What’s in it for me?  It’s a question that springs to everyone’s mind when someone asks us to do something, and social media has gotten very lax with its calls to action.  Incentives seem to make things worthwhile, and there’s a few recent trends that are forming some interesting business models around the metrics and the mayhem of socially driven incentivization.  Flash sales and daily deals, for example, have spurred a new branch of referral systems.  Flash sales in particular have done a great job with this, as many sites like Gilt and OneKingsLane are member’s only, trading invitations for credits to be used on your next purchase.

One company looking to take the referral system to the next level is Curebit, leveraging data to constantly improve its clients’ campaigns.  Companies sign up for Curebit to boost sales through referrals, looking to a usable format that appeals to discerning end users.  In an effort to target the sales process, one of Curebit’s placement options is a post-purchase option to share a deal with friends across Facebook, Twitter and email.

Keeping the incentives equal for the buyer and their wary social graph, Curebit ensures that the deal gives something of value to both parties.

“The core part of how we design campaigns is authenticity,” says Allan Grant, Curebit CEO and co-founder.  “What you’re sharing shouldn’t be a big benefit to you and not your friends.  Costs can’t outweigh what you offer friends.”

The real winner, however, is the company promoting referrals through Curebit’s process.

Curebit’s mojo lies in its analytics technology, deriving methods to increase the conversion of a given referral.  Claiming over 700 online retail customers using Curebit’s platform, the company is pushing growth and adoption as its own business takes flight.  Looking at design, social media metrics and creative elements, Curebit approaches analytics holistically.

The company cites the case study of Diamond Candles, which used Curebit’s post-purchase referral system on its thank you page to give customers a $5 coupon, valid for three days, to share with friends (it’s an easy enough sell–each candle comes with a ring inside).  According to the case study, Curebit referrals upped sales by more than 15%, with 57% of customers completing a purchase then sharing the offer.  Customers are also smart enough to increase their chances of a friend buying in on the deal, sharing across multiple channels, though Facebook is the preferred network, accounting for 75% of the referred sales.

What Curebit wants to do is optimize conversion at each step, so data can be calculated across a number of metrics to see what’s happened in the past, and better determine how a campaign will work in the future.

“We’re data driven,” Grant says.  “Everything we do is about measuring and seeing what the users do.  We can chop it up different ways.  It’s important because if you look at successful companies, they’ve done a lot of testing around viral steps.  And the referral system worked right out the gate.”

This all falls on the plate of business intelligence, utilizing data for the purpose of improving customer interactions, learning their behavior and making the process easier for them in the future.  What data provides is the fodder to run different models to see how they move the needle, sometimes without even having to run an actual campaign itself.  Developing around these metrics for even closer analysis and predictions is where Curebit’s headed next, adding more functions to its analytics platform to benefit its clients.  As we’ve seen from companies like Clickfox and Mzinga, data under the BI umbrella is an important step towards the business of the future, and the most successful businesses five years from now will be those that best understand and manipulate their data.