More and more, we're seeing incredible work in the agency world bringing together Search, Display and Digital WOM. We're big believers in the power of synergy between the three, and excited to play a role in helping pull them together.

We still plan to go further... The technology was designed blog platform independent and ad network independent, and we hope to make it available to the other network and publishing companies who are also working hard to advance our segment of the digital media industry. We're doing our best to simplify the media buying process in conversational media, and we look forward to sharing that capability.

The Conversational Advertising Dashboard was a huge undertaking to develop, I'm very proud of our team for achieving this level of accomplishment.

Rob Crumpler
CEO

Nowhere was that theme more apparent than on my recent trip to the IAB’s Social Media Marketplace event, where the industry attempted to shed some light into the otherwise murky waters of social media and advertising. The event led with the release of two documents outlining Social Media Metrics Definitions and Best Practices. Everyone agreed, these documents are just a start and even while we may never have true industry-wide adoption as innovation seems to outpace us, they do provide a roadmap for the common practitioner.

Some messages that came across loud and clear:

• The Power of Content, which was brought up both by Josh Bernoff and John Batelle – more and more consumers are trusting content created by their peers over other sources. Search results no longer hold the power they once did as readers choose consumer generated results more than company sponsored links.
  
• Traditional advertising metrics and business KPIs aren’t going away anytime soon and while advertisers and marketers struggle to catch up with the new mediums and measurements possible to track performance, (and the newly released iab document does help)...marketers need to be able to tie campaign objectives (especially in a social world )back to real world business KPIs. Was there a trackable shift in consumer attitude? What were the post click actions that are attributable to building brand affinity or product sales?

Content is now social and audiences are having conversations with each-other about brands. As marketers, we need to determine how to leverage these opportunities to reach our audiences. One way is to tap the content rich conversations present in the blogopshere. For my panel: Dealing With Data Overload: Developing Your Social Media Scorecard, I laid out a measurement framework that would take marketers through every stage of planning and executing their campaigns. A detailed walk-through of the framework is laid out here.

Josh Bernoff noted that “people don’t want to talk about products, they want to talk about their passions or their problems and solutions” validating the fact that in conversational marketing, a different approach is needed both in creative execution as well as in targeting.

We have seen performance of several campaigns at BuzzLogic that points to different affinity levels within different categories such as technology and entertainment. One technology focused campaign saw a sizeable lift in performance (CTR) when ads were targeted at conversations about competitors over their brand conversations. Industry conversations also performed better – perhaps highlighting the fact that technology buyers were already aware of the brand. And a desire to learn when engaged in conversations about the industry or competitors, a learning that can certainly help to guide creative development further upstream and create messages that resonate with audiences in the right way.

In the Entertainment category , we saw the opposite affect where brand conversations were the best performers and ads resonated more with audiences familiar with and engaging in conversations about the company – signaling not only different levels of affinity within different categories but also providing opportunities for engagement with an audience more apt to respond to your messages.

Where does that leave us? Somewhere in need of a bridge from yesterday to tomorrow – applying the traditional reach, frequency and demographic metrics we are familiar with yet coming to them perhaps in a different way by adapting to the conversation.

Seeing where audiences are congregating, in addition to the traditional reach and demographic approach, can open up new insights. To use a simple analogy, take a look at the hive where the honey is located, and not just at the bee who may or may not be seeking your brand of honey. In looking at the hive you may uncover new findings about your audience – new bees, behaviors, and conversations that can make you a smarter marketer. Then overlapping reach and demographics back to those conversations to effectively align your media plan.

Today is both an exciting and daunting time to be an online marketer – with so many ways to reach audiences, so many mediums in which to do so and so many ways to track success.

Nowhere was that theme more apparent than on my recent trip to the IAB’s Social Media Marketplace event, where the industry attempted to shed some light into the otherwise murky waters of social media and advertising. The event led with the release of two documents outlining Social Media Metrics Definitions and Best Practices. Everyone agreed, these documents are just a start and even while we may never have true industry-wide adoption as innovation seems to outpace us, they do provide a roadmap for the common practitioner.

