SNO - Social Networking Optimization

[grosolo]

Is anyone developing key indicators or even measuring the importance of their sites in the eyes of social networking sites?

In other words, is anyone getting any accuracy in measuring "online word of mouth".

Hmm, and would someone that monitored a website's social importance be called a social networking website optimizer? Or maybe is it considered more work for the sem to do / spec?

sorry for being vague. the question just hit when I was trying to measure our inclusion / saturation in myspace.

-Brent
Alohaworkshops.com (http://www.alohaworkshops.com)

[Sergio Simarro]

Hi Brent!

I don´t know if I have understand your post properly.
Are you talking about measuring, for example, press advertisement from a web site?

Or a "mouth to mouth" communication?
Kind regards,

[grosolo]

aloha Sergio, sorry, let me clarify with perhaps a better question to start with.

I'm wondering if anyone is considering online conversations about products or services to be "mouth to mouth". I'm thinking specifically in terms of the power of "online word of mouth."

The way I could use online word or mouth would be to hire a popular person on myspace (with thousands of friends) to mention my product in a positive light during an otherwise normal posting.

With my post I'm trying to ask if anyone has been able to measure this sort of technique of if anyone has tried this kind of marketing yet.

Again, I'm assuming (uh, oh) that online conversations at social networking sites are the new "mouth to mouth" standard.

[Sergio Simarro]

Aloha Brent!

Perfectly explained (at least I could understand it better).

I have not experienced yet the "mouth to mouth" variation that you are talking about, but it can be a cool idea.

The success will depend on the profile of the person and of his/her friends. I have not used "myspace", but you should try, not just to find a popular person (with thousands of friends as you said), but also the one that fits better to the product you want to populate.

But also, depending on the way that person promotes your product, it can be consider as "spam" for the rest of friends, so the campaign would not have any success.

It seems a bit difficult, but difficulties are there to reach them. I encourage you to try, but I recommend you to start with a defined friends' club closer to the product you try to sell.

Good luck and please share your experiences if you try it.

Kind regards.
P.S. I have seen your web site. It sounds a good idea (here I had not heard about something similar before). Does it works good there where you live?

[grosolo]

aloha Sergio, thanks for the reply.

After giving this some thought I think more than a few folks are already trying this, unsuccessfully perhaps. People can smell a con and you're right. Anyone that thinks they can go into a social networking site to promote their stuff, has waay too much time/money.


start with a defined friends' club closer to the product you try to sell

That's solid advice. There might be an opportunity to start a website or list of popular people entrenched in myspace that already love or already use particular products and would be willing to mention them in a daily posting.

I suppose it's similar to a blogger praising a particular product in their blog. One difference could be the types of products you could market this way through a social networking site.

I'll reply back when I've had a chance to come up with something more useful than a bunch of questions. aloha, -Brent

P.S. The alohaworkshops model is more about lifestyle choices than about typical software training models. The focus might be on certification, but I think everyone would agree, the lessons learned are much more valuable than a skill set you can use to earn money. That's both the intention and invitation we share. It would work in Spain and just about anywhere. I prefer bringing students here instead of going around places and teaching like I used to do.
>> Sorry for going so far off topic.

[Sergio Simarro]

OK Brent.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and good luck with your projects!

I will follow your evolutions.
Kind regards.

[tuler]

I think I can speak to this topic.

I've been using "social networking" to promote my site on Myspace.com. My site is BestMyspaceProfiles.com (http://www.BestMyspaceProfiles.com) so it fits to market this way.

I've found that having Myspace Whores (people with thousands of friends) advertising your product results in the same type of traffic as a decent Google Adwords campaign would. I've found that about 1% of the friends will respond to a bulletin post. So, to reach 100 people will require 10,000 friends.

The trick is to have something that others will want to pass on to their friends and at the same time will promote your product. Humor seems to work really well on Myspace.

Tyler