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The ever-evolving media landscape presents significant challenges to marketers.
Brands are now required to work out how best to communicate across a growing number of channels ranging from traditional media to digital environments, all the while maintaining a consistent message and identity.
To find out how marketers are adapting to deal with the change in the way that people engage with media channels, Econsultancy and Mediaocean have today published a new report entitled Managing Media Convergence. The report is based on a survey of 124 agencies as well as in-depth interviews with 18 executives from agencies and brands, all with significant interest and experience in managing media.
It covers how to define the convergent environment, identifies pain points in managing new workflows and examines how the measurement of media is evolving as a result. The author identified four key trends running through the report....
Do the Promoted Tweets and Sponsored Facebook Posts we see online really influence what we purchase when we sign off and head to the store? Datalogix, the data giant that tracks more than $1 trillion in consumer spending, is finding the answers for Twitter and Facebook.
Through a new advertising metric Twitter is calling "offline sales impact," it has been working with Datalogix to find out how brands' tweets--essentially miniature online ads--impact their offline sales.In preliminary studies with 35 brands, Datalogix found Twitter users who were exposed to a brand's tweets purchased more than users who didn't interact with a brand's tweets at all, regardless of whether they were Promoted Tweets or organic. Datalogix also found users who both followed a brand's Twitter account and were exposed to that brand's Promoted Tweets made nearly 30% more offline purchases.
The ongoing debate about the value of social media engagement remains unresolved. However efforts have been made to assess the value of social media as “earned media” and to assess the ROI of social media marketing. After applying these recent calculations to our business and to our clients’ businesses, we find the assessments reasonable. At the very least, these calculations create a starting point for analysis of individual business results. ...
For every £1 spent in social media, a potential value of £3.34 can be generated, according to a study by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) into FMCG brands including Heinz, Kettle and Twinings.
Research found four out of five consumers would be more inclined to buy a brand more often in the future after being exposed to its social media presence, while 83% of consumers exposed to social media said they would trial a brand’s product.
The study of the social media activity of Heinz, Kettle and Twinings over an eight-week period found there was a 22%, 17% and 19% uplift in sentiment respectively when a consumer was exposed to the brands’ social media presence....
Plenty of startups try to determine the perfect business model to take to market only to find that the market doesn’t need, want or understand what they are presenting....
... A marketing strategy is how you plan to use the resources available to you to build an ongoing case that your business, products and services are the obvious choice for a narrowly defined ideal customer. If you accept this expanded view of marketing strategy then I would suggest you answer the following questions in an attempt to measure where your strategy stands today and where it could go if your understood and integrated it fully as your business model....
Just when you got your SEO mojo, out comes Penguin 2.0, trippin' up your flow. Here's what to do about it! ... Post-Penguin 2.0, the message is clear: if you want to rank and drive real traffic, you need to build your online brand. By strong branding, I’m not talking exclusively about giants like CNN and Zappos et al. I mean a strong brand in relation to the other sites in your industry fighting over specific SERP territory. Say you're a local dentist trying to rank for your best keywords. You won’t ever have brand recognition equal to that of Apple. But you can have an amazingly strong web brand for your local market. And if you do, you’re much more likely to rank. When you think about branding as a ranking factor, it makes a lot more sense. Google is trying to replicate the logic of the “real world” and apply it to the online world, after all. For instance, if you have a business and you’re trying to build your brand as part of a local marketing blitz, how would you do it? What constitutes a strong brand offline? Well, you might have printed ads in the local magazines and newspapers, or maybe radio and television ads -- you know, the kinds of things that might help create some brand recognition for your target market when they're not at a computer or mobile device....
If you run a small business, one thing that you probably don’t have a lot of- is time. You don’t want to spend a huge amount of time learning how to find and learn how to use the best tools to achieve your goals. Since my business is social media and web development I actually enjoy researching the best tools and have developed a portfolio of great tools and a workflow that works well for me. In this article I list the main tools I would recommend to most small businesses. Of course every situation is unique so I do recommend tailoring a system that works for you...