Some messages that came across loud and clear:

• The Power of Content, which was brought up both by Josh Bernoff and John Batelle – more and more consumers are trusting content created by their peers over other sources. Search results no longer hold the power they once did as readers choose consumer generated results more than company sponsored links.
  
• Traditional advertising metrics and business KPIs aren’t going away anytime soon and while advertisers and marketers struggle to catch up with the new mediums and measurements possible to track performance, (and the newly released iab document does help)...marketers need to be able to tie campaign objectives (especially in a social world )back to real world business KPIs. Was there a trackable shift in consumer attitude? What were the post click actions that are attributable to building brand affinity or product sales?

Content is now social and audiences are having conversations with each-other about brands. As marketers, we need to determine how to leverage these opportunities to reach our audiences. One way is to tap the content rich conversations present in the blogopshere. For my panel: Dealing With Data Overload: Developing Your Social Media Scorecard, I laid out a measurement framework that would take marketers through every stage of planning and executing their campaigns. A detailed walk-through of the framework is laid out here.

Josh Bernoff noted that “people don’t want to talk about products, they want to talk about their passions or their problems and solutions” validating the fact that in conversational marketing, a different approach is needed both in creative execution as well as in targeting.

We have seen performance of several campaigns at BuzzLogic that points to different affinity levels within different categories such as technology and entertainment. One technology focused campaign saw a sizeable lift in performance (CTR) when ads were targeted at conversations about competitors over their brand conversations. Industry conversations also performed better – perhaps highlighting the fact that technology buyers were already aware of the brand. And a desire to learn when engaged in conversations about the industry or competitors, a learning that can certainly help to guide creative development further upstream and create messages that resonate with audiences in the right way.

In the Entertainment category , we saw the opposite affect where brand conversations were the best performers and ads resonated more with audiences familiar with and engaging in conversations about the company – signaling not only different levels of affinity within different categories but also providing opportunities for engagement with an audience more apt to respond to your messages.

Where does that leave us? Somewhere in need of a bridge from yesterday to tomorrow – applying the traditional reach, frequency and demographic metrics we are familiar with yet coming to them perhaps in a different way by adapting to the conversation.

Seeing where audiences are congregating, in addition to the traditional reach and demographic approach, can open up new insights. To use a simple analogy, take a look at the hive where the honey is located, and not just at the bee who may or may not be seeking your brand of honey. In looking at the hive you may uncover new findings about your audience – new bees, behaviors, and conversations that can make you a smarter marketer. Then overlapping reach and demographics back to those conversations to effectively align your media plan.

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The first step to consider in this proposed framework is media plan creation and campaign targeting. In addition to considering traditional reach and demographic metrics in the planning process, why not also consider the topic of conversations around which audiences are congregating? By looking at the conversation first, you surface ad inventory that will resonate with enthusiastic audiences. These current and/or potential customers are already engaged in the discussion related to your campaign objectives. You can then use a traditional measurement service such as Comscore or Quantcast to overlay reach and demographic metrics that your business teams have been using since the inception of the interactive space in the early 1990s.

The second step in the framework is campaign execution. As you or your agency starts to track how campaigns are doing, measuring campaign performance by conversation can unlock new insights. Just like with traditional site or ad size optimization, move more impressions towards conversations that are performing, then revisit your conversation definition, creative and/or site selection for conversations that are under performing.

The final step in the framework, which should also be considered the first iteration of the media planning for the next campaign, is post-campaign analysis and learning. Social media is about iteration, and iteration implies multiple campaigns over time. The frequency component of the “reach and frequency” mantra, is even more paramount in social media. In addition to looking at the traditional performance metrics, e.g. impressions, clicks and CTR, at the campaign level and by conversation, marketers should then correlate those metrics to the language business stakeholders understand, e.g. business KPIs? Was this a branding campaign – what was the share of conversation impact over multiple campaigns or what was the lift in the brand affinity through statistical studies in target geographies? Was this a direct response campaign – what was the lift in catalog assortment or specific SKUs sales over the several campaigns? How were my site’s web metrics impacted as a result of these campaigns? Did I see a spike in a user registrations or requests for my company’s whitepapers as a result of the campaign?

