By adaptive - July 4th, 2012
Hi all, Hope everyone is well? The news this week includes… What does a Facebook ‘like’ mean? [R]esearch from the CMO Council has revealed that the perception of a Facebook ‘like’...
Hi all,
Hope everyone is well?
The news this week includes…
What does a Facebook ‘like’ mean?
Research from the CMO Council has revealed that the perception of a Facebook ‘like’ can be quite different depending on whether you are a brand owner or a consumer. Brand marketers tend to view the ‘like’ as an endorsement of the content they are presenting to support their brand’s goals; whereas, consumers tend to see the ‘like’ as a sign of loyalty.
This difference of view may appear to be subtle but brands need to understand what loyalty means and how this can be nurtured. Jan Rezab, CEO of Socialbakers recently revealed their own research that showed that 70% of fan questions go unanswered across the social networks – not a ringing endorsement of a customer’s loyalty. The definition of a ‘like’ is fluid at the moment, but brand owners need to pay attention to how their customers view their award of a ‘like’ to fully lever that relationship.
Social media increases Aston Martin traffic by 100%
The new campaign for the Aston Martin Vanquish has embraced the social media space with dramatic results. The company has reported 100% increase in traffic to their site coming mostly from the UK, US and Germany. To promote the new car the company used a staggered approach to their social marketing, which was spread over several days.
Facebook was central to their campaign using the site to kick off the campaign by revealing the new car. The company though, didn’t simply rely on their Facebook page. Its sole purpose was to drive potential buyers to the company’s websitewhere they could customise their car. The campaign successfully drove (no pun intended) potential customers to their main website and more importantly held them there. The integrated approach to marketing with social media at its centre clearly worked for Aston Martin.
Do you know if your Facebook ads are working?
This is a question that many marketers are asking in the wake of high profile brands removing their ads from Facebook’s platform. Research from Ad Age reveals that 47% of marketers state their digital ad budgets were still less than 20% of their total. Nearly 50% said their budgets designated for social-media marketing were less than 10%. That said, 77% said they expected their digital-marketing budgets to increase in the coming year, while 73% said they expected their social-media advertising budget to increase.
The research also showed confusion about how to calculate the ROI from any given ad campaign. Michael Scissons, CEO of Syncapse told Ad Age Digital: "I think it comes down to measurement. If you are a direct-response marketer it's easy to measure. If you're a brand marketer, it becomes much more intangible to track the point of sale."
Ad Age concluded: “That said, 72% said they consider their Facebook content efforts and advertising strategies to be linked, showing a widespread belief in the interplay between earned and paid media on Facebook. A sponsored story, for example, is just Facebook content turned into an ad and shown to more people. As the theory goes, the better the content, the more effective the ad.”
You must tweet the right content at the right time
A new report from Buddy Media (recently acquired by Salesforce) looked at the Twitter feeds of some big brands to identify any patterns. The results show that tweets at the weekend have 17% more engagement than those posted during the working week. However, brands are not taking advantage of this phenomenon, with less than 20% posting tweets during this time period.
The sector a business operates within can also have a major influence on the engagement their tweets receive. Fashion brands can see a 30% increase in engagement over the weekend for instance. Generally, brands are tweeting far too much in the middle of the week, and clearly not enough at the weekend when their followers are more open to their messages.
And tweets sent at busy times – defined as between 8am and 7pm got 30% higher engagement rates. This is opposite to the stats coming out of Facebook where the opposite it usually true. As Buddy Media state: “As with any social network, it is not enough to simply publish content and hope for the best. Instead, you need to know when to tweet, what to tweet and how often to tweet.”
In Brief…
A new piece of research from Burst Media has shown that 58% of mums follow brands via social media sites. The research has also been turned into a handy infographic that also shows that two in three learn about new brands via ‘likes’ with the 18-34 age group showing a particular attraction to brands via their Facebook pages.
Mark Kaefer, marketing director, Burst Media said: “For some audience segments, such as moms, social media is a constant presence in daily life. Given this close relationship between consumers and their online communities, our study also found many opportunities for both online advertisers and web publishers to inject social vehicles into their efforts to drive user engagement.”
Google+ is the new home for brands
Since Google+ opened its doors to businesses, the site has been gaining in popularity especially within the corporate sector. Some of the brands that now dominate on this social space include Zagat, Cadbury and PlayStation. Jerry Daykin, social media and community manager at Cadbury London 2012 and Kraft Foods Europe told Mashable: “Our strategy has been to try to build an engaged community that we can both share our London 2012 [Olympic Games] story with and actively bring closer to the general Cadbury brand through dialogue.”
Ignore customer recommendations could cost retailers £9 billion
Including user-generated content is vital according to nToklo that states that failure to offer this content is costing online businesses £9 billion pounds. The whitepaper shows that of the top 100 brands 50% don’t offer user-generated recommendation content, with over two-thirds not allowing their customers to share recommendations across their social spaces.
nToklo Co-Founder and Product Director, Anton Gething, says: “The increasing interest in social commerce stems from the natural progression of two trends that have seen tremendous growth in recent years: online shopping and social networking. “However, this research shows that social commerce is yet to become the sum of its parts and many businesses are missing out on a potentially significant additional revenue opportunity.”
Until next time….
The Useful Social Media team.