Great post. I just want to add a few comments. First off, we use Radian as a key input in our research and think it is a great tool. I wanted to emphasize that the influencer identification step is crucial, as not all conversations around your brand will matter. If you do your influencer identification well (and one of the things we like about Radian is the flexibility in defining influencer parameters), your efforts will be targeted and highly effective. We also add SEO, SEM and demographic data to the mix, which gives you insight into what your customers are looking for, where they find it, who they are and who they are most influenced by. As another part of influencer identification, we often focus on sites that drive traffic and produce sales. In using web analytics and statistical modeling, we’ve found ample proof that quality third-party discussions around a brand has higher conversation rates than many other sources of traffic. In other words – people trust this information more. Finally, we have consistently seen that it is important not to forget mainstream media. Many social media discussions are sparked and fed by mainstream media, and these discussions help to amplify any engagement you do with key influencers in mainstream media. The way we like to think about it is that you should treat all media as one whole – be it mainstream or social, and that to be effective you need to identify those that matter to your customers.
One last note – I would like to point out that advertising value (or AVEs) should really not be used for ROI purposed. It is by now a largely discredited methodology (see here: http://bit.ly/4Fm1K), and there are far better (and easier) ways to calculate ROI using web analytics.
Cheers,
Nils Mork-Ulnes
Context Analytics