I’m extremely excited to announce the Vitrue Social Media Index Version 1.0. Yes, we have officially moved from Beta with our 1.0 release. It was just a year ago this month, when we started developing the Vitrue Social Media Index (SMI) and released our first public Beta in October 2008.

The past nine months have brought many accolades for the Vitrue SMI, from the Forbes coverage of Fey/Palin to the ever popular Vitrue 100 - Most Social Brands of 2008, the Vitrue SMI has caught the attention of some of the top marketing influencers and executives. All told the Vitrue SMI provided a great foundation for what it set out to do - help the industry define social media measurement.  You can read more about the Vitrue SMI in the news at  http://vitrue.com/press-room

But, most importantly the Vitrue SMI has cemented Vitrue as a leading expert on social media buzz and offered marketers priceless information about their brands. So, it comes as no surprise that we continue our investment in the Vitrue SMI.

As the social media landscape continues to evolve, so must the Vitrue SMI. To keep up with the evolution, we have re-calibrated the algorithm to reflect site growth, decline and popularity from the major social networks. In addition we have added share functionality of reports directly to Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and as well as blog/site embed codes.

How social is your brand? Try the new Vitrue Social Media Index:

One of the coolest new features of the Vitrue SMI are “Live Charts”. You can now share or post a “Live Chart” of your Vitrue SMI score and everyday the chart will dynamically update with the current Vitrue SMI score. This can be handy to include on a blog, presentation or intranet. In addition, you can share a static chart called “Today’s Chart”. Sharing or posting “Today’s Chart” will only display the score when you shared it (it’s static). Here’s a couple of live charts for Coke and Pepsi:

About the Vitrue Social Media Index Methodology:

Each day, Vitrue analyzes the online conversations on a variety of social networks, blogs, status updates (aka micro-blogs), photo and video sharing sites.

The Vitrue SMI calculates scores about the brand’s social conversations. We apply a series of algorithms to reflect the frequency of usage, the size of the social media environment, and the magnitude of the conversation. The result is a single numeric score for each brand: the Vitrue Social Media Index (SMI).

Vitrue SMI scores to provide a simple, relative measure of conversations on the web.

The two most common uses are:

1. Tracking movement of a single brand over time
2. Comparing a brand with its competitors, either at an individual point in time or over a period of weeks or months

The changing world of online conversations results in significant movements up and down for brands.

Vitrue’s SMI reflects a combination of patent-pending technology, proprietary methodologies, and continuous refinement based on daily feedback and calibration. It provides the marketer with the industry’s simplest, most direct snapshot of conversations on the social web.

Questions or feedback? Join the conversation and leave a comment below.

Many people question if a brand’s marketing efforts in social media are going to deliver results.  That’s a good question, but what kind of results?  Brands use marketing to accomplish a number of different objectives from brand awareness to direct response sales.  There’s also general brand loyalty and customer retention to consider.

Interbrand developed its own method for valuating the best global brands and it does so on an annual basis.  The result is a ranking of the 100 most “valuable” brands, which includes the likes of Coca-Cola, IBM and Microsoft.  Vitrue also released its own list, The Vitrue 100, which is a ranking of the 100 most “social” brands.

We thought it would be very interesting to do a thorough comparison  of the two lists to see if social value translates into overall brand value.  After all – doesn’t a brand want people talking about their brand and products?  Isn’t that why big brands spend millions on Super Bowl commercials, so people will talk about their brand and eventually buy their products as a result of those discussions?

Some interesting findings were discovered from our comparison of the 2008 rankings of the Vitrue 100 and the Interbrand 100:

1. 68% of the Interbrand 25 are also in the Vitrue 100.  Key examples include Coca-Cola (Interbrand #1 and Vitrue #22); Microsoft (Interbrand #3 and Vitrue #11); Apple (Interbrand #24 and Vitrue #3)
2. Some key brands with a large percentage change in Interbrand’s ranking from 2007 are ranked highly in the Vitrue 100.  For example, BlackBerry wasn’t even on Interbrand’s list in 2007 but jumped into spot #73 in 2008 and sits at #20 on the Vitrue 100.  Could their recent social activity be playing a part in the brand’s overall value?
3. A number of brands have VERY similar ranking on both lists, further demonstrating a correlation between the two lists:

• Disney = Interbrand #9 and Vitrue #4
• Honda = Interbrand #20 and Vitrue #25
• Pepsi = Interbrand #26 and Vitrue #30
• Volkswagen = Interbrand #53 and Vitrue #58
• Porsche = Interbrand #75 and Vitrue #74
• BP = Interbrand #84 and Vitrue #86

So to answer the original question, “Does social value translate to overall brand value?”  The answer is YES!

Just ask Aaron Strout, who heard about the Vitrue 100 and compared the Interbrand (retail) rank and Vitrue rank of Best Buy in his MediaPost blog update noting that “[being social] does play a key role behind the prestigious “most valuable brand” ranking.”

While social activity does not represent the entire picture of a brand’s overall perception in the marketplace or overall value, it’s already become an extremely important component.  Purchase decisions on many products and services in today’s market are largely driven by personal recommendations rather than traditional forms of advertising and marketing.

According to a Forrester Media & Marketing Survey, “83% of online consumers turn to friends or acquaintances” regarding purchase decisions.  This holds true for me personally too.  I’m in the market for a new SUV and have received great feedback from friends on Facebook, which is influencing my decision far more than commercials on TV.

I wanted to share an update on the biggest brands movers on the Vitrue Social Media Index for the month of January 2009.

Kicking off the year we have seen some impressive point gains from an interesting mix of brands from Microsoft to Sony to Zune.

Leading the top gainers,  iPhone continues to dominate the social space adding over 300 points to its already commanding lead (iPhone was named the top social brand of 2008 on the Vitrue 100 a few weeks ago). Apple and iPod are also in the top five positive point movers for January.  Apple and its products account for three of the top five spots - incredible? Yes but it can also be attributed to the fact that January is typically an important month for Apple with the Macworld conference.

CNN also experienced huge gains, adding over 300 points to its base score.  This incredible gain is most likely attributed to President Obama’s inauguration and the unprecedented coverage of the live event with its Facebook integration.

Another notable in our overall list of  biggest movers is US Airways and must be due the heroic landing by Captain Sully and his crew to create the incredible Miracle on the Hudson which captured the hearts and minds of many - not to mention garnered huge buzz in the social space.

Vitrue SMI Biggest Movers Jan 2009

Here is some additional detail on the top five movers:

iPhone added 340 points with 43% growth on blogs and 14% on video sharing sites

CNN added an impressive 316 points with a 26% increase in micro-blogs and 5% increase in video sharing sites

Starbucks also had triple digit growth adding 298 points with a 68% increase in micro-blogs and 4% increase in photo sharing sites

Apple gained 239 points overall with a 12% increase in video sharing and 28% in blogs

Rounding out the top five is iPod adding 153 points to its base with a 13% increase in video sharing sites and 54% increase in micro-blogs

What are your thoughts on these biggest movers? Join the conversation and let us know what you think.