In an industry where it is more and more difficult for brands to separate fact from fiction and understand the differences between Listening platforms, Forrester Research, led by Zach Hofer-Shall, recently published their review of Listening Platforms: “Forrester Wave™: Listening Platforms, Q3 2010″, and you can download a complimentary copy from Converseon.

In order to identify the category leaders, Forrester evaluated offerings from nine companies according to 76 criteria, including data sources, textual analysis, functionality, consulting and analysis services, strength of management team, and corporate and product strategy.

Based on performance across these dimensions, the companies were then grouped into four categories: Leaders, Strong Performers, Contenders and Risky Bets (see image above).

Converseon, we are pleased to report, was recognized in the Leaders category as one of three vendors that “combine the best offering and go-to-market strategy.” Also, Converseon scored highest for text analysis and the second highest for its consulting and analysis services, strength of management team and corporate strategy. A free copy of the report can be downloaded from our website.

According to Forrester, “Converseon offers a leading product with its “customized for your needs” mentality. There is no standard Converson installation, (Converson) builds a tailored dashboard for its enterprise installation and offers professional services around every step of the Social Intelligence process. Converseon’s model of starting with technology and adding human analysis makes for highly effective data quality, leading custom reports and strong functionality.”

We are especially proud to be one of the very few listening platform providers to remain independent. Our approach enables us to iterate quickly, partner deeply with our clients, and move fast to meet marketplace needs.

We understand the category is still quite young, and that leading brands are looking for solutions not just for today, but for the next years as Social Intelligence evolves and becomes more deeply integrated into the DNA of enterprises. This is an area where Converseon excels.

We focus on designing listening solutions (beyond simple “tools”) to help infuse listening across organizations, for multiple use cases, and to help large enterprises redesign business processes to make the intelligence actionable. This includes governance, policy, infrastructure, training and more.

Perhaps most profoundly, we believe that social media listening is the first step in effective business redesign. All too often, once social intelligence is flowing through an organization, there is a moment of realization: “These are great insights and intelligence but we’re simply aren’t designed to act on this.”

Real-time intelligence requires business process redesign to enable agile movement for competitive advantage. That’s why Converseon remains the only leading provider of Conversation Mining with robust management consulting and activation practices.

Of course, we see others in the industry moving into this space too via joint partnership or rollup/acquisition, and we believe that our strength lies in organic evolution. We are proud that our team is rapidly evolving and our solutions growing. I am also quite excited because some of the most interesting technology and solutions have yet to emerge from our R&D work.

We appreciate the industry recognition for our work, but won’t for a moment rest on our laurels. We have a 24-hour rule here: even with good news, we allow only 24 hours to pass before moving on. And we agree with the general observation of the industry: the best is yet to come.

You can obtain additional information from Forrester.

As the arteries of social media intelligence continue to grow and infuse across organizations, increasingly there is a recognition that most enterprises are not designed effectively to act quickly and with agility on that intelligence.  It’s a moment many large enterprises who have engaged in listening have come to at some point – how do we redesign what we do to make this work?  As one senior executive from a major automotive brand wrote to me: “this social media listening has unearthed many dysfunctions that we had happily buried away, but have now been surfaced.”  This is positive transformation.

At Converseon, our Conversation Mining technologies are segueing rapidly into business process redesign.  This is an important differentiation for us in this space.  We are the only leading provider of Conversation Mining with robust management consulting and activation practices.

The Social Media Management practice has grown very rapidly  under the tutelage of Mike Moran, Constantin Basturea and others.  Today, we make a very important announcement that will significantly strengthen this practice – the addition of one of the leading thinkers and practitioners in this space, Chris Boudreaux.

All too often in the social media world, self styled “experts” are quick to throw around shallow commentary wrapped in the guise of knowledge. The social world is full of flashy largely meaningless commentary (see BusinessWeek’s Beware of Social Snake Oil) which simply muddies up the industry and distracts from the important work the leading practioners are doing.

That’s not Chris.

When I met him I was refreshed by his modesty. As I dug deeper over time, I discovered layer upon layer of depth of knowledge ranging from governance to management theory to data integration and business intelligence. His approach represents what we value most at Converseon: substance over style; modesty where our work (and clients) speak to our excellence; a focused intelligence about the deep meaning of what we do (ranging from the social sciences to computer science and beyond) and where we all work with great collaboration and respect towards the greater mission. Where we put clients needs above our own and we focus on the transformatory nature of our work.

