During June 2008, the top 5 automotive sites remain the same with regards to total unique visitors, while the order has changed slightly as indicated in the graph below. Yahoo! Autos witnessed a significant increase in unique visitors from May to June (+24.2%), while AOL Auto has the most loyal repeat visitors from May to June (36.88%).

Interest in Autoblog, a highly-influential CGM site, continues to witness an upward trend over the last 13 months with an increase of roughly 50% in unique visitors from June ‘07 to June ‘08. Autoblog has moved from 11^th most visited auto site in May, to 9^th in June, surpassing Automotive.com. The growing interest in Autoblog is yet another confirmation of how important CGM is in today’s fast-paced world.

Note: Number in parentheses indicates May ranking in auto sites category.

Blogger turned author – about bloggers, and much more… Pete Blackshaw’s book, “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3,000,” hits bookstores on July 8^th. The book takes a look at how marketers and brands can establish and maintain credibility in today’s consumer-driven, digital world. Join us for a webinar preview of the book on July 9^th, where Pete will host Beth Thomas-Kim, Director of Consumer Services, Nestle USA, and Tom Asher, Director of Consumer Relations North America, Levi Strauss & Co. to discuss how these leading companies are connecting with consumers to drive their businesses.

Congratulations Pete! Now, can a book on child rearing be far off?

I’ve been working on a couple projects lately that have me thinking about CGM and its relationship to overall media. Specifically, I’ve been trying to get my head around a taxonomy of online media. This is no easy task. The challenge here is two-fold: First, online media changes so darn quickly, that any construct you create needs to be flexible enough to change with the times; and second, any construct you build is likely to be disputed by just about everyone else who develops Internet research. And, no I haven’t figured this all out, but the process did lead me down a path.

To start thinking about this problem I thought about CGM and what makes it different from “mainstream” online media. This is a bit complicated on its own since CGM is not one thing; it is made up of blogs, discussion boards, video and, some would argue, chat. It seems to me that the unifying factor here is, shockingly enough, the consumer.

After having this not so brilliant insight, I thought about the blogs I read most days – BoingBoing, DeadSpin, Gothamist, Gizmodo, RazzBall, Freakonomics, Diane Mermigas: On Media and Online Travel Review. In at least six of these cases (BoingBoing, DeadSpin, Gothamist, Gizmodo, Diane Mermigas: On Media, Feakonomics), the writers of the blogs are not consumers, they are professional writers. Writing these blogs either makes up some part of their income, or is part of their broader work, much as this blog is for me.

With this said what happens to this construct of CGM, when the consumer is not in the middle, when it is a professional writer? What is the unifying factor? The frequency of updates? The platform itself? The tone? The format?

I then began to think about one of my favorite sports writers, ESPN’s Bill Simmons. For us Boston sports fans, Bill is a bit of an icon. He started writing a very blog-like column on his own site bostonsportsguy.com long before there was something called blogs – but it definitely had the “blog” tone, and it too was updated frequently. Bill’s column for ESPN.com and ESPN the magazine retains these qualities, particularly that of tone. Few people, however, would call him a “blogger” per se.

This thought process led me to the idea that blogs are subset of CGM is a fallacy. To understand what I mean, see the graphic below:

From a stylistic standpoint, one could make an argument that a blog is in all four quadrants above. One could also argue, however, that the concept of “consumer” implies amateur status and mainstream media sites do not employ amateurs (if they were employed, they would no longer be amateurs). If you use this construct to think about blogs, only a specific percent of blogs are truly CGM, specifically those that fall in the lower right hand corner.

Other than this being an academic exercise that bores the pants off people at cocktail parties, why is this important?

Two of the chief topics of concern in the CGM space are the following questions:

-How do we monetize CGM?

-How do we measure CGM?

These questions are too big, and too broad to answer. Breaking apart the construct of what is CGM, and what is a blog allows us to focus the questions and get closer to an answer. The fact is, we pretty much know how to monetize and how to measure all of the quadrants other than the lower right. So the problem isn’t how do we measure and monetize CGM, the problem is, how do we measure and monetize small, fragmented, amateur websites. This becomes a problem we can begin to think about solving – and frankly becomes much more of a long-tail question than a CGM question.

Ad networks anyone?

This is clearly a work in progress, and one could argue with pretty much all of my assumptions. I would love some help refining the concept. If you have any thoughts please shoot me a note or post in the comments section.

Back in March of 2007, Nielsen Online (then BuzzMetrics) sought to bring understanding to a term that was just starting to get traction online – sustainability. My colleague Emily Sobol and I – and a team of fearless analysts – navigated millions of blog posts (227+ million to be precise) to help clients understand whether or not consumers were talking about going green with any substance or vigor, and if so, which brands and marketers might be implicated. Bloggers – by nature an opinionated bunch – gave us all sorts of insights to work with. We were able to advise clients that yes, in fact, this was not a blip on the radar screen (buzz shot up well over 100%). And no matter how left-of-center they thought some of these constituents were, they had a not insignificant following (TreeHugger stood out as a big driver of buzz and inspired considerable follow on).

In early 2008, we wanted to tell a new story. Simply telling clients that green buzz was on the rise seemed not only obvious (buzz continues to climb; up 54% in Q1 2008) but also to trivialize how much the discussion had matured. (For those who still need convincing, check out the chart below.) Instead we wanted to identify and quantify all the underlying tentacles of the online debate. How does discussion of alternative fuels compare to say, fair trade? For anyone who has studied sustainability, you know this is messy stuff. There are few definitions of what does and does not constitute “sustainability” and there is certainly no rubric for quantifying such a nebulous concept online.