Valuable measurement perspectives and advice. The influential economist Albert O. Hirschman argues that customers can have a disciplining effect on companies and markets through their exit and voice behaviors. Instead of simply “quitting” a product, Hirschman urged customers to voice their complaints so companies could improve and learn. Hirschman would be a happy camper these days because social media puts a megaphone on the voice of the customer. Results from The CMO Survey® show that companies, in turn, are also starting to see the value of emphasizing voice-based metrics. The CMO Survey® investigated which metrics companies are using to measure the impact of social media investments. In August 2010 and then again in February 2013, top marketers were asked to share which metrics they use to evaluate social media. Looking across the results, we can see which metrics companies most often use. The survey did not, however, ask respondents to rank or rate each metric in terms of importance....
With a defined social media strategy in place, marketers can rock social media in 30 minutes a day. Sound too good to be true? It is actually possible if your daily use of social media is built upon a well-developed social media strategy. But, a strong social media strategy does not mean that your brand has to be on every single social media channel out there. Instead, focus on the social media channels that the majority of your customers frequent. The infographic below explains how having an over-arching social media strategy in place can save you time and make you a more effective social media strategist....
"Freemium" often backfires Trying To Hook Consumers With A Free Product Is A Dicey Strategy Seems like every third startup nowadays is using the “Freemium” business model: The lowest service tier is free, and the business is designed to get those users hooked and then upgrade to a paid plan. It can work wonderfully of course, but usually it crushes and destroys companies, not only because it costs more than anticipated but because the founders didn’t realize the business model itself caused them to make incorrect decisions....
Knowing which social media channels to use to build your brand and engage your audience is crucial. Study your market and your social media platforms to create social media solutions unique to your company.... In an increasingly “social” world, having the right communication channel for your company is more important than ever, and the list of social media platforms grows longer. The choices seem endless: Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, YouTube. These are just some of the channels dominating social media marketing services. But which ones should you choose? While any social media channel will be an extremely useful tool in your company’s inbound marketing strategy, there are a few broad trends you should be aware of. The type of social media solutions your company will want to use depends on the depth of your brand messaging and the demographics of the group being targeted. The latter can be a bit tricky, so analyzing the age, interests, and other characteristics of a company’s target market is an important first step in determining which social media channel to use. A young, hip student is likely to spend more time checking out new content on Tumblr or Pinterest, and exploring predetermined pages on YouTube or Facebook. A more mature audience, however, is likely to be found on LinkedIn Groups and Google+ Communities....
As I continue to teach classes at Hofstra, and introduce business owners to the myriad of social networks available, the same question keeps coming up, “But with so many choices, how do we know where to focus our energy?” And, it’s an excellent question. Should a business be on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Foursquare, LinkedIn, GooglePlus or Instagram? Where should they focus their energy? It is downright overwhelming. Overwhelming to the point that I feel sorry for the small businesses out there who don’t have any help in this area. And, that seems to be the majority of the small businesses I have been in contact with lately. Where do we spend our time? It is most important to understand the goals and purpose of social media, before you decide where you will interact. I believe that the goals and purpose of any social media presence should be: Help you get discovered by people who are searching for your products or services...
It is very easy to confuse social media and social business. The graphic in this post, created by my colleague David Armano, is a great illustration of the differences between a social brand (for the purposes of this post, this is synonymous with social media) and social business. At a very high level, a social brand is what we all do from a communications perspective to include marketing, public relations, customer support and so on. So what is a social business strategy? It helps evolve the thinking and preparedness of an organization by bridging internal and external social initiatives, which results in a more collaborative company and shared value for all stakeholders (customers, partners, employees). If you study the above graphic, a social business is very much focused on the internal dynamics of a company, from training and governance to knowledge sharing and culture. Social media policies and employee engagement also play a pivotal role in shaping a social business. A social business strategy can almost be considered an enabler, because if you have your internal process and structures sorted out, it is much easier to scale your social media initiatives externally. Whether it is launching a global Facebook page or empowering employees to engage in social media, having a solid social business plan will help minimize mistakes. As a marketing guy by trade, I will try to communicate the value of how a better social business strategy enables a better social brand....
