Just got an email from my friend at GPYR, Ben Phillips, who sent me some really interesting ideas on the effect of Social Media on TV Series success.

"David Godes is a Harvard Academic who empirically demonstrated a correlation between online conversation with the future success of a television show. Frequency and breadth of conversation were identified as primary predictors of successful ratings. http://www.people.hbs.edu/dgodes/womfinal.pdf
 
Whether the same can be said for brands is questionable, particularly mundane bits and pieces like cleaning products etc. Despite this, his research shows how important digital social interaction and word of mouth are in determining demand and interest.
 
Soooo how do our campaigns promote conversation? How do our initiatives fit into existing conversation centers online and foster interaction? and on a slightly different note, how can we create environments that will house these exchanges?"

Thanks Ben, to answer some of your questions, Social Media Marketing and Consumer Engagement!. We have writted some posts recently on What is Social Media is and how to engage social media and how to stimulate the consumer discussions around your brand.

Interesting stuff.

If your interested in Social Media Marketing and extracting value from Influencer Engagement, Give us a buzz. We would be happy to kick around a few ideas with you :)