This week’s hot news, events and videos from the online marketing and social media world.

From the Position² Blog This Week: SMBs and Social Media Marketing: Prepping up for 2012 Part One: Growth Projections, Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing Part Two: Social Media Channels: Facebook, Twitter, Google+

From the Pros: 30 Social Media Predictions for 2012. Top 5 Trends: Search & Social Media Marketing in 2012. Social Business: Why Social Media Doesn’t Mean Business. Study: Emerging Markets Tops in Social Media Activity. WalmartLabs: Even Walmart Is Snapping Up Social Media Companies. Demoted: Google Chrome Penalized for Violating Quality Guidelines. Marketing Tips: 17 Silly Missed Lead Generation Opportunities. IBD Report: Google CEO Larry Page Named Boss of the Year. Yahoo’s New CEO: We Will Focus on Both Content and Technology. Survey Report: Apple and Google Come Out On Top In 2012 Predictions.

Video of the Week How Social Media is Helping Local Businesses Grow. Chop Chop owner David Terry says when you run your own business it’s not always easy to chat and talk with every customer, but social media provides you that opportunity.

Position² Brand Monitor™ is Now Free to use! Social Media Monitoring Just Got a Whole Lot Easier With Brand Monitor™, you can: Monitor social media conversations in real-time Track brands across social media, blogs, news, discussion forums, video and photo sharing sites Get detailed analytics and in-depth reports on the entire process Sign Up for Position² Brand Monitor™!

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Social Media for the CPG Industry

The last few years have witnessed manufacturers of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) embrace social media with great enthusiasm. When it comes to social media, industry giants like Kraft and P&G have adapted rather impressively, having not just a Twitter or Facebook presence, but also putting immense efforts at being the ‘customer’s brand’. Where there are success stories, there are also instances where many CPG brands continue to face teething troubles with online marketing. The reasons for this could be many; though one of the primary causes could be attempts to fit social media marketing in the company’s traditional marketing strategy. This may not be the wisest approach as social media is a separate, dynamic and growing space, while traditional marketing is a completely different ball game. It is not uncommon to find social media added as an afterthought to a brand’s traditional marketing strategy. According to a new national study from The Shopper Technology Institute, two of three CPG companies said that social media accounts for less than 5% of their marketing budget. These may be worrying statistics; however, the future of the CPG industry in the digital marketing space does look promising. Let us look at some reasons why CPG brands should give social media marketing its due importance:

• Of the total companies surveyed (The Shopper Technology Institute Study) 76% said that the budget for social media has increased in 2011 compared to the previous year.
• The survey confirms that consumers are willing to connect with brands via social media; although this is mainly influenced by the degree of emotional connection they have with the brand. For manufacturers of consumer packaged goods, this translates into an opportunity waiting to be explored.
• The most commonly used networking channels by CPG brands are Twitter and Facebook. For the 11% that don’t use either one, we recommend they start doing so, considering the fact that Facebook and Twitter are two channels where they are most likely to find their target audiences.
• A joint-study, conducted over a two year period by comScore and dunhumbyUSA, found a median 21% in-store sales increase among shoppers who had been exposed to online ads for CPG brands compared to those who had not seen them. Almost one-quarter of campaigns received a boost of +40%.; a good reason for CPG manufactures to further increase focus on their online promotional strategies.
• According to eMarketer, 2011 is likely to witness 35% increase in online CPG advertising. Although the growth will slow, consumer products are likely to have as much as 10% of the total ad spending by 2015.

P&G’s re-entry into e-commerce via Facebook indicates just how crucial social media is becoming to CPG brands. The company recently added “Shop Now” buttons to the Facebook fan pages for several of its brands including Gillette, Olay and Tide. The global giant is one of the many CPG companies that are exploring the concept ‘e-tailing’ with renewed interest and are talking internet marketing more seriously than ever before. Considering the fact that the modern consumer is willing to make purchases online, the recent upsurge in social media activity by CPG brands isn’t surprising at all.

