The Vitrue Blog

This Media Post article (Online Buzz About Motrin Ad Already On the Wane ) highlights our ability to follow trends in social media with the Vitrue SMI. Karlene Lukovitz spoke with our CEO, Reggie Bradford, about the Motrin story earlier today.

"That fact that people care enough to tweet or blog about Motrin indicates that there's passion about the brand. Motrin should now be able to take the feedback, continue the conversation, and harness that passion for the positive," said Reggie Bradford.

Looking at Vitrue SMI data for the past week, you can see the Motrin bump:

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Thoughts? Opinions? Share them by sounding off in our comments and start a conversation.

Here's an update on the 2008 election data from the Vitrue SMI. It's interesting to compare the popular vote to the share of voice between Obama and McCain going into election day.

On 11/2
Obama Vitrue SMI score = 7140 (54.1%)
McCain Vitrue SMI score = 6050 (45.9%)

On 11/3
Obama Vitrue SMI score = 7140 (53.2%)
McCain Vitrue SMI score = 6270 (46.8%)

On 11/4
Popular vote of election
Obama 53%
McCain 46%

Updated chart with data through today:

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In a recent article, AdAge names Obama the Marketer of the Year. From the article, Linda Clarizio, president of AOL's Platform A said, "I think he did a great job of going from a relative unknown to a household name to being a candidate for president." and Angus Macaulay, VP-Rodale marketing solutions said, "To see what he's done, to be able to create a social network and do it in a way where it's created the tools to let people get engaged very easily. It's very easy for people to participate."

Well I couldn't agree more. No matter who you are voting for, it's hard to ignore the impact of social media on the 2008 elections. Brand marketers should take note of the candidates embracement of social media. In past posts I have shown the Tina Fey affect on social media conversations as well as the recent rise in social popularity of McCain. Here's the latest Vitrue SMI data showing Obama's lead over McCain.

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I also took a list of political topics from both camps' websites and created a Vitrue Social Share of Voice report about their issues. Interestingly the top 5 social topics for McCain are Economy, Energy, Education, Women, and Taxes. Obama's top 5 conversations include Family, Education, Iraq, Women, Economy.

Are you embracing social media? How social is your advertising? Questions, comments, statements? Sound off in the comments link below and get the conversation started.

Today's Vitrue SMI scores show that McCain not only caught up with Obama, but is slightly ahead. Looking at their respective brand's Social Share of Voice, we see McCain (35.6%), barely edging out Obama (34.6%), while Palin (26.3%) completely towers over Biden (3.46%).

Both presidential candidates saw a bump in their social conversation volume coming out of the final debate last Wednesday. McCain increased 150% while Obama's bump was only 37% (four-times less than McCain). If you combine the respective ticket's current indexes, the social media race comes out McCain-Palin (10,570) over Obama-Biden (6,491). It's safe to assume that much of Palin's scores is assisted by the Fey factor.

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Check your Vitrue SMI score at http://vitrue.com/smi

Questions? Thoughts? Sound off in the comments below.

If you haven't seen the article on Forbes.com featuring the Vitrue SMI, check it out.

Yesterday we spoke with Elizabeth Woyke who afterwards crafted the article "Tina Fey For President!" (Blogs and social-networking sites have spoken: Tina Fey should run for president.) on Forbes.com. The articles is great and shows a unique use of the Vitrue SMI. Elizabeth talks about the rise of the political brands in social media over the past 2 months. Here's a chart that shows more details:

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As the article points out, the Vitrue SMI is an easy way to measure your brand name's social presence; Burger King (84.9), Taco Bell (46.4), Starbucks (281), Apple's iPhone (1,330), Q-tips (1.52), Coke (230), and Pepsi (164). In addition to your overall index score, you should also understand what mediums are affecting it. Take a look at this report comparing Obama and Coke. Looking at the pie charts you will see that 85.8% of Obama's score comes from Micro-Blogs where Coke is more evenly distributed across Micro-Blogs (26.25%), Video Sharing (22.5%) and Social Networks (47.39%).

Do you know your Vitrue SMI? Give it a try now:

Share your score in a comment. Need help improving your scores? Just ask our social media experts.

Yesterday in "Brandweek" (article link) I read about the recent soup wars that have been waged between Campbell and Progresso. Basically each brand is slinging the MSG mud like two politicians in the throes of an election. While the article talks about running full page ads in the NY Times, I wonder if these brands considered social media? I tend to think harmful additives in food is a topic consumers will be passionate about.

Using the Vitrue SMI tool I discovered that Campbell Soup is 10 x more talked about in social media than Progresso Soup (report link). Also "Campbell Soup MSG" is 40 x more talked about than Progresso (report link) but ultimately these scores are extremely low. Proving their message hasn't gone social.

