Well, there is some really great stuff here......but one of the key things for me as a client of consultancies, agencies etc is the measurement side of social media.

Being able to analyze the impact of social media, has never ever been explained to me in a way that gives me the confidence to push this harder with our upper management teams, in order to secure funding for this type of activity.

I am a huge fan of social media, and as a user of 'el book and Twitter etc i can see an endless amount of oppurtunity in this space.....even though insurance is the most boring industry ever....maybe this could "sex" it up.

I am confident in my own ability to be creative with my pitches to the providers of the cash, but at the end of the day it comes down to hard, fast ROI and how we can effectivley measure it.....

Thoughts?

Hi Dave,

Absolutley agree that MOST pieces of digital work are re-inforced with analytics, however the people i have spoken to do not seem to be able to back up the social media idea with the analytics....

There are a number of things social media can do, in my opinion, some being easier to monitor impact that others:

- improve sales (i personally do not think that this should ever be the sole reason for a social media campaign)

- raise brand awareness (always a tricky ne to measure at the best of times)

- data collection (probably the easiest thing to measure)

if i am perfectly honest, my experience so far indicates that FS companies are far more sceptical of enetering the social media arena, than a retail brand....which is something that needs to change.....but this takes time.....am i am not patient.....i have been banging the drum for 2 years now!

I think retail beckons! :)

@Simon

I have met twice now a Senior Manager, Digital Marketing in your Consumer Banking Division. Perhaps we need to speak too?

We are discussing the use of a buzz monitoring toolset for you guys which allows you to get a real handle on thousands of conversations taking place about you, where they are taking place, by whom and, more importantly, the sentiment too.

Using citation analysis, qualifiers and a bunch of other techy stuff, we can teach the system to understand the sentiment (grades of positivity or negativity) of comments up to around 80% accuracy.

The beauty of this is that not only do you get to understand the biggest and fastest moving topics driving conversation, but also understand quickly and easily the meaning behind those comments.

It's the system that detected early activity in the Wispa re-birth, stopped the Joss Stone Flake ads appearing on tv and helps countless others monitor customer service or reputation problems - and we are already providing the system to some other major financial insitutions.

It's the tool on which we make all our strategic and tactical social media decisions.

Hope to hear form you soon.

Paul

Thanks Ashley and hi all,

My name is Dominic Sparkes and I'm the MD of Tempero, Europe's largest Social Media management and moderation company.

We currently moderate millions of messages each month 24/7 in over 6 languages for clients such as the BBC, Channel 4, Sainsburys, Marks & Spencer, Lloyds TSB, NSPCC, Ford, Nokia, British Airways, Sky, Virgin Media, Arsenal, Liverpool, Man U Football clubs, Sony, NHS, Fiat, Alfa and many more.

Every member of staff is police checked and we don't hire freelancers or students. Every moderator is a highly experienced community/social media professional.

We also advise on Social Media strategy and help our clients to reach their objectives, quickly and effectively.

Our aim is to always save our clients time, money and stress (not always all three at the same time but we try!).

It's fantastic to see we officially have a Social Media industry now and even better to see some fantastic names in the posts above.

Please don't hesitate to shout for help or feel free to pop to see us for a  coffee or game of table football (just off oxford Circus).

Here's to a great 2009.

Cheers,

Dom Sparkes (020 7636 1200 / dominic.sparkes@tempero.co.uk)

Ah bless yer, thanks Paul.

There's a lot of love in this room :-)

Dom