Customer Experience

By Liam Dowd - August 6th, 2014

This week's 4 hot happenings from the world of corporate social media

Promote on Facebook

Brands have spent a huge quantity of resources getting to grips with what social media can do for their corporations. Connecting with consumers via social media marketing is now an established channel. How consumers react after a sale is complete is an interesting area to explore.

According to the latest figures from eMarketer, consumers in the US turn overwhelmingly to Facebook to promote the brands and products they have purchased, with 86% of those surveyed revealing this behaviour.

Barry Judge, CMO of LivingSocial told eMarketer: "Social is an important part of any marketer’s mix. A big portion of our new subscribers comes from a “refer a friend,” and we’re going to continue using our customers’ networks to grow our business."

The eMarketer report also concluded: “Unquestionably Facebook is a hub for retailers, whether they’re specifically looking to drive ecommerce transactions or not. Studies have indicated that virtually all major and mid-sized retailers have at least some Facebook presence, and a March 2014 survey of US digital buyers by UPS, comScore and the e-tailing group found that 86% used Facebook to promote products and brands themselves.

“Respondents also indicated that Facebook was the most likely social site they would use to make a purchase decision, with one in five digital buyers saying they did so. One in 10 said Pinterest was a decision-making helper for them, while just 6% selected Twitter. Overall, 35% of US digital buyers reported using at least one social site to make purchase decisions.”

Facebook has come under a great deal of criticism for its lack of commercialisation that brands can leverage. The eMarketer findings illustrate that brands can certainly use Facebook as a primary sales channel, but also as a secondary channel for positive sentiment and as a clear advocacy generator.

Over a third of video ads are not viewable

All corporations have watched the rise of video content, as it engages with consumers. However, new research from Ebuzzing suggests that a 40% rise in views of your corporation’s videos can deliver 75% increase in sales. The problem is that a third of your business’ videos are not viewable worldwide.

Pierre Chappaz is chairman and group CEO of Ebuzzing & Teads, said: “Half of all internet advertising bought by brands is not seen by web users. It is a shocking statistic and the situation is worsening year on year, due to the rise of programmatic buying.

“Adverts have more value when web users intentionally view them. Video advertising is often highly entertaining and great quality, and can be offered as relevant content, not a painful toll that must be paid before video content can be viewed. An alternative is video advertising which is positioned within articles on media sites, thanks to click-to-play or even better view-to-play formats.

“In the last few years, we have been reinventing video advertising by placing the campaigns within the heart of the articles on media sites, thanks to click-to-play or even better view-to-play formats. View-to-play, created by Teads in 2013, is available on several formats including inRead, which has proven extremely popular among premium media sites. The video advert is placed between two paragraphs of an article, and it only plays when visible on the web user’s screen, who can easily ignore the unit if he prefers to keep reading. As the inRead is viewable by design, we are charging the brands on completed views (CPCV), rather than on impressions (CPM), ensuring complete transparency.”

Social media is SMART

Measuring how successful your corporation’s social media activity is has been a stress point since the inception of social media networks. Using the SMART acronym: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Timed is one way to distil the essence of how these networks can be measured. A new infographic from Exacttarget also offers a great overview that can help your organisation clarify its approach to social media measurement.

Pin to sell

Last month Pinterest raised its profile massively with a minute-long ad showing how its 70 million users curate their pins to deliver real world advantages.

A new infographic from Ripen illustrates how powerful Pinterest has become as a commercial space outstripping Twitter or Facebook. Ripen concludes: “Adding Pinterest to your eCommerce strategy will push your products the extra mile, ultimately bolstering sales and brand engagement. So whether your company is small or large, new or old, virtual or physical, smart use of Pinterest has the ability to attract and influence a wide audience of potential customers.”

Until next time….

The Useful Social Media team.