Category: PR
Social media strategies can complement PR efforts perfectly, and as publishers continue to ramp up their online content – the opportunities to leverage your outreach via social media soar.
Now, social networks act as first-stop sources of breaking news, offering unparalled access to journalists and as-yet unseen speed of coverage.
Yet clearly our sector still struggles to quantify the impact of social media efforts to senior management. We’re therefore grateful to socialmediaexaminer.com for coming up with a useful take on ways to measure the ROI of social media activity, summarised here.
1. Cost per impression
When you show the change in the cost per impression with and without social media, you can make a compelling case for the impact of social media on your PR strategy. On Facebook, you can get impression data on Facebook Insights. It’s trickier to measure on Twitter, but try TweetReach and Simply Measured to assess the reach of your messages.
2. Cost per engagement
Social channels are unbeaten for engagement, which can be measured with shares, clicks, comments, likes and mentions. Aggregate how people engaged with content and divide this figure by the cost to determine the cost per engagement. More »
A poll of marketers and PR practitioners by Furlong PR has shown that the majority (51%) think social media is the most valuable expertise PR agencies can bring to a pitch scenario in 2011.
Both social media & online content generation polled way ahead of old school media relations expertise which only 16% think is now key to winning new business.
However the poll did reveal a massive disagreement between the older and younger pollsters. In the 45+ age category media relations is considered most important and social media the least.
Search engine optimization came in last with 7%, underlining that clients do not expect SEO to lead the agenda in PR pitches.
Furlong PR CEO Ross Furlong commented; “The poll confirms that age is a massive factor in the perception of ‘new fashioned’ pr techniques. While the young clearly believe a social media ingredient is crucial to winning a PR pitch in 2011, anyone over 45 just as clearly thinks it isn’t. This is disappointing but not surprising. Convincing senior management of its value is the chief obstacle to adoption.”
232 votes were cast in the month long poll conducted on LinkedIn during April 2011. Full results of the poll are available here:
It’s hard to keep up with the daily deluge of articles and blogs proposing to have the elusive magic formula for an effective social media strategy.
But when the man in charge of social media for global software giant SAP offered his personal thoughts, it seemed wise to take notes.
Ted Sapountzis, coming from a corporate perspective, spoke first and foremost about securing executive support. He advocated not even embarking on social media before having at least a few executives on board.
The marketing folk at Dell, for instance, are lucky enough to have social evangelist Michael Dell at the helm. It was founder and CEO Dell who first asked why his company didn’t run a business blog. Now with a stockpile of established blogs, this Fortune 100 company shows no signs of slowing, and in Dell’s words is “just getting started”.
Next into the mix is attitude: think carrots, not sticks. Sapountzis urged using creativity to get colleagues excited about social marketing and propel them to think beyond the persistent question of ROI. More »
Fresh data has revealed that small businesses are continuing to increase their use of social media marketing, with nearly half (44%) now using social media channels to help their businesses.
Broadly speaking, the leading reasons for using social media have evolved since the last edition of the American Express OPEN “Small Business Monitor”. Most marketers were using social media for business specifically to maximise exposure back in September 2010. The latest survey suggests that they are now turning to social media for customer acquisition purposes.
And the majority of these efforts are being focused on the top social networking sites, namely Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
The numbers, crunched by American Express OPEN for its Spring 2011 update, reveal that usage of Facebook for customer acquisition was up by 8% from September 2010. Meanwhile, LinkedIn usage was up 6% and the use Twitter marketing to attract new customers rose by a more modest 2%.
As well as the blindingly obvious perks of the big three platforms in terms of audience and reach, other social media tools are also continuing to attract marketers’ attention. Usage of blogs and YouTube to lure new customers has also increased by 3% and 4% respectively, suggesting their growing importance in the social media marketing mix. More »
Prioritising users, rather than algorithms, is the best approach to sustained website optimisation, according to one search expert.
Yes, keywords can effectively act as bait, reeling in users and attracting them to your website, but the real ‘hook’ will always be quality content. So said founder of Audette Media and SEO veteran Adam Audette writing for Search Engine Land, adding that investing in quality is the best way to yield long-term results.
While there is certainly a case for paying attention to algorithms and the number of hits a website gets, Audette asserted that it is vital to focus on what visitors to an online portal actually want.
As SEO matures, a number of elements now influence how a site is scored – including but not limited to information architecture, user experience and web design.
