Erin Korogodsky is Lithium's social media quarterback.  Obsessed with social media, Erin has worked with clients like Newell Rubbermaid, Wieden Kennedy and Vista Print to monitor their brands and brainstorm engagement strategy.  She is a frequent blogger on the Lithosphere (as ErinKoro) and you can follow her on twitter at @erinkoro and one of the team on @LithiumTech      Since I’ve been working in social media at Scout Labs and Lithium Technologies, people ask me all the time how to calculate the ROI of their monitoring/listening efforts.  Typically, my response is “I don’t know – what’s the ROI from answering your phone?  Reading your email?” Admittedly, this is a bit cheeky.  That’s for good reason - I don’t know what you know.  What are you listening for in the first place?    Lead generation?  Ideation?  Customer service?  Brand awareness?  Clearly, each of these areas has their own KPI’s, costs and potential savings.  The ROI doesn’t come from listening; it comes from what you have learned by listening.  Start with KPI’s because they lead you to ROI.   When I was invited to speak at the 2011 eMarketing Summit a Special Event @ InnoTech, I thought this was a hot topic to tackle.  I really wanted suggest a place to start, identify what to measure and put it into a format that’s easy to share with your team.     Since the event was in Portland, I absolutely had to get Dean McBeth from W+K to join me and frame the whole thing around the much-talked-about Old Spice Campaign.  Who can blame me?  These spots took off like a rocket ship that has yet to land.    While not everyone has the budget or even goal of creating a campaign of that scale, there’s much to be learned from the measurement methodology.  Quickie overview came from Susan Etlinger of Altimeter and goes like this:    first measure the volume and gain insights from what you can learn about your industry.   Then look at your own company and competitors.   Finally, look at products, events and campaigns.   Thanks again to Dean for joining and adding so much color commentary to boring old research and math.  Something about that Old Spice guy just makes everything sing.  Or whistle, whichever the case may be.   Slides / Methodology spreadsheet from the presentations are below and attached. Thanks to all who attended! This Method Ain’t Madness: Measuring the “Old Spice Guy” Campaign View more presentations from Erin Korogodsky     ... View more

Erin Korogodsky is Lithium's social media quarterback.  Obsessed with social media, Erin has worked with clients like Newell Rubbermaid, Wieden Kennedy and Vista Print to monitor their brands and brainstorm engagement strategy.  She is a frequent blogger on the Lithosphere (as ErinKoro) and you can follow her on twitter at @erinkoro and one of the team on @LithiumTech    Thank you to the editors of CRM magazine for naming us "The Maven" in their  "The 2011 Rising Stars"  pos t.   According to Wikipedia.com, "A maven (also mavin) is a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others. The word maven comes from the Hebrew, via Yiddish, and means one who understands, based on an accumulation of knowledge."     *blush*     Its fantastic to be recognized as a rising star while also acknowledging experience working for over a decade with some of the world's most well known and respected brands.  The results are game-changing and they're tied to real business metrics.  This ain't about "friends and followers" any more.  A few highlights:     GiffGaff is a mobile network without a call center -  customer issues are solved by community members (customers!).  95% of the issues are resolved in under an hour Sephora has captured the conversations happening all over the web and brought their customers closer to the point of transaction in their community     What makes this "social success" are customers helping other customers.  Powerful stuff.  Real ROI.  Social as a means, not an end.  Thanks again for recognizing us as a "Rising Star."  Lead by our obsession with our customer's success, we agree that the future is indeed, very bright.   ... View more

