Multiplicity Effect

I like thinking of social media marketing in terms of its ability to create an exponential number of target touch points. Lets call this the Multiplicity Effect. This ME is what makes social media as a whole a unique medium for marketing-- it allows marketers to not only engage with targets, but can in turn influence prospects down the long tail of consumers online.

Quantifying this ME is powerful when thinking about social media "ROI." For example:

Situation: Company Z executes a Facebook Strategy entailing a Business Page and paid advertising on a popular application.

Objective: Measure true CPM of branded application skin (paid advertising on popular application).

Data: Number of application installs & click-throughs (other users) (so we've got a CPI and a CPC)
Installs: 50,000 (CPI)
Clicks: 10,000 (CPC)

Question: Great, we know how many people installed/clicked on the app, but how many friends do each of those people have which would see the addition of this new app in their newsfeeds? Further more, how much traffic did each of those profiles with the app generate? The client is searching for a cumulative CPM number.

SO, "ME" would be a value defined to illustrate the number of subsequent engagements with a brand generated by either the active (messaging, posting) or passive (feeds) passing of information through a network(s).

Challenge: This vital data is, well, not readily available. Its the kind of data that Facebook needs to make available. Why? Because it behooves FB to help Company Z understand their value as a marketing platform by merchandising the Multiplicity Effect of their ecosystem.

Note-- I agree that the CPM model is dying, that we are needing to meausure in terms of engagement and interactivity. However, baby steps. Teach them (brands) to walk before they run. Many an online marketing director will still want to see CPM numbers, but if you can contextualize those numbers with an ME and begin to illustrate the bigger picture of social media marketing, then we can begin to shift the focus to more meaningful engagement metrics.