Social media comes with a new set of characteristics and behaviours, not least of these being the very active involvement of the audience. This requires new ways of thinking about planning and evaluating media activity.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA /
METHODS & METRICS
2008
A Report for Contagious by

2. social media / index / p.02
INDEX / ABOUT THE AUTHORS /
SOCIAL MEDIA / METHODS & METRICS
CHAPTERS /
01 / page 03 Ryan*MacMillan is a social media agency. We use social
01 / media to understand, amplify and influence the conver-
SUMMARY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY sations around our clients' products and services.
02 /
INTRO 02 / pages 04-05 To make this happen we provide:
03 / INTRODUCTION
PLANNING - Situation analysis: understanding and quantifying the
04 /
effect social media marketing can have on the brand
MEASURING
03 / pages 06-15 and sales
05 /
PLANNING
- Research in social media environments: monitoring
METHODS
audience conversations about the brand or product
06 / 04 / pages 16-40 and understanding their effect: what they're saying,
EMERGING
MEASURING why and where they're saying it
07 /
DEFINITIONS - Product development: creating social media products
05 / pages 41-84 that engage the brand's audience and can generate
08 /
RESOURCES SOCIAL METHODS revenues
- Marketing campaigns: driving interest and considera-
06 / pages 85-89 tion of brands by listening to audience needs and
SOCIAL MEDIA / EMERGING TRENDS responding to them with content, dialogue and
functionality.
07 / pages 90-91
DEFINITIONS
08 / pages 92-93
RESOURCES

3. social media / executive summary / p.03
01 / page 03
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
CHAPTERS /
02 / Introduction new set of tools for evaluating it. This section gives is a fast moving world and in order to be ready for
01 / An overview of the report; why we have done it, an overview of how audience needs are impacted its next evolution we have taken a look into the
SUMMARY
what it includes, who it is aimed at and what we by social media. It then looks at what tools are future. This essay looks sideways at what is
02 / hope the reader will get out of it. available for measuring it and what this means in emerging from current trends and what will have
INTRO terms of economic value. an impact on marketing in social media in the near
03 / 03 / Planning future.
PLANNING Social media comes with a new set of characteris- 05 / Social Methods
04 / tics and behaviours, not least of these being the This is a constantly evolving space and it produces 07 / Definitions
MEASURING very active involvement of the audience. This new ways for audiences and brands to engage New areas, especially in marketing and technology,
05 / requires new ways of thinking about planning and with each other. Each new way has its own have a charming habit of breeding a whole new set
METHODS evaluating media activity. In this section Mark strengths and pitfalls; this section provides an of neologisms. We have collected some of the
06 /
Palmer provides an unsettling view of some of the introduction to each of the major areas: blogging, more useful definitions together for the reader's
EMERGING shortfalls of how we currently measure media. We online conversations, brand utility, brand content reference and convenience.
also introduce KUDOS, a framework for managing and narrowcasting. It includes an overview of each
07 /
DEFINITIONS the new paradigms and ambiguities thrown up by with some expert points of view. It also provides 08 / Resources
social media. case studies of how the KUDOS planning frame- This report attempts to cover a lot of ground. By
08 /
RESOURCES work can be used in each area as well as guides to necessity some topics have required a light touch
04 / Measuring making the most of these activities. or a brief mention. This set of links to research,
The measurement of social media differs from articles, blogs and actual examples of activity will
traditional media in both its impact and how the 06 / Social media / emerging trends enable the reader to further their knowledge and
value of that impact can be determined. This While this report draws on the most recent exam- experience of social media beyond the confines of
requires a different view of measurement and a ples and current technologies in social media, this this document.