Not every marketer’s framework will be the same but by breaking out the creative cycle out into Pre / During / Post and identifying metrics at the get-go – marketers can ensure they are continuously improving upon their campaigns and ultimately meeting the key business objectives.

When approaching the campaign lifecycle where a component of the media plan calls for social media, specifically blogs, BuzzLogic recommends using the following framework as a guideline for measurement considerations:

The first step to consider in this proposed framework is media plan creation and campaign targeting. In addition to considering traditional reach and demographic metrics in the planning process, why not also consider the topic of conversations around which audiences are congregating? By looking at the conversation first, you surface ad inventory that will resonate with enthusiastic audiences. These current and/or potential customers are already engaged in the discussion related to your campaign objectives. You can then use a traditional measurement service such as Comscore or Quantcast to overlay reach and demographic metrics that your business teams have been using since the inception of the interactive space in the early 1990s.

The second step in the framework is campaign execution. As you or your agency starts to track how campaigns are doing, measuring campaign performance by conversation can unlock new insights. Just like with traditional site or ad size optimization, move more impressions towards conversations that are performing, then revisit your conversation definition, creative and/or site selection for conversations that are under performing.

The final step in the framework, which should also be considered the first iteration of the media planning for the next campaign, is post-campaign analysis and learning. Social media is about iteration, and iteration implies multiple campaigns over time. The frequency component of the “reach and frequency” mantra, is even more paramount in social media. In addition to looking at the traditional performance metrics, e.g. impressions, clicks and CTR, at the campaign level and by conversation, marketers should then correlate those metrics to the language business stakeholders understand, e.g. business KPIs? Was this a branding campaign – what was the share of conversation impact over multiple campaigns or what was the lift in the brand affinity through statistical studies in target geographies? Was this a direct response campaign – what was the lift in catalog assortment or specific SKUs sales over the several campaigns? How were my site’s web metrics impacted as a result of these campaigns? Did I see a spike in a user registrations or requests for my company’s whitepapers as a result of the campaign?

Not every marketer’s framework will be the same but by breaking out the creative cycle out into Pre / During / Post and identifying metrics at the get-go – marketers can ensure they are continuously improving upon their campaigns and ultimately meeting the key business objectives.

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Memorial Day brought lots movie buzz around Star Trek, Terminator Salvation and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Interesting to note that top conversations around these films focused not on the movies themselves, but on their marketing and advertising promotions. For Star Trek, the top post was about the mini-site Nokia created to highlight its product placements in the movie. The most influential post on Wolverine from GoNintendo, actually focused on the Wolverine video game.

Also in the spotlight, the comedy film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian which had one-third of the influencers discussing the performance of Amy Adams as pilot Amelia Earhart. Perhaps even more interesting, the fact that Washington DC-based sites like the Washington Examiner are emerging as influential for this movie, as the setting and film premiere take place in the city's most prominent museum.

Listening to the conversations taking place about these movies surfaced some surprising new conversation themes, such as buzz behind the movie promotions themselves as well as the cities where the movies are based. Diving into the meat of the conversation in this way can create new targeting opportunities. For example, consider also using local angles to reach your audiences, or taking a look at peripheral topics such games and promotions your audience may be discussing. Understanding how consumers are engaged in the dialogue can directly impact your advertising execution and help you create more focused messages that speak directly to your audiences.

Type a query into a search box and its fair to say, that as a consumer, you are at some stage of the purchase funnel, whether that’s initial product discovery, researching options or actually making a final purchase. As Jason says “search works” but it works precisely because it captures intent and capitalizes on it by driving users to points of purchase.... otherwise known as the last mile or the bottom of the funnel.

But what is lost in Jason’s analogy is the time the consumer spent on content or the brand impressions seen by the consumer as they engaged with that content, and which ultimately contributed to that final decision. It’s the critical middle phases of the funnel, in which consumers are getting answers and refining their choices all while going to the experts (aka publishers) they know, that will help them get to the final decision.

