Digital Influence Mapping Project

The Trends in Next Generation Listening Posts (and Looking Glass)

We have reviewed and worked with many of the leading technology companies curently providing consumer generated media (cgm) monitoring solutions for brands. After having done two enterprise-level evaluations for global brands - each with different geographic focus - it is clear that the market is shifting.

We just went through a deep-dive on Microsoft's Looking Glass which points to a further evolution of the market towards in-house and integrated solutions. Is that defiance of the SaS model or are they accurately anticipating where big brands need to go in the future?  

Before I get to Looking Glass, Here are a few of the trends I am seeing:

1. the early lead of service providers who do everything from the technology to the insights is falling away. In its place are dashboard technology providers that put the tools in the hands of brands and agencies - the folks that know the brand business. Even Nielsen has a simple dashboard solution.

2. technologies are focusing on 1-2 of the 7 major purposes of Listening Posts. They are slowly focusing their strengths in certain areas and being more open about admitting what their solution or organization cannot support

3. there is a whole new set of technology providers who are building a flexible framework to be applied to multiple language markets. Once you broaden your view to identifying technologies that work across 4 or 5 language and geographic markets, you suddenly see a whole new set of providers like eCairn, Attentio, Brandwatch and others popup.

4. automated sentiment rating continues to be a holy grail (solutions with 60% accuracy are near-useless) except amongst a very few who have made progress notably Crimson Hexagon and Collective Intellect.

5. brands are splitting between those that want simple and fast and those that want tailored and highly relevant. Radian6 smartly stepped into the simple and fast space and continues to excel there even as others launch comparable "monitoring-only" solutions. A few brands have buy-in to invest the time and money for more tailored solutions. Which brings us to:

Microsoft's Looking Glass

We recently met with the development team at Microsoft responsible for their monitoring/listening solution dubbed Looking Glass. The solution is a 3 server-based model and sits on top of or integrates with Silverlight for the display layer, SQL server and Sharepoint. It is a work in progress and has some significant advantages over other solutions depending on which of the 7 reasons you need a Listening Post and what other Microsoft investments you have made.   

Here are 4 reasons that Looking Glass may be great for enterprise listening:

1. It uses Bing for blog and Web search. That engine will likely provide a strong heart for teh service for years to come.

2. Its real power is in the customizability down to its ability to pull in new data feeds. That means that enterprise can combine data feeds that are most relevant to them (the future of Social IRM is in the integration with CRM databases. This platform will handle that.

3. The Silverlight-powered display is good-looking. Don't underestimate the power of great information design to make listening solutions usable.

4. Like Visible Tech it features task-delegation functions. If you want to assign someone to respond to a Tweet or a post, you can do that within the system and track those responses.

This is meant for the more advanced enterprise willing to invest the integration and customization hours never mind the hosting/serving of it. As we move towards more advanced models of integrating cgm listening into the enterprise like the Social IRM model, the Looking Glass model may be a strong solution. Everyone awaits the debut of the next Google Labs experiment where they deliver the 30 ton megaton bomb on teh listening market with their own solution. I only presume that is somewhere inside their skunkworks....

Wall-to-Wall Brand Cases, the FTC and Sugarland: WOMMA Summit 2009

This year's Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Summit is something else. It is the fruit of two years effort by a lot of smart marketers to bring the best of social media and word of mouth marketing together. We wanted to help experienced marcom experts share best practices in the best way possible - via our peers. As current Board President of WOMMA, I can proudly say that this event reflects the essential and exciting role WOMMA plays now.

Here are 7 reasons why this year's WOMMA Summit is a must-attend event for any marketer who needs to apply social media in a disciplined, impactful way:

1. The best insight comes from real brand cases. WOMMA Summit will feature disciplined cases from Ford, Tropicana, General Mills, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Microsoft, CDW, IBM, SAP, Walmart, BestBuy, HP and more. Learn from real practices.

2. Our session "The Role of the FTC in Word of Mouth and Social Media Marketing" will feature the Chuck Harwood, Assistant Deputy Director. he will help everyone better understand the new FTC Guidelines and WOMMA's next effort to define best practice disclosure

3. The Brands Council at WOMMA will host its own meetups for brands allowing marketers to share experiences and get advice from their peers.

