9:13 AM
kasunone
Showing posts with label Social. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social. Show all posts
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Saturday, June 30, 2012
TV's Biggest Highlights on Social Media This Year [INFOGRAPHIC]
With the 2011-2012 TV season behind us, networks are not only looking into ratings to gauge success, they're also diving into social TV statistics. Which series reigned supreme with the social media-wielding viewers?
Fox generated the most comments on Facebook and Twitter from September to May for primetime series programming and all series programming, with American Idol, Glee and The X Factor leading the charge online.
[More from Mashable: Amazon Picks First Original Projects for On-Demand Video Service [VIDEO]]
"Fox is clearly a leader in social TV," Bluefin spokeswoman April Conyers told Mashable. "But it's also interesting to note that when you expand beyond series-only to include sports and special events, CBS jumps to the top."
SEE ALSO: Summer TV Guide -- 20 Social Shows to See | 'True Blood' Breaks Social Media Records[More from Mashable: Top 10 Twitter Pics of the Week]
CBS ranked number one when accessing all show types and non-primetime/primetime data, propelled by the Grammy Awards, March Madness and NFL broadcasts.
What were the shows doing to attract comments? NBC's The Voice, for example, employed an impressive social media blitz, using more than 160 social profiles for judges, contestants and show personalities, including one for judge Cee Lo Green's cat, Purrfect. The Voice also introduced voting via a slick Facebook Timeline app.
The result for The Voice season two: 145 worldwide Twitter trending topics, 13% rise for online's vote share and 38% jump in votes per unique user, NBC told Mashable.
The infographic below from Bluefin Labs details the most social days, moments, premieres, finales, series, broadcast networks and cable networks.
"This was the first full TV season with social TV measurement, so this data serves as a benchmark for future seasons," Conyers says. "People will be interested in tracking the growth and adoption of social TV. Having this season's data all in one place is a useful reference."
This story originally published on Mashable here.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Social Sharing Buttons Under Control: Socialite.js
Advertise here with BSA
Socialite.js is a JavaScript library for having more control over social sharing buttons. The library is lightweight (2kb minified-gzipped), standalone and helps the social widgets to load when you want them or only when needed/requested to speed up web pages. It has support for the major players: Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Spotify. There is [...]]]>
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Why Business Executives Fear Social Media Marketing
This post was born out of a fascinating and revealing conversation our CEO recently had with a business executive of a prominent Minneapolis-area car dealership who absolutely refused to entertain the idea of social media marketing in general, and Twitter in particular. A marketing director, she was convinced that her fairly expensive ad spend on a local radio station was all their brand needed to reach its target demographic, 18 to 45 year-old men. Incredulous, our fearless leader tried to explain that such a group was one of the sweet-spots for social media/Twitter marketing (in fact, 70% of Twitter users are between the ages of 18-45; of these, just under half are men). The marketing exec seemed agitated. She would have none of it, and quickly changed the subject.
This experience is not an isolated one. I’ve had numerous conversations with business leaders in the over-30 crowd whose opinion of social media ranges from that of novelty item to utter abomination casting a blight over their well-ordered business universe.
Why does the mere mention of social marketing upset so many executives and business owners, anyway?
WHY DO I NEED THIS?
A new study authored by The Economist Intelligence Unit and Pulse Point may shed some light. The study interviewed 329 US and Canadian executives (C-level to CEO) from 19 different industries to glean their perspectives on engaging customers “in meaningful conversations-enabled by social technologies-so both parties benefit.”
While 81% of executives agreed that social engagement provides their company with tangible benefits, such as increased market share, the study highlighted 9 roadblocks to deeper social engagement:
Taking a look at the top three roadblocks, it makes sense that concerns over ROI measurability, legal issues and strategy would make executives hesitate in their adaption of a new marketing platform. Having said that, social engagement is actually quite measurable; unless someone nukes the entire planet, all legal issues surrounding the dissemination of online content are going to have to be dealt with by organizations sooner or later. Moreover, there are innumerable resources on the web for any executive or organization to bone up on social media adaptation and strategy.
