Once, at uni, a physics professor highlighted the interconnectivity of space and time at a sub-molecular level by taking us to the university pond and throwing a stone right in the middle of it. As we watched the ripples spread he proceeded to throw three more at different areas of the pond, illustrating just how the spreading ripples reinforced (and occasionally countermanded) the original ones.
As examples go this is a perfect description of marketing efforts in the social media pool of the web. Each thing we do generates an impact which itself is felt depending upon the weight of what we are actually sharing in our marketing. This, in return, is picked up and re-shared by others and it can be either reinforced (in positive sharing) or countermanded (when there is an adverse social media reaction).
Until now all this was intuitive but largely invisible. It required quite a lot of effort to mine and it is usually only part of the picture, giving you numbers which you then try to visualise. Google has now, began to roll out Google Ripples in its Google+ social network, a cool, integrated visualisation of the effectiveness of post sharing which must make life for marketers much, much easier.
The analysis is restricted to public posts with the logic behind being that privately shared ones can be analysed by the level or engagement and response anyway. Public posts (which are often the beginning of a social media marketing campaign) are the ones which are shot into the unknown and analysing them would take more time, energy and resources than a social media marketer usually has available.
What's appealing here is the ease of use. You find the public post you have created in the Google+ network (click on its timestamp to get its permalink) and then click 'Ripples'. The feature is now being rolled out everywhere, so if you are marketing on Google+ already and cannot yet see it, it should be just a matter of days.
There is a funky video which shows the process just here. and if you want to see the way it works right now check out the Ripple effect of the announcement of the Dalai Lama Hangout link up with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
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