Overcoming Challenges

Social media can be a challenging space, especially for marketers whose comfort zone is traditional media and those who are hesitant about selling online. The ever changing taste of the social-savvy customer means CPG brands have to be alert and on-their-toes while advertising and marketing their products online. Winning big with social media marketing isn’t simply about creating fancy Facebook pages or YouTube videos; it comes down to overcoming everyday challenges and meeting the customer’s needs as quickly and as efficiently as possible in a way that’s also profitable to the company.

• Retaining Customers’ Attention: While capturing customers’ attention is one part of the challenge, retaining it long enough to convert them to loyal shoppers is easier said than done. Maintaining the activity can be an uphill task; but no one does it better than Kraft. Besides developing interesting online content, a lot of effort goes into developing their webpages on various networking channels. On checking out the company’s Facebook page, one would know that immense background research was conducted before it was made available to visitors. Kraft added the ‘fun’ element to the page by featuring recipes and meal ideas, at the same time giving out nutritional tips and allowing visitors to chat with their kitchen experts. The company not only gives out product information, but also tells its customers how they can use them to create delicious meals. Little surprise that their +760,000 Facebook fans keep coming back for more.
• Dealing with Feedback: One of the major reasons why CPG brands hesitate to embrace social media is the apprehension of negative feedback. Customers, who were previously bombarded with press and TV ads and had few outlets to make themselves heard, are only too happy to be able to speak out via the various networking channels out there. In order to keep up with the competition, many brands create a Facebook page or a Twitter account, only to go silent during a PR crisis. Our advice? Listen to reviews, they offer valuable information on how you can improve your product or marketing strategy further. Negative feedback can sometimes be good; by responding to unhappy customers, you could turn them into brand loyalists.
• Diving Head-First Can Hurt: For CPG marketers, the online space is not their most natural place for marketing. Yet, marketers are faced with a choice of either joining in or getting left behind. However, simply diving head first without having clearly defined goals and without understanding trends may not be the best approach. Here’s what we suggest; a) define your company goals instead of simply imitating what your competitor does b) choose the best possible networking tools based on the goals and c) monitor the digital space by using social media monitoring tools like Brand Monitor™ and find out what the trends are, what demographic you should be targeting etc, and then design your online marketing strategy accordingly.

Making Customers Feel Valued

Veterans at offline marketing, CPG brands need to understand that social media marketing puts the customer in control. Unlike earlier, when CPG marketers could claim that their products were ‘best in the market’ without having to worry about being contradicted by consumers, they are handling online promotions with kid gloves. In order to avoid another ‘Nestle-like‘ situation, brands are doing everything from setting up 24/7 command centers to investing in building a fully-fledged crisis management team. While it is not always possible to completely understand the social consumer, making them feel valued is a great first-step for CPG brands looking to nail it. Here are some suggestions:

• Social Couponing is Highly Effective: One of the major reasons why people visit a brand’s social media webpage is for discounts and coupons. By offering discounts and giving away coupons, brands a) make their customers feel valued and b) give them a good reason to revisit their webpages. Although some brands are worried that coupons may reduce the premium value of the brand, most agree that social couponing offers unique benefits, one of them being building a loyal customer base. According to a survey from Ipsos Marketing, Consumer Goods, the second most important reason why people visited a CPG brand’s website is to obtain coupons. This explains why the likes of General Mills and Unilever, after partnering with Groupon, have had a solid customer base and a loyal fan following.
• Being Best Friends: It is every CPG brand’s wish to be best friends with their customers. Although coupons and discounts contribute towards making the social consumer feel special, moving up the relationship ladder is all about being available when they have something to say. An overload of sales talk won’t solve your customer’s problems; being best friends is all about listening and responding. Listening in and engaging with your customers online shows that they are important to you and you care enough to be there to soak in the suggestions, act upon complaints and interact with them.
• Going That Extra Mile: When the packaged goods industry ventured into the world of online marketing, it was all about creating interesting online promotional material, offering the occassional discounts and resolving customer complaints when required. This, however, is slowly changing. There are those companies that monitor conversations pertaining to their brands and meet customers’ needs as they arise; and then there are the others that go the extra mile to give their customers much more than they have asked for. General Mills, which has a well connected online customer base, is one such brand. Besides marketing their regular range of baked products online, the company also offers gluten-free products aimed at 2% of the population with Celiac disease as well as the additional 10% interested in avoiding gluten, a demographic that was otherwise dismissed as too small and insignificant to target profitably. When the word about General Mills’ gluten-free range was out in 2009, the news spread like wildfire across Twitter and Facebook. Now that’s what we call making customers feel valued!