Our research with Jupiter shows that consumers depend on blogs at critical stages in the purchase funnel with 59 percent using a blog to refine and get answers related to their purchase and 54 percent using information gleaned to decide and execute that buy.

And while, Twitter does offer a new way to reach broad audiences ala Jason’s Superbowl commercial analogy, it isn’t necessarily capturing audience intent or precisely targeting the right audience, at least not yet.

Two factors make advertising (and specifically display advertising) in blogs a unique and valuable part of any marketer’s ad mix:

1) The dialogue that bloggers are able to have with their audiences is one that is both unique and personal in nature, thus making blogs highly influential and trusted by their readers.

2) Display ads heavily and positively impact other online campaigns, such as search. In fact, the majority of search queries occur on branded keyword terms – studies have shown that after seeing a display ad, consumers are 54% more likely to search on an advertisers’ brand keyword- proving that display advertising, not only impacts other consumer behavior, it can actually push consumers further down the purchase funnel to the last mile.

Combine those two factors and you have an effective way to reach audiences gathering around their trusted authors' content and more likely to be impacted by brands they see.

If social networks are the dinner parties, and search is the cash register, then perhaps blogs are the farmers markets inspiring the recipes.

Food for thought. (sorry couldn't resist)

Jason Calcanis’ recent Mediapost column from the halls of OMMA Global hit a chord. While he’s right on the mark about user intent on social nets vs. search – there are many vehicles in the social media stratus that lie in between the “dinner party / social network ” and “research / search” associations he highlights.

Type a query into a search box and its fair to say, that as a consumer, you are at some stage of the purchase funnel, whether that’s initial product discovery, researching options or actually making a final purchase. As Jason says “search works” but it works precisely because it captures intent and capitalizes on it by driving users to points of purchase.... otherwise known as the last mile or the bottom of the funnel.

But what is lost in Jason’s analogy is the time the consumer spent on content or the brand impressions seen by the consumer as they engaged with that content, and which ultimately contributed to that final decision. It’s the critical middle phases of the funnel, in which consumers are getting answers and refining their choices all while going to the experts (aka publishers) they know, that will help them get to the final decision.

Our research with Jupiter shows that consumers depend on blogs at critical stages in the purchase funnel with 59 percent using a blog to refine and get answers related to their purchase and 54 percent using information gleaned to decide and execute that buy.

And while, Twitter does offer a new way to reach broad audiences ala Jason’s Superbowl commercial analogy, it isn’t necessarily capturing audience intent or precisely targeting the right audience, at least not yet.

Two factors make advertising (and specifically display advertising) in blogs a unique and valuable part of any marketer’s ad mix:

1) The dialogue that bloggers are able to have with their audiences is one that is both unique and personal in nature, thus making blogs highly influential and trusted by their readers.

2) Display ads heavily and positively impact other online campaigns, such as search. In fact, the majority of search queries occur on branded keyword terms – studies have shown that after seeing a display ad, consumers are 54% more likely to search on an advertisers’ brand keyword- proving that display advertising, not only impacts other consumer behavior, it can actually push consumers further down the purchase funnel to the last mile.

Combine those two factors and you have an effective way to reach audiences gathering around their trusted authors' content and more likely to be impacted by brands they see.

If social networks are the dinner parties, and search is the cash register, then perhaps blogs are the farmers markets inspiring the recipes.

Food for thought. (sorry couldn't resist)

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Divisions between church and state exist in other industries outside of publishing, such as finance, where endorsements by trusted entities such as an investment bank research analyst could easily trigger buy or sell transactions that contribute to the bank’s bottom line. Otherwise known as chinese walls, these divisions exist because of the potential to abuse powers without them. Think of our own government’s legislative branches and the checks in place to prevent abuse. It is perhaps something brands and bloggers should consider as well.