We view business consulting melding closely into social intelligence strategies.  It will become a key driver in business redesign.   Our Social Media Management together with our listening technologies and activation practice, enable Converseon to provide a unique “end to end” solution designed to help brands fully leverage the power of social across the enterprise.    This practice – which encompasses governance, policy, infrastructure, training and  more – helps drive and facilitate internal transformation to make social listening actionable and help drive business results for our clients across the enterprise.  Of course, this requires an “inside-out” approach encompassing deep expertise in change management, data integration strategies and more – the very skill set that Chris brings.

I met Chris through his work and reputation.  And as I got to know him, I realized even more so that he brings a level of incredible substance and “get it done” attitude that is refreshing in the social business space.   Like much Converseon’s evolution, our meeting was serendipitous.   But it is serendipity of the kind that brings the best and brightest together to forge new solutions and help drive the industry forward.

Today, I welcome Chris to Day One of his new mission. Here’s our release announcing his appointment. And here’s a link to Social Media Governance – Chris’s site that I’m sure you will agree is an important contribution to the discussion on social media management.

Onward.

In a continued effort to showcase the best and brightest minds joining us at Converseon, we will highlight recent additions to the Converseon team through our blog. Our eclectic POV’s will be on display on a range of social media related topics. We’d like to introduce all of you to Mallory Dash, who authored the below post.

Some would say we’re transitioning to a new era in social media, as new sites and tools change the way we create and consume content, interact with our peers, and engage with brands. I often find myself comparing this change (along with most other aspects of my life) to Star Trek: The Next Generation, minus Geordi’s visor (but including Wil Wheaton).

A recent article from iMedia Connection discusses the opportunities and challenges brought about by social media, and goes through a slew of new tools and features available to marketers. To ignore these methods of reaching your consumers online is to forge some sort of attempt to defeat the Borg- simply put, “resistance is futile.”

But what does this mean for marketers and those trying to make a brand impact online? It can often seem overwhelming to keep track of all the tools made available to marketers in the online space, and as powerhouses like Facebook and Google continue to add more social features to external sites around the web (ie Google Buzz, Facebook Connect or their Open Graph initiative). However, it’s important to realize that these tools are still only as effective inasmuch as your brand’s key messages make sense and inspire your target audience to action. All the Holodecks in the world won’t change the reality that your brand is what consumers perceive it to be. How you use these tools will always make more of an impact than which tools you choose.

It’s all comes back to what Captain Picard would say to Riker… “Engage.”

Tonight at the Forrester Consumer Forum in Chicago Converseon and our client Lion Brand Yarn were awarded the Groundswell award in the competitive B2C ‘talking‘ category.

We are very proud to receive this recognition from the industry leading Forrester Analysts ahead of a competitive field of 23 entries including the Mad Men Yourself campaign, USA.gov and Delta Airlines Corporate blog.

For a full write-up of the award winning case study, please view our earlier blog post that served as a submission for this award. The key differentiator for the Lion Brand Yarn example is the detailed measurement showing the long-term success of their campaign – beyond the measurements outlined in our earlier post the conversion rate for traffic from their blog vs average traffic is 77% higher over the past 6 months.

Congratulations to Lion Brand Yarn for their excellent work connecting with the passionate knitting and crocheting audience and using social media to drive measurable business impact.

Today we are proud to announce that our long time client at Graco Children’s Products, Lindsay Lebresco, will be joining our team as an Account Director and our ‘Chief Mom Officer”. Our formal announcement can be found here.

Comment from Converseon CEO Rob Key

Life, seen in retrospect, often feels like fate. Lindsay joining Converseon very much follows a tradition we’ve established here of finding folks we really believe in – no matter where in the world – building those relationships together and, when timing is right, bringing them into the Converseon family. With some it is a pretty rapid process. With others it takes many months or years (aka Mike Moran) before the moment of opportunity happens. We sometimes feel like a center of gravity for those passionate about pushing forward the frontiers of social from many different backgrounds, including text analytics, direct marketing, advertising, business process consultants, creative, cultural anthropology and PR because, after all, social is the alchemy that occurs from this diversity.