Learning by Example: Some Do’s and Don’ts

It doesn’t take much for the social consumer, with their short attention spans, to abandon one brand’s Facebook or Twitter page and check out what their competition is doing. Although the non-CPG social media stars like Starbucks and Nike have mastered the art of customer retention and online marketing, some brands in the CPG industry are testing social-media waters. Nevertheless, the packaged goods industry boasts its own social media stars that have effortlessly and successfully incorporated online marketing into their offline marketing strategies. As we look at the success stories, we have also listed certain case studies that highlight some things that should be best avoided. Here are some do’s and don’ts:

The Don’ts:

• The @SwansonChicken Account: A definite fit into the ‘don’t’ slot, Campbell Soups’ @SwansonChicken account is updated a tad infrequently than their fans would like. With less than 2,500 followers, the CPG behemoth is an example of how infrequent activity can impact the followers count.
• Where’s my Balsamic Ketchup? Heinz’s Facebook page recently promised fans that they could buy their limited edition Tomato Ketchup with balsamic vinegar, only to inform annoyed customers who had trouble purchasing, that they were experiencing “technical difficulties” with the Balsamic Ketchup tab. This was soon followed by several posts, where the complaints ranged from “Fix that tab! I got fries waiting!” to “How do you get the Balsamic Ketchup you promised on the 14th?” The food conglomerate has assured fans that they would soon fix the glitch. What can the others in the industry learn from this? Fans have little patience; therefore, it would be a good idea to perfect those social media pages and test them before going ahead with promotional announcements.
• Spamming the Ragu Sauce Way: This is clearly an example of what a combination too many tweets with irrelevant content can do to a company’s reputation. While the @Ragusauce twitter handle is frequently updated, a closer look reveals that the posts aren’t the best example of appropriate content. Spamming your followers sure is a ‘don’t’.

And Some Do’s:

• Do it Like Old Spice: Previously, Old Spice was known as the brand used by “grandpa”. P&G aimed to change this; and that’s exactly what they did by roping in the hunky, towel-clad Isaiah Mustafa to market Old Spice to the younger demographic. The YouTube videos that were aired were not just a massive hit, but also successfully changed the brand’s image by using the tagline “The man your man could smell like.” For older brands aiming their products at younger audiences, we say ‘Do it the Old Spice Way’.
• Learning from Little Debbie: CPG brands have a lot to learn from American snack cake brand, Little Debbie, which comes across as one of the most human accounts on Twitter. The @LittleDebbie handle features tweets that give the impression that the person handling the account really cares.

Conclusion

For the Consumer Packaged Goods industry, social media was a relatively new and unexplored space. However, the entry of brands like Kraft, General Mills and P&G, to name a few, into the online marketing space, has changed that. From creating some memorable YouTube campaigns to setting examples in customer engagement, when it comes to new media, CPG brands are no longer green behind the ears. While the big names in this industry have mastered social media marketing, there are other brands that are rapidly following suit. This is unsurprising, considering the fact that consumers no longer want to queue up at grocery stores and are willing to fill up their shopping carts online. This translates into a great opportunity for CPG brands looking to build a loyal customer base and get those sales charts soaring.

Traditional media will always have its special place for CPG marketers. But relegating social media to a small, insignificant place in a company’s marketing strategy means getting left behind in a very competitive digital environment. With more and more consumers doing their research online before deciding to make a purchase, brands now have the opportunity to entice the smart shopper by featuring detailed product and pricing information.

Online retailing of CPG goods is rapidly growing. Although the challenges for this industry are many, they don’t seem to deter ambitious CPG brands from eyeing a piece of the social media pie.

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This week’s hot news, events and videos from the online marketing and social media world.