The big issue here for bloggers is around making money – it’s even more important in THIS economy.  While transparency and disclosure for sponsored posts raise awareness to a blogger’s audience, there are other ways that a blogger can fund their writing. In the case of display advertising, the end objective (getting paid) is still achieved but without the compromise of a trusted relationship, loss of influence and becoming an advertorial blog.  Many could take a note out of Vinography's ethics playbook – Alder Yarrow, well-respected and influential wine blogger refuses to take funds from any wine-maker or conglomerates to “avoid any and all potential conflicts of interest.”

Paid sponsorships of content by brands are not going away any time soon, but the idea is still being worked through and we haven’t seen the full reaction by consumers who are reading these blogs. Our perspective is to provide bloggers with as much opportunity in the form of explicit advertisements, tools to increase their CPMs, enabling them to focus on their core competencies – writing great unbiased content for the topics they are passionate about.

When we looked at conversations that mentioned “best picture and oscar” it was clear to see that Slumdog Millionaire would take it home with 31% of the Influencers also mentioning the keyword “millionaire” in their posts. And Oscar did not disappoint, awarding Slumdog 8 awards in all, including “Best Director,” another dead-on prediction by influencers.

Influencers, such as Film Experience accurately predicted and supported Sean Penn taking home the best Actor prize. The only category where influencers weren’t 100% clear on the winner prior to the ceremonies was the Best Actress category.  Influencers indicated a dead-heat between Kate Winslet and Meryl Streep, perhaps fueled in part by Streep’s record-breaking 15 nominations – influencers thought this might yet again be her year.

Huliq correctly predicted the “Best Supporting Actress” win of Penelope Cruz, citing her ability to “make you forget she is not the film’s star.”

And winning for the role that is said to have haunted him until his death, Heath Ledger as “Best Supporting Actor” in his role as the the Joker, with an overwhelming majority( 62%) of Influencers accurately predicting his win, including InContention.com.

For a full list of our Oscar predictions, check out our PR Week column.

As an invited contributor, we’re excited about offering nearly 5 years of
learnings to the discussion. Through our analytics platform and advertising
network, we've conducted influence measurement not only as a way to rank how
influential online consumers are, but as a new method of predict a site’s
likelihood to perform as an advertiser. It's clear that UGC is influencing
both consumer perception and buying behavior – it's by diving into the
characteristics of that influential content and understanding its
connections to other influencers that we’ve been cracking the code to date.
And what we're finding is that the level of influence a site may have on its readership
can directly correlate to how advertising on that site performs. Pretty
amazing, and I expect a framework like Phil's will unearth many more success
stories.

We’ve also been thinking a lot about different influence metrics for the “social
web” – and by that I don’t mean specific platforms like Facebook or Twitter.
As marketers, we need to start looking more holistically at the Web to see how
all online media is becoming socially connected. Understanding the intent
and nature of social connections across both UGC and "traditional" content is
one factor to exposing it’s influence. Analyzing the content itself, and the author’s
credibility on the specific topic, is another. It’s important to remember that influence
is highly contextual, so that should be kept in mind as we drive toward working
models and standardization.

This should be a meaningful discussion – one we look forward to helping to
shape in the weeks and months to come.

Also interesting to note and reflective of the grassroots movement Obama tapped for his campaign – the most influential blogs pertaining to “Obama” and “presidential inauguration” were not traditional media sites, but rather grassroots (and somewhat crunchy) blogs, including The Peace Moonbeam Chronicles, Peace Corps Polygot, and Queen of the Girl Geeks.

Check out PR Week for the full report – with many more tidbits and insights from the influencers.

For all of the new questions the event bubbled to the surface, many of the old ones - what is the ROI of a social marketing effort? How do I measure it? - continue to be left unanswered. But maybe that's OK. As industry blogger and 360i exec David Berkowitz noted to me in a later conversation, perhaps the industry is rethinking how it characterizes the value placed on social engagement online --- and we just might be getting comfortable with not having all the answers. Naturally, we need to continue to strive to prove and measure program value, but is the answer to borrow wholly from our traditional advertising/marketing counterparts in how we define and measure the success of a corporate blog or Twitter presence? If the answer is no, then let's figure out the right answer - and accept that this is an iterative process.

