ImpactWatch

Here at ImpactWatch, we are excited to roll out our brand-spankin’ new logo soon.  Until then, we offer this to you:

SVP Tom sent this to Hannah, our Director of Analytics, as a joke when she requested jpegs of the IW logo finalists.  When she arrived at our office soon after, she gave everyone on the team these magnets with the joke logo on them.  She wore a pink t-shirt with the logo that she had ordered specifically for herself!

Admittedly, this logo is kinda growing on me…do we need a recount?

Below are some pictures of the ’swag’ that we handed out at the Personal Democracy Forum we recently attended.  We’re pretty pleased with how much people seemed to enjoy a stress ball on a string.  Take note that the logo you see on the products is temporary, as we are unveiling a new logo in the near future!

I have spent this summer working for the Bivings Group as an intern. The main focus of my internship has been working on ImpactWatch. One feature that strikes me as particularly interesting is the use of human editors to rate the sentiment of articles.

Many media measurement companies now use automated systems to rate the sentiment of news articles. While this system may be able to read and rate the articles faster than a human, we feel that that the complete automation of the system causes the information to lose value. The Bivings Group will continue to monitor the automated sentiment analysis technology and will switch to it if and when it is warranted.

We have found that while great strides have been made in the field of sentiment analysis, things like sarcasm and colloquial speech can often throw the system off. Another weakness of automated sentiment analysis programs is that they tend to mishandle trends. If a company has made a mistake, but is being praised for their efforts to correct that mistake, automated systems will often rate that as negative, when it should be positive. Sentiment analysis software also seems to run into problems when it comes to rating the sentiment of different entities in an article.

It is for all these reasons that the Bivings Group has chosen to stay with human editors for the sentiment rating in ImpactWatch. We are confident at this point that the extra time it may take to rank the articles is worth it because we know that we are giving our clients the most accurate data possible.

It seems that everyday I see a new catchphrase coined by a social media “expert” to describe social media, hoping the concept will set the blogosphere ablaze with link endorsements and fleeting exposure on Techmeme. Amid the clutter, converting metrics such as blog views, Facebook buzz, Tweets, and del.icio.us plugs to a usable, actual value of return-on-investment (ROI) in dollars seems nearly impossible — currently the holy grail of strategic internet marketing.

I’ve noticed something as analysts try to pinpoint an exact metric to measure social media and all this talk of ROI as both return on investment and return on influence. The derivative (change over time) has taken a backburner to comparitive measurement. I’m a proponent of using this measurement, and I think it’s currently underrated and arguably more, or at least equally important, as comparitive analysis in social media.

Here’s my short list of ways to use the power of the derivative in social media campaigns (a friendly reminder, in case you’ve been distracted):

1. Focus on change over time for your brand. Sure, it’s nice to know how your competitors are doing with their online presences and how you stack up comparitively. However, unlike traditional print media, there are both logical and logistical fallacies that don’t always make this an easy task. As Maggie Fox from the Social Media Group points out, good metric aggregation for social media is a time-consuming and manual process (read: expensive). As my boss recently pointed out in an e-mail, in terms of actionable PR work in social media it is much more important to know where you stand and how to improve than where your competitors are: in social media, there are no press release standards, and there is no official staging ground for retorts. I don’t want to sound like a self-help book, but focus on you.
2. Keep in mind, “buzz”, by nature, is merely a rate. Internet buzz itself is a phrase coined to describe lots of conversations in a small amount of time. By identifying time spans that had the highest rate of change, you can reflect upon successes (or disasters) and find what works best for your specific brand. Comparing the rate of change for different campaigns can give you a metric as to what worked better — for your brand. Not all methods work similarly.
3. The double derivative can affect timing. Think real hard back to high school physics… the double derivative represents acceleration. When applied to aggregated data about social media, it is easy to tell whether the cycle of buzz is coming or going. Keeping up the momentum on a social media campaign is difficult, and one of the most common downfalls of an otherwise great campaign can be timing. The double derivative (acceleration) can help with increasing, or at least maintaining, positive headway for your social media campaign. Knowing when to play your cards is key to success. The gadget/computer manufacturers have their “product-leaks” to blogs down to a science.
4. The derivative of self boils down to constant self-comparison. It’s a tangent from point #1, but I cannot stress how much I believe that in social media, self-contained metrics are vital to a strong social media strategy. Allocate resources to where it really matters, and I think pushing said resources into creating change for your brand is the top priority. Self-comparison through time gives real results with actionable intelligence.