Except for very small organizations, the whole lack of budget argument is a bit of a canard. Yes, there are costs associated with hiring social media staff or outsourcing the management of social media to a marketing firm, but as a general rule the efficiencies of social media outweigh the costs. If you’re unconvinced, check out the blog I wrote on P&G regarding this very topic.
Beyond the numbers, I think there are three fundamental reasons why business leaders resist embracing social for their brand:
Fear of the Unknown - Many pre-Millennial execs see social as “the other.” They don’t really get it, or refuse to consider it, and they sure as heck aren’t going to let some young whippersnapper tell them how to use it. I think I was a bit like this until I realized that I was really just plain wrong.Fear of Change - Apathy is the handmaiden of stagnation. For many busy executives, it seems like a lot of work to take on a new project, let alone a whole new paradigm.Fear of Technology - A subtle but powerful roadblock, as the world embraces all things digital and techie at an exponential rate, many execs feel like they understand less and less about the underpinnings of their business.Taken as a whole, the rise of technology has inspired the Millennials (aka Gen Y) to conduct business in a fundamentally different manner. They tend to work in an inclusive, flexible, and naturally collaborative way and are very willing to share knowledge and engage socially (at least online).¹ As the world moves toward the adaptation of Internet, social and mobile technologies at breakneck speed, these trends will only continue to gather force.
I REALLY DO NEED THIS, DON'T I?
Because many business leaders’ understanding of social media is limited to casual observations made of their children’s interactions, they are unable to acknowledge the relevance (criticality) of social engagement for their business.
Perhaps they see the Internet as another channel rather than a different space to do business in; they do not understand the open and supportive ethos that underpins it. Amazon's Marketplace showing a competitor selling the same product at a lower price on its own website and customer reviews is one example of this ethos.¹
As a pre-Millennial myself, I can relate to the points highlighted above. Admittedly, though, I must say that those who resist social engagement for their brand simply must change their ways or face increased marginalization. I truly believe that for most businesses, social is no longer a novelty or a luxury, but a fundamental necessity, right up there with telecom and power.
I ask all business executives who are currently resisting social engagement to reexamine their reasons for doing so, stripping away all fear and prejudice. When analyzed in the cold light of day, I believe you are left with one stark choice: to adapt and evolve, or stagnate and face extinction.
¹ Ecadamy, "Business: Social media can only be bad for business”
Monday, May 14, 2012
Facebook Offers Helps Businesses Leverage Social Mobile Local
On May 3rd, Facebook officially rolled out its new Groupon-like marketing platform, Facebook Offers, to all local U.S. companies. With Offers, businesses can distribute coupons or other promotions to fans directly through news their news feeds. Two things make this a potential boon for your brand: 1) Facebook isn’t charging anything or taking a cut, and 2) when a Facebook user claims your Offer, his or her friends will see an ad in their news feed; the action also posts to the user’s Timeline.
So not only can you keep 100% of the proceeds from an offer, but every time one of your fans purchases, you’re broadcasting the offer to that person’s entire following.
Talk about reach.
What’s in it for Facebook? Ad revenue, of course. The social network is hoping you’ll get enough free business from Offers that you’ll pony up cash to purchase Facebook ads to increase your fan-base and potential coupon subscriber base. If it works, Offers could be a win-win for both the social network and your business.
Admittedly, the new Offers product is most relevant for brands trying to draw bodies into a bricks-and-mortar storefront. But for companies who fit the bill, Offers represents the perfect combination of social, mobile and local.
For example, imagine a smartphone user hanging out at a local coffee shop sipping a latte and logging into Facebook (with roughly 50% of FB users accessing the site via mobile each month, this is not too far-fetched). Browsing their newsfeed, the user notices a coupon offer from a local business they follow. Intrigued, the user clicks on the “Get Offer” button, which sends it to the primary email address associated with his or her Facebook account. To redeem, the user can either present a printed copy of the offer to the merchant, or show the offer from their mobile phone.
When a user obtains an offer, a story about it is automatically added to the user’s timeline, which by default is visible to the user’s friends. Users can also share offers with whomever they choose by clicking the “share offer” link beneath the story.
Pretty handy.
On paper, Facebook Offers seems like a brilliant integration of social, mobile and local, providing brands an easy way to generate more business and broaden their social reach, all in real time. We’ll have to see how many businesses will actually experiment with Offers, and to what extent users will integrate the service into their daily lives.
