News Update – Best of the Day

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IBM just recently published their study “The State of Marketing 2011”. The study that asked 300 online and direct marketers from different companies, industry sectors and sizes gives some interesting insights.

– Marketers are not only trying to go “measurement, analysis and learning”. The next challenge will be “IT support of marketing needs”.
– Marketers see technology as the key to productivity (let’s bear in mind it is an IBM study).
– Marketers see an integrated marketing solution as the driver of future business. 87% stated interest in a marketing suite that is better integrated.
– Marketers trust in Interactive Marketing. 57% adapt inbound marketing tactics (personalized targeting/messaging) for their Web activities.
– Social Media Marketing stays a challenge. 53% use it currently for their efforts but have to justify their workload with it now.
– Marketers love web data. 92% appreciate the value and importance of Web data. Most of them don’t apply the data to their campaigns though. Just one third thinks they are effective.
– Mobile Marketing is increasing. 43% use it currently for their tactics, 23% planning to start this year.

Craig Hayman, General Manager of Industry Solutions at IBM Software Group, talks in a Forbes interview about IBM’s conclusions from those study findings.

How Social could meet POS? Just look how PepsiCo’s Social Vending System offers full touch screen interactive vending technology, “enabling consumers to better connect with PepsiCo brands right at the point of purchase”. The prototype of the Social Vending System debuted at the National Automatic Merchandising Association’s One Show in Chicago last month. The question is if people really would share their contact details with a machine (humanization of companies?) but the idea is great. Just imagine you could log in with your Twitter account and share with your network how enjoyable it is to have a “Coke” now. I am sure the brands would love you then…

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The next wave of the new Passat commercials also surprises with another nice story (although not as brilliant as the Darth Vader one). If I was a surfer, I would have a closer look at those who are jumping in the sea with their boards with me…

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News Update – Best of the Day

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Marketers see many studies like one of the Morgan Stanley reports which state that there are more social network users than email users. And especially in the B2B sphere the research makes clear that 80% of business buyers today say that they find their vendors as opposed to vendors finding them. Tony Sambito writes advices that compasnies and brands plan for the Social Buyer before it is too late. I absolutely agree with him…

Business decision makers often ask me how much I think Social Media goals have to be linked to business goals to drive success. A new report, “The State of Social Media in Credit Unions: Opportunities and Challenges,” from 187 credit unions of varying size and composition across the United States and Canada now allows some insights in that question. According to the study, companies using Social Media with more than two years of experience are the most likely to report success (57%), while those that have three months or less are least likely (17%).

Still thinking what will be the Social Media trends for this summer? Tim Gray has an answer for you. Find the 5 trends that he advices to watch out for. Location based topics, group buying, “swiming in the stream” (social stream), social search and mobile. Don’t know if this is really social only but still good in terms of your web-strategy.

Is the future of positive social approval changing?

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Almost two years ago, I have written about the development on Twitter that positive comments are not rated in a way they should (in my eyes). Those days I asked the question if the RT (Retweet) becomes a killer for the positive blog comment. Many people tapped my shoulder virtually and agreed with my observation.

In some way the RT “button” is similar to Facebook’s LIKE button. It is a given opportunity to automize a process of agreement. And I am asking myself if Facebook’s LIKE button -launched one year ago- has the same “negative influence” on our positive comment on reviews in the future. Although it was meant to give its members an easy way to show approval for products, services, content and thoughts. I am coming back to these thoughts as I stumbled upon an interesting local study.

According to a recent study released by CityGrid Media, conducted by Harris interactive, that did some research on Web properties focused on local merchants, consumers prefer the “Like” button to writing a positive review for a local business. The study polled 1,006 adults in the U.S. over the phone between March 16 and 20.

OK, this is restricted to local only. But do we doubt that there is a difference in the regional and global attitude and behavior of humans? Especially as 52% of respondents said they visited more than two websites before visiting a local business, and Google plus Facebook were the most popular first sites those people accessed.

The study states that 20% of respondents say they show support for local businesses by clicking the “Like” button for that business on Facebook versus 13% who write reviews. The offline way is still the most successful method according to the study. The verbal way of telling a friend was the most popular method (75%). Not surprising as most of the consumers are still more listening than telling.

However this is just a local research, I asking myself if this s a good development, for us, for retailers, for brands and for the Social Web in general. Bearing in mind how much our written reaction on products and services influences our buying behavior, I think, it is not good if only the negative comments get (negative) credits while positive comments and reviews just find the automated, lazy “push a button” credit – no sentiment, no conversational reward, no tapping on the shoulder virtually…

How do you see this development?

