SocialTwist Launches "Influencer Quotient" to Assess the Impact of Social Marketing for Brands

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., June 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- SocialTwist (www.SocialTwist.com), a premier social referral marketing platform transforming the way brands reach, acquire and retain customers using their social connections, today announced the launch of its innovative Influencer Quotient (iQ) product. SocialTwist's iQ helps brands classify customers into "influence segments" based on the impact of their social influence on driving measurable brand outcomes, specifically conversions and sales. This new measurement builds on top of the social referral platform that generated more than 10 million referrals for customers in 2012.

Unlike most influence metrics today that evaluate parameters like the number of Facebook friends and Likes, followers on Twitter, mentions in LinkedIn and other unrelated parameters, iQ is a rigorous statistical approach that precisely measures the social outreach of individuals and its impact on desired brand outcomes within the marketing funnel – from impressions to conversions. It then assigns consumers into actionable influence groups, based on standardized scores derived from these measurements.

With over 600 million people using social networks every day, and 90 percent of all consumer purchase decisions being influenced by the advice and recommendations of their friends, brands are clamoring for more clarity about who drives their bottom line, and how they can reach them. These consumer insights can only be derived from the analysis of actual behavior.

"Measuring the actual impact of social media marketing — one of the most significant trends in marketing and demand generation today — is still very challenging, even in the current age of metrics-driven marketing," said Trip Kucera, Aberdeen Group Senior Research Analyst for Marketing Effectiveness in Aberdeen's April 2012 Measuring Social Media Marketing report. He noted: "Plenty of tools support the ability to track social followers and click-throughs, but the practice of connecting social media with measurable business results remains elusive for many companies."

SocialTwist's iQ is based on the marketing premise that a consumer influences others – on behalf of a brand – by driving awareness, engagement, affiliation and conversion. SocialTwist measures each outcome, constructs an associated composite "iQ" score for each consumer, and then groups them. The score reflects a consumer's effectiveness in promoting the brand's product and services. This allows brands to engage more deeply with those individuals who drive business for them and truly impact their bottom line.  

"We actually observe a type of 80-20 rule, where about 15 percent of all influencers drive 80 percent of a brand's desired outcomes," said Vijay Sundaram, CMO and head of Sales, SocialTwist. "We segment customers, based on measured impact, into meaningful and actionable categories that help brands build tailored strategies, like loyalty, membership, premium services, and others that value the right customers."

SocialTwist's iQ is the industry's first composite score of an individual's social influence as measured through actual behavior in social marketing programs. iQ scores are weighted by the importance of the outcomes created. For example, conversions from referrals are more valuable, hence scored higher, than mere impressions.  Influencer scores can be standardized across brands and marketing programs.

SocialTwist's iQ then segments influencers into five categories. Segments are actionable and named – like Champions, Supporters, and Passives – and assigned based on normalized iQ scores. While smallest in number, Champions are those who really drive the lion's share of bottom line results for a company. This segment is now identifiable and actionable for appropriate brand outreach.

"We anticipate that brands will use iQ in a variety of ways, in programs that drive memberships, product promotions and product launches," said Sundaram.

For more information on SocialTwist's iQ, please visit here.  

About SocialTwist
SocialTwist is a social referral marketing platform that transforms the way brands reach, acquire, and retain new customers. Customers are motivated to refer others through their social connections – thereby driving awareness, engagement and purchase. Since 2008, more than 50 of the world's largest brands including Kimberly Clark, Sara Lee, Procter & Gamble, ConAgra Foods, MetLife, Barnes & Noble, and others have worked with SocialTwist to integrate low-cost social referral programs into their marketing efforts. In addition to consumer products, SocialTwist solutions serve customers in financial services, membership organizations, hospitality, entertainment and other sectors.

Visit us at www.socialtwist.com, sign up for our newsletter, or come interact with us on our blog and Facebook. SocialTwist was named a "Cool Vendor" in Gartner's Cool Vendors in Consumer Goods 2012 report.

SOURCE SocialTwist