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A new study from eMarketing discusses a frustrating dynamic of social media marketing: high perceived value but without sales to substantiate the perception...... Just as the coffee is for closers, the demographics and size of this study are for subscribers only. What we do know is that it was a survey conducted at least in part of digital marketers in very large firms (SAP, Xerox and Adobe are mentioned).Here are two of their most pointed observations:“social has become a primary lead generation tactic for B2B marketers”” B2Bs still haven’t found a proven formula for exactly how social helps close a sale”...
Millions and millions of consumers are expressing likes on Facebook, tweeting about products on Twitter, and pinning on Pinterest every single day.
Retailers and brands are therefore increasingly focusing their attention on social commerce.
But, many struggle with the question: how do you convert a "like," a "tweet," or "pin" into a sale?
In a recent report from BI Intelligence, we look at successful examples of businesses and business models for generating commerce via social media-based strategies, analyze Pinterest's success as a social commerce platform, look at Facebook's potential as a social commerce contender, and examine the e-commerce conversion and order value gap....
It’s now more evident than ever that CEOs who don’t engage in social media, may as well be conducting their business in a cave....
...CEOs and their executives ride shotgun in setting the cultural tone of the organization. Simply put, participation in social media promotes the use of social technology, which can only increase its competitive edge in adapting to technological market changes. Having a transparent and open organizational culture is imperative in establishing an effective social media strategy; it gives everyone a clear and common focus to tailor to the needs of the social consumer – a fact that escapes a lot of today’s CEOs.
BrandFog 2012 CEO Survey concerned this exact topic and reproduced some baffling results: - 82% of respondents were said to be more likely to trust a company whose CEO actively engages on Social Media. - 77% of respondents were recorded to be more likely to buy from a company whose mission and values are defined through their leaderships’ involvement in Social Media....
Everyone in business should understand opportunity cost (lost opportunity cost or missed opportunity cost). If you bring this kind of analysis to bear, you will quickly see why your business cannot afford to ignore social media as part of your marketing and customer service programs. Ignoring social media results in more than one missed or lost opportunity. Each opportunity carries a cost to your company.
Before you start plugging numbers into a cost equation, understand that social media success requires three things: 1. Knowledge 2. Time (typically 6 to 12 months) 3. Involvement
Understand as well that social media marketing alone is not likely to achieve your marketing goals. Social media should be used alongside and in conjunction with a range of other online and traditional marketing tactics or activities. Finally, understand that you need to understand and know how to measure some new key performance indicators, including...
Is your company using the power of social media to its full potential? In both a personal and business space, social media can be used to start meaningful conversations. However, many business owners do not take the medium seriously enough to invest in it. If social media is used correctly, it could have a positive impact on a company’s sales. How? Since social signals are becoming a more influential factor in determining placement in search results, using social channels properly can play a role in getting your site found more easily online. And that has positive correlation to sales. Here are three examples of methods to garner sales from multiple social media channels....
Overall usage on social media platforms is exploding. Millions and millions of consumers are expressing likes on Facebook, tweeting about products on Twitter, and pinning on Pinterest every single day. Retailers and brands are therefore increasingly focusing their attention on social commerce. But, many struggle with the question: how do you convert a "like," a "tweet," or "pin" into a sale? In a new report from BI Intelligence, we look at successful examples of businesses and business models for generating commerce via social media-based strategies, analyze Pinterest's success as a social commerce platform, look at Facebook's potential as a social commerce contender, and examine the e-commerce conversion and order value gap. Here's an overview of the converging trends that promise to transform social media into a viable commerce platform....
