Category: social media
We know that social media is radically changing the way that we all work, shop, communicate and relate to the world around us.
It is surprising, then, to see evidence of how many B2B companies are still blind to its possibilities within PwC’s new paper: ‘Uncovering B2B social media: Value innovation and engagement’.
While the findings kick off on a promising note, with confirmation that B2B firms are investing in social media (between $416,000 and $185m), the rest of the results make for frustrating reading. Here are three highlights (or should we say lowlights) from the study:
1. Nearly 50% of respondents are not undertaking any kind of measurement of ROI, or are only using the most basic qualitative measures.
2. Two-thirds of company cultures do not support the use of social media, or offer only basic guidelines to their staff. Such negligence leaves businesses open to reputational risk.
3. Less than 12% of those surveyed have full time, dedicated social media teams in place. More »
We’re sticking with Facebook for today’s blog, because let’s face it, the company has barely been out of the headlines recently. Hot on the heels of a series of new product launches came yesterday’s news of a beefed up offer to advertisers.
The brand new ‘People Talking About This” metric will post recent user discussions about brands directly onto the brand’s Page. In a bid to shift advertisers’ focus away from click-through rates and towards social influence, Facebook wants to show marketers exactly which types of posts appeal to the most people.
Meanwhile, a new premium ad product will allow brands to deliver ads to users while showing which of their friends have already Liked the ad. It is a novel approach based on the unique relevance and context offered by social marketing – apparently adding a friend’s name, photo or endorsement to an ad makes people twice as likely to remember an ad’s message, and four times as likely to go on to purchase (source: Nielsen).
But the best Facebook story of the day was over at nma.co.uk, where it was reported that Heinz is enabling people to send personalised cans of soup to friends and loved ones. Again, this report demonstrates the potential to entice consumers to engage with brands via social media marketing in ways that simply wouldn’t be possible on traditional channels. More »
She is aged between 18 and 34 years old. She is Asian or a Pacific Islander. She lives in New England, holds at least a bachelor’s degree and earns under $50,000 a year. Who is she? The person most likely to be visiting social networks and reading blogs, according to Nielsen.
Nielsen’s State of the Media: The Social Media Report, Q3 2011, offers this titillating profile of the active social networker, along with detailed analysis of the current state of social.
Findings of the new US-based study include the news that blog posts and social network messages reach nearly 80% of Americans and account for nearly one quarter of time spent online. Drilling deeper, we find that social networks take up 22.5% of our online time, trailed in second place by online gaming at 9.8%.
Other top takeaways from Nielsen include:
1. Americans spend more time on Facebook than any other US website. The social site now reaches 70% of active US internet users, who spent 53.5 billion minutes Facebooking in May 2011 alone.
2. Social media users are the most likely to share their opinions and influence others, specifically creating product reviews (60%), swapping views on current affairs (26%) and TV programmes (33%). More »
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 »
When competition is stiff and businesses need to differentiate their services or hike their prices, social media comes into its own. It’s vital to keep the channels of communication with customers open, and how better than via Twitter marketing? It’s just a shame that nobody told online movie streaming service Netflix.
Netflix made the no doubt troublesome decision to put up its prices and change its name to Qwikster – instantly making itself vulnerable to a stream of jokes concerning the company’s literacy skills.
Questionable spelling aside, where the brand really slipped up was in forgetting to trademark the name and failing to check whether the relevant Twitter handle was available.
The oversight was nothing but disastrous. It appears that the existing Qwikster on Twitter is a student named Jason Costillo, who tweets primarily on the pleasures of recreational drug-taking, sex, computer games and music. All well and good for a student whose Twitter avatar was, up until recently, a spliff-smoking Elmo. Not so relevant for Twitter users wanting to know more about movie streaming or DVD rentals (another of Netflix – sorry, Qwikster’s services). More »
Social media keeps on moving at a dizzying pace. What with network launches, regular M&A activity and a constant stream of new tools and apps, at least one thing remains constant – people are still flocking online to communicate, connect and engage.
For marketers this means it is more important than ever to make social a serious slice of the marketing pie. Over at Clickz.com we found a useful crop of recent research findings, which we summarise here along with their impact for marketers.
Social media is where we’re at
Blogs and social media now account for more than one out of every five minutes spent online. Looking at another way – four out of five active internet users have visited a social network or blog. For marketers, it is screamingly obvious that it will no longer suffice to pay lip service to social media. You absolutely need to be there to reach your audience.