Lindsay was an essential partner within Graco so when the opportunity arose for Lindsay to join us (in this case with Graco’s full support), it seemed like a natural evolution. In the best of our client relationships, we have built a seemingly borderless enterprise – that is, we are fully integrated with the brand. We believe in a culture of eliminating the perceived boundaries between agency and client. Lindsay is a perfect example for that approach and will remain an important part of our partnership with Graco to help take that to the next level, as well as take that experience of implementing social from the “inside-out” to other clients. She shares our strong belief in truly ethical, transparent engagement and brings a passion to social that fits right in here with her other Converseon colleagues. Her skill sets too, mesh nicely with the bigger Converseon family. So, in short, in a funny way today, we welcome Lindsay home. – Rob Key

Comment from Lindsay Lebresco

What an exciting week this has been for me! After working on the corporate/client side of brand marketing for the last 10 years of my career, coming to the agency side of business is going to be a big and exciting change for me.  There are so many things I am looking forward to, but the biggest thing I’m excited about bringing to Converseon is my unique perspective of “been there, done that.”  Now that’s hardly going to be the case with all of Converseon’s clients, but already, in my first week, I’m happy to be setting client’s minds at ease by explaining that, what seems to be a short 2 years ago, I was in their very shoes! I will feel the client’s pain and of course, I hope to share their triumphs as well.

Another large part of my role here at Converseon, the role that I will gladly and naturally jump into with two feet, is that of “Chief Mom Officer.”  And no, that doesn’t mean that I will spend as much time complaining that my 4 1/2 year old son is still not potty-trained (seriously, people) but I will be wearing the hat of “mom blogger” in my outreach and community relations for clients. I will stay close to this community through my clients as well as my personal participation in the space. I can’t wait to have an excuse to talk with my wonderful, mom-blogger friends out there!

I’m also really looking forward to learning about new industries- about digging in to how other businesses are tapping into the possibilities of social media and applying them to connect with their consumers and drive their own businesses forward. I look forward to sharing my experience of how I successfully integrated social media into the brand marketing efforts at Graco as well as making it a part of the larger business organization.

Dare I say that I already have a favorite client? Well I think you’ll understand- I am very happy to say that I will still be able to work on the Graco account- a brand I worked for and came to love over the past 7 years. I will be working with their new Public Relations and social media manager, Kelly Voelker, as Graco continues to be at the forefront of social media adoption. Kelly and the whole social media team at Graco is a fantastic group of people who will be a pleasure to work with and continue to help grow their presence online.

And you know, there are some little things I’m nervous about too- like the first time I forget to take notes at a client meeting (oh, that’s my job now, got it) or commuting via the NYC subway system (I don’t know how you people do it!)  But mostly I am very excited about being a part of Converseon. I am looking forward to working with an entire organization full of people that get, love and geek-out about all things social media. Gone are the days of looking all wild-eyed at corporate meetings, emphatically talking about the next social trend and why everyone should care, and tweeting behind closed doors – we’re all in this together over here.

And among all the big changes and small shifts, there will be some constants as well. For those of you who have come to know me, you’ll still be getting the same Lindsay Lebresco. The passionate, dedicated, hard-working, over-sharer who may talk more about being a mom then the latest advancement in social media but you (and they) will get used to that. I’m very excited about joining this team here at Converseon- they’re a great group of folks who have welcomed me into their new world and I do hope I can have the positive impact on the businesses that I touch that Converseon had on mine in the past.

We are proud to announce that last night we were named the winner of ‘Best Social Media Agency’ at the first ever SAMMY Awards.

The SAMMY Awards, hosted by DigiDay, were planned to reward “overall excellence and breakthrough achievement in Social Advertising, Media and Marketing”. The strength of competition at the awards was shown through our fellow finalists in the best agency category Buddy Media and 360i. We extend congratulations to them for their great work and to the other award winners including Pringles (for their creative banner ad), the New York Yankees, Kellogg Company, Oakley and Jim Beam.

It is a great validation for us to win this award because we’ve been conducting great work in this space since 2001 (before social was “social”).

Thank yous go out to our team and the Converseon supporters in this space. A very special thank you goes to all our clients – many of whom have been working with us for several years and taking the social media journey alongside us. We hope to further reward your continued partnership with us. We’d also like to thank the judges who recognized that we provide the only complete “end to end” social media solution, matching proprietary Conversation Mining technology with full organizational consulting and award winning engagement services.

We’ve seen the industry change a great deal in our near decade in this space and we know this is just another step in our evolution. Thanks to all who have helped us make this happen.

UPDATE 21 September: Here is a link to a media release announcing the news.

We’re excited to be part of the upcoming digiday:Social event in New York City, scheduled for Thursday, September 17, which looks like a great gathering of industry’s leading digital marketing professionals, including:

• Our Chief Strategist, Mike Moran
• Michael Donnelly, Group Director of Worldwide Interactive Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company
• Brooke McMillan, Social Evangelist, LiveStrong.org
• Shiv Singh VP & Global Social Media Lead, Razorfish
• Paul Beck, Senior Partner, Worldwide Executive Director, Interactive Marketing, Advertising & Social Media, Ogilvy Worldwide

Speakers will focus on topics that help high level media professionals discover and understand social marketing trends. Digiday’s goal is to help marketers not only grasp the current media environment but more importantly, understand how they can leverage this landscape to reach their communication and business goals.