News Update – Best of the Day

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Is Social Media a sales tool for retailers? A study by Forrester Research and GSI Commerce says Social Media has almost no influence on online purchasing behavior. The survey shows that social media rarely leads directly to purchases online — less than 2% of orders were the result of shoppers coming from a social network. The question is what the ideology of Social Media is for companies… and there are examples like Threadless that can deny such studies. If retailers see it more like listen-to-act approach, pre-selling, sensitising and serving their consumers, then they will be successful in also selling through Social Media.

C-Level is engaging in Social Media! A recent study by Useful Social Media – State of Corporate Social Media 2011 – gives us some compelling charts that describe the trend how the C-Level increasingly gets into Social Media.

Although the European managers are still not completely behind the Social Media vision, the following chart suggests that it won’t be long until European senior C-Levels understand the advantages of Social Media.

How does the future of shopping look like? Mobile will definitely play a massive role for the consumer 2.0, or 3.0?! Where can I get the best bargains? Which company or retailer has the product I want in stock – now and not in 5 days? Sumi Das explores the “ultimate personal shoppers” of tomorrow.

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Study: 70% of Facebook and Twitter Pages from brands don't rank in Google

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BrightEdge recently uncovered with a research project that social profiles of most leading brands don’t rank well in Google. Although many companies still invest a lot of their budgets in SEM/SEO activities, most of them forget to increase their social media presence from a search results perspective.

The research reviewed 200 of the world’s top brands for their social media presence. Most of the those brands, nearly 100%, stay on top or near the top ranks for their brand names on the SERP’s. However, a high percentage of 71% did not have their Facebook pages in the top 20 results. For Twitter it showed more or less the same result: 68% of the brands surveyed were not amoungst the top 20 results of the Google SERP’s.

“Brands today are pouring countless resources into social media channels and are creating great content that will help them engage with consumers, optimizing these for SEO purposes is a crucial way to drive exposure. Brands may be missing critical customer connection points if consumers can’t easily discover their social media pages in search.” Jim Yu, CEO, BrightEdge

Interestingly enough, there seems to be no necessary correlation between the number of friends and followers and SERP rankings according to the analysis of various social media pages that the BrightEdge surveyed. For example, the Facebook page of a leading photography brand did not perform in the top 20 search results, although more than 160,000 were fans of their Facebook page. On the other hand, a leading auto manufacturer with only 17,307 fans had a Facebook page that ranked in the top 10 of search results.

The least effective brands at optimizing Social Networking sites are coming from the finance and insurance sector. Only three of the top 43 companies had their Facebook pages rank in the top 20 search results. In comparison, retailers were much more successful: 13 out of the top 23 retailers surveyed were found in the top 20 search results.

Spot On!
Brands could argue it is more important to find your homepage or branded pages for products or services in the top search results. Social Media experts might see this different as some of the main brands invest a lot of their branding activities in the leading Social Media sites at the moment. Especially, under the aspect from last year’s report that some big brands reported to loose their traffic on corporate websites to Facebook, the search impact for brands might become more and more important in the future. Would you agree?

Google Survey: 39% US mobile users take their mobiles to the bathroom

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Google published a survey (in partnership with the independant marketing research firm Ipsos OTX) and present insights into how U.S. consumers use their smartphones. A video presents key findings from “The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Consumers”.

The research, conducted at the end of 2010 among 5,013 US adult smartphone Internet users, was meant to better understand how smartphones are used in consumers’ daily lives and how smartphones have influenced the ways consumers search, shop and respond to mobile advertising.

Some of the key findings of the study don’t show special new insights. However it illustrates that we are not alone anymore in our bathrooms any longer. We are taking our friends, business partners and our social graphs to the bathroom… by using our smartphones like we used to read our newspapers or magazines in the past. Google states that 39% admit to having used their smarthone while going to the bathroom.

Some more findings…
– 93% use smartphones at home
– 81% browse the Internet
– 77% do search for information
– 72% do parallel use of smartphone and other media (over 30% like watching TV)
– 45% use smartphone to manage their daily lives
– 20% would give up their Cable TV for using their smartphone

Obviously, Google wanted to find out how smartphone users access search via their mobiles. And no suprise there as well. Search is the leading website type accessed (77%). It helps consumers access information like News (57%), Dining (51%), Entertainment (49%) , Shopping (47%), Technology (32%), Travel (31%), Finance (26%) and Automotive (17%).

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Spot On!
Interesting from a marketer’s perspective is that the report actually finds that mobile advertising is engaging. The research states that after seeing an ad (on print, online or mobile) 71% of users search on their smartphones. A remarkable 82% of users notice mobile ads, and of those 49% purchase (!), 42% click on it, 35% access the website, 27% contact the business. This shows the new power of mobile marketing for companies and that marketers should have a close look at mobile marketing opportunities in the future.

