Nan Dawkins, Founder/CEO, Serengeti Communications

By Nan Dawkins, Founder/CEO, Serengeti Communications

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) defines an influencer as “a person who has a greater than average reach or impact through word of mouth in a relevant marketplace.”

Influencers are generally understood to be a crucial factor in creating successful WOM marketing. As a result, much has been written about where to look for influencers and how to engage them. Numerous commercial products offer some form of automated influencer identification, especially for the online environment.

Currently, many of the automated tools that identify and rank influencers rely heavily on the size of the influencer’s following. More sophisticated approaches are emerging, including:

• Analysis of interaction dynamics (i.e., how far an influencer’s post is likely to spread across Twitter or how often, on average, an influencer’s content is shared and propagated by others),
• Analysis of relevance (i.e., is the influencer truly relevant to a particular topic)
• Sentiment analysis (i.e., determining the sentiment of content shared by the influencer)
• Real-time trending of rapidly accelerating influence events (which may point to previously unidentified influencers).

This may sound grandly ambitious and very cool (and it is, in many ways) but the practical reality we face, as a group, is that influencer analysis is very much in its infancy. The companies working in this area (mine included) are facing many challenges, such as the technical issues of dealing with large amounts of data, the difficulties of asking computers to make human judgments about relevance and meaning, and the stark reality of a Black Swan Internet environment which produces influential people and scenarios that could not have been predicted based on past observations (think United Breaks Guitars or any number of other examples).

Simply put: it’s complicated. So perhaps now is a good time to put aside all our network-theory and graph-analysis tools for a moment and consider the possibility that the underlying problem is that we need to view influence in WOM settings as a social fact. Instead, we seem to be framing the concept of influence in a way that assumes it is a natural fact, like pi or Avogadro’s constant. Maybe it’s time for us to go back and read a bit of Émile Durkheim, and then consider suicide.

No, not committing suicide; I mean, suicide as a “social fact.” Durkheim was a French sociologist who made huge news in 1897 with a study that showed suicide rates were much lower in some European religious communities than in others. There was a great rush (at least among academics) to conclude that human behavior might largely be explained in terms of a small number of beliefs and values. More than a century hence, most sociologists now understand that the differences Durkheim found in suicide rates were in fact attributable mainly to the way these different religious communities defined and documented the act of suicide.

Durkheim also pioneered the acceptance of social facts as valid scientific insights, on a par intellectually with the Pythagorean Theorem and E = mc². But he also pointed out a crucial distinction between social and natural facts: what may be an observably and demonstrably true social fact for a specific social group may not be true for any individual member of that group, and will almost certainly not be true for many in that group. If that seems counterintuitive to you, I agree entirely. But let’s have a bit closer look.

In 2009, the average US family had 3.14 members. I’m going to give the Census Bureau its props and concede that this metric is probably accurate, even though I am confident that I will never, ever find an American family that is exactly that size.

Back to influencers. Consensus on a fully quantifiable, replicable and consistent definition of influence and its impact on WOM may be an ideal worth striving for. But we would do well to consider the possibility that some or possibly all aspects of what we call “influence” may be reflective of influencers in aggregate, but rarely observed on an individual level. So, while it may be true that on an aggregate level, an influencer can be defined as any person with greater than average reach or impact within a relevant marketplace, consider the following:

• Joe has average reach and average influence among a small network. However, Joe’s network has extremely high value to my company. Average influence in an extremely high value network is enough to put Joe on my influencer list.
• John has high reach and influence among a very relevant marketplace of gourmet food lovers. In addition, John has mentioned my brand, (a line of gourmet nuts). Unfortunately, John has a nut allergy. Here is the context in which John mentioned my brand: “Nuts follow me wherever I go. A jar of Brandx gourmet nuts fell on my head while I was shopping in the grocery today and it very nearly killed me.” John might be an influencer in the gourmet foods category, but he probably does not belong on my influencer list.

Another inconvenient characteristic of social facts is that they are fluid. They have a shelf-life and a use-by date. The reality is that the definition of an influencer for a particular brand, product, or company probably will (and should) change based on marketing goals:

• If the goal is to stimulate new, incremental sales (i.e., new buyers), WOM created by less loyal customers who are not opinion leaders, and occurring between acquaintances (not friends) may be more effective (see “Firm-Created-Word-of Mouth Communication: Evidence from a Field Test,” Marketing Science, Vol.28, No. 4 by David Godes and Dina Mayzlin, 2009.
• If the goal is increased brand awareness, someone who mentions my brand often and who has high reach among a relevant audience is an influencer. Someone who has high reach among a relevant audience and mentioned my brand only once, more than a year ago (and rarely mentions competitive brands) may not belong on the target list, at least for this campaign.