4. social media / planning / KUDOS as a framework p.06
03 / pages 06-15
PLANNING
CHAPTERS / 03.01 / KUDOS: A framework for planning ing in vision and originality. As it happens, nothing could
social media / be further from the truth. The Marketing Director only
01 /
SUMMARY
By Leo Ryan & Dan O'Connor, Ryan*MacMillan needs to provide her audience with the proof to put this
lie to bed. But what is the best way to let her audience
02 / The advertising and marketing press are filled with sto- know about the planned new line of products? She
INTRO ries of the end of advertising as we know it. The root of could produce a weekly podcast about the company's
03 / the cause apparently sits with the rise of blogs and product innovation. She could have the articulate Head
PLANNING social media and with the fragmentation of audiences of Product Development start a blog. She could release
04 / and media. It's not our place here to analyse the causes. a series of white papers detailing the raft of experiments
MEASURING It's sufficient to acknowledge that the role of traditional behind the product innovation. Or all of these. However,
05 / media is changing as the size and influence of social she has limited resources so she has to make a decision
METHODS media grows. As that change occurs, brands are about which of these activities to engage in. After six
06 /
responding by increasing their budgets and activity in month of trialling two of them, she needs to be able to
EMERGING the new and exciting areas of social media. There are, make some kind of comparison.
however, concerns that this is still very much an experi-
07 /
DEFINITIONS mental area and not one from which brands are neces- As the Marketing Director is planning these activities
sarily expecting tangible results. she also needs to recognise and satisfy dual agendas.
08 /
RESOURCES On the one hand she has the brand that is supporting
A lack of standards the activity. On the other, there is the audience who is
One of the obstacles to serious investment in this area expected to engage with it. Failure to materially satisfy
is the lack of standardisation. Each of the many ways either agenda is going to make someone unhappy.
Illustration / Chellie Carroll / www.chelliecarroll.co.uk /
that a brand can use social media is measured differently.
Podcasts, blogs, Wikis, social networking sites etc. KUDOS and Social Capital
each have their own particularities. This all makes plan-
The directors of Ryan*MacMillan have been focusing on
ning and measuring activity in this area a dark art at best
social media and how to resolve such dilemmas since
and guess work at worst. If brands are going to make
2005. We've developed a framework for managing the
serious forays into social media, there needs to be some
ambiguities of both the planning and measurement of
consistency across the various channels and how they
social media activity. KUDOS (meaning 'fame', 'glory',
are planned and assessed.
'renown') is an acronym that reminds us of what attrib-
An example of the dilemma utes a piece of social media activity should display if it is
to be successful. It should be Knowledgeable, Useful,
A typical situation might look like this; an esteemed
Desirable, Open and Shareable. And it needs to
British brand is much loved for its traditional values and
achieve this for both the audience and the brand.
quality products. Its audience, however, thinks it is lack-

5. social media / planning / KUDOS as a framework p.07
KUDOS is based on the concept of Social Capital provision of utility beyond a brand's basic products and
(SC). SC is essential to our understanding of the way in services.
which online social networks (OSN) work. It is a way of
talking about how valuable our online social networks are. Having SC refers to the actual SC of a brand, thus
It is a way of thinking about what we are able to do with describing a brand's ability to employ its online social
CHAPTERS /
them, how we can maintain, expand and develop them. connections in order to (positively) affect its environ-
ment, i.e. increase sales, promote awareness, amelio-
01 /
SUMMARY SC is similar to regular, economic capital; the more you rate sentiment.
have the more easily you can alter your environment. It Sharing SC refers to the ways in which a brand can
02 /
INTRO describes both the inclination of members of a network increase the SC of other individuals within a given OSN,
(or the entire network) to do things for each other and the i.e. how a connection to the brand increases the ability of
03 /
PLANNING resulting ability of an individual (or brand) to positively an individual to (positively) affect their environment. Once
affect their environment via the in/direct deployment of a brand has shared its social capital with its customers, it
04 /
MEASURING
those networks. is crucial for the success of the activity that the cus-
tomers, in turn, can and do pass it on.
05 / The four qualities of Social Capital
METHODS
The similarity to economic capital only goes so far. SC Measuring Social Capital
06 / has the following four qualities: Any planned social media activity by a brand within an
EMERGING
OSN must be measurable by the way in which it increas-
07 / Utility through Accumulation: Like economic cap- es or depletes the brand's SC. Measuring a brand's SC,
DEFINITIONS ital, the more SC an individual accumulates, the more particularly in reference to their online SC, can be
08 / easily that individual is able to affect their environment. achieved through analysis of online sentiment and influ-
RESOURCES Inequality of Distribution: Like economic capital, ence. This in effect is a measure of the 'tone of voice' that
SC is differently available. Some individuals have a lot, online conversations about a brand have.
others less.