The newest research says 80% of marketers aren't planning to use Daily Deal sites in their upcoming campaigns Social Media Examiner has just released its annual Social Media Marketing report. It reveals some interesting data about this year’s social media marketing trends. The entire report is available for download here, but I’d like to highlight some of the report’s most surprising and significant points. In a survey of 3,025 marketers, the study determined the following: - The use of social bookmarking sites has plummeted from 26% of respondents in 2011 to just 10% in 2013. De.licio.us, DIGG, Friendfeed, etc., are rapidly falling in favor where marketers are concerned. (According to ebizMBA, the most popular bookmarking sites are currently Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit and StumbleUpon.) - Forums (24% in 2011; 16% this year) and geo-location services such as Foursquare (17% in 2011; 11% this year) are also in decline. - Respondents with more than 5 years experience are far more likely to use LinkedIn LNKD - 1.43% than the average respondent (92% vs. 70%)....
Your business is unsustainable in its present form. It doesn’t matter what you make, or sell, or offer. If you continue to embrace “business as usual,” you are doomed. That was the bottom-line message offered by Alexander Osterwalder, co-author of Business Model Generator, in his Day Two keynote at the Front End of Innovation conference in Boston this week. As I learned in my days at Forrester Research, whether you are writing a research report or giving a speech, there’s nothing like starting off with a little fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) to get people’s attention. Osterwalder introduced the crowd to his Business Model Canvas (BMC), which is a tool that allows people to make existing or new business models tangible so they can be discussed. There are 9 components to the BMC: Customer Segments, Customer Relationships, Channels, Value Propositions, Key Activities, Key Resources, Key Partners, Cost Structure, and Revenue Streams....
As marketers, it is our jobs to assure our clients that the time and money that they are investing in social media is not in vain. Therefore, we are constantly tasked with searching for studies and statistics that suggest that social media is still heading for world domination. One particular source I like to turn to for said stats is AllTwitter.com by MediaBistro. They frequently feature studies done by excellent social media companies. Recently, they featured an infographic by Balihoo that had some great and validating social media statistics. As we know, infographics are meant to present data in a quick and easy to digest way, so let’s apply some context to the data....
From obsessing about real-time data to buying advertising based on ad impressions/page views to celebrating Likes, learn how to avoid eight common mistakes.... I'll expand my purview a little bit in this post, from just looking at silly metrics to also looking at silly data "things." My hope is to use these eight examples to illustrate to you how, if you are spending 30% of your time with data, you can use crazy cool data strategies/metrics to ensure many, many promotions. Eight data things that marketing people believe that get them fired…. 1. Real-time data is life changing. 2. All you need to do is fix the bounce rate. 3. Number of Likes represents social awesomeness. 4. # 1 Search Results Ranking = SEO Success. 5. REDUCE MY CPC! REDUCE MY CPC NOW!! 6. Page views. Give me more page views, more and more and more! 7. Impressions. Go, get me some impressions stat! 8. Intent beats demographics and psychographics. Always....
Social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook are on a meteoric rise, and so are social data. Here are five insights social data can provide for businesses.... With social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook on a meteoric rise, companies are beginning to incorporate data collected from these social sites and their users into many aspects of their business from marketing to internal Human Resources issues – and with good reason. The sheer volume of social media data makes it incredibly difficult to analyze. However, various data services are popping up to answer the challenge of making sense of all this potentially advantageous consumer information. Here are five insights social data can provide for businesses....
After years of significant growth, social networks exhibited mixed results last year. It was bound to happen. Here are 10 reasons social media has peaked. Maybe it concerns you if you are in the social media business, but I will give you 8 reasons that it’s a relief that social media has peaked....
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The four keys to media convergence are worth noting: the consumer is in the driver seat; Digital domination; new client / supplier relationships; and results are more measurable than ever before.