From the Position² Blog This Week: Social Media Helps Spur #OccupyWallStreet Protests The Occupy Wall Street movement has spread quickly all over the globe, conveying the message of the frustrated ‘99%’ to the rest of the world. We analyzed how social media helped expand the reach and build awareness of the Occupy Wall Street campaign, tracking global mentions, demographics and geographic distribution of relevant conversations.

The State of Social Media 2011: Social Is The New Normal. Sean Parker: Facebook Power Users ‘Have Gone to Google+ and Twitter’. B2B Social Business: The Journey to Social Business Marketing. How Effective is Social Media for SEO: Is It All About the Rankings? Social Gems: Additional Tools For Social Media Marketing. Google CTR Study: Top Three Positions Deliver 35% of Traffic. Search Alliance: Yahoo Completes Global Organic Transition To Bing (Except Korea). Integrating SEO & PPC: 3 Areas to Explore. Voice Search: Siri Can Tap Into Google, Bing, and Yahoo For Answers. Real-time: Google Analytics Shows How Customers Travel Your Site.

Video of the Week McCormack Says MTV Uses Social Media for New Content Dermot McCormack, executive vice president of digital media for Viacom Inc.’s MTV Networks Music & Logo Group, talks about MTV’s use of social media and other digital platforms to develop and promote new content. McCormack speaks with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television’s “Bloomberg West.”

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Why Travel Brands Need to Book Social Media on their Itineraries

The recent increase in the number of people going online to research and plan their vacations has prompted travel brands to develop a solid digital presence. Although some are still testing the waters, many travel brands have already made social media an integral part of their marketing strategy. Tech-savvy travel agencies are looking to make their websites a one-stop shop for users who want all travel related information in one place. Whether it is last-minute travel tips, destination information or attractive offers, everything is just a click away. According to the 2011 Digital Travel Content and User Experience Survey conducted by Frommer’s Unlimited:

• Almost 2/3rd of travel marketing companies are planning to increase their social media marketing spend in 2011.
• The budgets for general travel content and mobile marketing are likely to increase by 63% and 50% respectively.



• 72% of the 18-24 demographic said that they would share their travel experiences online via Facebook; twitter and travel blogs accounted for 27% and 26% of usage respectively.
• 93% of the respondents said that they would look online for information about their holiday destination ‘before deciding where to go.

The recent spurt in the number of travelers going online to plan trips and research holiday destinations has made social media an attractive avenue for travel brands. Here are some more reasons why the travel business is going social:

• Tech-savvy travel agencies are using social media to communicate with potential customers and keep existing customers updated with the latest offers and information.
• Increasing brand visibility is also a high priority for many travel companies.
• Using social media monitoring tools such as Brand Monitor, brands are a) keeping a tab on travel recommendations by existing customers to their friends b) studying the impact of their online marketing strategy and how well it has been received by customers c) understanding what is important to travelers and anticipating their needs and d) monitoring their brand’s position within all the online channels and networks.
• Many travel companies are using social media for providing valuable content, which will establish their expertise over time, subsequently boosting traffic and revenue.
• Social media can function as a platform for information exchange and on-site referrals; agencies can use this for converting customers to brand advocates.

Position2’s research on social media strategies for travel brands resulted in some interesting findings: as a travel industry professional, there are three crucial points we recommend you keep in mind:

1. Create that Perfect Webpage

Irrespective of what your business objectives are, we believe a well designed web-page is essential to get your audiences’ attention and keep them coming back for more. A webpage with too many marketing messages and too less information may keep away prospective customers or give them a reason to look elsewhere. Keep in mind, content plays an important role in the user’s experience on websites, which impacts conversion rates and loyalty. As a travel brand, your social media webpage should:

