Social media innovation took over the NonProfit Center in Boston on September 21st, as leading vendors Unmetric, StatSocial and Mavrck sat down with local marketers eager to dig into the latest in social. The fast-moving interactive format, in which the attendees shifted tables, was not classic presentation style but more a dialogue, with the speakers leading discussions covering strategy, data, research, benchmarking, and case studies. After an quick intro from AMA Boston VP of Programming Mary-Katherine McCarey, the groups dove in.
Unmetric: Lux Narayan, CEO
Unmetric is a SaaS provider that helps brands use AI-powered marketing insights to create compelling content.
Lux started by describing the company’s delivery of “context for social” for their clients to understand the social dynamics of their own marketing as well as that of competitors. Unmetric assesses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram for 100,000 brands and provides the client with core data on campaign intelligence, reach, impressions, number of fans, engagement, and much more
Xia, the c
ompany’s AI (artificial intelligence) platform, helps the company go beyond the data into insights, on the client’s “share of voice” and the ability to to drill into campaigns and understand nuance such as, “why did we get a burst of fans on XX date?” Clients can gain subtle competitive insights on, say, what auto brands are talking about love on Valentine’s Day, as well as fill more traditional marketing needs such as content planning, campaign planning, and ideation.
Lux, who has been featured on Ted Talks, took many questions and shared insights from specific cases such as FedEx and American Airlines, which wants to know how its social response times compare with its competition’s. The group also learned about social media challenges with hashtags and nomenclature, AI’s ability to provide information on non-public activity (though not dark posts), and the benefits of “stringing together all the channels.” He believes “social is the place for brands now” and there will be increasing need for all companies to understand the social media facts and implications of their campaigns – and of their competitors’.
StatSocial: Darren Dodge, Head of Sales and BizDev
StatSocial helps clients understand and reach their optimal social audience
Darren gave his tablemates an understanding of the scope of his company’s stunning capabilities:
650 million records- 55,000 different segments
- 20,000 influencers
- 300 million records with email
StatSocial works with marketers, agencies and media companies to provide a wide variety of demographic and psychographic data as well as increasingly sophisticated information on search experiences and consumer habits and attitudes relating to TV shows, sports, politics, video games, influencers and more. Darren responded to our questions about how clients use the company’s data by describing three options: showing companies what their market looks like; helping them create targeted ads and campaigns, e.g. to 30-35 year-old women who like yoga and live in southern California; to full service partnership in which clients like Macy’s can access all available data for campaigns for the length of the agreement.
By revealing the “customized DNA of your social audience” through their unique demographics – gender, income, education, race, location and more – StatSocial is helping companies as diverse as Mashables, Macy’s and Time Warner make smarter decisions around their audiences. Darren shared a few more case studies before time ran out.
Mavrck: Smith Anderson, Director of BizDev
Mavrck discovers & activates influencers, advocates, referrors & loyalists in an integrated platform
The importance of influencer marketing is growing rapidly as consumers look to social media for advice and ratings. Smith summarized Mavrck as tracking the “influence of influencers,” especially the degree of influence. Starting with his pyramid ranging from rare Mega influencers like Matthew McConaughey to large numbers of 
Advocates, Referrers and Loyalists at the bottom, Smith explained the fundamentals of influencer marketing, including the role of each level in the social process, how contributors are compensated, and how Mavrck assesses influence.
While the top three tiers (including Macro and Micro) are trusted to create their own content, the middle tiers are relied on by brands to amplify content, while loyalists and referrers are rewarded for giving feedback on the brand or product. Smith noted that a loyalist may have about 4,000 Instagram followers and be happy with free product from Godiva in return for their social activities.
Smith encouraged an open discussion that covered how Mavrck finds influencers at various levels, tracks how influential the individuals are (using personalized URLs), and works with brands on a variety of ways to select the best influencers for a campaign; some may start with 10,000 people to get 100 participants, while others start with a much more targeted pool. Smith concluded by noting the next step for Mavrck is going beyond understanding the activity of the influencer to knowing the buyer’s side as well.
AMA Boston would like to thank the three terrific presenters and the engaged participants for a great evening of social media innovation. We hope to see you at our next big event, a strategic planning workshop, on October 17th.