These considerations oblige me to consider that, even if a given individual may qualify as an influencer in my product category, he or she might not qualify as a target. And, vice-versa. At the very least, the relative value placed on the criteria used to rank a given influencers’ value (reach, influence, relevance, etc.) may vary significantly based on audience and goals for a particular campaign.

My point? Perhaps we all need to take a breath for a moment and turn our attention to technologies and best practices that discover and incorporate the way different groups define and experience influence. On a practical level, we should at least consider the possibility that the tools are rushing to develop must be flexible — allowing marketers to adjust the dials on the criteria for defining and ranking influencers – in order to be truly useful.

Nan Dawkins is the founder and CEO of Serengeti Communications, a Washington, DC based marketing firm specializing in search, social media, web analytics, digital marketing measurement tools and training. Serengeti recently launched a new social media measurement tool, Social Snap, to provide marketers with in-depth insights into the results of social media programs.

Very interesting article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday about the “Selling Power of Friendship.” The article outlines how Facebook intends to boost revenue by selling targeted and personalized ads based upon the voluminous data it has collected on the likes and Facebook activity of its users. It’s called “Social Context Advertising.”

For example, when Facebook users “like” an ad, Facebook could feature the names of your friends who have indicated they “like” the ad/brand somewhere in the design of the ad.

Shiv Singh, notable social media researcher/practitioner, says, “The social ads are interesting, because you feel that you are connecting to a brand through an endorsement from someone.”

It’s clear from Sheryl Sandberg’s quote that Facebook understands the power word-of-mouth has in improving the effectiveness of marketing.

However, Augie Ray from Forrester brings up a good point about the value of a Facebook fan. Augie says “there is no intrinsic value to a Facebook fan” that is “… until the brand does something to create value with Facebook fans.”

Marketers must not confuse “liking” a brand with “championing” and “advocating” a brand. It’s simple and quick for a person to click a button indicating they “like” a brand. But is it truly meaningful?

Word of mouth takes on a whole different meaning when a person goes out of their way to share their appreciation for a brand by talking about it over happy hour drinks with co-workers, during a dinner get-together with neighbors, and on the phone with a good friend. That’s the true selling power of friendship!

It’s reported that 60% of online retailers are using consumer generated ratings and reviews to help customers make more informed purchased decisions. It’s also reported 61% of consumers rely on online ratings and reviews before making a purchase. Clearly, online ratings and reviews are changing the buying process by bringing forth authentic consumer voices and transparent business practices.

For the WOMMA Measurement & Metrics Guidebook, Melissa Douglas, Manager of Social Analytics at Bazaarvoice, contributed an in-depth article about measuring the impact of consumer generated ratings and reviews on a business.

I asked Melissa a few pointed questions about her article. Her responses make for good reading for every marketer and product manager.

1. Besides increasing conversion rates, what are some other benefits to a brand sharing Ratings & Reviews of products online?
“There are various benefits to bringing user-generated content (UGC) to your brand. User-generated content not only influences your top line numbers, such as increasing sales, but also impacts your bottom line. Metrics such as conversion, product abandonment, customer service interactions, and return rates can impact both your top and bottom lines. For example, by taking action on poorly rated products or assuring these reviews stay live on your site, you can easily decrease customer service support and return rates. Negative reviews help set proper expectations with your customers and give internal teams the necessary information to optimize the product catalog and improve products. And featuring highly-rated products in marketing campaigns can directly impact conversion rates and call attention to those products that your community considers the best.”

2. What types of businesses can benefit most from Ratings & Reviews? Conversely, what businesses would benefit least?
“All types of industries benefit from UGC. Most obviously, retailers benefit when customer-contributed content helps shoppers find the right products for them on ecommerce sites. But we’ve seen UGC benefit our clients across all verticals. Manufacturers can syndicate their UGC through the channel to numerous retailer sites, helping potential customers wherever they shop. Our clients in the travel industry receive the highest average user contributions per day, as travelers often book online and are eager to share their experiences. Shoppers on financial services sites click to “Read Reviews” even more often than most other verticals – for these highly researched purchase decisions, UGC satisfies the increased demand for information. And UGC helps entertainment providers attract highly-engaged contributors, as customers are eager to share their experiences from shows and artists they are passionate about. In short, any industry would benefit from authentic word of mouth.”

