Category: social media
Fresh global research from workplace provider Regus has revealed that a significant 41% of businesses leverage social media to win new business. This marks an 8% rise from last year’s research, and backs up Hubspot’s recent research.
Findings such as these make it clear that social media marketing can no longer be viewed as a fluffy add-on to traditional marketing activities, but is a necessity.
In the UK, 66% of those polled agreed that without social media their marketing activities “cannot hope to be successful”. Globally, this figure rises to 74% – suggesting that UK business is still playing catch up with its international counterparts with regards to perceptions of social marketing.
That said, a third (33%) of UK businesses now devote up to 20% of their total marketing budget to social media. This figure neatly reflects the fact that one in three UK social network users is now a fan, follower or friend of a company page or profile.
While Regus found that more companies are using social media to connect and engage with existing customers, which is good news, it’s particularly positive to learn that British companies are using social networking activity to actively seek out and win new business.
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Procter and Gamble has seen clear benefits from online recommendations via social marketing. Speaking to eMarketer, Chris Laird, ceo of P&G’s word-of-mouth marketing arm Tremor, explained how and why an enhanced social media strategy has worked for P&G:
1. Recommendations from people you know are always valuable.
Laird believes this is especially true in the beauty and health sector, but the same principles apply to companies offering any product or service to the public. ”These advocates turn other consumers into advocates. They also help establish and cultivate a relationship with brands that are engaged in the conversation.”
2. View online conversations as an extension of traditional word of mouth, with benefits.
“The difference is how quickly and broadly the messages are transmitted.”
3. Harness the power and passion of online communities.
Procter & Gamble’s own web community, Vocalpoint, boasts a user base of 500,000 “highly engaged” women. Not only do they offer invaluable insights from the company’s key demographic, they also act as brand champions on their other social networks. More »
Social media marketing has matured to the point where brands are demanding demonstrable ROI. It’ll no longer suffice to set up a Facebook account or Twitter profile to simply ‘see what happens’. And quite rightly so. But unlike the online advertising industry, which has some standardised metrics in place, social media measurement systems remain nascent.
Social marketing yields a mine of data which agencies and large brands can measure accurately with analytics software. But smaller companies without access to in-depth metrics – fear not. By employing these three simple, key metrics, you can start to establish the vital statistics of your social media programme:
1. Total online community size
Measure the total active size of your social CRM – covering your presence on social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr and any managed blogs. You’re looking for steady growth over time to establish whether or not you’re offering value to your communities.
2. Monthly referred social traffic to site
This doesn’t necessarily require complex social content sharing tools. Start simple, and drill down to the total unique site traffic coming to your website from links shared through blogs, forums and major social networks. Use your preferred website analytics tool, be it Omniture, WebTrends or Google Analytics, and produce month-on-month graphs to show trends. 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:
Those who still doubt the potential of social media marketing to bring in new customers should consider research just released by Hubspot. The latest State of Inbound Marketing study finds that 62% of businesses say the channel has become more important in generating inbound leads in the past six months.
Prior studies have extolled the virtues of LinkedIn for acquisition purposes, and indeed, the professional networking site has seen the most dramatic annual gains. Some 57% of marketers now say LinkedIn attracts new customers, compared to 41% in 2010. Such growth is fitting, given the increasing business logins on the site.
Hubspot has revealed that Twitter and Facebook are also now viable sources of both clients and sales for among up to 42% and 48% of businesses respectively.
Social marketing is notably proving successful for both B2B and B2C marketing, the survey confirms, although brands are quite rightly taking different approaches. More »
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 »
UK retailers are continuing to grow their presence on social media sites a new study has revealed, with Topshop’s social media strategy appearing to be working best if followers and fans are anything to go by.
In terms of Facebook presence, fashion brands in general dominate the top ten. Topshop ranks highest with more than 1.3 million followers – a figure which could be largely down to a savvy content strategy. Its Facebook page is updated regularly enough to maintain fans’ interest, but not so often that they feel bombarded.
Topshop has also appealed to the most Twitter followers, with its account getting the balance of new product news and chat just right. As with its Facebook page, the frequency of updates seems bang on.
In terms of attracting new followers, however, it is Amazon and ASOS that stand out in this study. Online fashion retailer ASOS has attracted 135,000 Facebook fans since January and now boasts an impressive 556,314, coinciding with the launch of its f-commerce store this January.
Amazon is enjoying particular success with Facebook marketing across the pond, where 700,000 fans now like its US page.
The econsultancy blog attributes much of this growth to tempting weekly sweepstakes, which users enter by simply hitting the like button. More »
An increasing number of companies are now reaping the benefits of adding social media to the marketing mix, but developing a social media strategy from scratch can be a daunting prospect.
Once implemented, effective social marketing offers the potential to richly engage with your audience, but the first step is thorough planning. We found a useful resource over at Clickz.com, so here follows six steps to developing a social media strategy:
1. Explore online conversations
Go online to determine your audience and what they are saying about your brand. Blogs are a great starting point, so consider using Technorati or Twitter’s search function to find where relevant subject matter is being discussed.
Take note of key influencers who drive online debates, and consider how their opinions and needs fit with your core value proposition.
2. Establish objectives
Think carefully about your goals, whether they be to drive traffic to your site, gain followers or simply boost your online brand presence.
Also be mindful of your audience’s needs and wants – the joy of social media marketing is that once you’ve offered something of value, you’ve earned the right to plug your brand a little. Cickz.com stresses the importance of getting the balance right here: think 90% valuable content to 10% self-promotion. 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 »
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: the cornerstone of effective Twitter marketing and indeed all social media campaigns is to offer something at least entertaining, but preferably of value to your target audience.
Currently hosting one billion tweets each week, Twitter is a crowded marketplace to say the least, so here are five ways to boost your presence on the increasingly influential microblogging platform:
1. Get visual
A picture is worth a thousand words, and video is pretty great too. If you’re stuck for copy one day, use images to tell your brand’s story and convey some personality and warmth through your profile.
2. Get physical
While social technologies like Twitter undoubtedly connect people in a virtual sense, they can also be used to facilitate face-to-face contact. If you or a colleague is attending an industry event, get it out there via a tweet and arrange to meet your potential customers in person. Even we concede that nothing tops real-life interaction for new business growth.
3. Get personal
The potential to add a personal touch via Twitter is vast, particularly if your business is relatively small. By answering questions and conversing with individual followers you’ll show appreciation for your customers and build on their loyalty. More »