If you decide to try out Offers, make sure your staff is fully briefed regarding all aspects of each promotion. Just remember that deriving business from a massive social media site structured to promote social sharing can be a double-edged sword for your brand. Get it right, and you’ll likely broaden your online reach and enjoy an immediate uptick in sales; get it wrong, and you may do serious damage to your online reputation at a point in history when such a thing is an increasingly valuable commodity.
Is your business planning on using Facebook Offers? If not, what's holding you back?
¹ Search Engine Watch, “Facebook Offers Rolls Out to Local US Businesses”
Image Courtesy of MJA Impressions
How to Use HubSpot to Measure Your Social Media Marketing
Boston-based inbound marketing company Hubspot has created a comprehensive suite of marketing automation software tools that help companies efficiently manage their online (inbound) marketing efforts. Hubspot’s all-in-one solution helps your business connect with prospects interested in your product or service, generate qualified leads, and ultimately drive sales conversions. They do this by providing a host of tools that integrate your web-based marketing with your social media, creating a seamless online experience.
Perhaps most importantly, Hubspot’s platform provides robust analytics to measure and analyze the results of your online marketing, including your social media marketing.
Social media for business is still in its infancy, with many brands only now beginning to grasp its importance as an indispensable tool for online marketing. An added benefit of social media is that, because it is a digital medium, it is highly measureable.
As such, many core marketing analytics principals can be applied to your social media marketing efforts: you can measure the reach your social media, your audience views your brand, how much traffic social media drives, and how many leads and sales you are generating from that traffic.
Hubspot’s inbound marketing software helps you measure these four critical metrics to analyze your social media marketing effectiveness.¹
Social Media Reach
It is important to track the total number of people engaging with your social media channels, because the bigger your social media audience, the broader your social media “reach.” With a broad social reach, you can amplify your brand’s messaging and content, especially given the exponential nature of social media.
Hubspot’s software measures all of the interactions throughout your social media channels, from Facebook “likes” to YouTube video views and blog comments, and integrates this data with real-time graphs that are downloadable into Excel.
Measuring your social reach allows you to tweak content and messaging to better resonate with your audience.
Visibility and Brand Perception
Listening to your audience is an important aspect of social media marketing. Hubspot’s software tracks every mention your brand receives within each social media channel, and provides qualitative analysis as to whether those mentions are positive, negative, or neutral.
Monitoring this information gives you an opportunity for deeper engagement or reputation management, depending on the nature of the mention.
Web Traffic from Social Media
One key reason to use social media marketing is to drive traffic to your online base of operations- your website- in order to attract visitors, generate leads, and convert sales.
You want to monitor the percentage of unique visitors to your website coming from social media. Hubspot’s software tracks this data metric by recording the referring sources in your web analytics platform.
Conversion Rate from Social Media
At the end of the day, conversion is all that counts. With Hubspot’s platform you can track the percentage of visitors from social media that end up converting into leads and sales. This metric is indispensable for measuring the ultimate value of your social media efforts.
You can track visitor-to-lead, lead-to-customer, and visitor-to-customer conversion rates from each of your social media sites, and compare this data to your conversion metrics from other marketing channels to properly assess your social media ROI.
Takeaway
Forbes magazine ranks Hubspot 17th in its top 20 most promising companies, and INC 500 lists the inbound marketing software provider as the 2nd fastest growing software company. In the spirit of full disclosure, SyneCore Technologies is a Hubspot VAR partner, helping our clients manage the inbound marketing platform for their businesses.
We did this because we truly believe that Hubspot’s all-in-one inbound marketing software platform provides an indispensable toolset for brands to get found online, convert prospects to leads and customers, and measure the results of their efforts. In short, they provide a one-stop shop, or “hub-spot,” for all of your online (inbound) marketing needs.
¹ Hubspot, “An Introduction to Marketing Analytics”
Social for Small Business: Is Facebook Cooler than Google?