PS: And if 39% of people use their iPhones in the bathroom, I don’t want to know how many use their iPads to read the latest news or watch a video, and how this increases the average “bathroom staying time”…

News Update – Best of the Day

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Leadership was, is and will be the most challenging sauce for successful of the future. Have you ever thought what the perfect ingredients of a great leader are? Sarah Robinson has asked her followers on Twitter and created a nice summary. It inclu four priorities in various answers: integrity, inspiration, intelligence and the right portion of initiative. Maybe you have some more?

How does Twitter make money? And is the predicted revenue of 250 Mio. USD realistic? Are their products Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts and Promoted Trends a great product line for the future. Harry Gold discusses on Clickz the products and how Twitter makes money.

How can you get crowd-sourced websites stay agile and creative? Ben Huh, CEO of Cheezburger Network, explains how his company tries to identify future potential for growth on communities and websites. He also how he sees a benefit if the core audience shed in favor of a broader target-group. And he talks about the importance of failure. “Failure is not part of a dead end but as a part of a process. Damaging is “if you don’t learn from a mistake or if you don’t take a risk.” Ben sees this as a much bigger problem than failure.

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Some Easter Fun…

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I am wishing you all a great Easter! Today, we just want to share some fun. And as you will have some time to think about life, here is something to think about…

Think about the new ROI metrics in the future. And we better rethink if we don’t spend more time with our real friends over Easter…

Why spend time with your real friends? To tell them the true story of the Easter rabbit…

…or to remember how nice love could be (if you are not the husband)…

Study: For Boomers Optimism and Social Conscience of brands is key

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Marko Greitschus / pixelio.de

Are Boomers trying to be younger than they are? Are they just identifying themselves from a brand perspective with a more youthful mindset? Are they buying the latest product trends of brands? A recent study conducted by WPP’s The Geppetto Group states that adults -especially Baby Boomers- are seeking brands that mirror an optimistic feeling back to them. So in some way the study suggests that Boomers have a more sustainable perspective when buying brands.

The survey polled 200 men and women (35 – 64) to find out what drives this audience towards certain brands and how this might affect the purchasing decision process. The message is: We don’t forget those brands we had when we were young. Our personalities are closely connected with these brands – especially if these brands were associated with positive messages.

“Marketers need to ask themselves if they’re missing the boat when it comes to Boomers. Are they offering them optimism and social conscience, and are they identifying with inherent qualities of their youths? Think of the impact that kind of thinking could have for sports retailers or restaurant chains for instance.” Julie Halpin, Founder and CEO, The Geppetto Group

The study sums up three major findings that are important to know for marketers…

1. 66% of adults are looking for brands that express their personality

For the GenXers and Boomers technology brands express what their personality stands for. Especially if the brands are going hand-in-hand with expressing youthful qualities. Brands like Apple, Dell, Sony and HP were good reflections of their inner selves. And also Levi Jeans are still popular for them, not so much fashion brands like Diesel or Seven for all Mankind.

2. 57% of adults are challenging brands to surprise and delight them

The study finds that Boomers get exhited about brands that for younger generation might come along as boring. For Boomers brands like Swiffer, Keurig and Under Gear can be surprising again, the study reads. On this point I would have loved to get a clearer picture of how the argumentation

3. Optimism and (corporate) social ethics are important for Boomers

Are these values becoming more and more important, the more people experience in life? Is this because you think more about life, the older you get? The study states that brands that incorporate optimism and social responsibility in their messaging score 12-13 points higher for Boomers than for the Gen Xers.

Spot On!
Buying brands people always want to make a statement about their personality. Some to bolster their identity, some to define their personality – some to show off. Brands play a massive role in the process of self-definition in our global value system. If Boomers purchase products we used to think that trust and reliability plays a big role in the purchase process. The study now illustrates that the messages the “In” brands spread out, don’t necessarily reach the Boomers that are more aligned with the brands of the past, and might be embracing optimistic messaging than just running after the “latest and greatest” of the younger generation. For me it also makes clear that the value system of brands needs to be reviewed.

News Update – Best of the Day

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Some day sago, I have written about the changing atmosphere since social media monitoring companies are moving into the CRM sector. Andrew Hunt discusses the issue if “Sales is killing Social Media?” and explains how B2B sales is changing from both sides: Customer are at least “spectators” according to a Forrester study. The question is when companies are changing their sales process to a “listen and engage” model for the old “speak and push” format, where he refers to an interesting insight from OgilvyOne about the future of selling.

A recent Penn State research claims that updates on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other real-time content sites could be worth more than 30 million USD a day, or nearly 10.9 billion dollars a year, to advertisers. The study was based on separating duplicate searches from unique search terms. Then, the research determined the value of the real-time search terms by using Google Adwords Traffic Estimator.

Start the day with a smile and don’t invest in the wrong portfolio… Nice commercial from Invesco.

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