• Focus on the Necessary Information First: Finding the limit to “how much information” you can include in your homepage can sometimes be challenging. Visitors to your website or social media page naturally want to know travel-related information and tips; why not include these first and provide links for other details. A travel brand’s home page should ideally include: a) information on what hotels they should stay and airlines they can use b) basic details of the most popular holiday destinations they can visit at that time of the year c) places to check out and things to do on arriving at a destination d) last minute specials and e) valuable tips for first time international travelers. Frommer’s study also shows that 88% of travelers looked for description of the destination and information on special offers on a travel site.
• Be Visually Appealing: The right balance of content and images is very important to keep users captivated. Once you have their attention, then their curiosity about that lovely resort pictured will ensure the requests for bookings follow.
• Feature Social Apps to Connect: Traveling is a social activity and people make travel decisions largely based on recommendations of their family and friends. Social apps such as Tripadvisor’s travel map leverage this and show users the destinations where their Facebook friends have traveled.
• Be User-Friendly: Frommer’s research on consumer experiences on travel websites specified poor navigation and confusing site layout to be among the biggest problems faced by people when looking for information. 58% of the users said that the information they were looking for was hard to find, because a particular site was not easy to navigate. Our suggestion? Keep it simple and user friendly. Your prospective customers are regular people who will simply opt for your competitor’s website when faced with navigation issues.

2. Choose the Right Platform

According to the recent L2 Think Tank, Digital IQ Index for travel report, social media is responsible for driving 78% of the traffic on travel websites. Travel agencies are exploring all the possibilities in the social media space in order to drive traffic and increase sales. Twitter accounts, Facebook pages and blogs are filled with travel tips, destination details and user reviews. Is this a good idea? Yes, if your brand is in the same league as Lonely Planet. The popular travel brand has a Facebook presence, a Twitter account and a blog; this is in addition to its travel specific social networking site. However, we suggest checking out the competition and researching online (find out where your customers spend their time in the social media space) before deciding what social media channels work best for you.

• Facebook: With Facebook having fans all over the globe, it is unsurprising that almost all travel companies include this channel as a ‘must have’ in their social media list. For instance, Tourism Australia has a highly successful Facebook page that functions as a hub for visitors to share their holiday photos, talk about their experiences etc. If your brand is relatively new to the travel and tourism industry, then Facebook is the perfect foundation to build your social media strategy on. Using the Facebook Tabs feature to add information such as reviews, promotions and services is also a good idea.



• Twitter: With Twitter, it’s wise to keep it simple. Your Twitter checklist should include your brand’s logo or relevant images embedded in the background. Travelocity’s Twitter account has a well designed background and also features links that drive traffic to the company’s main website. Twitter also functions as a great social media customer service tool.
• Google+ Anyone? Although Google+’s arrival to the social media party is fashionably late, the new entrant certainly looks promising. While Facebook and Twitter are currently ‘hot favorites’, the launch of Google+ is expected to reshape the travel industry. Here’s a quick tip; integrating the +1 button will enable customers to share the webpages they rate with their friends and family.
• Why Blogs Work: Blogs are an important part of a travel brand’s online marketing arsenal. They not only communicate the brand’s passion for travel to consumers, but also make their travel experiences so much better. Blogs are also great customer engagement tools; by blogging frequently and encouraging users to comment, you are on your way to building a loyal customer base.
• Videos: YouTube is a powerful direct marketing tool for travel brands to broadcast themselves and reach their audiences with their messaging. A creative YouTube video can give your brand that much needed shot in the arm. By sharing videos of holiday destinations posted by happy customers, brands can entice the user’s contacts to think about visiting the destination themselves. For instance, popular travel brand Globus’ website features videos where customers recount their journeys and talk about the best places to visit.

3. Social Media Advertising; the Winning Formula

One of the most innovative recent social media promotions by a travel brand was by Australia’s Queensland Tourism. The ‘Best Job in the World’ campaign encouraged participants to apply for the job of the caretaker of the Great Barrier Reef Islands. The caretaker’s job involved communicating his explorations and experiences to the world through his blog. Here’s what made this campaign a winner from the word go:

• The organizers leveraged consumer generated content to market Queensland tourism.
• The contest directed huge traffic to the brand’s official website; the site registered one million hits in a single day.
• The effort, which was a global hit, immensely benefited the Queensland tourism industry by boosting brand exposure (over $11 million worth of exposure).
• The social networking buzz that ensued saw 336,000 Facebook-referred website visits, and over 3,170 @Queensland Twitter followers.

