Page 316 - Social Media Marketing

chapter 11: THE SOCIAL GRAPH ■applications that mine or otherwise tap the information exposed through the study of a
particular social graph. Michael noted applications ranging from driving participation
in online gaming— in one application, players with more than five friends in the game
were significantly more engaged than those with four or less—to the observation that the
spread of movie reviews is directly related to the respective graphs of the individuals who
publish reviews. All of this suggests the value of knowing, through measurement, who is
connected to whom, and how these connections can therefore be used to encourage addi-
tional connections.

In a specific example, Rapleaf worked with an online university to identify
opportunities to increase engagement (more direct participation in classes) and encour-
age recommendations to friends for specific classes (new business growth). Using
Rapleaf a program that identified the friends of prospective students who were already
students themselves—all done with explicit permission—resulted in proof that a signif-
icant increase in likelihood of new student conversion (+320 percent) is associated with
“having a friend who is also a student.” This quantitative knowledge, gained through
294 study of the social graph, resulted in the implementation of a “bring a friend to class”
promotion (your friend gets to attend class with you for free, for one week), an online
student center where prospective students can talk with current students, and a formal
new student referral recognition program.

Rapleaf: Decoding the Social Graph

Rapleaf provides a tool set that enables understanding of how your customers are connected
and what they are interested in. You can follow Michael Hsu, with Rapleaf’s marketing team on
Twitter (@mhsu) and learn more about the firm here:

http: //rapleaf.com

I asked Michael what he saw in the near-future as regards applications of social
graph analytics and measurement tools:

“What’s becoming clear is that an experience that is more ‘social’ and con-
nected for people is an experience that is more rewarding and engaging. It’s
one where both customers and businesses win—for customers, this means
more relevance, more fun, and more meaningful activity. For businesses,
this means more activity, more repeated engagement, better retention,
faster word of mouth and faster acquisition (through all the sharing).

“What we’re really going to see is a big push from consumer-facing
companies to connect ‘friends’ into their offering. Movie/food review
sites, shopping sites, media/newspaper sites, hotels, movie studios,