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Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category
Social Media Trends for 2011
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011 by David Morgan
In a May 2011 Report authored by Michael Stelzner and sponsored by Social media Examiner, the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report set out to uncover the “who, what, where, when and why” of social media marketing. More than 3300 marketers provided insight on the latest trends in Social Media.
Here’s a quick summary of the findings:
Marketers place high value on social media- A significant 90% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business.
Measurement and integration are top areas marketers want to master- One-third of all social media marketers want to know how to monitor and measure the return on investment (ROI) of social media and integrate their social media activities.
Social media marketing takes a lot of time - The majority of marketers (58%)are using social media for 6 hours or more each week, and more than a third(34%) invest 11 or more hours weekly.
Video marketing on the rise- A significant 77% of marketers plan on increasingtheir use of YouTube and video marketing, making it the top area marketers will invest in for 2011.
Marketers seek to learn more about Facebook and blogging- 70% of marketers want to learn more about Facebook and 69% want to learn more about blogging.
The top benefits of social media marketing- The number-one advantage of social media marketing (by a long shot) is generating more business exposure,as indicated by 88% of marketers. Increased traffic (72%) and improved search rankings (62%) were also major advantages.
The top social media tools- Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs were the topfour social media tools used by marketers, in that order. Facebook has eclipsed Twitter to take the top spot since the 2010 study.
Social media outsourcing underutilized- Only 28% of businesses are outsourcing some portion of their social media marketing
You can find the original page for the report here.It’s a 40+ page read—probably not your “summer novel for the beach”—but important. When you can, look it over. At Force 5, we realize Social Media is a tool in the Marketing basket, and a moving target. Reports like this are important to review-Take some time and take a look.
Hey Buddy, wanna deal?
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011 by David MorganHey, Want a deal? Ok, here it is….I’ll give you $2,500—1/3 now, 1/3 in 30 days, and the final 1/3 in 60. You give my customers $10,000 in retail business from your shop. How does that sound?
credit: Rocky Ayrawal
That’s a Groupon deal.
The “daily deal” industry structures their deals so that the retailer must be very careful about the deal they are getting.
Generally, a company like Groupon wants you to give a 50% deal ($10,000 worth of stuff for $5,000)—then they take 50% of the income from the sale of the coupons. Will you get customers in your door? Sure….But here are two questions you must consider.1-Will the people who take advantage of my coupon be existing customers?
2-If they are new, will they return?The problem is we don’t know the answer. If we have a lot of number 1, we lose money. We just gave away a 75% deal…to an existing customer!
If we have a lot of the second group, and they don’t return, we lose money too. Are people returning? Its too early to tell. We know that Groupon is making money, but will you?There are many more factors in the daily deal scenario that needs to be scrutenized by the savvy business person. So be careful. Usually, (and depending on your type of business) couponing isn’t a bad strategy—but how many 75% off deals can you afford?
To see the original article from Rocky Ayrawal, Tech Crunch
Friend us on Facebook!
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011 by David Morgan
We see this phrase all the time. But as we dive deeper into the motivations of social network users, we see folks connect with Brands for many different reasons. I have a facebook friend that raves about a particular women’s clothing line. In my opinion, she’s a huge brand ambassador. So much so, that if I needed to purchase a woman’s clothing item for a gift, I’d check out their site. Before seeing my friend’s posts, I have never heard of this brand before. Her posts aren’t about deals or promotions, they’re about quality and style.
I thought about this from a brand perspective.
According to a Feb, 2011 Affluence Collaborative survey, wealthy internet users connect with brands on social networks for different reasons than the general population.
Among the general population, the main reason cited for connecting with brands on social networks was to receive deals and discounts. But this is a much lower priority for the wealthy. Their top reasons for following brands were due to a preexisting affinity for and a desire to be kept informed about the brand. (As a side note, the least-cited reason mentioned by all groups surveyed was to be entertained, suggesting that social media marketers still need to provide fans with value, even if it isn’t directly in the form of a coupon or sale.)
These findings coincide with earlier research from ExactTarget, which showed that a huge component of liking a brand on Facebook was due not just to an affinity, but as a means of self-expression for others to see. This promotional desire was more pronounced in Facebook users than Twitter followers or email subscribers. “Affluents” then, in their “love of the brands” they connect with, are largely acting as brand ambassadors.
Data from the study also reveals that the affluent aren’t using the same social networks as the general population. Facebook was the No. 1 social network used by all groups surveyed, but LinkedIn and Twitter attracted affluent internet users at nearly double the rate of the general population.
