Latest Social Flooring Index Updates

Here's the latest on the Social Flooring Index Blog ... [Note: I have shifted this blog to SimpleMarketingNow.com and encourage you to subscribe there for updates.]

Having updated the Social Flooring Index for November 2011, I issued the official release with additional observations - see November 2011 Social Flooring Index Update - Press Release.

Have you checked out the Floor Covering News Social Media Guide for Business 2011? It's chock full of great insights, including from several whose blogs are listed in the Social Flooring Index.

I've launched a new series where I review blogs from the Social Flooring Index:

• Armstrong The Floor Board Blog: Social Flooring Index Review 
• Formica Share The Love Blog: Social Flooring Index Review

Check these blog articles out and let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading.

Best,

C.B.

Social Flooring Index: November 2011

The Social Flooring Index has been updated for November 2011! It now includes 190 blogs.

For details, please visit:

• Social Flooring Index: Flooring Blogs November 2011
• Networked Blogs: Social Flooring Index November 2011
• Geography: Social Flooring Index November 2011
• Conversations: Social Flooring Index November 2011

I appreciate your help in getting the word out.

Best,

C.B.

Social Flooring Index In the News

Many thanks to my friends in the flooring news media for calling attention to the latest update of the Social Flooring Index!

Here's a recap of those mentions:

From Tile Magazine:  Social Flooring Index sees increase in flooring blogs

From National Floor Trends, Breaking News: Social Flooring Index sees increase in flooring blogs

From FloorDaily.net: CRI Has Industry's Most Influential Blog

From Floor Covering News: Update to Social Flooring Index shows increase in industry’s social media conversations

I'm looking forward to the next update of the Social Flooring Index!

Best,

C.B.

Social Flooring Index Conversations - April 2011

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the Social Flooring Index analysis is exploring the conversations taking place.

In the April 2011 Social Flooring Blog Index update, 168 blogs have generated 7,571 conversations in the last 6 months. That's approximately 45 posts per blog over 6 months, or 1.877 blog posts per week.

In comparison, 88 blogs generated 1,532 conversation in the August 2010 Social Flooring Index update which corresponds to 17.41 posts per blog over 6 months or .7254 blog posts per week.

In other words, definite improvement!

Supporting this observation is the graph below which illustrates the consistency of posting taking place.  The conversations take place regularly with expected dips during the Christmas/New Year Holidays. Might the early March dip correspond to Spring Break?

The Wordle image above captures the top 50 terms from the 7,571 Social Flooring Blog Index conversations.  More specifically, you'll note general topics, such as:

• Help in 43% of the conversations
• Home mentioned in 36% of the posts 
• Water appearing in 10% of conversations 
• Installation coming up in 7% of posts

No surprise, there are plenty of product category conversations: 43% specifically mention carpet, tile, wood,  hardwood, wood, vinyl, cork, laminate, flooring or stone [what did I miss in that query?]. However, this is a significantly lower percentage compared to the 65% that I observed in August 2010. I interpret that as meaning that broader conversations are taking place around flooring than were last year.

Relating to individual product categories:

• Flooring - 21%
• Carpet - 13%
• Tile - 11%
• Wood - 14%
• Wood flooring - 9.63%
• Laminate - 6%
• Hardwood floors - 4.35%
• Vinyl - 4.2% 
• Cork - 2.4%

Other relevant categories:

• Carpet cleaning - 3%
• Design - 17%
• Color - 9%
• Cleaning - 7%
• Interior design - 3%
• Sale or Promotion - 3%
• Fashion - 2%
• Recycling - 1.44%
• Indoor Air Quality - 1.02%

AB 2398, a critical carpet industry and recycling topic, has 18 mentions from:

• Primarily the CRI Blog, but also  
• Wool For a Better World Blog
• Designing For Life, Bentley Prince Street's Blog
• Home Construction & Improvement - Expert Home Improvement Advice
• Surfaces/StonExpo Blog in a post by Jim Gould

Surprisingly, I found few conversations relating to allergy (.5%).  I expected more given the Spring allergy season and decided to explore a bit more by expanding my search beyond the Social Flooring Index blogs. Indeed, I found 68 conversations and was pleased to notice - as you can see in the chart below - that the frequency of conversations had indeed ramped up as allergy season was unfolding.

Fascinating, don't you think?

What I conclude from all of this is that the Flooring Industry has a great deal of untapped social opportunity ahead for rich conversations that do more to connect the serious social flooring blogs together. They might also bring to life for readers and customers this category which offers so much beauty to those who use it and need it.

What do you observe from these Social Flooring Index conversations? How might you go about broadening conversations and drawing others in?

Previous posts in this series include:

• Social Flooring Blog Index - April 2011
• How Networked Is The Social Flooring Blog Index - April 2011
• Social Flooring Index Tribes - April 2011
• Geo-Location & Social Flooring Blog Index - April 2011

If you like what you're reading, consider subscribing to the Social Flooring Index for email updates or via RSS.

Best,

C.B.

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Image created via Wordle
Analysis powered by eCairn Conversation

Geo-Location & Social Flooring Blog Index - April 2011

Continuing on with my analysis of the April 2011 Social Flooring Blog Index, I was interested in exploring geography and city/state location of the blogs included in the Social Flooring Index using eCairn. This geo-location feature is one that eCairn introduced to eCairn Conversation in January 2011, based on the location  information that bloggers [particularly serious ones] include as part of their social profiles.

