Who is the Social Media Marketer of the Year?

When I launched Conversation Agent back in the summer of 2006, I had a pretty simple concept. My observation was that the line between marketing and public relations would be blurring considerably with greater adoption of social media. The idea that brands should start learning good manners, show personality, and behave is now starting to take hold.

In other words, marketers would have to become better communicators, skilled at one to one relationships, just like their colleagues in public relations.

I must have worked in a recession for the better part of my career as I cannot recall a time when I was responsible for one and not the other. At some point I even came to define myself as a professional operating at the intersection of marketing and PR - where the people and ideas are.

Fast forward to today and you now have practitioners involved in social media and community who come from a wide variety of professional backgrounds and skill sets.

The most common so far in what I have encountered are: interactive or digital marketing, digital media, corporate communications. As I stated before, I think public relations professionals are well poised to work very well with social media. They are more acquainted with the idea of personal outreach.

Everyone can use some help with conversation.

It's not all talk anymore. Social media is becoming part of our language and behavior - as customers first, as professionals a close second. The terminology may or will change, the dynamics remain. It's extreme personalization driving it - listening, having a voice, making a difference to the final results.

With all of this in mind, if it doesn't hurt too much, I think it would be interesting to propose how I would do a list from which to nominate the Social Media Marketer of the Year.

This is no Nobel Prize, which took  place a couple of months ago with Medicine and Physics opening up the honors. This selection would not be quite as rigorous as those, and hopefully not as contentious or mysterious as that of the Prize for Literature. It might sit somewhere in between. The world is smaller now - global professionals and women (did you know that only 5% won the Prize?) should be on the list.

Each single list I have seen online has been created and maintained by an individual.

Because this is social media, and I am after all the Conversation Agent, if I were to do this, I would hand pick a panel of judges to join me in the collection of metrics and evaluation of the professionals in the running. Together, we'd choose metrics that are less open to personal judgment. Although what would social media be without opinion?

Potentially metrics like:

REACH: Based on Quantcast. This requires participating sites to place the code. They wouldn't be competitive without it, anyway. Alexa is okay at detecting traffic surges in sites which already have a fair amount of traffic. But it's awful -- really awful -- at ranking niche sites. So it would be useless for our purposes.

INFLUENCE: Based on RSS count. RSS shows that readers are committed to a site. If FeedBurner stats are public, we would look at those. Otherwise we'd have to go with Google Reader stats. These represent only part of a site's RSS base, but they're the biggest, and can be looked up. Everyone could be on a level playing field.

CONVERSATION: Because I am the Conversation Agent. We'd total the number of comments on each ranked site (by hand) for one week out of the month-long survey period. Think of it as sweeps week. Which week is a close secret. Comments left at other sites would also count and be included, whenever possible. I realize this would be tricky.

CONSISTENCY: Nobody ranks this. The panel counts the total number of days in which someone posts during the month. We would also look at the quality of the posts written.

INNOVATION: The secret sauce metric, but it'd be based on a panel, not one person. Everyone ranks each site, based on originality: How often are they leading topics, not following? What they say isn't as important as being fresh and vibrant -- stepping out of the echo chamber. Analysis and solid content would trump newsy posts.

OVERALL: A sum of the above, which should also yield a nice ROI (return on involvement and influence; the investment of time, attention and care).

Who would have thought we'd come up with an Italian word? From the Jim Collins laboratory:

A Hedgehog (riccio) Concept is not a goal to be the best, a strategy to be the best, an intention to be the best, a plan to be the best. It is an understanding of what you can be the best at. The distinction is absolutely crucial.

This list would not be open to everyone. You must be nominated by your peers to be ranked. If I were to publish a list, this is how I'd go about it.

[image of Sonic the Hedgehog, Wikipedia]

Comments

[Bryan Person]

Valeria:

I like how you're thinking about this potential award and the criteria you and your panel would be using to make the decision.

So the next logical question is, why not turn the conditional into the present and actually do this? I'd certainly be following the proceedings?

Bryan Person | @BryanPerson
LiveWorld

[Marc Meyer]

What's interesting to note is that, that kind of person, the practitioner at the intersection ideally needs to possess all these backgrounds that you have mentioned. It doesn't mean that if you don't possess one of these traits that you cannot be successful but..ideally it would serve one well to understand all of these backgrounds because...social media and social media marketing is a melting pot of so many things, it truly is a potluck of all things social, happening at once. it's truly a mashup. In baseball, to use a simple analogy-the 5 tool player is a can't miss.

I'd like to add another intangible metric- and thats, Likeability.

[Ryan Stephens]

Valeria,

Like Brian I would definitely follow the proceedings provided this came to fruition.

I think the metrics you have outlined would definitely increase the validity of the contest; however, I also think it would entail a lot of work for your panel of judges.

I suspect there would still be a solid amount of value from asking a lot of respected social media marketers who their personal social media marketer of the year was and tallying the votes. You would ask them to consider your criteria (or a criteria) of course, but not necessarily as in-depth as you've outlined.

Though, my Dad always told me that if something was worth doing, it was worth doing right.

Best wishes!

[Paul M. Banas]

An excellent idea, and I like how objective metrics would be the cornerstone of the awards, versus subjective opinion.

Although they probably probably wouldn't pass the "good manners" litmus test or rank there for consistency, I'd throw my hat in the ring for the darkhorse Social Media Marketer of the Year: Motrin.

[Michelle / chelpixie]

Valeria, you know I'm a constant reader and I'd definitely be following along with Bryan to see the results.