Through an exhaustive process that required reading scores of online conversations (fortunately we happen to love what we do) we were able to define sustainability within 25 key topics, covering everything from climate change to packaging to greenwashing. We are certain that the list of 25 will change and we probably got some wrong, so I hope you use this forum to help us refine our approach and integrate new issues that perhaps aren’t as apparent today.

From my viewpoint, sustainability buzz has matured considerably in recent months. Bloggers are no longer only talking about broad issues like global warming. In fact, while global warming constitutes more discussion volume in aggregate than other topics, it is actually trending down. At the same time, buzz about renewable energy and resource conservation (think taking shorter showers) is rising. For every mention of what the government (energy bill), corporate America (greenwashing) or brands (packaging, organics, toxins, and on and on) are up to, there is another that indicates it’s high time for consumers to make some changes of their own. Community Supported Agriculture and the local food movement are just two examples of the measures consumers of all stripes are taking to reduce their footprint.

NOTE: Issues are empirically derived. Top 10 topics are ranked by total message volume among Sustainability bloggers in Q1 ‘08. Buzz*Trend calculated as percentage growth in Q1 ‘08 over previous quarter.

So what does this mean? And how should marketers react?

First, I believe strongly it means this is a long-term trend. Consumers describe being on a journey – a path towards a greener life. Moreover, they recognize – as do many companies who have dipped a toe into these waters – “going green” doesn’t happen overnight.

Any company with a green platform or related messaging needs to be cognizant that the bloggeratti is watching and listening and ready to pounce. Discussion about greenwashing rose significantly in 2007, and is up again another 64% in Q1 2008. It’s not a top 10 topic yet but the groundswell of blog reaction to marketing activity should warrant any marketer to pay close attention.

With recent gas prices nearing $4.50 in some towns, auto manufacturers and their media partners should understand how rising prices are potentially fostering greater interest in alternative fuels, hybrids and electric vehicles. Close analysis of CGM can help to surface some of these insights. Later this month, we’ll be hosting a webinar on how consumers are affected by rising prices at the pump. Details to come.

Social media will continue to play an important role in shaping how the sustainability trend evolves. Trust that we’ll be at the forefront, monitoring the discussion as it does.

I have recently been asked to speak at a number of events in Europe about harnessing and embracing the influence of social media. Being a regular attendee at many events myself, I know how difficult it can be to remember all that’s been said from the variety of speakers over one or two days. With this in mind I decided to focus on some topline, common sense easy wins for tapping into the power of the consumer-generated media space. Simple ideas that the audience can take away and act on without too much fuss – hence the title “Tips and Tricks for Embracing CGM.”

Learn to Listen
Everything you need to know about your brand and improving it exists in CGM; it’s the ultimate cheat-sheet if you like. A study we did last year showed that the most common feedback/posting activity amongst ‘speakers’ online was providing email feedback to a company. Chances are, these are the people who will be talking about you in CGM and they are likely to be talking about whatever it is they emailed you in the first place. They’re providing you a big clue!

Respond!
Social media is social! It’s a two-way conversation, not like some other marketing disciplines that are very much one-way (think direct mail, advertising etc). If people are contacting you, respond to them appropriately. Your response has the ability to potentially diffuse any negative sentiment or fan further the flames of brand advocacy.

Use Video
Every single product you have should have a product demonstration video. Why? Because video is the ultimate viral tool and you have the ability to control the content. If your video taps into the nub of an issue, chances are it will go viral and ultimately move up in organic search results. Think how important this latter point is if your video is in response to a potentially damaging issue to your brand.

Exploit your website
What were the ‘speakers’ I mentioned in point one most likely to click on first when searching for info on the web about a specific product/brand? Answer = the company website. Again, this provides you with a rare element of control in CGM - helping to seed/shape messages that are distributed virally in CGM. Brand websites have high levels of trust in the eyes of consumers who are eager to hear your side of the story, particularly when it comes to damaging issues. Get your FAQs front and center, try a corporate blog, keep the website fresh and dynamic.

Allow participation
Again, think of the fact that social media is social. It’s about interaction. Tap into the willingness of consumers to get involved. An excellent illustration of this is Barack Obama’s website. See how many calls to action there are in the menu options – ‘donate now’, ‘make calls’, ‘register to vote’, volunteer’ etc. The politicians are doing it to great effect and so can you!

Don’t afraid to be personal
Common sense tells you there tends to be more warmth or less hostility to people rather than corporations. Have a more personal way of looking at interaction and information on your site. After all, social media is….you should know it by now!

Be honest, transparent and authentic
I know this sounds a bit management consultancy but it’s true. Don’t spin! Disseminating info itself creates goodwill – simply give out information and hope the advocates spin it themselves. Don’t put energy into influencing the debate – just get the product and customer service right. If the brand messes up, admit it and resolve the problem. Brands that listen to negative comments and make changes as a result often get more kudos.

Consider what is viral about your product
The top search results for Nestle on Google in the UK read like a horror story of anti-Nestle sentiment. The story in the US is different. Two of the leading organic search results are about recipes. Nestle has tapped into what is viral about their brand (their ingredients are used in baking) to great effect. It might not be obvious, but people use your product/service in some way in their daily lives, so there has to be a viral element somewhere.