Brand Measurement in word of mouth network important. A new industry emerges: “Social Media Measurement”

This topic is important to me, just today, I was asked to provide recommendations to a client on Social Media Measurement. NYtimes reports on the growing need for Social Media Measurement and the vendors that are leading this path:

“Marketing executives, awakened to both the threat and the potential, are scrambling to harness data culled online. BuzzMetrics, a pioneer in trolling for brand awareness on the Web, is still a tiny company: it says its revenue for 2006 will be about $20 million. For now, it occupies a sweet spot in a promising new industry, but should search giants like  Google move more aggressively into its market, BuzzMetrics may find the going tougher.”

Nielsen BuzzMetrics takes leadership position in Social Media Measurement, the Industry expands:

“For the time being, say analysts at Forrester Research and Jupiter Research, BuzzMetrics is at the front of its field. In a report published in September, Peter Kim, a Forrester analyst, said that brand monitoring appears poised for enormous expansion as companies shift priorities and resources in the $12-billion-a-year market research business.”

Consumers trust Word of Mouth content:

“new surveys show that 90 percent of consumers trust word-of-mouth suggestions, and that some make purchases based on such guidance.“

I briefly spoke to CEO of Nielsen BuzzMetrics Jonathan Carson on the phone today, we’ve a call lined up later this week.  Article via Daniela Barbosa of Factiva.

My Additional Thoughts:

• A list of companies that measure Social Media
• What should we measure? A Roundtable workshop hosted by Factiva and myself
• Analyzing Engagement, Advertising Industry vs Social Media
• Podcast of Peter Blackshaw of Nielsen BuzzMetrics on Podtech.net (my employer)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 19th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Social Media Measurement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.