3. What’s the most important Ratings & Reviews metric for a business to measure if its goal is to increase sales?
“Some of the key metrics to take into consideration when measuring ROI include review volume and the percentage of products that contain reviews. Looking at depth and breadth of your review content is critical for success. Keeping your review content evergreen is important, and it’s key to continuously encourage reviews for new products as they are released and sold.”

Influentials are among us. They are known as thought-leaders, trendsetters, mavens, sneezers, etc. Influentials can help spark word-of-mouth conversations leading to a tipping point of sales success. However, It’s not easy for marketers to identify influentials and measure the impact of their influence.

In WOMMA’s Measurement & Metrics Guidebook, Idil Cakim, VP of Interactive Media at GolinHarris, shares her views on “The Influence Factor” and how brands can engage, monitor, and measure influencer marketing programs.

This short Q&A will give you a bite-size chunk of Idil’s perspective on designing and delivering influencer marketing programs.

1. What constitutes influence offline and online?
“The fundamentals of offline and online influence are the same: perceived knowledge of the influencer, credibility and hence trust. In the offline world, we have more access to visual, cultural and social clues that help us assess the influence factor. Meanwhile online, we have more third-party resources and published statements that can help us assess a given source’s influence and authority. Whether online or offline, influencers are experts who know how to spread their messages either through peer-to-peer conversations, organized activities or publications.”

2. Any pitfalls to Influencer Marketing?
“The most common pitfall is sharing an idea or a product with too few influencers and expecting to move the needle. An influencer is bound to take the message further than the average person. However brands may need to engage hundreds of influencers at a time to have quantitative results that show the impact of their efforts.

Lastly, thinking in terms of campaigns with limited times for outreach undercuts the value brands/organizations can derive from influencer relations. Spot outreach is fine, but there needs to be ongoing communication between the brand and its influencers, just like any healthy relationship.”

3. What are three steps a brand should take to design a better influencer marketing program?
First, determine your own influencer criteria and make sure you can recruit enough influencers who can create noticeable change.

Third, plan for ongoing engagement. Sustain authentic communications and continuously offer value to your influencers through news, information, first-to-try types of offers.”

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BONUS COVERAGE:
On a recent WOMMA Brands Council Jam Session, Idil shared more practical insights about Influencer Marketing. The following SlideShare presentation includes snippets from this recent webinar.

It’s one thing for a brand to get customers talking with word of mouth marketing. It’s another thing for a brand to understand the tone and attitudinal undertones of the conversations people are having about the brand.

As VP of Product at Scout Labs, Margaret Francis is responsible for designing online listening tools to help brands better understand consumer sentiment in online word of mouth conversations.

For the WOMMA Measurement & Metrics Guidebook, Margaret contributed an article about “mining social media for consumer opinion” to develop “business intelligence” and “measure marketing impact.” This article is a deep dive into the budding field of Sentiment Analysis.

I asked Margaret a few questions to help us better understand her perspective on harvesting, analyzing, and measuring consumer sentiment about brands.

Explain the importance for why a brand should do Sentiment Analysis.
Margaret Francis (MF): “A brand like Nike needs to know if people like them or not, but on the whole they probably know that many people associate them with favorable qualities that support their brand promise. I’m sure they have a brand tracker that measures overall Nike brand perception in much the same way as geologists study glaciers, looking for long term evidence of movement. Traditional sentiment analysis falls into this genre of study. It’s interesting data, but not for every day, and mainly intended for the very few people at Nike that have custody of ‘the brand.’

Also, it isn’t just brands that need sentiment analysis. How do consumers feel about use of sustainable materials, Chinese knock-offs, personalization, marathons, Spandex, the color pink, or a sponsored athlete’s extramarital affairs? These are not strictly “brand” inquiries but they are very important questions for marketing and other functional areas that deal with consumer preferences- areas like product development and customer service.”

