Get Smart on Pinterest in 2 Minutes

February 2nd, 2012

Here are the fast facts you need to know when your client or boss mentions Pinterest. (And they will soon. Trust me.)

  • It’s a visual social network where people create, share, copy, and comment on pictures on “pinboards” (think: bulletin boards.) Each board has a theme and contains images from around the Internet. If you click on something, it links to the source website.
  • In the past few months, Pinterest has rocketed into the ranks of the 10 most popular social sites.
  • It’s now 1 of the top 5 social networks for referral traffic, alongside Facebook and Twitter.
  • Pinterest had 7.5 million unique visitors in December, up 500% in three months. During Christmas week alone, 11 million people visited the site.
  • Food, fashion, and home decorating are the most popular topics on Pinterest.
  • Retailers have seen strong results from their pinboards. Some are talking about Pinterest becoming a cornerstone of social commerce.
  • 58% of users are women and 59% are between 25 and 44.

Now you’re ready to start pinning!

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Best Social Media Marketing: Great Customer Service

January 24th, 2012

49% of Americans are far less likely to buy your product if they see unanswered questions on your Facebook wall.

If their own question gets no response, 45% of consumers get mad and 27% refuse to ever do business with you again. You don’t want to know what happens if a brand doesn’t respond to a complaint made via Facebook or Twitter.

Social media is a huge opportunity for a company to show thousands or millions of consumers how well it treats its customers. Or not.

Almost a third of social network participants say they have asked a question and never received an answer from that business. Click here to read more

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8 Facts You Need to Know About Tumblr

January 13th, 2012

What’s Tumblr? It’s the new rising star in social media. It’s the blogging site that’s all about pictures instead of words. Many of the blogs have no words. Really.

How big is it? Tumblr includes more than 40 million blogs, with roughly 55 million new posts daily.

How fast is it catching on? In September 2011 it hit 10 billion posts. A year before there were only 1 billion.

Click here to read more

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Social Media Will Revive TV

January 3rd, 2012

By Maura Mitchell. Originally published in the Marketing Executives Networking Group Blend Blog.

How many times have you heard, “Digital media is killing TV”?

It’s not true.

Social media may be the best thing that happened to TV. It’s driving ratings, viewer engagement, and all kinds of other positives.

Introducing the newest trend: Social TV. At its simplest, it’s people watching TV together, even though they are not in the same room.

Social TV leverages digital technology to build community and involvement among people who are interested in specific TV content. Social TV includes engaging program watchers via Twitter or Facebook in real time, mobile apps that provide more information and promote sharing during programs, and social networks that match consumers with other fans of their favorite shows.

Social TV is jolting viewers out of couch potato mode and into active engagement with TV. It’s also driving them to watch shows in real time, making it much more likely they will see ads.

Who’s driving the Social TV trend? Two groups: TV networks that see a huge opportunity to leverage other media to build their audience, and multi-tasking consumers.

Roughly half of all TV viewers surf the Internet at the same time. These people are almost evenly split between those doing unrelated activities on their computer, smartphone, or tablet, and those using the second screen to enhance their TV experience. The most common concurrent activities are checking social networks, texting, and calling friends to discuss what’s happening on a show.

The demographics of Social TV participants are surprising. They are more likely to be men than women, and the largest group is 25-49 year olds. So far, 18-24 year olds—the group that launched social media—are surprisingly uninvolved in this trend. Smartphone and iPad owners are especially active, with over 40% saying they use their second device while watching TV every day.

The networks have been quick to jump on Social TV. X Factor USA is the poster child. It is the first show to allow voting via Twitter. Plus, the host responds to Twitter comments, and tracks Twitter trends during the program. X Factor now gets more than 100,000 Twitter comments per episode.

Marketers have been slow to add Social TV to their mix. That should change in early 2012 as the trend gains traction.

So, what’s a marketer to do?

1.  Learn everything you can about Social TV. There’s a whole ecosystem of new businesses, partnerships, terms, and opportunities sprouting up around Social TV.

2. Rethink TV’s role in your marketing mix. A year ago, marketers assumed TV spending would trend downward, replaced by social media. Now we need to think about the two together, reinforcing one another.

3. Explore ways to make your TV commercials truly social. A two second super saying, “Like us on Facebook” is no longer going to cut it. Marketers need to figure out how to drive social media engagement with their TV ads and vice versa.

4. Determine how to market via social TV networks. GetGlue is an example of a social TV network that you should be monitoring.

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Consumers Aren’t Looking to Friend Brands

December 6th, 2011

By Maura Mitchell. Originally published in the Marketing Executives Networking Group Blend Blog.

Amid all the excitement about social media, it’s easy for marketers to forget a critical fact. Most consumers are not interested in engaging with brands or businesses on social sites.

In fact, connecting with brands is #10 on the public’s list of reasons why they use social media, according to recent research from IBM Less than a quarter of users go to sites to interact with brands. By comparison, 70% want to stay in touch with family and friends and 49% are looking for news. Even doing research for work is a bigger driver of social site visits than engaging with companies. Ouch.

Consumers who are open to Liking or Following businesses on Facebook or Twitter usually only engage with brands they already love. But even those passionate consumers are not particularly interested in establishing a deep connection with a company or joining a brand community. Instead they are motivated first by discounts, followed by purchasing and product reviews. Community association ranks dead last on their list of reasons to connect.

Difficult as it is to hear, 62% of consumers say that engaging with social media does not increase their brand loyalty. Half say it doesn’t influence their purchases either. Consumers are notoriously bad at assessing what really influences them, but these numbers should give us pause.