4. Ray Day, VP of Global Communications at Ford, and Scott Monty will keynote and share insights about how Ford has woven social media into the fabric of the company.

5. A post-hearing analysis session dedicated to the FDA Hearings on social media in health product marketing.

6. A full "track" dedicated to Research and Measurement AND the release of a final draft of the WOMMA Measurement Guidebook. I don't know about you but measurement - both performance and ROI - is the most important issue from brands who want to expand their use of social media. You will get practical, applicable-now models.

7. The first annual WOMMY Awards will identify the best of the best in social media and word of mouth marketing (I think there were over 200 entries!)

Bonus reason: The band, Sugarland, will keynote about their extraordinary work with fans and that's just cool.

This will be a terrific and talked about event. Just go to the Website and judge for yourself. In tough economic times, we each have to choose what is essential to our business. This event was designed to deliver an essential experience for brands and marketers needing to learn expert and best practices for social media from the people actually doing it not just talking about it!

When: November 18-20
Where: The Paris in Las Vegas (a Harrah's property!)
How: Go here to register 
Go here to learn more

Register today with the code "fanofogilvy" and receive $200 off the fee. There will be no other discounts.
I will be there. Tons of brands will be there. I hope to see you there. 

The Power of Owned and Earned Media

The power of social media going forward is in integrated programs, not stand-alone, "earned" media programs. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that complimentary media - social (the new "earned" media), owned media (a brand's web presence) & paid media will produce a compound effect if they work together. And that is what Group M saw in their recent study.

A sister company of Ogilvy inside WPP, Group M, released a bit of interesting research a week back. Essentially, their study pointed to the positive effect of social media on the performance of search.

"...a 50% lift in click-through rates across the board when consumers had been exposed to social media and paid search."

"Every day consumers express their intent via search. Now, we better understand how that intent is established via social media and the interplay between the channels," says Chris Copeland, chief executive officer of GroupM Search for the Americas. "There is a valuable audience for advertisers to focus on who are engaged with brands through social media and search. The study further validates our view that media discovery -- specifically. a brand's owned and earned media -- is as important to success as the paid media we handle every day. Generating upper-funnel awareness and influencing consideration through social media can produce better down-the-funnel performance with paid media, such as paid search."

"The study reveals that people who search and engage with social media, especially those exposed to a brand's influenced social media, are far more likely to search for lower-funnel terms than consumers who do not engage with social media. Furthermore, consumers exposed to a brand's influenced social media and paid search programs are 2.8 times more likely to search for that brand's products compared to users who only saw paid search."

The New (and Imperfect) FTC Guidelines Are a Good Start

There has been a fair amount of discussion about the recent FTC Guidelines on Endorsements and Testimonials.I serve as the Board President of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and we have been supportive of the FTC's effort to try and protect consumers amidst some pretty fast-paced change in online media. We commented on the proposed Guidelines before they were adopted and pushed back pretty hard on some of the points that seemed to put undue burden on the blogger for product claims they make.

New Responsibility

The final Guidelines do hold bloggers and brands responsible for what they say about products and services and, more importantly, their disclosure to their followers of any material connection between them. The FTC has refined its message over th past week by clarifying that they will look mostly to the marketers to enforce the disclosure requirements.  There are some vague areas. The definition of whether of giving product samples is considered a "sponsorship" hinges on the undefined value of a product (stick of gum? probably not. laptop? oh yes.) and whether there is a history between marketer and blogger or if the blogger has a history of routinely accepting products for reviews. I agree, this is an area that needs to be sharpened if anyone every has a hope of enforcing a guideline.

Not About Advertising; It's About Word of Mouth

But the "sky is falling" claims of some marketers are just not warranted. Randall Rothenberg who heads up the IAB wrote a long, impassioned letter to the FTC Chairman via Huffington Post. I respect IAB and Randall. His book, "Where the Suckers Moon" is one of the best ad books on the market. Their representation of their members is laudable. And if this were all about "advertising" than he might have a point. It's about word of mouth marketing.