Expiration through Under-Use: Unlike economic Sentiment metrics describe the level of the 'stock-
capital, which expires through over-use, SC expires pile' of trust which constitutes SC: how trustworthy is the
through under-use. 'Use it or lose it'. brand understood to be, and how useful or desirable is its
Based Upon Trust: Regular capital is merely the content or activity?
exchange of agreed values as guaranteed by a central Influence metrics describe the efficacy with which
authority. SC, however, is a stockpile of trust, which is a brand is able to make use of that trust in order to (pos-
guaranteed only by the exercise of reciprocal actions itively) affect their environment: how easily is a brand
between diffuse individuals within a social network. able to share its knowledge around its social networks?
Having and Sharing Social Capital The outcome of any social media activity should be, in
short, more SC. Online, brands can accumulate social
There are two ways in which SC is important to our under-
capital by being connected to individuals who have
standing of how brands can successfully undertake
already accumulated large amounts of SC, i.e. by seeking
social media activities, such as the fuelling of online con-
endorsements from influential network members.
versations, engagement in those conversations, or the

6. social media / planning / KUDOS as a framework p.08
However, the brand must also ensure that the connection is prof- The KUDOS Attributes
itable for the influential individual. This is achieved by sharing SC
Knowledgeable /
and making it work for them. If it does not, it is unlikely a) that the
Does the activity demonstrate knowledge on the part of the
connection will be maintained by the individual and b) that the indi-
brand? Is it knowledge that is unique to your brand, product or
vidual will go on to share the knowledge being redistributed through
CHAPTERS / service? Is it something your audience needs or want to know?
the activity. Thus a brand's SC will deplete through under-use.
01 / Are you increasing their knowledge or just telling them some-
SUMMARY KUDOS: A framework for managing social media thing they already know or could have gained elsewhere?
02 / KUDOS is a rubric to help brands manage their social media activities,
INTRO Useful /
and so maximise their social capital. The process of thinking through
Not all social media activity is useful to the brand's audience. Not
03 / the KUDOS attributes helps a brand decide what channels it is going
PLANNING all dissemination of knowledge is actually useful to the brand. It
to use and how it is going to use them. It can check and balance the
needs of both brand and audience. It can also establish what it is might be commercially sensitive. It might promote an out of stock
04 /
MEASURING going to measure so that it can assess the success or otherwise of the product or a discontinued service. The best-case scenario is when
activity. The best way to illustrate this is by actual example. an activity is useful to both the brand and the audience.
05 /
METHODS
BRAVIA Balls as an example Desirable /
06 /
EMERGING In 2005, Sony Consumer Electronics launched a new television Desirable is a step on from useful. By desirable we mean that
brand; BRAVIA. Unheard of at the time of launch, it represented a both the brand and the audience actively want it. Think of eating
07 /
DEFINITIONS step-change in technology and TV quality and was integral to the your greens; useful but not that desirable. If something is desir-
success of Sony's business globally. able, really tasty-can't-get enough-of-it-desirable to your audi-
08 /
RESOURCES ence, you'll know it.
The advert for the launch was an extravaganza of colour featuring
300,000 bouncy rubber balls being shot out of cannons and tipped Open /
down the hills of San Francisco. The net savvy and technically literate Open means honest and transparent. Not just about the parts of
residents of San Francisco took photos and video of the event and the message that are desirable to the brand, but about the whole
posted them on Flickr and Google Video. lot, warts and all. An audience will respond very actively and
Back in London the digital planning team (Fred Whitton from negatively when they believe a brand has been dishonest with
OMD and Leo Ryan) picked up on this interest and the positive com- them. It doesn't even require active dishonesty - just a lack of
mentary it was generating. We decided that we'd fuel the conversa- intent to be completely open.
tion by giving them more of what they were looking for; videos, photos,
Shareable /
background interviews, screensavers and wallpapers. The result was
that in the following five months the advert was seen online more than It is as important as being open that brands actively encourage
seven million times with no media expenditure. The audience did all of sharing. Are the materials easily downloadable? Can they be
the distribution and promotion themselves. linked to or have you gone and wrapped them up in a big Flash
movie that no one can link to? Have you acknowledged standard
protocols that enable sharing and added a simple 'Digg this' but-
ton or a downloadable Zip file of assets?