Just a few of the topics that will be covered at Digiday include:

• Can Social Media Scale For a Mass Market Brand?
• Entertainment Marketing Goes Social
• Making Sense of Social Data
• Social Media Marketing Case Studies
• How Brands Become Connectors on the Social Web

Mike’s session, Social Media Spotlight Case Study: Listening 2.0: How to Become a Listening Organization, showcases Converseon’s experience with major brands to create listening environments that benefit the enterprise with in depth conversation analysis and actionable initiatives that cross business unit silos. The session will give the audience a thorough understanding of today’s listening tools, a peek into the future of listening technology, and perspectives on how today’s companies can embed these solutions to create a more agile and future-facing organizations.

You can catch Mike’s presentation at 3:00 p.m. Sign up today! See you there!

Converseon worked in partnership with Lion Brand Yarn on the ideation, development and implementation of an enterprise social media strategy. This case study is a submission for the 2009 Forrester Groundswell Awards.

The Challenge

Establish an authentic and relevant online voice for a beloved 130 year old crafting company and institute best practices that help build relationships with passionate consumers of online knitting communities.

The Approach

Lion Brand Yarn was not sure if its customer demographic would be likely to engage in social media but was willing to experiment with the new technology in an attempt to engage and connect with its passionate consumer base. They engaged Converseon to help them listen to the online conversation about knitting and crocheting, better understand their customers social media behavior, identify opportunities for engagement and develop a coherent and measurable social media strategy.

The brand’s approach to social media hinged on an open approach to conversation and a employee driven content and relationships. The brand focused on ‘talking’ to its customers and prospects and expanded its efforts in social media as the rigorous measurement framework indicated success. Lion Brand Yarn has taken a long term approach to community building and it is now, 18 months after the initial launch of the Yarncraft podcast, that the brand is seeing the most success and measurable return on investment.

Implementation

Lion Brand teamed with Converseon, utilizing our Conversation Mining technology to map the knitting/crocheting online community, identify influential online voices and identify opportunities for engagement in social media. This listening uncovered a deep, interconnected and highly engaged community of passionate users spread across blogs, podcasts and even dedicated knitting/crocheting social networks.

With Converseon’s strategic guidance, the ‘Yarncraft‘ podcast was launched. Hosted by a pair of LBY employees, the podcast was produced bi-weekly and focused on knitting and crocheting topics. The podcast was posted to a dedicated blog, distributed via iTunes and also given away as a CD in store for less tech-savvy consumers. The podcast was designed to be a conversation with customers and knitting community figures moreso than ‘internet radio’ in the broadcast model.

In April 2008, the ‘Lion Brand Notebook‘ blog was launched, providing content and links to other knitting sources. The blog was also powered by Lion Brand employees with content ranging from customer polls for product development through to ‘knit alongs’ that combine online/offline access allowing customers to knit the same project together. The ‘knit alongs’ alone have proven to be a measurable driver of ROI for the brand as each virtual event drives a direct link to increased sales of the yarn featured.

Results

• Lion Brand is one of the 2009 Internet Retailer’s ‘Hot 100′ Retail Websites, their site receives over 2 million visits a month
• The podcast regularly has 15-20,000 downloads while the blog attracts tens of thousands of readers each month
• A Lion Brand survey of 30,000 of their customers found that those customers who have interacted with the brand through social media are 83% more likely to identify as ‘very brand loyal’ than non-social media users and are several times more likely to recommend the brand to others
• Traffic analysis shows that traffic from social media routinely converts at a much higher rate than most sources, outperforming email marketing and banner ads
• From June 16 – July 16, 2009 traffic coming from the brand blog to the brand e-commerce website converted at 41.21% higher than the brand’s average traffic.
• From June 16 –July 16, 2009, the average per visit value of the blog traffic was 39.44% higher than the site average

Conclusion

Lion Brand Yarn initially set out to build relationships with the online knitting community by talking with their customers via a corporate blog and podcast. As a result of an investment in people rather than products, they found themselves with a passionate and brand loyal group of knitters, who not only engage with the brand but impact the bottom line by buying and using products as a result of social media engagement.

