close a sale.”

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Ad Age Trend Report Explores Strategies for Social-Media Platforms, Organizing Your Team and What to Measure

Consumers are investing serious amounts of their time in social-media platforms, with 16.6% of all online minutes now spent on social networks. With so much focus on social as a marketing tool, it’s worth stopping and mapping out a smart social strategy.

A new Ad Age Insights report, “Managing Your Brand’s Social Life,” aims to help brand managers plan for which platforms should get the investment of limited staff and time, what to consider when creating internal social-media guidelines, whether to handle social media in-house or outsource it and what measures a brand should be looking for to get at return on investment.

You can measure the ROI of social media, but it may not get you far. “There is definitely a quantifiable ROI, but the truth of the matter is that it’s very difficult to measure ROI within social media,” said Edelman Digital Senior VP Michael Brito.

If a straightforward numbers game is what you’re after, Olivier Blanchard, author of “Social Media ROI” notes that the ROI numbers game remains the same: “It’s still purely a financial measure.” But, he adds, “engagement is not a measure of ROI. There’s no way to actually calculate the relationship between a dollar investment in a particular activity and the number of likes.”

He stresses that brands should be wary of anybody who tries to tell them that they can put an absolute value on a Facebook fan, Twitter follower or their latest Pinterest pinner. “For anyone to suggest that the value of a Coca-Cola fan on Facebook or Twitter is equal to the value of a BMW fan on Facebook or Twitter, it’s ludicrous. So the media-equivalency equations unfortunately really lead people astray. They do help sell a lot of services, but they don’t actually really give you a true measure of the value of an activity on social media,” Mr. Brito said.

Adds Constant Contact’s Social-Media Manager Erica Ayotte: “What’s really hard is determining the value of followership.” Instead, Ms. Ayotte believes brands have to ask very different questions of their social-media campaigns. “What gets me really excited is looking at it from a different intelligence perspective, from taking all that data and being able to ask the right questions, ” she said. “For example, do people who are engaging with us on Facebook … do they buy more, stay longer? That’s the type of business intelligence … I think the whole industry is moving [toward].” Other aspects to consider tracking are trust, purchase-decisions influence, seeking new products and getting recommendations.

ROI is really just one way to figure out how much your brand benefits from having a social life. With a little creativity — and with an understanding that you need to push your measurement in new directions — you can more clearly understand what social media delivers to your brand. Steven L. Johnson, assistant professor and director of social-media programs at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, offered the example of the Campbell’s Kitchen Facebook page, whose “mission is to get people to use more Campbell’s Soup products.” Mr. Johnson said Campbell figured out that every time somebody printed a recipe from Facebook, they prepared it approximately 2.5 times, and 1.7 times, they used a Campbell’s Soup product. “You can’t figure that out online,” he said. “They just figured that out through some kind of additional market research. But then based on that, you’re able to put a value on this action that you’re trying to drive people toward.”

While larger marketers end up building enterprise-class tracking tools, many companies rely on a cobbled together set of tools. Some of the top names in the measuring game include Radian6; Webtrends analytics to measure Facebook and mobile; and Twitalyze to measure, as you probably guessed, Twitter activity; Google Analytics, which is a very sophisticated product (especially for the price of … free); and Simply Measured, which also looks at competitors’ engagement to provide benchmarking.

“Measuring social is easy: likes, comments, views, shares, engagement, participation, etc. The numbers are all there and are easy to pull. Determining success is still the difficult part,” said Daniel Stein, founder-CEO, Evolution Bureau. “The jury is still out on the value of fan interaction. Most people agree that having a loyal, engaged fan base is a good thing — how good or how valuable compared to other forms of more institutionalized marketing is still debatable.”

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Tricia Nichols, global lead of consumer engagement, strategy, and media innovation for The Gap, delivered the keynote address at the iMedia iMoms Summit in Orlando, Fla., this morning.

“Technology is the biggest catalyst for strengthening the bond [between mom and advertiser],” Nichols said.

Indeed, this is the theme of the iMoms Summit. How can advertisers tap into this powerful, decision making demographic?  Moms are, after all, the traditional head of the household and responsible for the daily purchases needed to run the home.

In order to forge a relationship with moms, marketers must understand how today’s moms are interfacing with media in addition to their needs and wants.

During the insight address, Jessica Hogue, SVP of network accounts at Neilsen, shared a study that zeroed in on the ways in which moms consume media.

According to the study, moms tend to spend more time on the internet and less time with other media. In fact, moms are two times more likely to be online than the general population.

“Moms are living their lives online,” Hogue said. “They are banking, reading, and socializing on their mobile devices.”

Moms are surfing Facebook, Google, Blogspot, and MSN. They are spending a significant amount of time texting and banking on their mobile devices. Moms are spending so much time on the internet that “online [has become] critical in the purchase process,” Hogue said.

That’s very good news for advertisers.

Other takeaways from the insight address:

• The average mom has 120 friends on Facebook.
• Moms are consuming media on their own terms. They are not watching as much TV — movies, shows, and other videos are viewed online.
• Priorities and brand preferences change when women become mothers. Designer clothes are replaced with purchase choices that reflect an eye on comfort, versatility, and price.
• Social circles change as moms connect with each other online.

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New technology and creative thinking will foster deeper ad engagement from viewers

It’s now common to talk about consumers’ reliance on peer opinions, reviews and ratings online. But, we probably assume this online tendency and comfort level is rooted in the real life stock we have always put in what our friends and families have to say. Even before going online, most of us have long relied on our friends, families and circles of influence to steer us in the right direction, on products and services. That kind of trusted endorsement has always been very powerful. So, offline being where it started, it follows that the online version of this taps into the same dynamic, just at greater scale. Essentially one and the same, right? Recent research sheds new light that this is not the case.

In the 2012 Digital Influence Index, a global study by Fleishman Hillard, we see that online is outright replacing offline peer recommendation or advocacy. The gap between our reliance on the Internet over our reliance on friends and family is widening at a steady clip. The numbers show globally that the online version is replacing our formerly trusty reliance on those closest to us in real life. In the United States, the reliance is about equal, but the same trend is emerging. The gap is widest, by far, in China and India. The report goes on to show that the degree of influence varies by topic.

We are given some indication within the analysis provided, as to what this is all about, “More than half the time, the anonymity of the Internet holds greater sway with consumers in influencing purchasing and other decisions – greater even than the opinions of family, friends and co-workers.” It’s the anonymity factor.

What, if anything, does this say about authenticity? Are online friends and offline friends on equal standing? What is it about anonymity vs. live acquaintance that boosts the value of an endorsement? What can be the benefit of anonymity? Or, is this online trend really about getting personal input at scale? More of it – and more readily?

In considering this eye-opening trend, it’s important to take a step back and remember some primary strengths of the Internet as a consumer-marketing environment: relevance and immediacy. The digital environment, when well leveraged, has the ability to deliver both.

So, one of the great benefits of getting opinions from people you don’t know online is that they are interested in precisely the same item you are considering buying – even perhaps down to model number or SKU. That’s relevance. And they’re further along in the decision continuum. So, you personally benefit from the work they’ve already done. So while friends and family can support your decision process, and confer with you along the way, there are many more people online, who you may never meet, who can share their learning in real-time. That’s immediacy.

There is a lot to be said for the personal touch – a thoughtful recommendation or endorsement from someone you trust. That is worth its weight in gold, on so many decisions. Yet, it may or may not represent an opportunity for marketers to engage. So, for all the decisions consumers make all day long across numerous facets of their lives – relevance and immediacy available at scale are where the opportunity exists for brands and marketers to play a part.

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