I wonder if James Surowiecki thought that crowdsourcing was poised to become an internet hot topic when he wrote The Wisdom of Crowds. Whether or not he knew, his book certainly got to the strategic core of the why’s and how’s of the power of the crowd. I read that book in 2004 and I was simply passionate about it. I wanted to understand how to better harness the concept of aggregate thinking (not crowd thinking) to make better decisions.
Throwing money into the abyss?
I was quite excited when Kiva first opened its (virtual) doors. Kiva harnessed the power of storytelling, as well as ease of online payment, to help online individuals make a difference they felt connected to. I was equally excited when I watched the rise of crowdsourced funding in the startup world. I believe there is value in this. I know some people who argue that it’s just…
ROI is consistently the hot topic in social media. Everyone wants to know the magic formula, the mathematical equation that will produce (justify?) effective online efforts. Metrics in any program need to be focused on an end goal, and those end goals can normally be found in quarterly or yearly strategic business goals. This should come as no surprise; any marketing effort should be focused on driving a bottom line.
There are ways, however, to put some measurement into your online activity. Our Entertainment Group Practice Director, Wendy Hofstetter, came up with a way to get at this. This method takes the standard ROI analysis for a media buy (think banner ads), and applies it to social media efforts. You will be able to show how much your brand would need to spend in order to buy the equivalent amount of impressions you are generating in social media, and determine…
Kudos to Peter Hershberg regarding his insight on what social media means to search, along with his explanation on the three evolutionary waves of search.
It seems not that long ago (middle of this decade), I was writing quite a bit about how relevant search results had evolved through Google’s PageRank concept – what Peter refers to as Search 2.0.
And now here we are talking about Search 3.0 – relevance based on personal networks and the filtering of data through online social graphs, ultimately strengthened as more people connect with each other via the web.
When you consider the technology (RSS) supporting the distribution of information or updates within online social networks like Facebook and Twitter – I think we actually began seeing the infancy of Search 3.0 nearly two years ago through Google’s Universal Search algorithm update (see basics of how Google’s indexing changed in image below).
Show Notes: Room 214 Co-Founder, Jason Cormier, interviews best-selling author and online marketing thought leader, David Meerman Scott.
In this podcast, we discuss:
Old-school measurement for ROI: What is really a “lead?” People want to apply same measures to social media. Traditional measures are being applied to social media marketing when so many other aspects of business simply don’t. Example: What’s the ROI of the receptionist, or even the accounting department for that matter?
We can measure how many people are exposed to our ideas, downloaded our YouTube video, etc. but these are very different measurements compared to traditional ROI measurements.
David states that ultimately, the ROI argument is used as an excuse based in fear. Many companies are simply afraid of social media.
David’s new book, World Wide Rave: How ideas spread and why people talk about you and your company. The first step in the formula for success is very counter-intuitive to marketers: Nobody cares about your products except you. To create something that has potential to spread, you can’t talk about these things. As soon as your product is brought into the equation, nobody cares.
Key take-away: Doing lots of activities in online marketing as opposed to one or just a few, should be the expectation when it comes to increasing your chances of success.
bencastelli:
What the Frack is Fracking? http://bit.ly/9zEtLu note - nothing to do with #battlestar 8 hours ago
JasonCormier:
Hi @rackspace - Anyone that can discount pricing beyond what the cool sales guy on the phone is telling me? If no, ok - but I'm ready to buy 10 hours ago
BrandonSings:
@Whygeezy Sonicbids did? lol Hope they hooked you up with a free premium membership. 12 hours ago
peterahall:
Really impressed with @skullcandy customer service. No questions asked. New shit on the way. Boom! 12 hours ago
dominicdimarco:
Asked iTunes to check for updates. Was told that 9.X was up to date....fail. Downloading iTunes 10 directly. 14 hours ago
AndyinColor:
Alright, let's give this a go: Link to my Ping profile on iTunes. If you stalk me across the web, try this as well... http://bit.ly/abMTzm 14 hours ago
JamesOClark:
RT @Room_214: It's a Hello Kitty day at the office! Check out the Facebook application we created for them: http://bit.ly/b2Uwqy. 2 days ago
Room_214:
It's a Hello Kitty day at the office! Check out the Facebook application we created for them: http://bit.ly/b2Uwqy. 2 days ago
lpmaynard:
@mich8elwu re: Google Wave, you mean pretty, shiny, and useless. Real question for me is how does @diaspora play out on mobile? 6 days ago
bencastelli:
JasonCormier:
BrandonSings:
peterahall:
dominicdimarco:
AndyinColor:
JamesOClark:
Room_214:
lpmaynard: