Changing social engagement from an afterthought to a first thought
I really like the “social by design” expression as a way to guide marketing thinking in a company today. It’s like the “digital by default” or “Digital First” mantra we’ve heard for a while now which can communicate a new vision for marketing. Simple summaries to colleagues can help get the message across.
You may have seen the quote recently, which is from Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg reported in Advertising Age. She went on to say that:
“Facebook shouldn’t be the only thing marketers do online, or in marketing. It should just be part of everything they do”.
That’s probably overstating it for many companies, but certainly a form of “social engagement” should be built in to campaigns whether that’s offline or in the most suitable online channels, which could be your site rather…
The IAB pitches in with new industry best-practice guidelines
Are you doing paid-for promotion of your brand via social media channels? If so, or if you're intending to, be sure have a glance over these new guidelines from the IAB.
The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released guidelines into the payment for editorial content to specifically promote a brand, product or service within a social media environment.
The new guidelines developed by the IAB’s Social Media Council are also supported by the Voice of British Advertisers (ISBA), the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Committee for Advertising Practice (CAP), offers marketers direction to ensure transparency when promoting to consumers in the social space.
The guidelines are helpful for brand owners and marketing practitioners since they help ensure that you comply with consumer protection law and do this by featuring six relevant social media scenarios to demonstrate how the guidance may work in…
Are you a Creator, Critic, Collector, Joiner or Spectator?
If you've not seen Forrester Technographics tool before you are missing a treat. Showcased in the book Groundswell, Technographics is Forrester Research's methodology for surveying customers. Its similar to segmenting by demographics or psychographics but segments based on degree of engagement with social media - so it's a behavioural segmentation for social media and related technology.
Many reading will know this, but I thought it was worth flagging-up for those who don't, it's new to many in my classes. The tool can be really useful for setting realistic expectations of what social media can deliver amongst your non-marketing colleagues also since it shows how degree of engagement with social media and blogs varies.
Forrester divide people's online behaviour into six categories. You can see these below.
Its important for organisations to know…
Google Launches Google+ Pages - what's your reaction?
Value/Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Official Google Blog
Our commentary
In a move that will not surprise most, Google has officially launched "Google+ Pages", allowing businesses to create a presence within the new social platform. We knew that Google was doing trials with the likes of Ford and Coca Cola so it's no surprise. What is a surprise, if you haven't seen these trials, is how poor in functionality these pages are compared to Facebook where applications can be built into the page. There's really little a brand can do to engage it's audience other than the wall posts, About page and video. That said, the wall posts do work to engage Facebook users and the early example walls are engaging.
Google+ is a constantly evolving platform and is clearly high on…
4 steps to getting more from LinkedIn by LinkedIn expert Jan Vermeiren
November 7th update
When I originally did this interview with Jan in August, he mentioned that he was working on an updated version of his "How to really use LinkedIn". This update is just published, so this note to alert you that you that you can - download Second edition - How to Really Use Linked In. It's worth taking a look since it has over 200 pages of detailed practical advice which can help marketers use LinkedIn both for themselves personally and their company. It's also free - charity donation encouraged, so kudos to Jan.
Linked In Interview
I first heard Jan speak about how businesses can get more from LinkedIn in this podcast which is definitely worth a listen. I was interested in his practical tips on how businesses can use LinkedIn, so I thought it…
Manchester United show the way
I posted last week about Facebook and their (I feel) vastly over-stating of the value of Facebook as a part of the marketing mix.
Now, this week I read that Manchester United are building their own, not-so-small social network for an estimated 350m supporters and a total estimated global audience of 660m!
A perfect strategy for Man U since they're already mega publishers of content - through the print magazine and MUTV content and of course their website. The traffic to their site will be huge given their global appeal, the advantages of being a global brand of course, yet fascinating how they're now appending the 'social' to the already existing 'media', the cart following the horse, as it should be. Can you imagine them successfully limiting their reach and interactions just to Facebook? Not…
Facebook is the fundamental ingredient, says Facebook
I read this interesting article earlier this week on Ad Age, Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook's Chief Operating Officer) speaking at the Association of National Advertisers in Phoenix last week.
Sandberg had a few key messages to share which I've summarised here:
Make marketing (and business) "social by design" - yet given her position at Facebook she is really saying make your marketing "Facebook by design"?
For Facebook not only is overall sharing doubling every year via "Zuckerberg's Law," she noted, but the number of daily fan page "likes" also has doubled in the past year to 100 million daily
"If you look at the numbers for almost any brand, but certainly any brand that's invested any time or effort on Facebook, the number of people who are your Facebook friends massively dwarfs the number of people who visit your website,"
"So I think one of the questions this industry…
I'm hoping to offer some insight into how a small but growing and ambitious multi-channel retailer intends to use social media to promote our online brand, The Emporium Direct - I am by no means an expert in social media nor is my organisation's present social media activity up there in comparison to the big brands. But I do run our marketing, therefore I can share hands-on experience on what has worked for us and what we're planning.
Before I get to how we're using social media, here is a brief snapshot of our organisation.
Company Background
We have a large High Street store in Maldon, Essex and a growing e-commerce business, The Emporium Direct. Like many, we originally started trading on eBay, then moved onto Amazon and eventually our own website.
Marketplace tips
Our success has been down to the following: (more…)…
Six examples of how to use Facebook company pages for B2B marketing
In my previous post on B2B Facebook page marketing, I outlined the emerging and evolving case for adding Facebook to your B2B marketing arsenal and offered some advice on the type of strategies you might adopt. Here, I'll run through a number of current Facebook sites which show how B2B companies might use the platform to promote their business.
Solid B2B success stories in social media remain few and far between - especially when it comes to Facebook. So, by way of follow up, I wanted to showcase some B2B examples. Despite all the talk of Facebook becoming more mainstream in business, successful B2B case studies are actually pretty thin on the ground. Not surprisingly there is an abundance of consumer examples to choice from. The top five Facebook sites (based on likes) include Coca Cola, Starbucks, Oreo, Red Bull and…
Comscore data highlights consumer mobile behaviour
More than 72 million Americans accessed social networking sites or blogs via their mobile devices in August, 37% up year-on-year from the same time last year, according to data via comScore.
Here are 5 quick observations we can pull out of their data:
Nearly one-third of all U.S. mobile users are now accessing social media services
More than Half of Mobile Social Networkers Access Sites on a Near Daily Basis
Facebook Mobile Audience Approaches 60 Million Users
70 Percent of Mobile Social Networkers Posted a Status Update While on Their Mobile Device
More than half read a post from an organisation, brand or event while on their mobile device
There is no doubt that social networking via mobile devices is on the up-and-up. This is inline of course with sales of such devices, especially smartphones. Comscore also suggest that “This…