An eye-opening post by Jeremiah Owyang details the five questions that he uses to summarize business’ questions about new social media.  He claims that these questions not only help his team to be able to help the business, but also helps them to determine the level of sophistication present at the company.While his answers are detailed and thorough, I believe that they lack the straightforwardness of which I am a fan.  Below are his five questions with my own style of answers:

What is Social Media?

Social Media encompasses many different types of communication that were once thought of as silly and amateurish.  Blogging, online video, and discussion forums are three examples of this now-powerful public relations world.

Why does it matter?

More companies are adopting these various tools in order to help their businesses.  At first, it was only the savviest of the communications gurus that were using them, but now, most major companies have started implementation.  To be without social media knowledge, is to be without power.

What does it mean to my business?

Measurement is important because companies like to have a plan and loathe making mistakes.  Incorporating social media and measurement into the overall package of the company means that the company is willing to take the steps to grow.  In more practical terms, it means the need for new jobs within a company as well as new forms of education on social media.  Currently, more classes and even related majors are being offered at many educational institutions.

How do I do it right?

In my opinion, there are two ways to effectively accomplish this goal.  While there is something to be said for educating current employees, there are enough already-educated individuals in the field of social media to hire new blood.  Consultants on the topic are becoming in increasingly high demand.

How do I integrate across the Enterprise?

There are many internal ways of using social media, including blogs to be read only by persons within the company.  Other ways include videoconferences, video clips of announcements, as well as more complicated procedures.

Many of the comments concerning Owyang’s blog post say that people are asking how social media procedures “make money.”  The social media procedures themselves don’t make money, but the overall appeal and professionalism of a company that integrates them is much higher.  Political candidates have already realized how social media can greatly affect their campaigns, and now other people are learning the same lesson.

Only sixteen days after my last post about our ImpactWatch demo, the media has begun drifting away from Sichuan’s earthquake in light of high-tech espionage, Paul Hamm’s broken hand, and a record-breaking year for track and field. With the Olympic trials season in full swing, positive coverage on athletes and the games itself is steadily rising. I created an issues breakdown visualization using ImpactWatch, which reveals that just as quickly as the media surrounding the earthquake sprang up, most of it seems to be over:

While the stories surrounding the earthquake have subsided quicker than I had anticipated, it certainly set the stage for interesting coverage of the 2008 Olympic season. Stay alert, more updates to come.

As I have suggested in a previous post, the metrics for measuring websites are greatly out-of-date.  Click-thru rates and unique visitor counts are so primitive that they are almost quaint.  Avinash Kaushik not only agrees with my position, but he also aggressively accuses the ‘hippos’ of the business world as the ones at fault for still using these outdated metrics.  ‘Hippo’ represents the “highest paid person’s opinions,” and he believes that these six-figure gurus are disconnected with what is actually important in the evaluation of a website.

Kaushik is the newly crowned “analytics evangelist” at Google (seriously, that’s his actual job title…if only we could all sound so grand), and he is taking steps to teach the members of the Google team how they should be measuring website success.  Kaushik employs the word “sucks” frequently when he talks about the traditional metrics used for measuring online marketing.  He’s even went so far as to say that online marketing sucks as well, and likened it to a “faith-based initiative.”

Kaushik wants website owners to stop looking at the ‘what’ of numbers, and to start looking at the ‘why’ of the users.  He implores that website creators use free online surveys such as ones offered by Iperceptions.com to measure exactly why the users are visiting the site.  The company touts that it can help answer the following questions:

• How satisfied are my visitors?
• What are my visitors at my website to do?
• Are they completing what they set out to do?
• If not, why not?
• If yes, what did they like best about the online experience?

Surveys like this can aid website designers in perfecting their creations to better suit the masses.  Let’s face it; the [online] world would be a lot better place with fewer poorly designed sites.

Kaushik also takes the time to remember which company signs his paychecks and praises Google Analytics.  He states, “Google is giving the same tools that, only prior to Google, you had to get at a big advertising agency or digital firm for free.”

I agree that Google Analytics is a decent program, but this article from Six Revisions highlights some other excellent (and free) analytics tools for websites.

Hopefully, as metrics used for analysis and evaluation change, so will the quality of corporate websites.