Further Resources

PR Week Case Study: Lion Brand Yarn finds success in measured approach to social media,

Slideshare presentation from 2009 Internet Retailer Conference:

In addition, the presentation above is a series of customer endorsements quoted verbatim from a survey of the LBY blog and podcast audience asking them to share their thoughts and feelings about the two venues.

To connect with Lion Brand Yarn online subscribe to the Lion Brand Notebook blog, listen to the YarnCraft podcast, follow them on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

This week I was lucky enough to attend my first Society for New Communications Research event at the NewCommForum in San Francisco and came away energized, impressed and exploding with new ideas. I go to quite a few of these type of events these days, and the quality and depth of thinking here was well beyond the norm.

My panel on blogger relations was first cab off the rank Monday morning as I presented on Converseon’s work with Graco as the thorn amongst the roses alongside the super-smart Susan Getgood, Julie Crabill from SHIFT and Laura Tomasetti from 360 PR. Susan led the panel and chose each of our case studies from those recently honored in the SNCR awards so there was some top notch knowledge sharing amongst the examples (I hope ).

Here’s some of my key takeaways from the event:

Opening Key Note – Charles Best from DonorsChoose.org

Donors Choose have a brilliant model, this was the first I’d heard of their approach to micro-funding of educational efforts and I know I’ll be a supporter in future. Best presented on the success of their model and had a wealth of tips for marketers, as I shared with PR Newser:

- “Donors want a more meaningful connection. To become philanthropists, not just cheque writers” – likewise consumers will want a deeper connection with a brand, if there is the right underlying cause

- “A-List bloggers didn’t drive the most donations, smaller blogs that had a greater level of connection and engagement with their readers had better results’” – Forget an ‘A List’ top down approach to online communication, find the people who matter to you/your brand and build a meaningful relationship with them.

- “Individuals who made a real world effort for the charity (like growing a mustache for a month) and documented it online drove a great deal of donations“ – the best WOM marketing will connect the online and off-line worlds.

More significant though, is the amazing results from a partnership between DonorsChoose and Crate & Barrel. Check out this WSJ article for an in-depth analysis of the amazing (rigourously measured) results. This presentation touched on an area of passion for me in social media for social good, while also giving me even more hope that the best marketing approaches moving forward will revolve around mutual benefit for the brand and community.

Geno Church on Brand Ambassadors

Geno’s presentation on brand ambassadors was probably the best session I attended at the conference. I’ve been familiar with Brains on Fire’s excellent Fiskateers brand ambassador work for a while, and enjoyed hearing more of the thinking behind it and other great examples.

It was great to see some projects that produced truly impressive business results through an approach focused on relationship building with passionate supporters of brands. Even a (relatively) small number of engaged supporters can make a difference for a brand if the brand rewards, encourages and supports their dedication.

Shel Holtz on Crisis Communication in a Social Media World

My entrance to social media came about years ago after coming across Shel’s excellent textbook ‘PR on the Net‘, now I’m proud to call Shel a mate but this was the first time I got to see him officially present – and I wasn’t disappointed.

Shel’s energy and encyclopediac knowledge of relevant case studies shows why he’s such a highly regarded speaker. Shel’s littany of case studies of online crises were great proof points to me of why brands must, at the very least, listen to the online conversation and have the correct internal processes and infrastructure in place to be able to quickly respond.

In crisis after crisis Shel went through, brands won’t able to react quickly enough to influence the conversation. Listening is the first step, but there’s also a need to have the internal policies, processes and culture in place to be able to quickly jump into conversations – and that’s a lot easier said than done.

I was also happy to connect with Joe Thornley again, one of the wisest peeps in our space, and Clemson’s own Dr Mihaela V who was kind enough to give me a Clemson Tshirt that I’ll wear with pride next time I have a chat with her smart students.

Wherever you are I’d advise following the SNCR’s work and research, and if you get a chance to go to one of their events (the next one will be in Boston in November) be sure to do so!

This post is cross-posted at my personal blog Young PR.

Re:think 2009 ARFConvention

On March 30 and April 1st 2009 Converseon is participating to the prestigious Re:think 2009 – The Annual Convention and Expo organized in New York by the Advertising Research Foundation. The conference provides brands an unprecedented opportunity to understand and evaluate the industry’s leading and newest solutions, and it’s bound to be a crucial event in the research industry’s effort to reinvent itself and regain its relevance in the social media age.

At Re:think we’re presenting our solutions and process for establishing an effective “listening zone”, based on our proprietary technologies. If you’re at the conference please come and meet us at our booth in the Expo hall. We’ll be happy to meet you and discuss about Converseon’s “next generation” Conversation Mining™ solution that is rapidly being adopted by leading brands around the world.