Category: social media
The majority of marketers plan to increase their spend on social media marketing this year, with a focus on Facebook marketing to drive ‘Likes’.
So found a poll of marketers from companies such as Bank of America and Colgate-Palmolive and advertising agency executives conducted by Effie Worldwide and Mashable this February.
Of those surveyed, a striking 70% plan to boost their social media budgets by more than 10% this year. Speaking on behalf of themselves and their clients, respondents forecast spending 11.9% of their overall marketing budgets on social networking, compared with 13% for television. These predictions do not necessarily tally with last year’s ad spend figures from the Internet Advertising Bureau, which showed that $68.7 billion was ploughed into TV advertising last year, compared with just $26 billion spent on online.
Interestingly, Twitter did not take centre stage in the findings, as Facebook marketing was a focus looking forwards. Much of the forecast budget increases will be allocated to attracting Facebook fans, which 35% of those polled cited as their main goal in 2011.
The study also revealed some other interesting findings. When asked to name those brands ‘effectively getting their message across via social media’, the big winners were Old Spice (cited by 15%), Pepsi (8%), Starbucks (7%) and Ford (6%). More »
Blogs and social media marketing are becoming increasingly important influencers in female purchase decisions, according to the BlogHer 2011 Social Media Matters study.
In the first instance, the report confirmed that social media use and blog consumption are both on the rise in the US. The number of Facebook users climbed from 80% of online Americans last year to 87% this year, closing the gap between Facebookers and consumers of offline television (93%). BlogHer also found that 40% of online Americans read blogs (up from 37% in 2010) and 22% use Twitter (up from 16% last year).
A striking trend revealed by the study is the impact that blogs now have on online shopping habits. Around half (53%) of respondents (88% of those who describe themselves as active blog readers) said that they trust the information supplied in blogs that they visit regularly, with nearly one-quarter of the US population (24%) indicating that they make purchases based on blog content – rising to 53% of active blog readers.
What’s more, women tend to respond better to endorsements by trusted bloggers than by well-known celebrities when it comes to learning more about a product or making a purchase. More »
The majority (93%) of B2B marketers are engaged in social media marketing to some extent, with a particular focus on the quality audience served by LinkedIn, according to fresh research by ‘B2B’.
As well as LinkedIn, the B2B marketers surveyed are also embracing Facebook and Twitter marketing. 26% of respondents cited LinkedIn as their most important social channel, followed by Facebook (20%), blogging (19%), customer communities (14%) and YouTube (7%).
One of the study’s most interesting finds is the prominent role of social media for branding purposes.
However, while marketers find social sites are useful overall in supporting branding efforts, they tend to harness each channel based on its own unique strengths.
While LinkedIn is being employed primarily for lead generation purposes, Facebook is considered better for promoting products and events, and Twitter is gaining popularity for its potential to drive website traffic.
Further evidence of the growing role of social media within B2B marketing comes this week from a Forrester Research study, which predicts that B2B companies will spend $54m on social media marketing in 2014, up from just $11m in 2009. More »
As online recommendations now stand among the most trusted forms of advertising, according to Nielsen, Facebook’s new tool offers up exciting opportunities for brands looking to maximise their Facebook marketing plans.
Following a year of beta testing, Facebook Questions finally rolled out globally on Facebook on March 24. The market research and crowdsourcing potential is vast, as companies can tap into real-time feedback from known fans in a trusted setting.
Brands should now ponder whether to leverage the tool similarly to other Q&A sites such as Yahoo Answers, Quora and LocalMind, or to create a novel social media strategy.
Over at Mashable.com, Ben Grossman, communication strategist for Oxford Communications broke down the key differences between the sites’ functionality.
While Facebook Questions falls into roughly the same category as the aforementioned sites, there are two major differences; answers to questions are not free-form; users are limited to multiple-choice responses; questions (and their answers) are not yet catalogued by search engines, he explained.
The upshot is that for now, public Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers and Quora will remain important for public-facing customer support and inquiries. More »
Branded content is helping to fuel the growth of social media for business, especially when it comes to shopping activity.
Writing for Clickz.com, interactive media expert Heidi Cohen has mapped out how social media complements consumer needs for different types of content right along the shopping process.
With its multi-format content and connected consumers willing to share feedback and reviews, social media is an important part of the initial research phase. Even though consumers will ask around their social network for advice, it is vital to offer information about your products and company online.
The next stage sees consumers drilling down into specifics and finalising their decisions. They’re still likely to turn to their online peers at this point. Offering detailed product images and customer reviews, as Banana Republic does, will strengthen your position.
At the next step a prospect becomes a customer – but only if they purchase your product. Supplying content which covers delivery, shipping costs, directions, and best prices can help seal the deal. Increasing numbers of people are actually purchasing via social networks, so it’s worth considering setting up a fully functioning Facebook store, as 1-800-Flowers.com has done to great success. 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 »
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 »
New research released yesterday reveals that brands, and retailers in particular, could be missing a trick when it comes to maximising their social media strategy to encourage purchasing.
While 6% of shoppers have made purchases through social media campaigns, with 9% actively following brands, a heftier 37% believe that having a brand presence on social media is pointless.
Conducted by consumer behaviour research company Shoppercentric, the study found a marked difference in the way that men and women approach social media; while men use it to shop, women prefer spending time interacting with others.
It may sound simple, but by getting to grips with the gender divisions within social media and mobile use (see below), retailers could significantly improve their targeting ability and engage with potential shoppers.
38% of men, but just 29% of women own a smartphone.
Facebook is used by 56% of people – 60% of women, but just 52% of men.
14% of men shop using apps, but only 8% of women do.
27% of male shoppers use price comparison sites, while only 19% of women do. More »
Social media marketing is fast becoming the channel of choice for local businesses facing restrictive budgets and limited resources.
So says a new survey of local merchants by MerchantCircle, which finds that they are increasingly gravitating towards the efficient, low-cost offer of social networking sites, as well as the tried-and-tested digital marketing staples of search and email marketing.
More than half of the 8,500 small and local businesses surveyed across the US are spending less than $2,500 each year on marketing, while 60% have no plans to increase their budgets this year.
Of all the categories, Facebook marketing shone as the clear winner among local businesses. The social network has surpassed Google as the most popular tool for reaching consumers – little surprise given its massive consumer adoption and low barrier to entry. Some 70% of marketers now use Facebook, up from 50% this time last year.
In line with this high level adoption comes growth of Facebook’s location-based service, Facebook Places, which has soared to a 32% current usage rate. This contrasts with competitor service Foursquare, which has crept up from 2% last year to plateau at 9% over the past two quarters. More »
