Despite the “social wave rolling across the U.S. and the world,” offline conversations, especially those happening face-to-face, still dominate. So says Ed Keller, CEO of word-of-mouth research firm and consultancy Keller Fay Group and co-author of The Face-to-Face Book. Keller spoke about this pattern during the ARF/Advertising Research Foundation’s Audience Measurement 7.0 conference on Tuesday in New York. He also emphasized that contrary to conventional wisdom, offline and online conversations are not really mirrors of each other.

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With the buzz surrounding word-of-mouth marketing on the rise, there has been a greater effort to track and analyze this phenomenon. At the ARF/Advertising Research Foundation’s Measurement 6.0 conference in New York on Monday, word-of-mouth research was high on the agenda.

Evaluating and quantifying the dynamics of consumer conversations was the topic of a joint study conducted and presented by Ed Keller, CEO of Keller Fay Group and Emily Vanides, VP connections research and analytics at MediaVest.

Their research was based on Keller Fay’s TalkTrack methodology that measures conversations online and offline. Using a diary-based survey program, respondents kept track of their conversations and later reported them in an online survey. Some of the findings were quite surprising.

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L to R: Ted McConnell, ARF; Lee Brown, Groupon; and Naveen Selvadurai, foursquare. Photo: Nancy Lazarus

Social media’s growing role in research was a visible theme throughout the ARF/Advertising Research Foundation’s Re:think conference in New York this week, from the topics of the keynote speakers and breakout sessions to the trade show exhibitors specialized in social media monitoring.

Another area generating buzz was biometrics, research that measures emotional responses driving behavior. Much discussion also focused on the size and use of social network databases. After the jump are the key takeaways.

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