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Archive for August, 2012

Social Media Measurement Standards – Everything You Need to Know

By: Katharine Paine on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012 at 11:17 am

When anyone asks why standards are important, I cite a recent conversation with a client. It started with what seemed a simple question: “Are we able to see how many people saw the stories, and how do you calculate reach?” A dozen emails later, we finally sorted out that what the client called reach, we call opportunities to see. What she was calling placement, we call items. And what we referred to as “placement” didn’t matter to the client at all. Which is why, in early 2011, the members of the IPR Measurement Commission, AMEC, PRSA and the Council ...

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Predictably Irrational Customers and Employees

By: Frank Ovaitt on Wednesday, August 15th, 2012 at 9:16 am

Dan Ariely, a behavioral economics professor at Duke University, has spent his career amassing research data to show that the decisions we make are often shaped (or misshaped) in ways that are “Predictably Irrational,” the title of one of his books. We live in two different worlds, says Ariely, one where social norms prevail and the other ruled by market norms. The author provides many funny examples of the damage that can be done by mixing the two – from fining parents for picking up kids late (thus allowing parents to do a quick cost/benefit analysis of being late) to your ...

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