TOTEM BUZZ: Building Brand Equity with Branded Content
How do we measure the value of content? It’s a question that Totem is often asked and, these days, the most interesting answer is social amplification — how much the content has been shared and who is sharing it. There’s intrinsic value to content that someone is willing to share. After all, they’re putting their name behind it and sharing with their trusted circle of friends.
SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE
According to a recent study by AOL and the Huffington Post, content is the fuel of the social web. They looked at how the social web interacts with content, including branded content. The study found that across all social media (social networks, blogs, sharing emails, IM, etc) people share more than 27,000,000 pieces every single day. That means that almost a quarter (23%) of all social media messages are sharing content.
The best news for marketers, though, is that 60% of content-sharing messages mention a specific brand or product name. Within the retail space, for example, almost half of the conversations are about content, and 60% of those conversations are brand or product specific. In short: “content sharing is an authentic activity among consumers that connects their peer network to brands.”
FIND THE VALUE
But what is the dollar value of sharing all this content? If you take the traditional media model of putting ads in front of the right eyeballs, the amount is significant. First, we set a CPM (cost per thousand) value of around $4. Then we assume that out of the 27,000,000 shares there are at least 10,000,000 people involved, and that’s $40,000 every single day, just for exposure.
However, given that most of the content is shared with highly engaged “eyeballs” (trusted friends and family), the CPM would be more like $25+. This brings the value of shared content closer to $250,000 a day. Now that’s value.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Of course, it’s worth nothing if brands aren’t involved in the conversations about them. According to a report by Forrester Research, only about half of the 99 CMOs and marketing VPs they surveyed said that social media is fully integrated into their brand-building strategy. The same amount also said that they were “not sure how to capitalize on it.”
That’s where Totem comes in. Good branded content is like engaging in a great conversation: if it’s meaningful to you, you’ll continue with it. And if you’re engaged, it’s probably the beginning of a beautiful (brand) relationship.
May 9 2012 • Chris Osborne • Uncategorized • 1 Comment • 
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That is a good point, that when the public recognizes good content they basically equate it to meaningful relationships. That is so key. We are such relational beings, anyways.