Erin Korogodsky is Lithium's social media quarterback.  Obsessed with social media, Erin has worked with clients like Newell Rubbermaid, Wieden Kennedy and Vista Print to monitor their brands and brainstorm engagement strategy.  She is a frequent blogger on the Lithosphere (as ErinKoro) and you can follow her on twitter at @erinkoro and one of the team on @LithiumTech    Let's face it – being nominated for an award is nice.  Winning the award is really nice.  When the award celebrates your customer's success?  Well that's what we're obsessed with over here at Lithium.   In that spirit, our whole team is honored to be named  The Core Award for Best Fixed Telecom Opportunity by Telecom Council of Silicon Valley.   This isn't just any old award.  The Telecom Council links big telecom carriers with the people and technology that supports their industry.  This area has always been one of our sweet spots and we're thrilled that the companies we support have recognized us out of the 100 companies considered!     Congratulations to the other winners – we're proud to be in such great company:    The Edison Award for Most Innovative Start-Up goes to Motally. The Ground Breaker Award for Engineering Excellence goes to Violin Memory. The Graham Bell Award for Best Communication Solutions goes to Aegis Mobility. The San Andreas Award for Most Disruptive Technology goes to AirHop Communications. The Zephyr Award for Best Mobile Opportunity goes to BOKU. The Prodigy Award for the Most Successful SPiF Alumni is Swype. The People’s Choice Award for the Technology Which Excited the Telecom Community the Most goes to Violin Memory. The Fred & Ginger Award for Most Supportive Carrier goes to Sprint for the active role of their Silicon Valley-based team in supporting telecom entrepreneurs.     Thank you again to the members of the Telecom Council of Silicon Valley, not only for the award but for keeping us on our toes along the way!   😉     ... View more

I’ll be the first to admit it. Old Spice reminds me of my grandfather. Not that its a bad thing - one whiff of Old Spice and the memories come flooding in so fast that I’m practically moved to tears.   I loved my Grandfather. He used to eat apples to the core, love the Chicago Cubs, chew Double-Mint gum, love us up and down, and yes, sport Old Spice. (Personally, I have always been a Drakkar Noir girl but that might be revealing a little too much about my self.)     So a few months back, when I saw the Old Spice Guy for the first time, at first I thought, what is that? The second time, I hit rewind 2X because I thought it was so funny. The third time, it was showcased at South by Southwest, highlighting humor in advertising and social media. Now, Isaiah Mustafa has signed a development deal with NBC and is known as The Old Spice Guy.      Now Old Spice Guy is replying to Tweets and Facebook mentions with personalized video’s. Everyone from theHuffington Post to Demi Moore are getting personal replies from Old Spice Guy, in a towel, hanging out in the bathroom.   Maybe I am a little bit of a geek but since I work at Scout Labs, I am super excited when I see a company leverage things that are going well and turn them into social media phenomenons. It’s special because it doesn’t happen that often. That said, I think that the Old Spice team has done an awesome job making Old Spice sexy (and funny) again.   So far this week, the Old Spice Guy’s buzz in the social web is up 859% with almost 4000 mentions. Mentions of Old Spice spiked when Isaiah Mustafa, aka Old Spice Guy, signed a development deal with NBC and again with personalized YouTube Videos. On Facebook, anyone can ask Old Spice Guy a question and you might get a video response! Some video’s have been up for only 1 day and now have +40,000 views. OldSpice on Twitter has 42,012 followers Old Spice has their own YouTube Channel (I just joined 73,000+ subscribers) Old Spice guy is well on his way into the English vernacular Major news sources like Huffington Post, LA Times, the UK’s Guardian are writing about this campaign. Every day, I hear reasons why big brands can’t engage in social media or reasons why its difficult to scale. I’m not calling BS here - it IS hard. What I am saying is that its time to think outside the box. These video’s have got to be inexpensive to produce and distribute. They are personalized for individuals and accessible for the masses, all at the same time. They’ve leveraged social media touch points in many different directions. They’ve modeled for all of us how to put the puzzle pieces together.   So next time you watch these commercials, think to yourself, “What about my product makes people laugh? What is ironic? What is provocative? What is timely?” And take those things online. Make them easy to share. Make them accessible to your fans, err customers, err audience, err, anyone who cares.   “Smell Like A Man, Man” is a brilliant campaign. Smart, sexy, funny and engaging. Clearly, Old Spice isn’t just for grandpa’s anymore.   Previously posted on scoutlabs.com/blogs on Jul 14, 2010 ... View more