There are a lot of good candidates. How would you take nominations? From anyone or from a specific group of people?

[Lauren Vargas]

"The Nobel is a ticket to one's own funeral. No one has ever done anything after he got it." - TS Elliot

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Bryan - it would be interesting, wouldn't it?

@Marc - right on with likeability.

@Ryan - not a day goes by without a list being issued. Many of those have a bit of the old ways network in them. When I thought through this, cumbersome as it is, I wanted to imagine what it would be like to err on the side of actual data more.

@Michelle - that would also depend on the panel and their input, I think.

@Lauren - and I said in the post, that this is no Nobel ;-)

[Francois Gossieaux]

Valeria - let's do it! Maybe we can leverage the power of a crowd instead of a panel. We could have a weekly poll on all the ctagories with a group - say the Marketing 2.0 group (www.marketingtwo.net - which I run, and which now has close to 1,200 members and a good conversation), or multiple groups.

We should catch up one of these days - it's been way too long!

[Paul Merrill]

Opinion?

I nominate Chris Brogan.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Francois - community would be great to help sort and rally. I would prefer panel for the picking and measuring. We should definitely touch base. We crossed paths a couple of times in recent weeks... I'm around this weekend.

@Paul - not so fast. Plus, I doubt Chris needs the endorsement of this modest blog. I can tell you that the commenting on other blogs and outreach would weigh in considerably if we were to do this.

[Ari Herzog]

I never thought about quantifying Quantcast for my blog. I've used the tool many times, though. Heh.

About to add the code. Thanks!

[Marshall Sponder]

Hey, this sounds like a great idea.

How about people agree, ahead of time, this year, to be measured for marketer of the year, for next year, and they put all those things into their blogs now... and then we'll look at the end of next year.

One thing that will make your life easier, I noticed Radian6 will count the number of comments and unique commentators per blog (you have to set up the profile with a comprehensive set of keyword phases for this - that's what I noticed).

All I'm saying - is - you tell people ahead of time - say, like in the Olympics, what the criteria is (like your doing) and every location where competition is set up - everything is collected in a common format.

That's what is hampering a lot of marketing now ... don't you think?

Why are Marketers often the first to be layed off when management changes, or during a recession?

Probably because, most, I suspect, can't prove their campaigns were effective.

[Connie Bensen]

It's a great idea Valeria, but I'm wondering if it should be a top 10 or top 25 like Mack Collier does.

You mentioned one grey area in the first paragraph - marketing & pr are blending. Will that make it difficult?

If you decide to take on the project, I would provide Techrigy SM2's capability's for social media monitoring. (I'm not sure if it makes sense to be counting posts, comments, influence, etc by hand when there are tools to do so.) I'd be glad to help. Your metrics are great.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Ari - do let me know how Quantcast goes. I have received conflicting reports since I published this post.

@Marshall - marketers, customer service people and administrative staff are the first to e laid off. Accounting and HR do not need to prove their work was effective. The problem is that everyone thinks they know how to do marketing and customers service and effective administrative work. They don't. I will be posting about tying results to efforts...

@Connie - thank you for the kind offer, I'll take you up on it, if I were to actually do this ;-) Blending of PR and marketing will not make it difficult as those who excel are already doing it, I think. Well, yes, I did talk about a list.

[Anne Roberts]

I read that Kim Power Stilson of Power Strategies was voted the Social Media Marketer of the Year for 2008 on google yesterday.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Funny, someone by the name of Debbie Cluff just left a semi-identical comment on this post at Social Media Today. Coincidence?

Do you have any information on how it was decided? I found the entry on Google, but not the criteria. What I'm talking about here is through a community-based conversation and really more of a list than just one person.

[AlliWill]

On the tail end - only 5% of women have received the Nobel - who have the JUDGES been - who shall the JUDGES be - you're at the top in my book and as your readers keep increasing - it must be so :)

Thank you for your Mambia Post today - the real world struggles as global politics plays itself out. Blessings to everyone.

[Anne Roberts]

How funny that we submitted the same thing, that is the owner of Links for Learning, who awarded Kim "social media marketer of the year". I know she was awarded by Links for Learning, which is an online marketing coaching site, for her contribution with her new book "Get online and Blog, Ping, Pod, Stream, Bookmark, Blast, Release, Wiki, Widget, Web, Link, Avatar, Tag & Twitter!What is it and how do I do it? An Education Guide to the Internet, the World Wide Web and Online Social Media Communications" Which is just a basic course that teaches the "EVERYONE" about social media.

[Anne Roberts]

They even have a free glossary of "social media terms" on the Power Strategies site.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Alli - thank you for your kind words. With advice and information shared over 715 posts on an average of 500 words, I'm thinking I have also written a book.

@Anne - got it. It sounds like one organization using a same title for the award. As I stated in the post, I consider the conversation the place where it plays out over time and professional peers and readers alike to be part of it. Yes, there are many amazingly useful books and tools out there written by colleagues, friends and practitioners around the world.

[Nathan Ketsdever]

If you go to http://www.links-for-learning.com/
it seems that the ladies are affiliates or friends of some sort. Not one but two graphic links to her friend's site. Even what appears to be a blog link goes to her friend/affiliate's blog. Very, very odd.

Seems pretty bogus to me.

(They clearly went all out to announce such a prestigious award)

[Valeria Maltoni]

Thank you for looking into it, Nathan. I worked with colleagues who were like that - more focused on advertising what they were working on than actually getting results for the company. There may not be new ideas under the sun, but there surely are new implementations.