PRESS RELEASE


July 2009

As marketers search for ways to evaluate the effectiveness and value of social media in their marketing programs, Zocalo Group, a division of Ketchum and Omnicom Group, today unveiled its Digital Footprint Index (DFI), a new social media diagnostic tool developed to improve a marketer's ability to understand, measure and accelerate where and how brands are discussed and recommended across all social media channels.

The benefit of the DFI to marketers is that it helps recalibrate social media marketing programs midstream to more effectively and efficiently drive word of mouth and recommendation where consumers are active and engaged online.

Unlike other social media measurement tools that focus only on quantity and sentiment, the DFI, developed in conjunction with the Department of Marketing at DePaul University's Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, is a multi-dimensional measurement methodology that makes it easy for marketers to:

Pinpoint where and how consumers engage and interact with the brand;

Identify the social media channels consumers use to interact with the brand;

Determine how well consumers understand and share the brand's message;

Gauge the impact social media marketing efforts have on the growth of earned conversation;

Understand how a brand compares to key competitors using social media;

Track progress over time.


"Social media is a highly effective avenue to reach, engage and influence consumers to drive word of mouth and ultimately recommendation," said Patrick Rooney, partner at Zocalo Group.

"As marketers search for ways to evaluate the effectiveness and value of earned social media, the DFI helps them make better decisions by providing a full understanding of the interaction and impact of their social media efforts."

A brand's DFI is a single benchmark score that is tracked over time to measure the effectiveness of a brand's social media efforts, as well as its success relative to competitors. The Index measures three dimensions of a brand's earned online presence:

Height: the quantity of conversation and content about a brand across all social media channels, including blogs, forums, social networks, microblogs, picture sharing sites, video sharing sites, document sharing sites and bookmarking sites;

Width: the level of consumer engagement, interaction and sharing across all channels;

Depth: the level of message saturation and sentiment/tone


"Marketers want to understand how and where they are being discussed online, especially in relation to paid digital efforts," said Paul M. Rand, president and CEO of Zocalo Group.

"Unfortunately, there is no industry standard for measurement, and while quantity and sentiment are important metrics, the real story is in how consumers interact with the brand in different channels, and which of those is most effective in driving word of mouth and recommendation."

Using proven, leading-edge analysis tools, the DFI reflects the success of a brand's presence in social media relative to key competitors, and provides a benchmark to track progress over time.

A white paper - “Measuring Digital Word of Mouth” discussing the DFI can be downloaded from the Zocalo Group site.

"Marketers now have a robust tool to track how earned consumer conversation leads to brand preference and ultimately sales," said Suzanne Fogel, chair of the Department of Marketing at DePaul University.

"DFI provides the detail needed to understand the dynamics of online consumer conversation from multiple dimensions, and enables analysis that spans from a macro-level down to specific conversations in individual channels."

The Digital Footprint Index is part of Zocalo Group's comprehensive online and offline social media Measurement Suite to evaluate, measure and track the effectiveness, impact and value of a brand's earned conversation across social media channels.

"Zocalo Group continues to lead the industry in innovation and best practices, pushing the boundaries of how word of mouth and social media can help companies engage consumers," said Ray Kotcher, CEO of Ketchum.

"We're thrilled to bring this best-in-class approach to all of our clients."


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