7. social media / planning / KUDOS as a framework p.09
Attribute For Sony For Sony’s audience Metric
Knowledgeable / The raging debate around 'was it CGI or The assets and information on the site Inbound links: approx 19,000;
not' showed that Sony BRAVIA was an gave visitors behind the scenes or SERP: number one result for Google searches
interesting intelligent brand who was 'insider' information about an advert on “BRAVIA advert”, and “colour advert”;
CHAPTERS /
pushing the envelope of visual effects. that was being discussed. Technorati: 2394 blog reactions for
01 / No CGI had been used, demonstrating “bravia-advert.com”;
SUMMARY
that Sony knew a lot about the impact of Blogpulse: 341 sites with links (Feb 2008)
02 / colour and motion by doing it for real. It
INTRO
was a real life demonstration of 'Colour
03 / Like No Other.'
PLANNING
Useful / The activity was useful to Sony in that it By having access to this material the Browser profiles changed from Safari and
04 /
MEASURING repositioned them at a time when they early adopters could demonstrate Firefox (early adopters) to IE (mass audiences)
were suffering at the hands of early that they knew about something cool over time. IE % growth:
05 /
METHODS adopters; the online community was in early on, as could later audiences. 39.2% (2 Nov 2005)
an uproar over Sony Root Kit. Early adopters and early mass were 56.73% (29 Nov 2005)
06 /
EMERGING
all made to look good.
07 / Desirable / Sony wanted to get their new brand The audience loved it. It satisfied a As of March 2006 (five months into campaign):
DEFINITIONS
BRAVIA out into the mind of the public. desire to be entertained and to tell minimum views: 7,123,225;
08 / This advert, its related assets and the their friends about something enter- 1,800,000 online advert views at
RESOURCES
way it was picked up and disseminated taining. They deemed it very desirable, BRAVIA-advert.com;
got a new brand name in everyone's downloading it and watching it on 3,305,203 BRAVIA items viewed on YouTube;
minds in a positive and cost effective YouTube and Google video. Google Video figures estimated at 1,983,122
way. It was the first example of a (source Hitwise March 2006); i-Film views:
Consumer Distributed Advert. advert: 23.367; amateur video: 34,350
Open / The assets came from the shoot as well The assets were available for stream- As of March 2006 (five months):
as the finished product. There was no ing and download. The video, wallpa- 35,900 downloads from BRAVIA-advert.com.
pretence that this was anything other pers and screen savers were down-
than a piece of marketing material - one loadable and the photo gallery was in a
that was handmade in San Francisco. zip file for ease of download.
Shareable / As soon as the public showed interest in Each new asset posted was a separate YouTube: 43 user uploaded videos; Flickr: 237
this activity the brand posted behind the blog post; easy to link to and fast to photos tagged “bravia advert”; 211 photos
scenes footage, still shots from the publish. The assets were made avail- tagged “bravia ad”; 2,519 photos tagged
shoot and eventually the finished advert able for easy download and were sub- “bravia”; Del.icio.us: saved by 9,408 people;
before it was scheduled to air on TV. sequently reposted numerous times. Digg: 5,643 collective ‘diggs’ on “bravia ad”.

8. social media / measuring / measuring KUDOS within communities p.26
04.03 / Measuring KUDOS within communities / The main components for calculating the Social Media Comment Value
By Joel Davis, agency:2 of each post in descending order of importance are:
For brands to be accepted within communities they need to add value
1. Search Ranking
to the debate or chat. For some brands this means being a thought
(using the Google page rank as a guide)
CHAPTERS /
leader and being useful by sharing knowledge. For others it might be
more about facilitating leisure time. In either case, the more a brand is 2. Hyper link
01 / able to help its audience to spend their time or waste their time, the more (i.e. does the post have an active link to the brand's destination)
SUMMARY
social capital it can gain.
02 / 3. A measure of how targeted the audience is
INTRO How we attribute KUDOS in communities (purely subjective)
03 /
PLANNING
Knowledgeable and Useful / If a brand's activity is deemed useful, 4.The nature of any feedback
users will respond by positively ranking their comments and thanking (positive, neutral or negative)
04 /
them. If brands are not adding value they could be banned.
