Today Converseon is pleased to announce the launch of CHORUS™, the first measurement solution designed to holistically track and measure the relationship between online and offline word-of-mouth.

At Converseon, will have long recognized the need to integrate other measurement approaches to capture not just an individual’s digital persona, but also their offline dimension.   After all, Word of Mouth is an online and offline phenomena.  It is incumbent on brands to understand both these worlds and the interplay.   As such, we are proud today to announce another industry innovation that we have been working on for the last few months.

As a first in its field, CHORUS™ comprehensively fuses advanced social media listening and analysis together with offline word-of-mouth tracking, in partnership with WOM analytics company ChatThreads.

“Until now, online social media listening and offline word-of-mouth tracking have essentially been two parallel universes,” said Rob Key, CEO of Converseon.  “While an increasing number of brands are measuring online conversation, there has been a significant void in the measurement of online’s impact in offline word-of-mouth, and vice versa.  CHORUS™ solves the problem of how social media conversation impacts the proverbial offline kitchen table discussions.  For the first time brands can clearly understand and measure word-of-mouth in all its forms.”  Key notes that even with the growing proliferation of online social media conversation, an estimated 80 percent of word-of-mouth occurs offline.

Converseon’s proprietary Conversation Mining™ technology, together with the mobile-enabled touchpoint tracking developed by ChatThreads, bridge a long recognized chasm between what is put forth in multi-channel advertising and marketing campaigns, and what enhances brand affinity, stimulates word-of-mouth discussions, and drives purchasing decisions.

CHORUS™ combines, organizes and reports data gleaned via these two methodologies to create unique actionable insights to improve media and message optimization. This product now gives marketers a deeper understanding of what media fuels consumer discussions and decisions.

More details about the announcement are available at http://bit.ly/chorus-solution

Converseon will be hosting a WOMMA Wine Wednesday on March 24 at our New York headquarters. The event aims to bring together word of mouth marketing enthusiasts, WOMMA supporters and wine appreciation, in a unique networking opportunity.

Under a view of the Empire State Building, guests will sample a selection of fine wine and cheese, whilst mingling in the good company of their online peers.

During the evening, remarks will be made by Dr. Walter Carl, founder and Chief Research Officer of ChatThreads Corp, and Converseon founder and CEO Rob Key on new developments in converging online and offline WOM. Their experiences in listening and engaging will offer some enlightening thoughts on where these two, traditionally separate conversations, are headed.

To join us at WOMMA Wine Wednesday on March 24, please register here: http://bit.ly/networkingevents – get in soon as space is limited!

You can also find more information at our Facebook event page

Date: March 24

Time: 6PM – 8PM EST

Host: Converseon

Location: 53 w36^th St. 8^th Fl

New York, NY 10018

(212) 213-4297 x302

Parking is available for $26

Dr Carl and Rob Key will also come together next week in a separate event, the WOMMA Webinar ‘Listening 2.0: Social CRM and the Future of Social Listening’. They will also be joined by Jeff Zabin, CEO of Gleanster and Amy Laine, Principal Client Research Analyst from IBM.

The March 18 event will focus on the next generation of listening and how companies can apply this technique to drive business results and sustainable competitive advantage. In a digital environment where unprompted and unsolicited conversation is continuously expanding, listening has become the key tool to allow businesses to gain “deeper insights and actionable analysis”.

You can find more information on the Webinar here: http://bit.ly/dl5Zil

This week we are attending the iMedia Brand Summit in Las Vegas, with our CEO Rob Key leading a spotlight session title ‘Listening 2.0: Activating Social Media Across the Enterprise’ on Tuesday morning.

We’ve been supporting iMedia events for some time as they tend to bring a mix of the biggest brands, smartest minds in online marketing along with an arry of innovative vendors. We anticipate this summit to be no different with presentations from the likes of Bob Garfield of AdAge & NPR fame and attendance from senior marketers from Kraft, General Mills, Zappos, American Express and more.