The rise of the silver surfer
Don’t assume that you can’t reach a more mature market online. Usage among the older demographic has soared between 2005 and 2011 (from 7% to 51% amongst those aged 50-64, and from 6% to 33% for the over 65s, according to Pew Research Centre). More »
Who, watching Back to the Future 2 back in ‘89, didn’t want a pair of the space-age shoes worn by Marty McFly? Well, now they can be yours…if you have a few thousand dollars to spare. In response to an online petition, Nike chose to launch the limited-edition Nike MAG using eBay auctions, but the hefty price tag has alienated many of the footwear fans who followed the shoes’ initial launch on social media.
Social media monitoring by WaveMetrix has unearthed significant consumer disappointment. Largely, consumers feel “cheated” that the “impossibly expensive” MAGs are available to the rich and famous, but not to the faithful fans who originally encouraged Nike to release them.
In a dramatic social media backlash, consumers are making their feelings known across Nike’s social media pages, with one disappointed Facebook fan posting: “Thanks a lot Nike for thinking about your consumers…..you know, the ones that made your company what it is. Do you realize that these are going for no less than $8000. I’ve waited forever for these to come out and now you’re telling me that we can’t get them.”
Consumers do appear to approve of the campaign’s charity aspect, with all proceeds going to Parkinson’s charity, The Michael J Fox Foundation. However, praise for the charitable cause is being diluted by criticism of the exclusivity of the product. More »
When a marketing chief from a forward-thinking business like IBM shares how social media has helped them to boost sales, loyalty and brand engagement, it’s time to pay attention. Ed Abrams, VP of Marketing of IBM Midmarket Business spoke to smallbiztrends.com – and while the focus is on SMEs, the advice is clearly useful for businesses of any size. Here are the top four takeaways from Abrams’ interview:
1. Accept that the conversation has shifted
Social marketing is still off the radar for many businesses, who argue that they don’t need social media, as they never needed it before. They rely on their tried and tested direct mailings, in-store promotions and so on, resisting change. Abrams argues that the communication landscape has changed. “It’s no longer acceptable to push messages out in the marketplace. The power in the communication chain has shifted from the marketer to that of the end user, the audience. They have control of the conversation,” he says.
What does this mean for IBM? Largely – participation in conversations their audience is already having. This has driven engagement, improved brand perception and even purchase consideration for IBM. Show up where and how your consumers want you to – more than ever, that means getting involved in social media.
2. Search drives decisions
According to Abrams, 85% of customers’ decisions to interact with a brand begin with a search. To ensure your business appears there, you need to make certain that people are talking about your brand. IBM is putting search at the core of its social media strategy, creating content that will show up when users search for the brand or any of its products. More »
Thousands of Facebook fans? Check. Hordes of Twitter followers? Check. On the face of things your brand appears to thriving on social networks. But is your company as popular as it seems?
TechCrunch has reported a potentially unsettling new study by Imperium, which finds that up to 40% of public accounts on social networks are in fact fake accounts set up by spammers and scammers.
Anyone who is familiar with Twitter will have come across social spammers: the problem is not new but it is significant. It is also a growing problem, as spammers evolve ever-more sophisticated methods in the pursuit of dodgy gains.
The implication of Imperium’s research (which took in more than 90 million users and 100 million pieces of user-generated content) is that a hefty chunk of your social media followers could in fact be fraudulent (or at least non-genuine) accounts.
While it’s not good news for Facebook or Twitter, the harshest blow arguably falls on those businesses investing in social media strategy.
We argue that this study, rather than a negative development for social marketing, offers a welcome opportunity to reassess the science of social media metrics. More »
Social media users have an insatiable hunger for content. The proof? A whopping 30 billion pieces of content are shared each month on Facebook including blog posts, news stories, photos, videos and links. So why is some content not seen by anyone other than the poster?
A brand new study of 2,500 participants from the New York Times in conjunction with Latitude Research reveals the top 9 reasons (or skip straight to the end for a somewhat surprising Key Takeaway):
1. Your customers don’t trust you
Corporate mistrust is rife. Globally, only 56% of people trust businesses “to do what is right” (Source: 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer), falling in the US, the UK and Japan from 2010 to 2011. People won’t share your content if there is a lack of trust, so use the social space to drive honest and open public conversations.
2. Customers don’t care about your brand
Sorry, but customers are a fickle bunch. If you don’t offer at a minimum: valuable information, great deals and a forum to meet other like-minded people, they will look elsewhere. Don’t just feed them what they want; actively exceed their expectations.
3. Your posts are boring
Intriguing and funny content gets the most shares. Look to Volkswagen for inspiration. Their Star-Wars spoof video ‘The Force’ racked up over 40 million views. Of course, it helps to have an established power brand behind you, but the principle is to create ‘got to share it’ content. More »