MEASURING
5.Thread Popularity
05 / Desirable / The number of visitors from a forum, along with any feed- (measuring the volume of traffic and the nature of activity, i.e. do
METHODS back on the postings, are some of the clearest indications of whether users just visit the thread or do they actually add to it)
06 / the activity is thought 'Desirable'.
EMERGING 6. A depreciation of the posting over time
Open / Ironically, 'Open' can be measured by looking at instances (to acknowledge the user perception that the older the post the less
07 /
DEFINITIONS
in forums where brands have been banned or where they get flamed useful it might be)
and become the unhappy recipients of a disproportionate amount of
08 /
negative comment. Each component has a different value weighting based on impact.
RESOURCES
Once the figures are plugged in we get the Social Media Comment
Shareable / By understanding where traffic originates and its volume Value and the all-important ROI calculation of a post and hence the
over time brands can get an idea of the reach that their contributions overall campaign.
achieve as well as the speed with which they spread. There are a variety
of tools to help track this, including internal data such as the site's own The Social Media Comment Value acts as a key part of the social
web logs as well as third party solutions such as Hitwise and media dashboard. The dashboard also includes a monthly look at the
Nielsen BuzzMetrics. views and interaction directly associated with the activity, competitive
share of voice and an overview of the percentage of traffic social
Social Media Value: Measuring and optimising activity in forums media sites contribute to the total referral traffic.
We can only manage what we can measure; this includes brands' These trends along with the Social Media Comment Value calculation
involvement in online communities. To date, there has not been an can give marketers the measurement tools needed to manage their
agreed way to calculate the ROI on social media community activity. To commenting campaigns in forums, chat rooms and blogs.
address this, agency:2 have created and actively use a dashboard that
monitors brands' social media programmes and calculates the Social Joel Davis is CEO of social media agency agency:2
Media Comment Value of such activity. www.agency2.co.uk

9. social media / methods / introduction p.42
05 / pages 41-84
SOCIAL METHODS
CHAPTERS / 05.01 / Overview /
By Dan O'Connor, Ryan*MacMillan
01 /
SUMMARY
In this report so far we have covered the principles of social media and
02 / hopefully given the reader a grounding in understanding what can be
INTRO measured and what these measurements mean. It is understandable
03 / if at this point marketers would like to start getting their hands dirty and
PLANNING to see how these activities actually work.
04 /
MEASURING To help you, this section organises the vast array of possible social
media activities into five main groups; blogging, online conversations,
05 /
METHODS
brand utility, brand content and narrowcasting. While there are certainly
overlaps between these categories, we feel that the principles and the
06 /
potential of each make most sense in these groupings.
EMERGING
07 / Based on this, we have provided an overview of each area and
DEFINITIONS looked at how the principles of social capital and the KUDOS frame-
Source: Jared Tarbell / http://flickr.com/photos/generated/1545620972/
08 / work apply to each group. These have been illustrated with examples
RESOURCES of where they have been used well, and some not so well.
Each activity area also includes a case study from a leading brand.
We have assessed the example using the KUDOS framework, exam-
ining how it has delivered for both the brand and the audience and
selecting some key metrics to underpin our understanding of the
activity's value. We've given each KUDOS requirement a qualitative
score of 1 - 5 (5 being the best) depending on how well the activity has
met the requirement.
Each section includes guides to best practice. These have been
developed over the past two years and are based on our consultancy
with our own clients as well as observations of what has worked and
flopped in the market place.
It is not possible to provide a definitive guide in such a fast moving
discipline, however we hope these guides provide a useful starting
point to marketers actually trialling some of these activities.

10. social media / methods / blogging / referral stats are your friend p.47
05.02.03 / Referral Statistics Are Your Friend /
By Tim Ireland, bloggerheads.com
The one thing you'll want to keep a sharp eye on during any online
networking exercise is your referral statistics.
CHAPTERS /
If you're doing it right, your online networking should be a sincere
01 /
SUMMARY exercise in reaching like-minded people via the use of comments, track-
back, hyperlinks and search engines. Keeping an eye on your referral stats
02 /
INTRO
is the best way to track growth and get better at promoting same.