As consumers, we have grown used to reading and watching the opinions of peers and 'strangers with expertise'via their blogs, Twitter feeds and facebook pages. This extends the reach of offline word of mouth and together they represent the most trusted source for opinions and purchase decisions around many products and services. That trust is dependent on the transparency of the relationship between marketer and blogger/influencer and the assurance that the opinion a blogger states is truly her own. At WOMMA we want to protect that power which is why we have our own Code of Ethics that guides our members' behavior in this space.

Randall's chief complaint is how the FTC holds online influencers/bloggers to a different standard than traditional media. The former must disclose receipt of products and other considerations that qualify as a material connection. The latter do not. 

I agree this is lopsided. I respectfully request that all traditional journalists disclose when they receive a product from a marketer.(we are really talking about the traditions of the fourth estate not the broader 'communications' field) 

Rather than the IAB stance that hopes to relieve bloggers of any special requirement to disclose, we should really just get everyone to disclose. Let the consumer decide who is credible regardless of whether they write periodically under a recognized media masthead or not. I actually think Mr. Rothenberg is onto something when he says this is confusing. The confusion starts with consumers not always knowing the source of content they browse in the great aggregator - Google. What is traditional media - governed by a journalistic code and what is the emerging media of everyone - which is often oblivious to that code? Rather than treat blogs like traditional media, let's follow a new standard which calls for full disclosure. If journalists and traditional media follow suit, great. If they don't, at least full disclosure by bloggers protects their consumers. I don't seriously think that media companies will jump on the disclosure bandwagon. But if bloggers disclose, they will keep their side of the street clean.  This will protect the power of word of mouth for brands and consumers alike leaving them to collaborate and share about what matters most to them.

The Answer is a Simple Disclosure

The IAB points out many weaknesses in the FTC approach. Their primary concern seems to be whether bloggers will be wrongfully prosecuted for non compliance and whether the Guidelines are constitutional. Sharper minds than mine will debate if there truly is a constitutional issue here. The FTC has already commented that they have no intention of going after bloggers even admitting that they have no real enforcemnt 'engine.' All a blogger has to do to align themselves with the new Guidelines is add a few brief words to their post in a clear way - "they sent me this book (laptop, mobile phone, case of soap, airplane ticket) free of charge to give me an experience with the product. The opinions that follow are my own..."

Let's Define 'Best Practice' Disclosure Next

All a brand has to do is ask them to disclose, monitor if they do and take a reasonable action if they don't. The details of "best practice" disclosure are what we need to iron out next. Rather than rail against the FTC that their current first pass is confusing or worse, unconstitutional, WOMMA will do what it always has done, roll up our sleeves and define the best practice model, in this case, for disclosure between brands and bloggers. Like our Code of Ethics referenced by the FTC, this new guide for how disclosure should be handled by brands may go a long way to satisfy the FTC that the industry really is earnest in protecting consumers. 

Come to our Summit in November to meet the FTC (and FDA!) and participate with our panel as we define very specifically the best way for brands to achieve the highest levels of disclosure. The FTC has started a process. Now they want the industry to continue with the hard work of making it real.  

Social IRM - Influencer Relationship Management Pt 3

or 7 ways you can add scale to an influencer program

Previously, I have covered theresearch and activation of influencers in a Social IRM stratgey. Overall, this is an approach to managing influencers with the same discipline that we try to manage customers - without any of the abuse. By that I mean, the approach to CRM that tries to stimulate customers right to the brink of annoyance but hopefully not over. Like how many emails you send to them with offers before those emails convert to spam. The industry I would most like to see have a CRM overhaul is the magazine business. I am a 15-year or more loyal reader and subscriber to Metropolis Magazine. Do I get any love or acknowledgment? Do they still send me subscription renewals 6 months before they are due hoping that I will think the sub is up and send a check?

Anyhow, the principal of Social IRM is far more benign. It is ultimately built on the premise of 'Value Exchange' covered in a previous post. You cannot 'game' influencers nor can you push them where they don't want to go. The discipline of Social IRM is about serving them better and creating a protocol inside the brand marketer for constantly delivering value that is talkworthy.