In case you missed it, YouTube/Google threw a star-studded event for advertisers Wednesday night to promote its $100 million investment in new "channels," Google’s initiative to bring professional entertainment to the world's largest video site.³ There was Jay-Z, Flo Rida and the Neon Trees, Julia Stiles, Jennifer Beals, and Virginia Madsen, all partying down with the search giant’s generalissimo, Eric Schmidt.
Better still, Google unveiled a $200 million campaign to market the premium video channels by using YouTube and the Google Display Network, among other resources.¹
Get ready, you’re about to see a flood of online ads promoting Google’s latest pet project.
"We will fish where the fish are in a mighty big pond," said Google VP of content Robert Kyncl in an appeal to ad agency execs. "If you want to lead, join us now for the next seven years. We can build audiences together. We can build brands together" (my emphasis).¹
Yuck.
What happened to good ol’ “do no evil” Google? Let us remember the words of Larry Page, who wrote in a recent blog post, “We have always wanted Google to be a company that is deserving of great love.”
But I’m confused. Isn’t this the same company that changed its search algorithm to level the playing field for the little guy, who supported such free-love inbound marketing principles as unique content creation?
Judging by the preponderance of back slapping from the cigar-chomping, scotch-swirling Madison Avenue illuminati in attendance at the YouTube gala, I’d say Google is more focused on making a “push” toward the old-school marketing world order.
By contrast you have Facebook, whose apparent rejection of big media, even as the social network prepares for its historic IPO, has left ad agencies in an uproar. As David Smith, the CEO of digital agency Mediasmith, noted with exasperation: "Facebook just doesn't seem to care. They're still trying to grow this thing. The question is, do they want the big bucks?"²
Big bucks indeed.
When taken together, these two developments leave me asking one question: Is Facebook cooler than Google?
ABOUT FACE(BOOK)
Paul Sloan of CNET wrote a post on this topic, where he quotes Mike Parker, the co-president of U.S. operations of Tribal DDB, talking about his frustration with Facebook: "For the longest time, we've been trying to call Facebook to do business with them and there's nobody to pick up the call," said Parker. "They're very focused on the consumer experience, and less focused on revenue and working with advertisers."
Flakes.
Sloan goes on to recount the grievance of another exec at one of the world's biggest interactive agencies, who spoke on the condition of anonymity: "We know the reach is there," she said. "The problem is that Facebook isn't willing to do anything different for the client that wants to spend $10,000 versus $10 million." (How about those of us with considerably less than 10k to spend?)
So what’s got big media champing at the bit to advertise with Facebook, anyway?
As I noted in an earlier blog, Facebook has been aggregating the profile information of its now roughly 900 million-strong user base for years, and it’s able to use much of this information to provide marketers laser-focused ad targeting. Location, age, gender, precise interests, Facebook connections, sexual orientation, relationship status, languages, education and specific workplaces are some of the fields on offer for keen marketers.
If they can get at it.
Much to the consternation of ad execs, Zuckerberg reminds us in a recent letter to shareholders, "Facebook was originally not created to be a company …it was built to accomplish a social mission -- to make the world more open and connected." And that mission, he writes, continues to underlie all decisions the company makes.²
TAKEAWAY
In fairness, all glitz aside, Google (as usual) has big plans for its YouTube video platform, envisioning it as the logical evolution of cable TV. As Chris Hardwick, host of Nerdist channel, points out, "The web will be to cable TV what cable TV was to broadcast.”³
As the world goes social mobile, it’s hard to argue against web-based video playing a prominent role in the future of entertainment. In fact, that’s exactly what Google is betting on with its focus on YouTube premium channels.
I don’t often question Google’s destination, just its disjointed motives. As Google tries to be everything to everybody, Facebook seems to be staying on message by aligning with Zuckerberg’s social mission (at least as much as a 100-billion dollar company can these days).
I doubt if this point will be lost on the Millennials, whose spending power is set to eclipse that of the Baby Boomers by 2017, thereby driving the future of American Consumerism.
What’s the bottom line for small business? At least for now, Facebook is cooler than Google.
¹ Mashable, “Google Pledges $200 Million to Market Premium YouTube Channels”
² CNet,”Frustrated advertisers to Facebook: Take our money -- please!”
