Customer Experience

By Liam Dowd - April 15th, 2014

How to become a Google+ wizard, social media in China, and SingitKitty success.

Social media in China

Corporations that have a global reach need to ensure that engagement across social media is appropriate for the countries they have a presence in. China is one of the largest economies in the world, with a rapidly expanding middle class ready and waiting to buy your business’ goods and services. Reaching these consumers via social media is a key component of any marketing campaign.

A new presentation from We Are Social reveals some essential information that all corporations looking to expand into the Chinese market. For instance, Beijing (75%), Shanghai (71%) and Guangdong (66%) have the highest Internet penetration. And the leading social media network Sina Weibo continues to dominate with 153% year-on-year growth of advertising revenues. Although, QZone says its has the highest number of active users at 625 million.

How to become a Google+ wizard

Google+ has been described as a ghost town by some with other citing its rapid expansion that even Facebook could not match in its early days. What is clear is that brands can’t ignore Plus, as it is fast becoming one of the foundations of the social space. Forrester states: “Google Plus generates much more brand engagement than you think. Recently we studied more than 3 million user interactions with more than 2,500 brand posts on seven social networks. The result? Brands’ Google Plus posts generated nearly as much engagement per follower as their Facebook posts — and almost twice as much engagement per follower as their Twitter posts.”

Corporations though, seem to struggle with Plus especially how to leverage its features across their businesses. The good news is that a new infographic has done all the hard work for you. Building Plus into your corporations social media activity is now a must, as the platform continues to expand.

Millennials love social UGC

UGC (User Generated Content) has been used by corporations pretty much since the inception of social media. The masses of information and the rise of the citizen journalist have made social media networks hotbeds of debate. Social media though, has also legitimised this content. Millennials in particular are attracted to UGC from their peers and tend to trust this material over content with other origins. Indeed, according to new research 71% of this group engage with social media, and trust this channel as a means to deliver branded messages.

The research carried out for Crowdtap by Ipsos concluded: “Given millennials’ advertising savvy and skepticism around media, it is important to deliver a message through trusted sources. Millennials tell us that in- formation they receive through UGC is highly trust- worthy and trusted 40% more than information they get from traditional media sources (TV, print & radio), including newspapers and magazines.”

Social drives ad awareness

New research from YouGov BrandIndex indicates that users of social media are three-times more aware of a brand because of social media exposure. The #SingItKitty, which features a girl and moustachioed cat lip-syncing to ‘We Built this City’ whilst cycling around a suburban cul-de-sac, has had over 5 million hits on YouTube since launching on 21st February.

YouGov said: “Dial Testing by YouGov shows that 73% of people liked the new advert. However, the results also suggest that last year’s #Danceponydance advert commanded a greater level of viewer engagement (between 2-5% more) than the #Singitkitty advert. BrandIndex data also shows that Attention to Three has declined slightly since last March (when it peaked at 10%) standing at 6% on 24th March 2014 following the #Singitkitty advert launch.

“Despite this, BrandIndex data indicates that the campaign has been a success. Advertising Awareness has almost doubled since it launched, standing at 10% as of 24th March, whilst Consideration for Three increased by up to 3% since the campaign started. Three’s recent decision to abolish charges for 0800 calls, and the accompanying advertising campaign, also led to uplifts in Ad Awareness and Consideration from 18th March.”

There is no doubt that campaigns like this are highly engaging if the plethora of customised singitkitty videos that appeared on Facebook are anything to go by, but corporations need to look past these headline figures and ask if the uptick in awareness translated into increases in conversion for Three.

Until next time….

The Useful Social Media team.