Once you have engaged influencers in an experience they care about and they find it worthwhile to post, comment, tweet, video post or otherwise share word of mouth (WOM), how can you add scale to have a bigger impact?

Scale or Amplification
There are 7 key ways to add reach to a influencer program. If there are others, I would love to hear about them. One of the key tenants of Social IRM is that you are engaging relevant influencers on behalf of the brand. This means outdoors experts on behalf of REI or enterprise IT managers for SaS services targeting....enterprise. These folks are not always going to have the largest reach. Certainly they may not have what the professional alpha bloggers have. So the question remains, how can you have their WOM reach more people - without spoiling the WOM?

7 Ways to Scale
Aggregate the voices: If we collect all of what people are saying about the brand or relevant topic and pull it altogether via a content aggregator we can potentially increase the reach. I say potentially because either you will be integrating that aggreagation in a high-traffic site or driving awareness via an ad campaign to the aggregator. Just creating one doesn't do it. Good examples include:

• The Ford Story
• Lenovo Voices of the Summer Games (not active)

Content-driven advertising: A modest ad buy that features the content of the conversation - what people are saying in tweets, comments or posts - can drive new people into the conversation and can also celebrate and reward those who are participating by featuring their conetnt in the ads. If you send the traffic to the aggregator, you can raise the spotlight quickly on what you are doing and create a virtuous circle by making it worthwhile for influencers to contribute to earn visibility for their efforts.
 
Extended influencer outreach: For every 20 influencers in a particular niches that you engage, there may be 20-200 more who would find it relevant to know about what you are talking about and who may want to participate. Extended outreach - done carefully and thoughtfully - can extend awareness via their combined reach.

Traditional media relations: Some of the things we do online are media-worthy.Traditional press may find it interesting that we are co-creating a new product with customers or whatever we are doing. 

Partnerships for reach: Finding a great partner who has a relevant constituency is a fundamental PR and marketing tactic that is equally relevant to the social space. Perhaps the online community around the Appalachian Mountain Club would work with REI on its "Stories of the Appalachian Trail" project (I made this up) and notify their members.

SEO & SEM: Making our content as visible and findable as possible via both organic and a "strategic" SEM buy can ensure that we earn as much search engine traffic for our WOM program as possible. Again, the aggregator is key as a hub that we can build some decent Google Juice around.

An Enthusiast Network: If you maintain long-term relationships with a group of enthusiasts - enthusiasts for the brand or the topic of interest (overnight hiking?) gives you a network of relevant folks to invite into an activity. This can also reduce your cost of "influencer acquisition." We are launching a software platform with several clients now that enables us to grow this type of network and deliver valuable content and offers directly to them for sharing (i.e. this is our value exchange).

Generally no one tactic is the answer. Think of this more as a checklist and all may apply. If you want to go beyond scoring a handful of posts from influencers and stimulate an environment where sharing on a topic is productive for all and reaches as many relevant folks as possible, consider an amplification strategy with these tactics.

Social IRM - Influencer Relationship Management Pt 2

or How do we motivate people to get involved and then add reach to their voices? 

Engagement
Marketers are learning that we all need to think in terms of the value delivered to people via our marketing efforts. Now add to that the obligations associated with inviting people to participate with brands in some way that may cause them to share with their social graph - friends, family, fellow dining-out enthusiasts. What will drive people to share word of mouth?

Every time we reach out to influencers, we must think through the "value exchange" - what will they recieve and what will the brand recieve that makes it worthwhile to engage in some way.For Ford, influencers have the chance to drive a Ford car in a somewhat exclusive situation - like the Fiesta Movement "agents" and the drivers who took a Fusion or Flex on their Spring vacation drive. For the BlogHer community, they saw their ideas and in fact, themselves included in the weekly TV show online called The Juice. But they received more than that and every relationship has several possibilities that add up the value exchange.

Value Exchange Ingredients
Here are the building blocks of reciprocal value that can motivate each of us to participate in an influencer program.