Creative social media campaigns not just add value to your brand, but also contribute to the ROI factor. We think social media is a rewarding platform for travel brands to advertise because:

• The travel bargain hunters are out there, looking for the best deals and packages. What would be a better way to entice this demographic than with Facebook and YouTube campaigns that promote season specials and offers.
• Of the business benefits involved; advertising in social media creates monetization opportunities and can deliver measurable returns. While the actual investment is considerably less (compared to traditional advertising), the ROI is tangible.
• Hotels these days are using Facebook and Twitter for everything from fulfilling customer service needs to processing bookings. By designing online campaigns, in partnership with the hotels, travel agencies can not only promote their brand and generate revenue, but also direct visitors to the hotels that most suit their requirements.
• For travel brands, one of the biggest advantages of advertising using social media is the ability to tailor campaigns to directly target relevant audiences. For instance, travel brands targeting couples looking for honeymoon packages can design ads that talk to this demographic by referring to their customer data base. Unlike traditional media, where ads meant for a specific audience are viewed by all and dismissed as irrelevant, social media gives your brand the opportunity to connect to the intended audience by personalizing content.

Conclusion

From sharing travel experiences online, to planning vacations based on traveler-generated ratings, there has been a dramatic shift in consumer behavior in the travel and tourism industry in recent times. The increasing use of various social networking channels for travel planning leaves no doubt that social media is an integral part of the travel business. The rapidly changing digital landscape means that more and more tech-savvy travel companies are now going the ‘social’ way. The low investment, high returns benefit of going digital has prompted travel agencies to fill in their Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and blogs with travel guidelines, destination details and other valuable information.

While travel brands are harnessing the power of social media to gain that edge over competitors, engage effectively with customers and increase brand awareness, the plethora of networking channels out there can sometimes be confusing. For travel businesses looking to get the most out of their online marketing strategies, identifying the right social media channel is imperative. While Facebook and Twitter are expected to bite big chunks from the travel pie, the new entrant, Google+ shows immense potential; we are curious to see how travel brands take advantage of Google’s new social prodigy. Meanwhile, irrespective of what social media tools an agency uses, we consider blogs and videos to be essential for filling in those gaps.

That said, there are many rewards that make social media a worthwhile investment for the travel industry. For today’s travel brands, social media is a powerful transformational tool.

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The need to balance your social media mix

In 2010, industry experts predicted Facebook to see exponential growth in the years to come; and rightly so. Facebook saw its active user base (outside the US) grow by over 19 million in just four months (October 2010-February 2011), signaling that the networking giant was clearly the king of social media. Predictions for Twitter indicate that it will have a steady 2011, while LinkedIn is expected to witness strong growth in the next five years. According to eMarketer, in 2012, 88% companies in the US will use social media tools for marketing purposes. This brings us to the question of what social media tools are best suited for your marketing needs.

Automotive giants such as Ford and GM lean heavily on Twitter for marketing their products and engaging with customers; a strategy that has worked for them. However, solely using microblogging tools like Twitter may throw your social media mix out of balance. While every tool has its strengths and restrictions, it is important to use them in an integrated manner for achieving the right balance. For instance, if you tweet more than 25 times a day, perhaps you are better off blogging. In addition to popular sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook, recent entrants such as Quora and Focus are some of the options to choose from.

According to Jeremiah Owyang, sensible Twitter use involves focusing on fewer, high quality tweets instead of overloading followers with too many tweets. Data from ‘The Social Break-Up‘ (a study conducted by ExactTarget and CoTweet) shows that: 41% of people felt that their Twitter stream had become ‘too crowded with marketing messages’; 39% indicated that companies posted too frequently; and 21% said tweets were ‘too promotional’.

Here are some reasons why online marketers should incorporate other social media tools in addition to Twitter:

• Tweets are hard to find after being published. Facebook, on the other hand enables users to sort their news items in an organized fashion.



• Google research shows that the average worldwide Facebook traffic, in terms of search volumes, has seen significant growth between 2009 and 2011. Twitter, on the other hand, has some catching up to do.
• Marketers and advertisers using Facebook and other sites are more likely to generate ROI when compared to those using Twitter in isolation.