What are some absolute “No No’s” businesses must consider when creating and using a Sentiment Analysis measurement process?
(MF): “There are known problems with having humans decide what is and is not positive/ negative sentiment:

That said, there’s a reason traditional PR firms have stuck to the same methodology for a long time: They do sentiment analysis only on blue chip media pieces, using only in-house resources with strict guidelines, so analysis is limited in scope and expense and absolutely defensible. This is understandable but hardly forward looking. The rich nuggets of market intelligence derived from social media are a source of competitive advantage that no one can afford to ignore.”

Talk about a specific brand that has benefitted from doing Sentiment Analysis.
(MF): “It’s hard for me to give you some of the more compelling examples I know of, because the brands concerned view those examples as confidential business intelligence. Let me give you a hypothetical example. It isn’t a mystery that there is a furor right now over the Toyota brand due to the ongoing recalls on multiple makes and models. Any user of Scout Labs could plug in a search for the brand “Toyota” and see that there’s been a shift from positive to negative opinion over the past 6 months, and read consumer comments about the reasons why. Notice the shift from overall positive to overall negative sentiment for Toyota:

Platforms like Scout Labs exist to inform brand strategists, not replace them. In the hands of the right decision makers, the kind of real time sentiment analysis Scout Labs can provide on any word, brand, product or phenomenon is very powerful marketing intelligence.”

*** Learn more about WOMMA’s MEASUREMENT & METRICS GUIDEBOOK ***

David Rabjohns has spent a career digging deep into discovering why consumers have developed passion around brands. Today, as the ceo of MotiveQuest, he helps companies understand the online passion conversation consumers are having about brands they love (and hate).

For the WOMMA Measurement & Metrics Guidebook, David shares insights into how to measure consumer advocacy. It’s a smart read and WOMMA members can download a (.pdf) copy of this guide. (A bound copy is also available.)

To learn more about David’s angle into consumer advocacy, I asked him a few questions… his responses are below.

What constitutes “advocacy” as it relates to marketing?
“When a conversation about a brand results in a personal recommendation for the brand, advocacy happens. Our research and client experience clearly shows a direct correlation exists between advocacy and sales. Greater advocacy leads to more personal recommendations that result in higher sales. At MotiveQuest, we’ve been able to track 72% of sales of a major liquor brand back to advocacy. In other words, marketing can spark conversations but advocacy can deliver sales.”

When measuring advocacy, what’s the most important consideration?
“It’s important to first distinguish between ‘participants’ and ‘advocates.’ Participants will talk about a brand while advocates will go a step or two further and recommend a brand. With that explained, the most important consideration when measuring advocacy is tracking the total number of advocates for a brand. Successful brands clearly have more advocates tomorrow than they did yesterday.”

Recently, the Edelman Trust Barometer revealed a significant decline in people believing their friends are a credible source of information… what’s your take on Edelman’s findings?
“Marketing people are abusing social media and thus reducing trust. Too many marketers are measuring social media success by the number of friends, fans, and followers a brand has. The term “friend” no longer has the same personal meaning it once did. Influencer marketing strategies have helped to also erode trust. Trust amongst friends and consumers depends on people having real, organic, honest conversations with each other on the web and in person.”

*** Learn more about WOMMA’s MEASUREMENT & METRICS GUIDEBOOK ***

WOMMA recently published a MEASUREMENT & METRICS GUIDEBOOK sharing practical insights into quantifying offline and online word of mouth. WOMMA Members have access to a free download of the paper. A bound version of the Guidebook is available for everyone.

Over the next two weeks we’ll be publishing short Q&As with some of the marketers, researchers, and academics who have authored papers in the Guidebook.

We’re talking first with Jennifer Voisard, Community Manager and Analyst with ComBlu, about her piece on Cost Deflection. Voisard’s paper explains the financial benefits to how and why businesses can use social media engagement with customers and customer communities to reduce business expenses.

Your paper shares insights on applying the “Cost Deflection” model to online and offline WOM. Why is this of importance to a marketer?
“It is no secret that Marketers are on the hook to prove what we instinctively know to be true, that WOM produces substantial ROI. This was the catalyst for creating this Guidebook. The reason I focused on Cost Deflection was to offer Marketers a different way to approach this daunting task.

The thinking needs to go beyond increasing web traffic, coupon redemption rates, producing a funny viral video, hosting a successful house party or having a large fan base on Facebook. These are important indicators, but they don’t give you program ROI. Marketing can add real value by designing and integrating their engagement strategies based on the actual KPI’s of the business. No matter the economic climate, Cost Deflection always helps the bottom line and can make for a happy and receptive CEO come budget time.” (Jennifer Voisard)

What’s a key step businesses must do to incorporate a marketing-focused Cost Deflection model?
“Everyone has heard the phrase it takes a village. Well, it applies here to. The biggest key to success is the ability to break down organizational silos. Form an integrated team across multiple business units such as: Marketing, Customer Service, Engineering and Product Development for example.