1. Social Capital
If you give me a preview of a book, say Nick Cave's The Death of Bunny Munro, then I would likely read it and quickly share my impressions with my friends. If you offered me an interview opportunity that few had with Unilever's Chief Marketing Officer, Simon Clift, I would take you up on it in a minute as I have always admired him and the brand. Each of these examples are social capital that I accrue and can spend with my peers to earn status. It's human. It's not diabolical nor "low." It just is.

2, Spotlight
Simpler than Warhol's 15 minutes of fame, the idea of shining a spotlight on influencers is straightforward. There are influencers all along the Long Tail out there - some quite popular, others popular in their niche, still others who may be on the rise. If we feature their content (with their permission) and profile them, we are celebrating what they do and who they are. Aggregators do this all the time. My content is pulled into Social Media Today. I appreciate that they felt it and me worthwhile. When they feature a post of mine, I benefit. This spotlight conveys status and may also drive other tangible benefits.

3. Traffic
Can brands drive traffic to bloggers and other influencers? The answer is "yes' given the right circumstances. In many cases it is an empty promise. But if a brand is aggregating consumer generated content - the best thoughts out there on adventure travel or family green living - and spending energy and budget to raise awareness and traffic to that aggregation, then the blogger should see an impact.

4. Brand halo
Some brands have a valuable halo. Our client, American Express, has a positive halo effect. The presence and even prestige of the brand rubs off on those associated with it. There are plenty of brands whom I would love to cozy up to for the status that might rub off. Why did I establish a presence in BusinessWeek Exchange? I love the BusinessWeek brand and jumped at the chance to be a part of. Not all brands quailfy and the 'halo' is in the eyes of the beholder, Still, I would be proud to be featured alongside many brands.

5. Value
All of these things could be described as value of some kind. Here I mean tangible value like loaning someone a car for their Spring vacation or giving them case of product to give away to their followers. So long as all parts of this value are fully disclosed by all parties, value can be one of the simplest ways to satisfy another big requirement for WOM - the product experience. People have to have that experience to have anything to share to begin with.   

6. Social Good
Beyond the relevance of the brand and whatever larger platform is going on - e.g. people joining a fuel efficiency discussion alongside Ford - having some social benefit can motivate people as well. If folks know that their involvement will translate into a donation to charity or a much needed relief effort, many will jump in. The hazard here is using a social good motivator as a crutch vs. an organic extension of the experience or brand.
 

Which one of these "values" is more valuable? Which one is the "must-have?" There-in lies the rub. Different people are motivated by different drivers. The best strategy is a net of 3-4 of these value elements to ensure the overall value exchange is strong enough. Cut any one and you might just weaken the value exchange too much.

Next time: Scale & Optimization

Social IRM - Influencer Relationship Management Pt 1

or How do you add impact and efficiency without losing the soul of social media?

(the following is part of my kick-off today at Ogilvy London's Social Media Day)

Social Media is not a channel

Let's 'tick' off the true benefits of social media marketing to brands. Social media is not some new channel. Pity the poor brand who starts jamming content or ads down our throats without understanding the 'value exchange' necessary to earn our attention and participation.

Social media is not just a growing collection of technologies allowing us all to communicate, share, create and publish. I mean it is all that, especially for you and I - people who have discovered a new platform to express ourselves. We can connect with others who share some affinity no matter how niche that is (Will some of my fellow Nick Cave fans please help me figure out how to get a signed copy of The Death of Bunny Munro?).

Social Media = Word of Mouth

But what does that mean for brands and brand marketers?

Ultimately, everything social media enables is a new form of word of mouth. Whether I blog about my love for the new Ford Taurus,  become a fan of Lance Armstrong Foundation on Facebook, tweet a link to Amex tix for the Rolling Stones concert, or pass a video of Nick Cave reading from Bunny Munro to a friend - it's all word of mouth. (disc: all clients)

And word of mouth trumps most other forms of communication in influence on many purchase decisions and opinions. For brands, social media is an imperative to embrace in any way they can the power of word mouth. 