³ Ad Age, “YouTube Commits $200M to Promote Premium 'Channels'”
Image Courtesy of Ogilvy
A Winning Social Commerce Strategy: Don’t Ask How, Ask Why
An article in Bloomberg a few months back listed a number of prominent retailers ranging from Gamestop to JC Penny that shut down their e-commerce stores on Facebook this past year because of dismal on-site sales. As Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research wryly noted in the Bloomberg post, “There was a lot of anticipation that Facebook would turn into a new destination, a store, a place where people would shop…but it was like trying to sell stuff to people while they’re hanging out with their friends at the bar.”
If the future of commerce is social and mobile, why are companies having such a hard time selling their products on social media sites like Facebook?
More importantly, do such negative experiences with Facebook commerce expose a natural limitation of social media for business?
Not by a long shot.
This is a classic example of form over substance, with most companies overly-focusing on the “how” of social commerce rather than the “why.”
Brands often pay too much attention to the technical and process-oriented aspects of social commerce, such as site construction and/or website integration, forgetting about the overarching customer experience. By doing so they’re assuming the sale without bothering to consult their target audience or analyze buyer motivations when purchasing through social media.
In other words, they are concentrating on how, and forgetting to ask why.
Brian Solis underscored this idea in a recent post. When analyzing recent brand adaptation of Facebook commerce, or “F-Commerce,” he had this to say: “F-commerce only gets an “F” because brands used Facebook as yet another digital catalog for selling products and not as a platform for activating new experiences based on the nature and the psychology of the relationships that define the network…Some use Facebook as an opportunity to spam offers, others present versions of their online storefronts as a way to garner more sales. But is this the right way to make money? Is this the right way to gain loyalty from your Facebook fans?”
It doesn’t sound like a wise approach to me. Remember folks, it’s about the journey, not the destination.
GIVE ME VALUE, OR GIVE ME DEATH
On the other hand, IBM’s 2011 study entitled “From social media to Social CRM: What customers want,” found that on the main customers are far more interested in getting “tangible value” when seeking out brands’ social media sites than building deeper connections. The study went on to suggest that companies may be confusing “their own desire for customer intimacy with consumers’ motivations for engaging.”
Wait a minute. What happened to building customer loyalty through deeper social engagement?
Before you throw the baby out with the bathwater and rewrite your social strategy, this data is actually good news for business, because it means that consumers are embracing social media in a more organic and three-dimensional way.
Users are now viewing social media as an essential organizing principle for their lives rather than just a fun place to chat with friends. Consumers have accepted “why” they’re using social media; it’s time for businesses to catch up.
As Eileen Brown wrote in a post on ZD.Net, “Social shopping is more than the click-to-buy mentality common across some e-commerce sites. F-commerce is about sharing, influencing and encouraging your friends to engage and purchase things that you love and recommend.”
Universal Pictures took this concept out for a test drive when promoting last year’s movie “Safe House.” Through a social-based ticketing app, fans could watch and share the movie trailer, find show times, invite friends, and buy tickets, all without leaving the Facebook wall. Leigh Godfrey, Director of Digital Marketing, Universal Pictures “fully expect(s) the continued use of this unique tool as fans make plans to see other Universal films in 2012.”¹
Facebook can facilitate this kind of three-dimensional approach to consumer engagement via social thanks to its Open Graph, which seamlessly integrates 3rd party apps into the Facebook experience to create a more engaged ecosystem that caters to individual consumer interests.²
IT’S THE STRATEGY, STUPID
As with many things, companies are failing at Facebook commerce in particular and social commerce in general because they are too focused on process and not focused enough on strategy.
Building a complex, user-friendly s-commerce platform is not a bad idea per se, as long as it is a means to an end rather than an end in itself.
In any event, your company’s social commerce site structure and process flow should be subordinate to a well-thought out social commerce strategy that fully integrates your online (and offline) marketing efforts, all while never forgetting to factor in the needs and wants of your target audience.
Simply put: don’t ask how, ask why.
¹ ZD NET, "Facebook stores fail f-commerce goals by selling not socialising
² Brain Solis, "Brands Give Facebook F-Commerce an F"
³ Brian Solis, "Likes, Genre, Action- Facebook Introduces Clicks to Action"
Image Courtesy of Shoptab.net
