Category: social media
New research has revealed the most commonly used social media marketing tactics implemented by B2B marketers.
According to a new report from MarketingSherpa, B2B marketers are responding to a rapidly changing landscape where increased expectations on marketing departments point to a marketing mix more complex than ever before.
The findings from the 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report indicate that 87% of respondents say they use a branded social network (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter). The report suggests that the popularity of this tactic may be due to the ease of setting up a profile on a social network site, but warns that this tactic requires a strategy and consistent execution for good results.
Maintaining a corporate blog and microblogging were the next two most popular social media marketing tactics, with both tactics executed by 64% of B2B marketers.
Although corporate blog management was regarded as heavy on resources with the pressure of consistently creating and publishing blog posts being an issue, corporate blogging was regarded as a highly effective tactic. More »
A new study shows that lack of sufficient time and resources continue to present social media marketers with the biggest headache rather than lack of strategy or objectives.
The study from social media marketing solutions firm R2integrated in November 2010, shows that of those surveyed, more than two in five said that time and resources was the greatest barrier to social media marketing. Return on investment was also a concern.
The findings indicate that although companies in the first instance are attracted by relatively low initial costs of a social media programme, internal time and resources to maintain and monitor a company’s online presence is often under estimated.
Matt Goddard, CEO at R2integrated, quoted in eMarketer said “Most marketers understand the basic need to provide useful content to social spaces, but they aren’t able to keep up with the ongoing publishing demands, and don’t know how to manage conversations around their content within a community of interest.”
The demands of producing relevant online content to engage consumers, is not a problem that is going away soon, since consumer demand to engage with the content and share it with others continues to grow. However there could be an answer for the savvy marketer in 2011 according to another survey … 55% of companies outsource content marketing,
Over the past six months there has been a dramatic increase of fan numbers on the Sony Ericsson Facebook page, now showing at 3,078,716 fans. Statistics show that fan numbers have in fact doubled since mid-October.
Q. What is driving fan loyalty and what social media activities does the company use to build such a following?
A. Give-away contests, a strategy which has been popular amongst consumers long-term, both online and off. Sony has been giving away prizes ranging from phones to World Cup tickets in exchange for fan loyalty and participation.
Competitions have ranged from giving fans the chance to win one of the latest Sony Ericsson handsets via a weekly trivia question, or the opportunity to win tickets to last summer’s FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
The latest giveaway contest from Sony launched on Facebook, celebrates its Xperia X10 mini phone launch, challenging fans to compete for a free handset. More »
Walt Disney would have been 109 this month, but the company is currently marking another milestone – exceeding 100 million fans on Facebook, making it the most popular company on the social networking site.
Significantly the dramatic rise in fans over the past 16 months followed the company’s decision to regularly update the content, as well as create more than 200 different fan pages. The overall number of fans are spread across the company’s pages which feature all of Disney’s films and characters – Disney’s main Facebook page has 15,060,404 fans followed by the Toy Story page with 11,416,127.
Statistics for the company’s social media activities are similarly impressive. Fans have commented more than 1.5 million times and ‘liked, shared or commented’ on Disney’s content more than six million times. Disney achieved 60 million Facebook ‘likes’ in its first year, and now attracts about five million new fans every month. 70% of the company’s fans are women. More »
Company Profile
Lufthansa is the leading European airline in China, offering 71 flights weekly between China and Europe. Lufthansa’s brand and associations with Europe and European culture appeal to Chinese young adults who seek global experiences and exposure to different cultures. There is a natural fit between Chinese students who are interested in travel and study overseas and Lufthansa which enables travel to and within Europe. However, as a foreign company there was a lack of familiarity and consumer engagement with the brand.
The Challenge
Lufthansa wanted to introduce its services to a new target group, identified as Chinese students interested in travel and overseas study. The students were identified as a key segment of Chinese Internet users, with heavy use of social networking sites.The company wanted to create long-term loyalty as students progress in their careers, with the view that they will be the future management in organisations that travel on business to Europe. The company also wanted to soft sell the student fare as well as fostering a meaningful, useful environment for Chinese study students to interact and share knowledge about travelling in Europe. More »
68% of companies say they are shifting from traditional forms of marketing to branded content, including 61% who reported a moderate shift and 7% who said their shift was “aggressive” according to an eMarketer report.
The branded content refered to in the study covers material ranging from
blogs, online video, Twitter promo or Facebook page, to ads and online gaming.The main consideration is that consumers genuinely want to engage with the content and share it with others; that it is entertaining and of interest, rather than interuptive and annoying.
The findings relate closely to a recent survey from King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42 – the 2010 Social Media Usage, Attitudes and Measurability” study, which showed 73% of US companies with a social media strategy using branded content in their campaigns. More »
A new survey has revealed a significant increase by retail CMOs in the use of social media tactics within their overall marketing strategy. Despite flat budgets during 2010, retail marketers have sharpened their focus on social networking sites, due to the effectiveness of the medium to reach consumers across demographics.
Findings from financial advisory and consulting services firm BDO’s USA Retail Compass Survey of CMOs, which surveyed the opinions of 100 chief marketing officers of leading retailers across the US, indicted that 75% have included social media in their marketing strategy this year, up from 51% in 2009.
Significantly 92% of CMOs using social media say they are focusing their social networking efforts on Facebook, up from 76% in 2009. Twitter is also a key marketing focus (61%; up from 50% in 2009) with other social networking sites featuring – YouTube (20%), LinkedIn (15%) and MySpace (8%) More »
“Businesses should start thinking about the web in a wholly different way and get to grips with the new “social layer” across the Internet,” was the message from both the San Francisco annual Web 2.0 Summit last week and the annual Monaco Media Forum held earlier this month.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, MySpace chief executive Mike Jones offered further insight on what this might mean for firms, arguing that “most businesses’ websites were wrong at the moment, as their organising principle was not social; it was more category-led”
He illustrated the change in outlook by giving the example of a clothes shop – “Imagine you go to a clothes shop’s website and you look up ‘shirts’, chances are you will pull up a list of shirts that the brand sells…. wouldn’t it be more interesting and valuable to know what shirts your friends or people with similar interests to you had previously bought or were thinking of buying? More »
Company Profile
Vero Moda is an international fashion brand with outlets across Europe, Scandinavia, China and the Middle East. The brand is targeted at young women, selling quality clothing reflecting the latest trends at an affordable price.
The Challenge
Vero Moda face fierce competition for the attention of young consumers in the Middle East region. The company wanted to develop a regional online strategy to help interact with their customers and build a following using social media.
The Solution
Working with Jordan based online marketing company, The Online Project, the company launched a basic Facebook Page, to build a community around their brand, and enabling the company to connect to consumers and help them to find out more about their products and clothes lines. More »
The increasing use of social-networking-services, coupled with changing demographics and work styles, will lead 20% of employees to use social media as their business communications’ hub by 2014, according to Gartner.
In a presentation to CIOs and IT executives at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2010 in Cannes last week, Monica Basso, research vice president at Gartner highlighted the need for businesses to pursue innovative ways of working where communications and collaboration between employee groups will be critical to business success.
“Today, social paradigms are converging with e-mail, instant messaging and presence, creating new collaboration styles.” said Ms Basso, “however, a truly collaborative, effective and efficient workplace will not arise until organisations make these capabilities widely available and users become more comfortable with them. Technology is only an enabler; culture is a must for success.” she warned. More »