We need to help customers, enthusisasts, fans, "strangers with expertise" share about our products and the topics and ideas that bring us together with them. We want people to search in Google and find the endorsements of our advocates - third parties who say our products are good because they are.

Who are these third parties and how do we engage them so that they will authetically want to share? They are the new influencers.

What is Social IRM?  

Social IRM is the discipline of managing relationships between influencers and brands. It's built on the principles of social media - respect, trust, and a true value exchange between brand and influencer. The goal of Social IRM is to activate genuine word of mouth online at a scale that can positively impact business.

Finding Influencers

We identify influencers by looking at data that tells us how conversational they are, how many people link to them, what their affiliations are, the combined reach of their social platforms from their blog to their Facebook page and Twitter handle. Seven different criteria come together to plot them on a map of relevance and influence. We build a segmented database of these influencers. For Ford we identified over 2 hundred influencers in 6 new segments we had never spoke directly to before....

How do we get them to talk? How do we get them to tell a friend how great the Ford Flex, Fusion or Taurus are?

Ford starts by making a great car. Never underestimate the power of a great product....and the risk of a lousy one.

We have to earn their attention, time and involvement. We have to offer them value. That brings us to the "Value Exchange" as my colleague Virginia Miracle would say.

Next: Engaging and adding Scale.....

Special Event: WOMMA SUMMIT 2009 - Wall-to-Wall Brand Cases

The best, most practical social media summit for brands will happen on November 16-18 in Las Vegas at the Paris Hotel. It's the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's Annual SUMMIT 2009. This year, we have packed the agenda with real world case studies from brands applying social media and word of mouth marketing to their marcom and business needs. Join Ford, Pepsi, CDW, General Mills, Weight Watchers,iTunes, SAP and more.

• Ford's Ray Day and Scott Monty pair up to talk about driving social media transformation through the enterprise
• FTC Chief of Staff Chuck Harwood will talk about the FTC's role in social media marketing and the imminent FTC Guidelines
• Comcastcares, Twelpforce and others convene for a customer service smackdown on the mainstage

If you are creating and executing social media and word of mouth marketing programs for your brand or organization (or client), come to the WOMMA Summit to share best practices and the latest innovations in the use of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogging and offline word of mouth.

• The new WOMMY Awards will highlight the best of the best including best measurement models in social media and WOM.
• The Brands Council will offer special brands-only meetings
• And networking events will give you intimate conversations with your peers and colleagues from other companies to share experience

Join us now. While space is limited and no special price offers will be introduced, if you register and reference the code "fanofogilvy" you will recieve $100 off your fee.

Ogilvy will see you there.

Retail Survey Tells Us Moms Rely on Word of Mouth (Again!)

The National Retail Federation released a useful study of moms and their shopping & digital habits earlier this summer. You should grab the study pdf on their site. Lots of good information. Here is how they set it up:

"A recent analysis of BIGresearch's Simultaneous Media Usage Survey (SIMM 14) looked at moms’ shopping patterns: when she uses coupons, how she uses the internet to research products, if she likes social media (she does, by the way) and even her favorite television station. Of the 4,206 mothers who were polled for this survey, 62.2% work outside the home, 17.7% are homemakers and the remainder are either retired (1.9%), disabled (1.3%), unemployed (4.1%) or are in school (5.7%)."

Oddly enough, this data supports multiple sources on the value of peer recommendations and challenges the validity of studies that say women don't trust "blogs." A study from an email marketer came out today saying as much. That is likely an artifact of a poorly worded question seeking a specific result (like trusting email over Web sites). Not sure if all of us are as hyper-conscious of what is a blog vs. what is opinion from someone like us.

Women rely on word of mouth in many forms including blogs, microblogs, social networks and more.

Best Practice Disclosure: What Brands Should Do (and Why)

At WOMMA, we are launching a project to define the best ways brands and influencer/bloggers should tell the public of their "material relationship." If you are a brand and plan to try and engage influencers to get them to talk, share, create content about you, then you owe it to yourself to pay attention to this issue and establish your own principles.

