Is it –

• Big data overload?
• Confidence in making decisions?
• Job security?

While the above challenges are all real, the key challenge facing each of us as brand marketers is how do I find receptive audience to engage at scale with my brand?

Colligent answers this question using something we’ve been collecting in our backyard – the social affinities of our engaged fans. These are fans that show engagement beyond simple likes or follows – such as commenting, photo posting, retweeting, etc. They are our primary research panel or the focus group. Analyzing their affinities gives us a simple and effective way to address our marketing challenge.

You are probably thinking Gee, thanks! I’ll go check my social network ad tool for the affinities. If you have not done so already, you should go check now and then come back here to see what you are missing..

Did you notice any issues with the affinities you saw? Did you see certain popular affinities constantly show up such as Lady Gaga or The Bible? Then you have hit upon the issue we’ve termed as the “Lady Gaga problem”. The same popular affinities appearing across every brand you own, thus making it not a differentiating aspect of your brand.

So how does a marketer stay clear of the “Lady Gaga problem”? As it turns out, the solution is really simple. It is based on real world parallel of human relationships. In any such relationship, it is not enough for one person to like the other person, they both have to mutually like each other to have a long term relationship. In the world of your brand, it is not enough that your fans engage with Lady Gaga, enough Lady Gaga fans have to engage with your brand, to make the relationship meaningful. We call this “mutual affinity”. Our affinity modeling is built upon this foundation. We call your brand’s affinity to Lady Gaga forward affinity and her fans’ affinity to your brand reciprocal affinity.

Balancing both affinities in the right way (our magic “match making sauce”) surfaces relationship that are very effective for all your marketing applications – from audience selection, content development, media buying, to sponsorships, retail promotions and ad sales.

In our system,  affinities are optimized first for relevance. Either we or you can aggregate enough such affinities together to get the reach you need. This solves our #1 challenge – find receptive audience at scale to engage with our brand! The illustration below shows it visually.

Reach Vs Engagement