Now I'm sure one might think that taking on hazardous topics with social media might be a bit risky. I on the other hand think it shows true authenticity and a willingness for a brand to connect with their consumers. What's your opinion? Should the soup wars go social? Sound off in our comments below.

Side note: The Vitrue SMI is a new tool created by Vitrue to help marketers, agencies and social experts easily measure a brand's conversation. Check out http://vitrue.com/smi to use the tool. It's free and easy.

Measuring your brand's conversations across social media has often been a challenge, if not almost impossible. Well, I'm excited to say that's changing! A team of social media experts here at Vitrue have recently developed a new marketing metric to help marketers, and advertisers gain insight into their brand's conversations.

The Vitrue Social Media Index™ report is an easy to understand measurement of your brand's online conversations. Based on our patent-pending service, index scores are comprised of various online conversations from text-dense micro-blogs to multi-dimensional video sites. The Vitrue SMI score provides a snapshot in time to help make sense of the overwhelming amount of measurable data.

Anyone can use the Viture SMI, by going to http://vitrue.com/smi/. Since the index represents a snapshot, marketers will find it valuable to grab a baseline and comeback to check their index over time. Saving that baseline or any index is easy. Simply enter your email address and the Vitrue SMI will send you a unique URL to your historical report. Don't worry, we won't spam you or sell your email address. Although you might get a response from myself or another social media expert asking for feedback.

Ready to explore? Here's some examples to get you started:
Coke vs. Pepsi
CBS vs. NBC
iPod vs. Zune
Of course you can get your own results at http://vitrue.com/smi/

The Vitrue SMI measures data across popular social networks, video sharing sites, micro-blogs, photo sharing sites and the general blogosphere. Vitrue also offers a more in depth social media analysis to their clients and partners and can help create a Social Share of Voice report.

The Social Share of Voice, shows a brand's weight against their competition or other defined terms. Take a look at these two Social Share of Voice reports. The first compares hybrid automotive brands (Hybrid Autos). The second report compares, the lesser green, truck brands (Truck Brands).
(note: hovering over each bar will show the Social Share of Voice, clicking each bar will take you to the repspective Vitrue SMI report. )

Have you tried the Vitrue SMI? Do you have questions or comments? Drop us a note in the form below and let's start the conversation.

Well, if you're the state of Missouri, a lot. Next week (September 8th) Missouri kicks off their 2nd annual Tour of Missouri International Cycling Race. This year the tour will include an online social community where fans, tourists, teams and Tour personnel can upload and share content. The social network is called Fanzone and is integrated with the Tour's main site. The social community includes photo and video uploading, commenting, member profiles, and member messaging. Mobile upload is also available and obviously important to an event based social experience like the Tour or Missouri.

"We will be providing video cameras to Tour personnel and each of the 15 teams in the race in order to capture behind-the-scenes footage, which is usually never seen by the public. Team footage could include views from caravan vehicles following the race or team strategy sessions," said Steve Brunner, president of KOM Sports, which markets the event. "The partnership with Vitrue has been trailblazing from the beginning. They have been incredible to work and brainstorm with. They've been able to mold the site to the needs of the race."

Oh yeah, I didn't mention the fact that Tour of Missouri's Fanzone is a Vitrue powered site. Read the press release if you want the details...

I'm personally excited about the Tour's combination of event marketing, social media and mobile upload. I can think of numerous events from my past that could have been significantly enhanced with an online social community. This isn't our first time bridging live events to online social communities, and it surely won't be our last.

Are you attending the Tour of Missouri? Have you engaged an online social community built exclusively for a real world event? Want to participate in a dialog about social media strategies? Sound off in the comments below. We're listening!

At Vitrue we have a long track record of creating successful partnerships with some of the greatest publishers, brand marketers and agencies. How each of these partners taps into social media can differ in approach, needs and expected results. In the latest Adotas article, Reggie Bradford our CEO, discusses how agencies can focus on their core competencies and leverage social media tools for success:

Agencies need tool kits to harness the power of social media. They should concentrate on taking their creative expertise and brand strategy know-how and applying it to the medium, and then focus their efforts on understanding the canvas that social media provides.

Click through to Adotas to read the full article. When you are done, drop us a comment below with your opinion.

The Vitrue powered Ben & Jerry's Imagine campaign has gotten plenty of buzz, and rightfully so. Ben & Jerry's hit the sweet spot with a new flavor, a cool social app, and a cause everyone can appreciate. You have seen Ben & Jerry's Imagine haven't you?

So it was of no surprise when I learned that Vitrue is up for the vote on AdWeek's People's Choice Buzz Awards featuring Ben & Jerry's Imagine. You can see our entry and most importantly vote for us at:

http://www.adweekbuzz.com/

Don't forget to checkout Ben & Jerry's Imagine campaign and leave your message of peace. And, while you're feeling chatty, drop us a note in the comments below.