Three simple reasons why:

1. If you want to activate word of mouth it must be genuine. You might be able to "incent" the first voice (G0) but their followers/readers (G1, G2, Gn) will insist on knowing what you did to engage that blogger. They need to judge the credibility for themselves. I don't care how much credibility that blogger has earned over the years, credibility and trust is established anew everyday. 

2. You will protect your brand from online backlash. Will the villagers rise up against your brand? The answer is that you just never know. Do you want to be that marketer who gets "outed" for secretly paying bloggers to post reviews? Or paying their expenses for a visit to HQ? Some brands believe their online reputation is key to their overall reputation and wouldn't like that.

3. The FTC is about to release their guidelines about testimonials and disclosure. They will require you as the brand to disclose and to motivate your influencers to do the same. The FTC wouldn't have to do this if every brand followed to principlies like WOMMA's Honesty ROI ("R" is "relationship" as in what-is-your-material-relationship)

What brands should do for best practice disclosure:
The WOMMA Disclosure Project invites industry practitioners and thought leaders (like those at the kick-off Web Summit) to articulate the form of best practice or "clear and meaningful" disclosure. New platforms and behaviors are going to require new examples. The following are my own initial thoughts for elements of best practice disclosure for a brand and the influencers they engage.

Terms of engagement
Every word of mouth marketing program that seeks to spark third parties to talk about them, their products or topics relevant to the brand must draft a "terms of engagement" and post it visibly on the program or brand Web site. I have described this document in a recent post.

• Be clear and explicit. Name amounts or ballparks of any expenses or other consideration you delivered. Was the product a loaner or a keeper? Go ahead and say. No one likes it when brands are cagey about these details.
• Ask your blogger/influencers to link to the terms of engagement or post their own version on their site. Sometimes its best if that is their first post about what they are doing.

Influencer Agreement
If you are working extensively with the same bloggers (any of the brand panels talked about here are goo dexamples of that) then craft a simple one page agreement that compels the bloggers to disclose and promise to only state their true opinion. It may not be enforceable beyond you stopping working with them but it sets the right tone.

Per post disclosure
If the inlfuencer is not part of a formal program with its own badge (think: Walmart 11 Moms or The Fab5), then there posts and comments should include a refernce and link to the terms of enagement, program, or their on-site disclosure statement - e.g. "... this post is part of my BrandX series. Click here for the terms of engagement." 

• Tweets - here's a special case. The format is short and not always connected to your full bio or your blog. Tweets should be marked whenever practical. When I write about a client, I almost always mark the Tweet with (cl) to indicate it's a client. If I were an influencer and loaned a new computer to try (like maybe an Alienware - hint, hint) and I blogged and tweeted about the experience, how should I mark those tweets? Alienware didn't pay me. The entire material relationship is the 2 month loan of the computer (I have never done this. This is just a hypothetical). I can't call them "sponsor" nor can I call them "partner" as both are too formal and inaccurate.

Three solutions:

• Add mention of the program in your Twitter bio page with a link to the Terms of Engagement on your blog
• Add (disc) to your tweet, preferably with a link to the Terms of Engagement.
• If you are simply linking to a post that is fully diclosed, the Tweet, itself, can go without. But if you are stating opinion in a tweet, then mark it.

 

Site badges
Many sustained programs have the influencers post badges on their main blogs identifying them as part of a group program or brand panel. That badge is good for everyone. It works best when it links to the prgram description complete with a Terms of Engagement. It serves everyone best if that badge is above the fold to be in line of sight with the latest posts. The influencer still needs a per post disclosure to deliver via  RSS feed or if she syndicates content anywhere.

Social media bio
By adding a statement in your "about us" or bio page about your involvement with a particular brand or your likelihood to engage with brands from time to time, you have gone the extra mile to be clear with people.

Align with WOMMA
WOMMA has the industry standard ethics policies including policies on disclosure. If you are a member, then those policies becme your own. They will protect you, your brand and the consumer. It is a great way top get a large organization aligned about a non-partisan standard. Just tell everyone in the marcom disciplines that they need to behave according to the WOMMA ethics.

What do you think is "best practice disclosure?"