The essence of Audette’s advice – to build your SEO strategy around your users – echoes a recent Econsultancy blog, advising that content written with SEO in mind must be consistently “interesting”, “useful” and “informative”. More »
The news that social networks have overtaken entertainment sites, including BBC’s iPlayer, as Brits’ preferred online activity marks a milestone in social media’s history.
While its results come as little surprise to us, Experian Hitwise’s report is yet another reminder that a smart social media strategy is no longer a luxury – it is a necessity.
The study, entitled Carpe Diem: Seizing the Moment in Social Media, finds that social networks including Facebook and Twitter have toppled entertainment sites into second place, with social media use accounting for 12.4% of all UK internet visits during January.
It is not only frequency of visits driving this sea change, but the way in which people are engaging with social media. Firstly, once logged in to sites like Facebook, users tend to spend an average of 22 minutes there. The second trend is connectivity – one in eight visitors to social networks are likely to visit another one straight after leaving their first destination.
According to Robin Goad, research director at Hitwise, this phenomenon is “encouraged by the connections that exist between the networks. More »
For brands seeking to create that all-important buzz, viral video has the potential to spread like wildfire and build instant awareness.
When Wired.co.uk attended an event run by MusicTank, titled “It Started With a Click: How to Spawn a Viral Hit”, the site reported back with the best ways for musical artists to raise their profile using online video.
Scanning the list, we reckon there’s plenty there that applies to any brand or company looking to achieve viral success.
Here is a summary of the key advice from the event:
Have a strong creative idea
Irresistible entertainment is the key to a successful viral video. After all, you’re competing online with other brands, not to mention laughing babies, cute kittens and Charlie Sheen.
Wired.co.uk advises forgetting about focus groups or your core demographic. Just come up with a brilliant piece of content. Make it fun and something that people will actively want to share.
Make it as accessible as possible
Use the most-popular technology that’s available to upload your video, or in other words, use YouTube. It might not be as artsy as Vimeo or Muzu, but it has the broadest reach. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t also upload it to those other sites, if they complement your digital strategy. Ironically, sometimes being taken down from YouTube due to complaints (as happened with M.I.A.’s Born Free video about the targeted massacre of people with red hair) can boost a video’s viral spread. More »
We’ve all experienced as consumers the potential pitfalls of air travel, particularly when flights are delayed or cancelled without adequate explanation. Operating within a sector in which real-time updates and open channels of communications are of high priority, many airlines have as such warmly embraced social media.
Running down the top five opportunities for maximising customer relations via social marketing, this list identifies some of those that have nailed it.
Customer loyalty
Recognising the need for active participation within social media, airlines including Virgin Atlantic have built a strong community presence by launching official Twitter and Facebook pages.
“This gives us an opportunity to help out whenever we can and answer a question or resolve a small issue before it becomes a larger complaint or results in a dissatisfied customer,” says Kyle Thorne, social relations manager, Virgin.
Deal tracking
The potential money-saving benefits to consumers of seeking out airlines via social media are massive. Following airlines on Twitter or liking them on Facebook can often mean being the first to see and access the best deals, maximising on rewards programmes, and enjoying special offers often limited to social media.
Low-cost German airline Germanwings integrated Facebook and Twitter into its direct marketing mix in 2009, enabling its followers to receive real-time company news as well as current deals. More »
Your social media marketing strategy seems to be going well; your Facebook brand profile has attracted plenty of likes, your intelligent, timely tweets have won you an army of Twitter followers, but then, quite suddenly, things start to go wrong. Your Facebook fans have started to de-friend you, while on Twitter, your core followers are nowhere to be seen – and it’s happening at an alarming pace. But why do people break their relationships with brands in the social media space?
Interactive marketing services company ExactTarget has researched the issue, and here we present some of the foremost stats and tips to encourage your online relationships to thrive.
Of the 73% of Facebook users surveyed, a majority of 64% claim to be ‘fans’ of, or have ‘liked’ a company or brand.
Despite this, 55% of those fans find they no longer want to view your posts, and 51% rarely, if ever, visit your business page on Facebook after liking it.
Excessive posting accounts for 44% of the decisions to ‘unlike’, while 43% of Facebook users feel that their account is too crowded with brands.
38% say marketers aren’t offering fresh content, while 26% say claim that all they were interested in were offers and discounts. More »
