Zocalo Group Unveils Digital Footprint Index To Help Brands Better Understand, Measure...

Zocalo Group Unveils Digital Footprint Index To Help Brands Better Understand,
Measure and Accelerate Earned Social Media Engagement

CHICAGO, July 30 /PRNewswire/ -- As marketers search for ways to evaluate the
effectiveness and value of social media in their marketing programs, Zocalo
Group, a division of Ketchum and Omnicom Group, today unveiled its Digital
Footprint Index (DFI), a new social media diagnostic tool developed to improve
a marketer's ability to understand, measure and accelerate where and how
brands are discussed and recommended across all social media channels. The
benefit of the DFI to marketers is that it helps recalibrate social media
marketing programs midstream to more effectively and efficiently drive word of
mouth and recommendation where consumers are active and engaged online.

Unlike other social media measurement tools that focus only on quantity and
sentiment, the DFI, developed in conjunction with the Department of Marketing
at DePaul University's Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, is a
multi-dimensional measurement methodology that makes it easy for marketers to:
-- Pinpoint where and how consumers engage and interact with the brand;
-- Identify the social media channels consumers use to interact with the
brand;
-- Determine how well consumers understand and share the brand's
message;
-- Gauge the impact social media marketing efforts have on the growth of
earned conversation;
-- Understand how a brand compares to key competitors using social media;
and,

-- Track progress over time.

"Social media is a highly effective avenue to reach, engage and influence
consumers to drive word of mouth and ultimately recommendation," said Patrick
Rooney, partner at Zocalo Group. "As marketers search for ways to evaluate
the effectiveness and value of earned social media, the DFI helps them make
better decisions by providing a full understanding of the interaction and
impact of their social media efforts."

A brand's DFI is a single benchmark score that is tracked over time to measure
the effectiveness of a brand's social media efforts, as well as its success
relative to competitors. The Index measures three dimensions of a brand's
earned online presence:
-- Height: the quantity of conversation and content about a brand across
all social media channels, including blogs, forums, social networks,
microblogs, picture sharing sites, video sharing sites, document
sharing
sites and bookmarking sites
-- Width: the level of consumer engagement, interaction and sharing
across
all channels

-- Depth: the level of message saturation and sentiment/tone

"Marketers want to understand how and where they are being discussed online,
especially in relation to paid digital efforts," said Paul M. Rand, president
and CEO of Zocalo Group. "Unfortunately, there is no industry standard for
measurement, and while quantity and sentiment are important metrics, the real
story is in how consumers interact with the brand in different channels, and
which of those is most effective in driving word of mouth and recommendation."

Using proven, leading-edge analysis tools, the DFI reflects the success of a
brand's presence in social media relative to key competitors, and provides a
benchmark to track progress over time. A white paper discussing the DFI can be
downloaded from the Zocalo Group Web site (Measuring Digital Word of Mouth).

"Marketers now have a robust tool to track how earned consumer conversation
leads to brand preference and ultimately sales," said Suzanne Fogel, chair of
the Department of Marketing at DePaul University. "DFI provides the detail
needed to understand the dynamics of online consumer conversation from
multiple dimensions, and enables analysis that spans from a macro-level down
to specific conversations in individual channels."

The Digital Footprint Index is part of Zocalo Group's comprehensive online and
offline social media Measurement Suite to evaluate, measure and track the
effectiveness, impact and value of a brand's earned conversation across social
media channels.

"Zocalo Group continues to lead the industry in innovation and best practices,
pushing the boundaries of how word of mouth and social media can help
companies engage consumers," said Ray Kotcher, CEO of Ketchum. "We're thrilled
to bring this best-in-class approach to all of our clients."

About Zocalo Group
Zocalo Group is a full-service Word of Mouth Marketing agency, seamlessly
integrating proven and leading edge disciplines, building programs in Word of
Mouth, Social Media, Public Relations, Experiential Marketing, Social Media
Optimization and Influencer Marketing. Based in Chicago, Zocalo Group was
named the Holmes Report's 2009 "New Media Agency of the Year" for its work in
social media, and was also honored for the 2009 Best Social Media Program by
the Business Marketing Association. Zocalo Group is a unit of Omnicom Group,
Inc. (NYSE: OMC) and Ketchum Public Relations. For more information, please
visit www.zocalogroup.com.

About DePaul University
DePaul University is the largest Catholic university in the United States and
the largest private, non-profit university in the Midwest. The university
offers highly respected, flexible, practical programs of study on two Chicago
and four suburban campuses. DePaul encompasses nine colleges and schools,
including the College of Commerce/Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, which
has earned a No. 2 ranking for its undergraduate entrepreneurship program from
Entrepreneur magazine; a No. 9 ranking for its part-time MBA program from
U.S.News & World Report and a No. 11 ranking for its marketing program from
BusinessWeek. More information can be found at www.depaul.edu.

SOURCE Zocalo Group

Jonah Ansell, +1-312-596-6282, jansell@zocalogroup.com