03 / If you want to learn about basic principles of networking growth, often
PLANNING it pays to use page tagging as well as log analysis software. The better
04 / page tagging solutions allow you to watch growth and spread as it
MEASURING happens, which is as close as you're going to get to honing your craft in
Illustration / Chellie Carroll / www.chelliecarroll.co.uk /
05 / front of a live audience.
METHODS
When watching inbound traffic live, you actually get to see inbound
06 /
EMERGING
links spread from site to site. This allows you to learn more about how
certain influential bloggers interact. The subtleties of many relationships
07 /
can pass you by if you're getting this data 24 hours later, and one of the
DEFINITIONS
big secrets in online networking is knowing your audience.
08 /
RESOURCES Using your chosen traffic tracking package - if it's a good one - you'll
be able to see an overview of referrals combining traffic via other web-
sites and via search engines, and will have the capacity to drill down to
determine how search engines are bringing you new traffic (i.e. via
which keyword phrases).
After all, the self-publishers out there aren't your entire audience; they
are instead an influential audience, and your gateway to a much, much
wider audience.
Cumulative inbound links from self-publishers improve your search
results. Your referral statistics are the best way you have of tracking the
latter and learning more about the former.
links /
[For those who care, I personally prefer Statcounter (live) and www.bloggerheads.com
Google Analytics (24 hour lag) for page tagging, and AWStats for www.statcounter.com
web log analysis. I did not use the full and correct term 'web log analysis www.google.com/analytics
software' above in order to avoid confusion with weblogs.] http://awstats.sourceforge.net/

11. social media / methods / utility / overview p.62
05 / pages 62-70
METHODS / BRAND UTILITY
CHAPTERS / 05.04.01 / Overview / able to attract more customers to its website and so,
By Dan O'Connor, Ryan*MacMillan hopefully, increase profits. Amazon's Marketplace is an
01 /
SUMMARY
example of how a social media activity can be measured
Utility: how can your brand help your customers? as a success by the way in which it permits both brand
02 /
and customer to demonstrate the qualities of KUDOS.
INTRO If social capital is an expression of someone's ability to Amazon shares knowledge between both vendors and
03 / leverage their social networks in order to improve their buyers on its website, acting as an honest broker, pro-
PLANNING market environment, then brand utility is clearly a part of viding useful and desirable information about products
04 / that ability. If a brand is useful then that utility contributes beyond Amazon's own offerings.
MEASURING to a customer's ability to improve their environment.
05 / Through being associated with utility, brands increase The social capital of many brands comes in the form of
METHODS their own social capital. For example, the travel website, information, knowledge that their customers, not nec-
06 /
Travelocity, endeavours to make its brand useful to essarily being specialists, may not have. For example,
EMERGING customers beyond the mere capacity to book flights the Halifax Bank, the UK's largest mortgage lender,
and hotel rooms. In a small, but clever, piece of brand very obviously possesses a great deal of financial infor-
07 /
DEFINITIONS utility, they also offer a phone and email alert service, mation which the brand accumulates through its network
notifying their customers of delays and changes to of employees and associates. By seeing this information
08 /
RESOURCES itineraries. The utility to the customer is obvious and so as social capital, Halifax is able to expend it in their
this expenditure of the Travelocity brand's social capital 'Shareprice Alert' service. This service uses email to
(their prior knowledge of flight times etc.) ensures that a alert customers who invest with Halifax to notable
potentially brand-damaging situation is mitigated as changes in the stock market. Customers can person-
much as possible. alise the alerts, thereby making the information ever
more useful to themselves. For the Halifax, it is hoped
Utility: What does your brand have that your cus- that the utility they have provided to their customers will
tomers need? reflect well upon the brand, increasing its own social
Providing brand utility is invariably a question of the capital by both retaining customers and attracting new
expenditure of a brand's social capital through the ones. KUDOS is evident here in the open sharing of
provision of additional online functionality. Amazon's desirable information in such a way that reflects well on
©iStockphoto.com / penfold /
'Marketplace' function, for example, involves the brand the Halifax brand (the providers of the utility) and which
sharing its webspace, its search engines and its e-com- helps the customer to improve their own economic
merce functionality with customers. In thus expending its environment.