Finally, consumers wish that brands would post less frequently. Depending on which statistics you believe, the magic number is somewhere between three and five times a week. Posting more than once a day is a definite turnoff for many consumers.

So, what’s a marketer to do?

1.  Set reasonable goals for what you can accomplish with social media.

Do not commit to bringing in hordes of new brand users, or converting brand switchers and bargain hunters to loyal buyers. Instead set metrics related to attracting and retaining current users.

2.  Design your social media strategy and tactics with the understanding that you’re using a medium that’s all about supporting friendships. Ask yourself, are the glitzy new page designs, and features such as “like gating,” aligned with this environment? Or, would you be better served by a more informal, less “salesy” approach?

3.  Focus your efforts on providing your most passionate brand fans with discounts and buying opportunities. Make sure you’re not devoting too much time and content to establishing emotional connections and building a brand community. Don’t eliminate these efforts, but do keep them in balance with valuable offers.

4.  Adjust your posting schedule to reflect that less is more. Test what happens if you post less frequently or if a greater percentage of your posts focus on value, buying, and product information.

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Most Apps Are Not Used

December 1st, 2011

Roughly 38 billion apps will be downloaded in 2011 alone. But only a fraction will be used with any frequency.

The vast majority of consumers with apps on their smartphones use less than 5 per week. 38% use two or fewer during the same time period. That includes apps that they purchased.

Not surprisingly, 18-29 year olds are the heaviest users of apps, especially social media apps. App usage declines rapidly with age.

The apps that are most engaging to consumers are not the type most companies create for marketing or brand building. Instead, consumers prefer games (birds and pigs anyone?), weather, social networking, maps, search, and news apps. Facebook is currently the most popular app.

Why don’t consumers use the apps they download? It’s partly due to overload—people can only keep track of so many tools. Plus, the low cost of apps makes downloading, trying, and deleting them more attractive than trying to assess their usefulness in advance.

How many of your apps do you use?

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Yes, You Must Be on Google+

November 29th, 2011

Over the past few months I’ve heard a number of smart marketers say, “I’m already overwhelmed by Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, do I really have to do Google+ too?”

The answer is “Yes, absolutely.”

Here’s why.

  • In the 100 days since launch, 40 million people have joined Google+. Analysts project membership will reach 60 million by year end. Those numbers are small versus Facebook, but closing in on Twitter’s 100 million active members.
  • Google+ is attracting everyone’s favorite consumers: young (18-34 years old), well-educated, and affluent.
  • The network is rapidly becoming gender balanced. Women are 32% of users, and that percentage is increasing every month.
  • Consumers are engaged with Google+. They have uploaded 3.4 billion pictures in three months.
  • Britney Spears will overtake Larry Page as the most followed person on Google+ any day now. That’s proof positive the site is no longer just for early adopters.
  • Two weeks ago Google+ launched business pages. Your competitors may already be connecting with people who should be your consumers.

What’s holding you back?

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The Top 10 Reasons to Use StumbleUpon

October 31st, 2011

StumbledUpon is a social media powerhouse for marketers, but many are not using it. Here are ten reasons why you should!

  • StumbleUpon is responsible for 50% of all website traffic generated by social media. Facebook drives 37%, Twitter just 3%.
  • 18-34 year olds are the biggest Stumblers, with men and women using the service about equally.
  • This summer, StumbleUpon reached 1 billion (that’s with a “b”) Stumbles per month.
  • It has over 20 million users, double the number from 16 months ago.
  • The service’s growth rate is accelerating.
  • Over 40% of users are active every day.
  • Over 2 million new web pages are added to StumbleUpon each month.
  • The “half-life” of a link in StumbleUpon is 400 hours (meaning half of all Stumbles occur after that time.) That contrasts to 3 hours for both Facebook and Twitter.
  • The average StumbleUpon session lasts 69 minutes vs 23 minutes for a Facebook session.
  • Stumblers view a StumbledUpon web page for 20% longer than the average web page.

Should your brand be leveraging StumbleUpon to connect with consumers?

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80% Don’t Buy Because of Bad Review

October 19th, 2011

It used to be that consumers responded to positive online reviews and were less swayed by negative ones. Not anymore.

This year, 80% of Americans say they have changed their mind about a purchase after reading something critical online. That’s up 12 percentage points vs last year. And it’s nearly as large as the number that have finalized a buying decision after seeing a product praised on the Internet.

Online product information is increasingly important, in part because the majority of consumers say their smartphone makes it easier to access, according to recent research by Cone Trend Tracker.

Shoppers check a number of online sources to learn more about items. User reviews and ratings top the list. However, blogs are becoming increasingly important. This year they were consulted as often as online experts.

What are the implications for marketers? How can we appropriately influence the online conversation about our products?

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7 Facts You Need to Know about Men and Digital Media

October 7th, 2011

The Great Male Survey, conducted by AskMen.com, revealed some fascinating facts about men’s digital activities.

  • Men don’t share product recommendations digitally. 70% recommend their favorites in person while 8% use email, 7% text, and 5% use Facebook.
  • They are giving up printed newspapers. 73% get most of their news online, and 40% never read the newspaper anymore.
  • Men are more likely to watch movies via streaming (iTunes or Netflix) than any other way. Only 18%  see most of their movies in the theater.
  • 53% use their cell phone more for texting than talking, and only 29% use it more for talking.
  • Smartphones are creating all the buzz, but men are much more likely to say they could not live without their computer (62%) than their phone (24%.)
  • Facebook is a key way men share articles and websites with their friends and family. 32% pass on links via social media while only 21% use email.
  • Men are more likely to watch their favorite TV show on their computer (37%) than on live TV (28%) or  DVR/ DVD (23%)

For more fun facts, you can access the compete report here

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