In order for cross-functional collaboration to occur in an efficient manner, you’ll likely need buy-in at the executive level. Otherwise you may find yourself herding cats, and you run the risk of disappointing your customers by failing to effectively manage their feedback and most importantly their expectations.” (Jennifer Voisard)

In your opinion, what company has found success implementing a marketing-focused Cost Deflection model?
“I would say that there are some divisions in Microsoft that get this. The example I highlighted in the chapter was of an early pilot program within the Online Services group. Since then, they have formally implemented their new operational model. Today, their KPI’s speak for themselves, and we are starting to see program adoption increase.

WOM programs deepen the relationship between customer and brand. I think any company that embraces customer feedback and leverages the passion and expertise of their brand advocates, can have a successful program like this.” (Jennifer Voisard)

*** Learn more about WOMMA’s MEASUREMENT & METRICS GUIDEBOOK ***

Word of mouth marketing works. However, as marketers we can struggle to measure the impact of our WOM programs. WOMMA has recently published its MEASUREMENT & METRICS GUIDEBOOK to serve as an educational resource for word of mouth and social media marketers.

In this Guidebook, researchers, marketers, academics, and practitioners share measurement best practices that address both online and offline forms of WOM. Watch the short video below to learn more:

NOTES:
This Guidebook is available as a free PDF download to WOMMA members. A bound version of the Guidebook is available for non-WOMMA members and WOMMA members. Look inside the pages of the Guidebook here.

Recently I spoke with Jay Ehret, small business marketing pro with The Marketing Spot about how everything Word of Mouth has become online Social Media-centric. That was the starting point of our discussion. We covered lots of other territory. Paul Williams from the Idea Sandbox added in another perspective on the podcast.

One question Jay asked me was:
Is WOM diminished as a marketing discipline?

My reply:
“Absolutely not. A word of mouth recommendation from a friend or an acquaintance is and will always be trusted more than traditional advertising. Friends trust what friends say more than people trust what companies say. That isn’t going to change.

As a marketing discipline, WOM is now more important than ever because we have so many ways to connect with people besides a phone call or a face-to-face visit. Being able to have a conversation with someone using computers and smart phones increases the opportunity for WOM to happen.

>>> Have a listen to the podcast <<<.

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Key quotes from the podcast include:
“In the past, we just felt word of mouth would happen serendipitously…We’ve now learned through The Tipping Point…more people are trying to think about getting people to talk, not serendipitously, but strategically.” | John Moore

“The key of it is, people passing the word about you. …It just boils down to ‘what does it mean to be remarkable?’ So remarkable, that people remark.” | Paul Williams

“My advice is to be 100% confident in how you deliver a customer experience before you start to try to strike up conversations online. Because if you are not confident, you will not want to listen to some of the negative feedback online about how you are doing business.” | John Moore

“Word of mouth, to do it properly, it’s not just a department head; it’s not just one person. It’s the way you run a company.” | Paul Williams

“It doesn’t matter how many fans you have online. But we get caught up in that as a measurement of success, and frankly the real measure of success is; is a company making money. Are they turning conversations into transactions?” | John Moore

“I sort of see word of mouth as how do companies, and businesses and people give a script to the people who might talk about you. That way you can guide the discussion. So, ‘how can I give you bullet points to talk about my brand?’” | Paul Williams

Perhaps you know someone at your company who needs to get up to speed on word of mouth and social media marketing. Perhaps that someone is you. WOMMA is here to help.

Beginning Jan. 5, WOMMA is offering WOM-COMM, a seven-week online course sharing best practice education on how to more effectively and ethically use online and offline word of mouth marketing. You’ll learn the core strategies and tactics benchmark businesses are using to get customers talking. And, you’ll gain the knowledge needed to best measure the success of your next WOM marketing program.

The faculty for WOM-COMM is top-notch with practitioners (not pundits). At the recent CREATING TALKABLE BRANDS Conference, the WOM-COMM faculty gave us a sneak preview of what to expect.

Interested?

Click to learn more about WOM-COMM.