• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, March 22, 2012

ReadyPulse, a startup created by execs from Microsoft and Amazon.com, launched a social brand advocacy platform this week, which is designed to help marketers identify and engage with fans in the social media environment, and convert them into online brand advocates.

The ReadyPulse brand advocacy service, based on a behavior analysis and recommendations engine, includes a real-time online dashboard which assigns a loyalty rank to social media followers and also helps brands (and agencies using social media) measure how much these followers are worth.

The platform helps brands identify key online influencers to follow and engage with, and gives advice on how often to post or tweet content. It also allows marketers to identify content that appeals to brand advocates and offers competitive benchmarking information including what content is engaging fans and followers of competitors, as well as comparative growth rates and trends.

ReadyPulse is just one of several new social media analytics products that have launched recently. Also this week, researchers at NYU Stern Business School’s Center for Measurable Marketing revealed the results of a study on “Conversational ROI,” conducted in partnership with Crimson Hexagon and the Marketing Productivity Group.

According to CMM, “Conversational ROI” measures both the direct impact of word-of-mouth communication on marketing performance -- including dollar sales -- as well as the amplification effects which social provides to both offline and online paid channels of communication.

To demonstrate the Conversational ROI technique, the CMM researchers analyzed the social impact of Super Bowl ads and determined that M&M’s generated the highest overall level of positive conversation on Super Bowl Sunday with its “sexy” 30-second spot during the first quarter of the game. However Audi also scored high, in the area of positive sentiment, while Doritos generated the longest-lasting conversations.