social capital (webspace, search and e-commerce being
the primary ways in which Amazon leverages its networks
of consumers to improve its environment), the brand is

12. social media / methods / utility / hints & tips p.70
BRAND UTILITY / HINTS & TIPS
CHAPTERS /
It should be simple: produce a tool or application that your audience Turn testers into seeders /
01 /
SUMMARY
will find useful. But it's not always easy to know what it is people want Provide information and materials to allow these positive, interested
- and whether they'll take kindly to it coming from your brand. The fol- parties to become online advocates.
02 /
lowing tips on creating tools and applications that extend your brand's
INTRO
utility are unashamedly common sense in their approach, but have Develop quickly - you can evolve it later /
03 / often been learnt the hard way. Let go of the age-old habit to only launch your application when it is a
PLANNING
perfect, shiny, gleaming reflection of the brand. You're competing for
04 / Stay on brand /
your audience's attention with bedroom developers who can put out
MEASURING
Just because your target audience has a need, doesn't mean it's in a new version of their tool, in response to user feedback, within hours.
05 / your interests to fulfil it. The social media space is one which expects and tolerates ongoing
METHODS
tinkering and improvement.
Initial audience research is crucial /
06 /
EMERGING There are no excuses for not knowing exactly what your audience's Embrace open standards and APIs /
07 /
functional and rational needs are within the social media space. Use Allow users to adapt your application to suit their own needs, making
DEFINITIONS conversation monitoring tools throughout the development process it do what they want.
to listen to what your audience is saying.
08 /
RESOURCES
Be prepared to keep supporting the application /
Collaboration will create the best ideas /
Depending on the permanence of the audience need the tool is
The best ideas will occur when clients, consultants, researchers, answering, it may require long-term support and commitment from
developers all sit round the same table, developing ideas together. the brand. It may fit into a product lifecycle, rather than a marketing
campaign plan. When you budget and plan, remember that the initial
Make sure the product itself encourages collaboration /
soft launch is simply the end of the beginning… Ahem.
A good social media tool will ensure that the more people use the tool,
and use it collaboratively, the more they will achieve. Don't expect an instant hit /
If a tool is truly useful, its usage should grow virally rather than as a result
Let your advocates be your product testers /
of a big marketing campaign. It took a few years before the likes of Flickr
Develop closed groups of alpha testers whose enthusiasm for the and Facebook jumped the chasm from early adopters to early majority.
brand will make them an excellent external testing group.
Open up the development process /
Blog the development process. Let people know what you're doing. Invite
their feedback. And respond to it. Make sure your team has enough
resources to listen, engage and respond to these interested parties.

13. social media / emerging trends p.85
06 / pages 85-89
SOCIAL MEDIA / EMERGING TRENDS /
By Leo Ryan and Dan O’Connor, Ryan*MacMillan
CHAPTERS / Throughout this report, we've been examining What might we choose to keep in this profile? Credit
the current social media landscape and asking rating, sexual preference, search history, privacy set-
01 /
tings, music taste. And where might it follow us? Not
SUMMARY just how we can measure the types of activities
just across social networking sites, but across all sites
02 / that are going on there. In looking at this world that provide some level of interaction based on who we
INTRO
of blogs, podcasts, forums, wikis, crowd- are and what we want. Our profiles will have elements
03 / sourcing, and endless conversations, it is that are maintained as we do our banking, add friends to
PLANNING
possible also to detect some new develop- MySpace and as we slay a few enemies in World of
04 / Warcraft. We will be able to manage our profiles as we
MEASURING
ments. In this concluding essay, we identify
these emerging trends - which are the sort of see fit - presenting different identities to the online
05 / world depending on the context. Friends will see a dif-
METHODS phenomena that we'll be applying our social
ferent profile to business associates. However, for this
06 /
media metrics to in the future. to work properly, there will need to be some significant
EMERGING improvements in how our data is collected, stored and
06.01. / Persistent profiles
07 / used. In the same way that the web is teaching us to
DEFINITIONS Our online profile is a representation of ourselves doubt the veracity of all information, so it will also erode
08 / online. Profiles can vary from a username in a forum to our naivety about all degrees of privacy unless those we
RESOURCES an avatar in Second Life. Increasingly it can be a social trust with our privacy prove to be worthy of it.
