By adaptive - October 31st, 2012

Hi all, Hope everyone is well? Plenty of activity across the social web this week… Best creative Twitter campaigns [T]witter continues to be used in increasingly creative ways across a nu...

Hi all,

Hope everyone is well?

Plenty of activity across the social web this week…

Best creative Twitter campaigns

Twitter continues to be used in increasingly creative ways across a number of market sectors. If your corporation is considering how Twitter could form part of your business’ next marketing campaign, the guys over at Simply Zestyhave grouped together five of the most creative uses of Twitter yet seen. From deciding how an ad unfolds with the latest ad from Mercedes to American Express that enabled customers to convert hashtags into tangible value.

Hurricane sale

Not to miss an opportunity to make a sale, American Apparel have come under fire for using Hurricane Sandy as a marketing ploy to attract more customers to its online store. The retailer sent an email message on Monday offering a 20% discount to customers with the ad stating: “in case you’re bored during the storm.” Needless to say the reaction to the ad has been universally negative. As soon as the ad appeared, Twitter lit up with a range of negative comments. The Gap also had a similar campaign, but quickly apologised by saying: To all impacted by #Sandy, stay safe. Our check-in and tweet earlier were only meant to remind all to keep safe and indoors.

Mission control at Nestlé

[caption id="attachment_4041" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="REUTERS/Denis Balibouse"][/caption]

A report in the Jakarta Globe shows for the first time how one of the leading global brands approaches the management of its social media. Not to be mistaken for NASA’s mission control, Nestlé’s Digital Acceleration Team use huge screens to monitor social media activity right down to individual tweets that are relevant to the company.

Any negative posts about the company go red to highlight that action is needed. And when a subject receives a high number of comments, this signals that the company need to engage. This level of monitoring looks set to become the norm for all corporations as the social space becomes even more important to support brand values through interaction and engagement.

In Brief…

Pinterest vs. Facebook

A new infographic from boticca.com pits these two behemoths of the social space head-to-head. Based on a sample of 50,000 users, a number of interesting facts have emerged: It seems that visual shopping that Pinterest makes possible is working with $180 spent on average when compared to just $85 on Facebook. Engagement however, is Facebook’s territory with Pinterest users spending more than 60% less time on the site than on Facebook, which clearly holds their attention.

Could Pinterest radically change the social media space?

This is the question asked by a new infographic from Monetate. Pinterest is on the ascendancy with over 10m visits. The site is now one of the top ten social media sites. With more funding to the tune of $37m coming their way last year, and with a perceived market value of over $200m, Pinterest is outstripping Google+ as the new social media destination for businesses.

Is your business paying enough attention to social media?

According to new research from Stanford University’s Rock Center for Corporate Governance less than a third of companies use social media as part of their corporate marketing strategy, or to help them with risk management. The report entitled: ‘What Do Corporate Directors and Senior Managers Know about Social Media?’ shows an understanding and appreciation of social media, but a huge lack of practical action.

More engagement means higher sales

According to the Social Media Transaction Impact Study from LoyaltyOne, companies that actively engage with their customers via social media can expect a 30% uptick in sales. Using Canada’s Air Miles Reward Program as its model, those companies that actively promoted themselves with events and other social media activity saw a real commercial increase in their overall profits.

LoyaltyOne Executive Vice President and CMO Neil Everett said: “This research delivers the evidence that investment in social media has the potential to return benefits in the form of transactions, profits and ROI, if done well.”

Until next time….

The Useful Social Media team.