Of the 168 blogs included in the April 2011 Social Flooring Index update, 39% include geo-location information.

As you can see from the map above, a majority [85%] of the Social Flooring Index Blogs with geo-location information are North America based.

And the Canadian flooring blogs are all located in Vancouver! There must be something in the British Columbia air...

Here are a few more stats about the Social Flooring Blog Index's participation in social networks:

• 46% make no reference to any social networks
• 45% include reference to Twitter 
• 32% include reference to Facebook Fan Pages
• 5% refer to a Facebook personal profile
• 4% include a LinkedIn reference

Back to geo-location.

I've also included below a closeup map of North America. Even though ~60% of Social Flooring Index blogs aren't captured on this map, even if they were don't you think there's still plenty of room for more flooring blogs?

What are your reactions to this information?

Next: I'll analyze the conversations taking place.

Previous posts in this series include:

• Social Flooring Blog Index - April 2011
• How Networked Is The Social Flooring Blog Index - April 2011
• Social Flooring Index Tribes - April 2011

If you like what you're reading, consider subscribing to the Social Flooring Index for email updates or via RSS.

Thanks,

C.B.

Social Flooring Index Tribes - April 2011

CRI Blog Tribe

In my last post analyzing the April 2011 Social Flooring Blog Index, I asked the question How Networked Is The Social Flooring Blog Index - April 2011? In this post, I'd like to explore with you three flooring groupings - or tribes - that are forming and which are visible given the algorithm enhancements that eCairn has recently introduced to eCairn Conversation.

More specifically, Social Flooring Blog Index tribes are forming around:

• The Carpet and Rug Institute Blog, the most influential blog in the social flooring community.
• The Social Flooring Index
• BuildDirect

A point to reiterate: the overall flooring community is NOT strongly networked.  For an example of a community that is, read eCairn's blogpost titled: B is for Business, Blogs and Birds about bird bloggers.  What makes that community so cohesive is the level of connection, conversation and interaction - both virtual and physical - taking place. We aren't yet seeing that happen within flooring blogs.

The image above represents a closeup of the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) Blog cluster or tribe. I circled the CRI Blog to provide added perspective. Most blogs in the flooring industry refer to the CRI and its blog content, which is relevant to retailers, distributors, cleaners and others involved in soft surface flooring products.

This next image captures the Social Flooring Index tribe.

Social Flooring Index Tribe

The Social Flooring Index has medium influence.

Through the Social Flooring Index, I am not only monitoring the social state of the flooring industry, but I'm also looking to support and celebrate social media successes in the industry by focusing on individual companies.  In addition to listing those blogs included in the Social Flooring Index, I have written about several in individual blogposts.  As I mentioned in April 2011 Social Flooring Blog Index, I intend to start reviewing individual flooring blogs and invite you to submit yours...

This next image relates to BuildDirect and the community is is building around its blogs.

BuildDirect Tribe

BuildDirect is one of the very first flooring companies I wrote about in December 2009 on the Social Flooring Index. BuildDirect has embraced social media in a big way - including video - and continues to delight and surprise with its outreach and genuine celebration of flooring, design, sustainability, sourcing, etc. Community manager, Rob Jones, puts a great deal of effort into nurturing the relationships he is developing with the building materials market. He can teach you a lot!

Based on what you've noticed with these Social Flooring Index tribes, what might you start doing differently with your blog?

Next: a geographic perspective on the April 2011 Social Flooring Blog Index.

Thanks,

C.B.

How Networked Is The Social Flooring Blog Index - April 2011

A question worth exploring is "How Networked Is The Social Flooring Blog Index?"

I first introduced a visual representation of the Social Flooring Index in the August 2010 update. In this and the next post, I plan to explore the networked question in more detail based on the April 2011 Update of the Social Flooring Blog Index.

As I noted in August, a critical aspect of participating in social media is for 'social' reasons. That is, to engage with readers and others with whom you share common interests. That's what makes this all 'social'.

At the same time, being social and open to interaction offer many benefits [see 10 (Business) Reasons to Participate in Social Media: MarketingProfs] not least of which is building the credibility of a blog, making it more trustworthy for readers as well as more relevant and a lot more interesting.

Being social consists of being open to interaction. It also means being open to other points of view and proactively including those other perspectives - via a blogroll, which lists other blogs of interest, and by referring to other blog articles relevant to the topic being discussed. More on that later, and particularly in the blog analyses that I anticipate doing.

As you can see from the charts that I've included in this post, the flooring industry isn't strongly networked. Note in the first chart how many blogs sit on the periphery, circling the middle sources, unconnected and missing out on opportunities to be 'social'.

Note: all of these graphics represent a static snapshot of an interactive graph that shows dynamically how the blogs in the flooring community connect. It's quite fascinating to explore it in more detail via the dynamic version.

eCairn Conversation[TM], through which I have created these analyses, has recently introduced an enhancement to its network mapping algorithm. As a result, the central 'blob' of sources that you notice in the first image takes on more meaning in this second image.

I've enlarged it in this third image.

Notice how the mass of sources now resolves into three distinct groupings in red, green and blue.

Next, I'll focus on exploring those individual groupings.

What's your take of this visualization so far?

Best,

C.B.