[The author thanks you for being a ‘unique visitor’ to this blog post]

Popular website About.com recently ranked Epinions.com 4^th place in the Top Ten Most Useful Websites of 2008.  At the site, visitors can read reviews about a variety of items to help them decide on a purchase or they can join for free and begin writing reviews that may earn them money and recognition, according to the site’s FAQs.

Epinions has been around since 1999 (which nearly seems like the dawn of the Internet), and was recently acquired by Ebay in 2005.  Improvements to the site over the course of time have included message boards that act as forums for users to discuss general product topics and giveaways/sweepstakes for active users.

Admittedly, I had never used this “useful” new media outlet before researching for this blog post.  Some extensive delving into the site led to some interesting conclusions about why it is considered so valuable.

• It lists products by every conceivable category.  Movies can be listed as anything from “Dinosaur Movie” to “Punk Rock Movie”, so you know what you are getting.
• Written opinions conclude with a “pro” and “con” section as well as The Bottom Line, which makes surfing through numerous reviews much quicker.
• Reviews are rated by their ‘helpfulness’.
• There is a sense of maturity among the raters; this is not a kid’s website.
• Slight competitiveness between users is encouraged as reviews by Top Reviewers and Category Leads are given preferential placement at or near the top of each review list.
• The site is easy on the eyes for prolonged reading periods, and the smiley faces are…dare I say it…cute.

Though there is some worry that advertorials will pop up from time to time, the creators of the site insist that isn’t a worry. With this lack of pesky company intervention and an organized and pretty site, it’s no wonder that Epinions has risen among the ranks.  It can almost be said that all review sites have, in one way or another, copied the successful design of this review site.

Companies would be smart to frequently check Epinions for reviews on their latest products.  See who are the Top Reviewers in the category, and if people are tracking your merchandise.  It’s a great indicator of how the consumer base as a whole is viewing your company.

With the month of May coming to a close, the new ImpactWatch demo about China and the 2008 Olympics has been fully operational for a couple of weeks now. The data collected already demonstrates the capabilities of ImpactWatch in real-world scenarios. Since May 6th, articles containing keywords relevant to China and the Olympic games have been aggregated and analyzed on a daily basis. Using the built-in tools of the ImpactWatch platform, I created this graph showing the average favorability (using a circulation metric) of both China and the 2008 Olympic games from 5/6 through 5/28 (today):

It’s no secret that China has had a rough time managing public-relations coming into the summer games because of media exposure related to questionable human rights practices, pollution, and the notorious Tibet fiasco. On May 12, about a week into our demo, the tragic earthquake in China’s Sichuan province shook the lives of thousands — as well as the focus of the American press, as the above graph illustrates. The average favorability of China skyrocketed on May 13, as media exposure shifted from criticizing the summer games host to covering the events surrounding one of the largest natural disasters of the year. As Economist.com has pointed out, amid enormous loss, China has largely gained positive press from this terrible tragedy. The results from ImpactWatch show that China’s favorability is holding relatively steady, at a higher level than just three weeks ago.

Here’s a breakdown of the articles that we’ve collected so far by issue:

As you can see, the earthquake and its effects is the most prevalent issue at the moment — expectedly so — and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon.

Over the coming months, the data contained within the demo will become better and better, which is the nature of aggregation and media analysis. Trends will become more long term and the quantities applied to the data will become more meaningful. In addition, I don’t have to go searching for these news clippings; one of the great things about ImpactWatch is that it automatically pulls articles based on keywords from various sources and feeds, but leaves the analytics to real, breathing humans — we’ve talked about why in previous blog posts. ImpactWatch tracks and streamlines the work/analysis without misstepping about the most important part, the actual reputation.

More China/Olympics updates to come — the summer is just getting started.

Times change, and so should ImpactWatch.  After becoming interested in all the China/Olympic drama while researching for this post on The Bivings Report, I decided that it was time for a new, more topical demo.  Replacing our current Real Estate Demo is a 2008 Olympics Demo.  This one continues to show off the great features of ImpactWatch, but the articles contained within it now concern anything and everything about the upcoming Games.

This new demo tracks media favorability for both the general Olympics as well as the country of China, specifically.  It also tracks which topics are covered in the articles surrounding these games, everything from Burma and Tibet to the worry over China’s air pollution.  OlympicsWatch does all of this while retaining the sleek and efficient design that has made ImpactWatch such a valuable resource for so many clients.  The analytics section of this new demo takes full advantage of our recently created graphing tool, so feel free to explore this very useful device as well.

To sign up for a weeklong trial of our new demo, click here.