Rob’s presentation will focus on how our clients are using Conversation Mining to drive insights and strategy across the business, along with the process we’ve developed to take brands through a social media evolution and some tactical tips on how to apply social media with your brand today to drive business results.

We’ll be live tweeting the event via our @Converseon Twitter account so make sure you’re following us for updates, we’ll also be taking another poll of the brand marketers in attendance on some key social media issues, as we did at the  San Diego Brand Summit last September.

Last Wednesday, Mike Moran our Chief Strategist hosted a WOMMA Webinar on Listening 2.0.  The webinar featured presentations from Mark Kovscek, Senior Vice President of the VivaKi Nerve Center and Pauline Ores, Pricipal Analyst, Social Engagement Strategy of IBM.

If you missed it, don’t worry we’ve got you covered.  Below you’ll find  a the Cliff’s Notes version of the webinar, an audio recording of the session and the program slides.

Major Themes:

• What marks a good Listening 2.0 solution?
• How companies should use Listening 2.0?
• Where is the future of listening technology?

What marks a solution as Listening 2.0?

What the technology and service should provide:

• The ability analyze sentiment, particularly complex commentary such as sarcasm
• The ability to note complex and multiple mentions of a brand within a consumer conversation
• The ability to identify key topics and subtopics for your brand’s conversations
• The ability to demonstrate how topics and conversations are connected to each other and to the brand
• The ability to integrate multiple data types and imaging to create new more holistic views of the world
• The ability to create a global and scalable methodology

How companies use should use Listening 2.0

• Listening should be done at an enterprise level. To be effective it needs to cross over the silos of business units and lead to shared solutions
• Commit to “being in sync” with the market – be willing to reconsider marketing approach, content development and offerings, it can be about joining and taking their lead
• Be ready to take action, whether that is internal change or external engagement. To find ROI brands must be ready to take consumer comments to heart

Where is the future of listening technology?

• Technological improvements in computer translations
• Advanced tracking of message consumption and how it relates to purchase behavior
• Predictive modeling of  conversations and conversions

Resources: Twitter commentary , Audio Download, Slide Share

Rob will be speaking with Sandra Fathi, President, Affect Strategies on Social Media & Multiple Personality Disorder at SocComm09 on February 10, 2009 at the 3LD Art and Technology Center in New York.

SocComm09 is conference focusing on “Social Communication.”

So what exactly is Social Communication?

Jeff Pulver the founder and director of SocComm has this to say about it:

“It turns out that Social Communications is a pretty broad term which could mean many things to many people. [The goal of SocComm is] to bring together a gathering of people with a variety of backgrounds and industries and together explore the future of where things are going and what business models will be used to provide the dollar returns needed to get us there. I expect to bring together people from across the worlds of: Media / Internet / Communications / Entertainment. Something I would call a “MICE” event.”

SocComm09 will have a mixture of individual talks, on-stage interviews / conversations and a number of “group chat” sessions. Including sessions with Jeff Jarvis, Chris Brogan, and others.

If you are interested in attending you can register here.

Converseon is a current member of the SNCR Vendor Council as well as a past winner of an excellence in communication SNCR award. In many ways, at Converseon, we share the Society for New Communication Research’s dedication and eagerness to bring the study of new media and its effects on traditional communication and business models closer to their implementation in these fields. This said, we would like to extend SNCR’s invitation to participate in the third annual excellence in communications awards to all of you.

These awards are designed to recognize corporations, government organization, not-for-profit organizations, educational institutions, media outlets and the individuals who are innovators in their use of social media, ICT, mobile media, online communities, virtual worlds and collaborative technologies in the areas of business, media, and professional communications.

Awards are granted in six divisions:

Corporate
Government
Media
Nonprofit/NGO
Academic
Technology Innovation (for New Communications and Social Media Technology Vendors)

And there are seven categories this year:

1. Online Reputation Management
2. Behind the Firewall
3. Blogger Relations
4. External Communications & Communities
5. New Media Creation
6. Collaboration & Co-creation
7. Mobile Media

Click on the following links if you would like to learn more or submit an entry for an award.