network profile. Who we are, how we present the
06.02 / Aggregated intelligence
Jared Tarbell / http://flickr.com/photos/generated/416810/
aspects of ourselves and how we maintain control over
that is an increasingly key issue in social media. One The online environment has made it easier for large
way that we think this is going to develop is in the con- groups of widely dispersed individuals to express ideas,
solidation of profiles and possibly the creation of con- vote for an outcome or give something a rating. It also
sistent or persistent profiles. Google's OpenSocial makes it easier for these expressions to be aggregated.
presages such a development. It is comprised of three This aggregated intelligence has been termed the
elements; Profile Information (me), Friends Information 'wisdom of crowds' or 'collective intelligence' and the
(my friends) and Activities (things that happen). The process of harnessing it; 'crowdsourcing' is on the rise.
principle of OpenSocial means that as a user moves an The web audience is already familiar with sites that har-
application or widget between different social network- ness the collective intelligence. Old favourites Wikipedia,
ing platforms their profile is maintained. So my contacts Flickr and del.icio.us are being joined by new ones such
on my industry network (www.vbma.net) don't have to as the Encyclopaedia of Life. If collective knowledge is
be all uploaded again to my Bebo profile. The applica- what we are seeing now - the harbingers of the next
tion I add to my LinkedIn profile will also work on my stage; collective action are already starting to emerge.
Plaxo network.

14. social media / credits p.94
page 94 CONTAGIOUS
CREDITS SPECIAL REPORTS
CHAPTERS / Produced by Contagious Communications Cover Illustration by This report is part of a series of Special Reports
01 /
Chellie Carroll / www.chelliecarroll.co.uk produced by Contagious Communications.
SUMMARY Editorial Director
Paul Kemp-Robertson Other Illustrations by The series also includes reports on Mobile
02 /
INTRO Chellie Carroll / www.chelliecarroll.co.uk Marketing, Branded Entertainment, Gaming and
Series Editor Love Everyday / www.love-everyday.co.uk Social Networking.
03 /
PLANNING Georgia Malden Assorted members of Flickr / www.flickr.com
iStockphoto / www.istockphoto.com For more information, can Gual or Harry
04 /
Report authors on +44 20 7575 1886/1822
MEASURING or visit www.contagiousmagazine.com/shop
Leo Ryan, Iain MacMillan, Dan O'Connor, Design
05 /
Ben Bland, Maggie Walsh / FLOK / www.flokline.com
METHODS
Ryan*MacMillan
06 / T: +44 (0) 20 7193 4556 Contagious Communications
EMERGING
www.rmmlondon.com 45 Foubert's Place, London, W1F 7QH
07 / T: +44 (0) 20 7575 1981
DEFINITIONS
With thanks to our contributors www.contagiousmagazine.com
08 / Alex Burmaster / www.nielsen-online.com
RESOURCES
Joel Davis / www.agency2.co.uk Published in partnership with Branded Entertainment /
Graham Hansell / www.sitelynx.com Xtreme Information / www.xtremeinformation.com
Tim Ireland / www.bloggerheads.com
Justin Kirby / www.dmc.co.uk Xtreme Information is the market leader in the pro-
Flemming Madsen / www.onalytica.com vision of media Intelligence and competitive
Mark Palmer / http://maverickplanet.co.uk/ advertising monitoring from around the world.
Nigel Shardlow / www.zygocommunications.com Xtreme works with the majority of FTSE 100 and
Fortune 500 multinational companies, and with
Edited by every major advertising and media agency. The Gaming /
Emily Hare company is backed by leading US media
investors, Veronis Suhler Stevenson.
Additional Research
Report published April 2008
Giacomo Bracci, Katrina Dodd,
Will Sansom, Piers Young No parts of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or
by any means stored in any information storage or retrieval system without the pub-
lisher’s written permission. Where source material has been reproduced the copy-
Production right remains the property of the copyright owner and material may not be repro-
Social Networking /
Ellie Kilburn duced in any form whatsoever without the owner’s prior consent.