Some other consistent themes I observed during the event:

-When it comes to a direct engagement strategy, thinking in campaign terms is the wrong approach. The act of fostering a community doesn't have an on/off switch - it's an ongoing commitment.

-Traditional advertising shouldn't exist separately from its social marketing counterparts. Media buyers too need access to social media insights and data to make ads more effective, both from a targeting and creative standpoint. All media is becoming social - advertising operations and processes need to reflect this.

-Instead of "social media" think in terms of the "social web." In some cases, like blogs, users explicitly create content in a socially-connected way. But are consumers on Facebook creating "social media" - or are they simply connecting and sharing?

-The social web is the great equalizer. Small businesses and unknowns take heed: the accessibility and affordability of social tools and platforms mean you can easily leapfrog the slower-moving behemoths in your space to capture consumer attention.

-Only 15% of the world's top brands are active on the social web. There's still a ton of opportunity out there for marketers and technology providers, and there's never been a better time for brands to jump in and cost-effectively take advantage.

Topping our list, naturally, was his new consultancy, AdHocnium, a "un-agency" representing a loosely-joined (but thoroughly vetted) network of seasoned practitioners with proven social media know-how. The twist? Instead of hiring them on to work as full-time staffers, AdHocnium allows them to maintain independence as "creative catalysts," enabling brands to tap this collective talent pool in a flexible way.

Starting up any kind of marketing services venture in a downturn is a challenge, but Chris says Adhocnium fills what he sees as a gap in the marketplace - true social media prowess and talent – with what he believes is an iteration on what the agency model of the future will look like.

According to Chris, "all these people added 10,000 friends on Facebook, and they're saying they're social media consultants, and they're not. They used to do, like crochet beforehand - which is great, but this doesn't mean they should be advising multi-billion brands on strategy."

A fair point. While it’s true you may not need decades of marketing experience to come up with a great idea, the trick for brands today is establishing a system for filtering through the noise and distilling a strategy that maps back to true business objectives. For a fee (listed, refreshingly so, on Adhocnium's site) brands can access seasoned "filters" like Brian Solis, Neville Hobson and Tom Foremski , a mix of veterans with multiple perspectives, to impart their wisdom by the hour or via intense day or multi-day engagements.

It will be interesting to see how the unagency model fares, and whether other agencies take a page from this book to innovate on their own service delivery models. Grab a glass of red and tune in to the full interview here.

Some highlights:

-When it comes to a preferred mode of travel, more folks appear to be putting the pedal to the medal. In looking at the size of conversations around "holiday travel" and "cars" as compared to "air", "train" and "bus," the conversation around "cars" dominated with well over 15,000 influential posts. Looks like those cheap gas prices are too good to pass up.

-Regardless of the mode of travel, bloggers have opinions to spare - the influential Ask Patty offers tips for traveling with infants, children and pets and Cheap Airline Tickets News, is a top influencer on conversations around "affordable air travel."

Check out PR Week for the full report - there's plenty of rich conversation out there for travel/hospitality brands looking to jump in.

What emerged is a great reminder that organizations are just scratching the surface of the value these networks can provide. Most Leverage Software clients don't attempt to directly monetize their communities - instead, the ROI comes from decreasing customer attrition, building loyalty and shaving support costs by enabling the community to troubleshoot each other's issues. But it's not all warm fuzzies. There's an explicit marketing agenda served here too - Mike notes lead generation and upselling opportunities are tangible ways he can showcase ROI to his clients, who are overwhelmingly marketing execs. For example, inviting prospects into a branded social network and allowing the community to convert the sale is a huge benefit. It's also telling that Leverage sells mostly to marketing departments - not customer service or product. Which means marketing foots the bill, and sees benefit in the resulting leads and loyalty flowing through the branded community.

So is there really a killer ad model that will turn Facebook into the next Google? Perhaps. But for now, Mike's pretty satisfied with a social net revenue model that's entirely independent of whether users click on ads. Pour a glass of Syrah and check out our discussion here.