Our take away from the study?…. Any marketer targeting affluent consumers needs to know not only where to reach that audience, but what appeals to them. For wealthy internet users, connecting with a brand is largely about the brand itself, not gimmicks and offers. Affluents need to see a consistent message that makes following a brand meaningful for self-expression, just like when buying a brand in real life.
But I don’t think this idea just applies to the affluent—It’s the Brand ambassador we all want to be our friend. The person who “likes” us because of our brand-our quality, our customer service, our distinction in the marketplace.Keep your brand consistent throughout all of your social media efforts. Your ambassadors, wealthy or not, expect it.
Is the Twitter nest getting crowded? Speculating Twitter’s next move
Thursday, June 2nd, 2011 by Nevin McElwrath
Hungry Twitter
Recent news of Twitter purchasing Tweetdeck and cutting off third-party development of Twitter clients has me wondering where Twitter is headed. Twitter has no doubt proved itself as a contender in the online service arena. But can it prove it’s well-carved niche with the likes of Google and Facebook?
With the limitation of additional third-party clients and Twitter themselves gobbling up the big names in the client space, it’s clear that Twitter is aiming to consolidate and make the Twitter experience more consistent. Is that the only reason? Maybe. Maybe not.
With Twitter’s success comes eyeballs, and lot’s of them. Lately, Twitter has been monetizing the size of their audience with promoted tweets, or purchased tweets that appear on every search and trending topic. It’s a method that has worked so far, but it’s not targeted. Even Facebook will tell you, targeted advertising is where the revenue is.
Maybe their next step is more relevant ads; ads that are based the content of your lists and what you are tweeting and retweeting. Sound familiar? Facebook uses a similar method to target ads on your Facebook profile. It’s a strategy that requires plenty of infrastructure. If we look close enough, some of that infrastructure is already in place with the “Who to Follow” feature.
What is the benefit to Twitter of having users choose a Twitter-branded client instead of the many third-party offerings? My guess is to measure front-end metrics. Fragmentation among clients could make it difficult to truly measure front end user activity. Back end activity is already being captured through the current client calls to the API. This all only makes sense if Twitter jumps into the targeted ad space.
What are your thoughts? Would it affect how you use Twitter if they moved to targeted advertising?
Google Panda
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 by David Morgan
Google’s recent “Panda” update is getting plenty of notice and discussion on SEO and web marketing sites. This is an algorithm update, the formula Google uses to rank sites—using a variety of areas of your web site.It’s clear that one of the biggest goals for Google’s algorithm update is to provide higher page rankings for quality, rather than quantity, content. The biggest sites hurt in the change seem to be the “content farms”. A content farm (according to Wiki…) “employs large numbers of often freelance writers to generate textual content which is specifically designed to satisfy algorithms for maximal retrieval by automated search engines”. In other words, spammy content designed to fool Google into better results.
While your site may not be a content farm, you could be adversely affected by this update if your site contains:
* Relatively high amounts of advertising on the site
* Duplicate content (either on your own site or other domains)
* Page headlines that don’t match their contentYou can improve your site’s ranking with:
* Authoritative and useful content
* If your site is currently light on verbiage, more words per page may be an asset
* Content that provides value to your visitors
* Social network visibility via comments and sharingGoogle constantly looks at their search methods, and modify them to help you bring you the results you want. Good content—relative content—is always the proper way to build your site. Force 5 tries to stay abreast of the latest search methodologies – contact us if we can be of assistance as you update your site.
Order Up!
Monday, May 23rd, 2011 by Deb DeFreeuwForce 5 recently wrote about a project we did involving QR (quick response) codes. The campaign, done for Smoker Craft boats, has been a success and a practical application of this new and growing tool. Since the boom in QR codes, I have since seen them on everything from ads in magazines to the lettuce container at the grocery store. So, it has led me to think about their use and where they might be most effective. While reading an article in the technology section of the Wall Street Journal I came across an example worth sharing.
The article talked about a coffee shop in British Columbia named Ethical Bean. They were looking for a way to stand out in a very crowded market. Ethical Bean decided to put QR codes on ads that were placed inside trains. When a user scans the code, a coffee menu pops up and they can order their coffee and have it waiting when they arrive. Now that is a practical use of QR code technology. Ethical Bean doubled sales by providing an easy way for the on-the-go consumer to purchase their product.QR codes are popping up everywhere, if you are using them, make sure they take your consumer to content worth the trouble. If it’s your first tip-toe through the QR code field, we can help, call us.
