If You're Not Tying Sales Data to Social Media Programs, You Are Behind

NEW YORK, April 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Social Media Link, the corporate parent behind Smiley360.com a leading influencer platform, announced today their partnership with Incentive Targeting, a web-based retail promotion company, in their integration of sales data research and analytics to brand advocacy programs.

Under the new partnership, brands can now access anonymized retail sales insights from participating retailers in Incentive Targeting's national retail network. They can for the first time measure social media advocacy programs, delivering the exact dollar impact of the "influencers" (those who test and review products) and impact on the "influenced" (those exposed to the reviews) in driving in-store action and purchase.

"When a brand engages 'brand advocates' to try their product and write reviews, the immediate question asked is 'when consumers are exposed to a review, are they more likely to purchase?' We are thrilled this partnership answers that question, with real sales data. Until now, brands have been missing the opportunity to measure the ROI of advocacy programs," said Susan Frech, CEO of Social Media Link.

SML owns Smiley360.com, a community for influential consumers who experience products and services, and utilize their Single-Click Sharing Technology tools to publish recommendations to their social networks.  By anonymously linking the online social behavior of Smiley360 users and their followers to in-store purchase data, Incentive Targeting can track brand and category usage before, during and after a Smiley360 influencer program at participating chains.

Incentive Targeting's Co-Founder and VP of Marketing, Ben Sprecher says, "Brands intuitively know how powerful a trusted recommendation can be to trial and purchase consideration, but when it comes to dollars and cents, no one has successfully measured that impact. Incorporating our technology and shopper-centric analytics, brands can finally answer to the question: how much is a recommendation really worth?"

About Social Media Link

Social Media Link (SML) is the leading tech-enabled marketing services company that amplifies social media advocacy for brands. We make it easy for brands to activate impactful and trusted recommendations across social media, triggering in-store action and leading consumers through the path to purchase. SML's brand activation platform, Smiley360.com is proven to drive engagement, advocacy, reach and purchase conversion, all measurable via our custom reporting and analytics.

About Incentive Targeting

Incentive Targeting partners with retail chains to provide a targeted marketing service to manufacturers of grocery and consumer products. Using our service, manufacturers market directly to individual shoppers across our entire retail network—based on each person's detailed purchase history. Promotions are delivered via any available distribution channels, such as email, direct mail, or register tape. Our patent-pending personalized marketing automation technology allows non-technical marketing executives to design sophisticated targeted promotions—and measure ROI in real time—directly over the web.

www.socialmedia-link.com    

SOURCE Social Media Link