• HubSpot’s “The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing” report highlighted the importance of Facebook and Twitter in 2011 business strategies at 44% ( up 24% in two years) and 38% (up 21% in two years) respectively.
• While Twitter personalizes your online presence, LinkedIn adds a professional touch. Potential clients looking for information about your company are more likely to trust LinkedIn than your twitter profile. To achieve a balance, it would be a good idea to install the LinkedIn Tweets application on your profile.

Smartly Using the Big Three

As a marketing professional, the first step is to familiarize yourself with different social media tools before determining what works best for you. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn or the ‘big three’, as they are popularly known, can yield dividends and drive traffic if used in the right manner. Utilizing the social media tools that are most suited for your business depends on what your goals are.

Facebook

Experts forecast Facebook to garner nearly 750 million users by the end of this year. Currently, the ‘Facebook for Business‘ group boasts 57,123 members. Staggering figures like these are tempting enough to lure you into focusing your social media strategy entirely on Facebook; but is it a good idea to do so? Absolutely! if you want to:

• Attract new customers through creative promotions: Toy store chain Toys “R” Us launched a holiday promotion two years ago, where the company encouraged visitors to become ‘fans’ on their Facebook page. In return, the toy store promised customers great discounts and other incentives. The promotion saw almost 90,000 new fans sign up in just one day, in addition to a significant increase in sales at a time when other companies were facing financial crunch.
• Establish a Client Base: By using Facebook you can connect to potential clients with the least amount of effort. A smart move, if you want to establish a meaningful client relationship.
• Get Noticed: Marketers today are turning to Facebook to stand out in an otherwise crowded digital space. The fact that Facebook allows for uploading of images and videos of your products adds value to your brand and helps grab some positive attention. When the marketing department at Coca-Cola wanted to improve the company’s image in the digital space, they decided to get creative with photos on Facebook. The beverage giant’s innovative approach to social media gained all the necessary attention and placed it in the spotlight.
• Lure Fans to Physical Locations or Events: Facebook’s location-based app, Facebook Places, is a great way to convert fans to actual shoppers by convincing them to visit the brick and mortar store. By using this app, your company can provide incentives for people to come to a physical location or event. Despite being around only for a few months now, quite a few brands such as Westfield Valley Fair have integrated this feature into their marketing programs.

Can a B2B company effectively use Facebook? Why not? E-Commerce shopping cart provider, BigCommerce, regularly reaches out to its Facebook fan base to identify reference customers and unearth interesting use cases for the media. In 2010, the company promoted the success of its Facebook app by posting a query on its page asking which customers had witnessed an increase in sales from the app and who would be willing to talk to the media. The company generated 15 new customer references within 24 hours and immediately converted this information into media coverage.

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn is a great tool for:


• Recruitment: Irrespective of whether you are a marketing company or otherwise, LinkedIn is the perfect place to reach potential employees. For example, if your company is looking to hire social media experts, LinkedIn is the one place to look. Although Facebook and Twitter, to an extent, can be used to check out candidates, LinkedIn’s status as a professional networking tool gives it the edge. HR managers at companies such as Accenture and SABMiller use LinkedIn in their hiring processes.
• Increasing Visibility: While Facebook and Twitter are for personal connections (recommended for B2C companies), we suggest B2B companies use LinkedIn because of the site’s focus on professional contacts. To increase visibility, you company profile on LinkedIn should a) feature information on the company’s background and history b) list out awards, testimonials and honors received and c) publish the company’s LinkedIn URL on all marketing collateral, including business cards, email signatures, email newsletters, web sites and brochures, so prospects learn more about you. That said, answering the questions posed by clients and users, and providing and receiving recommendations from your connections are also effective in improving visibility.
• Establishing Contacts and Building Business Relationships: To begin with a) you could do look for people or companies by using the search feature b) research your prospects before meeting or getting in touch with them c) increase your network by joining industry and alumni groups related to your business and d) share useful articles that will interest customers and prospects.
• Improving your Google PageRank and Enhance Search Engine Results: Using this professional networking tool your company’s profile information can be made available for search engines to index. Profiles on LinkedIn receive a reasonably high PageRank in Google, making it a good way to influence what people see when they search for your company profile.

LinkedIn is full of opportunities for B2B companies. By using a combination of LinkedIn and other social networking sites, mid-size market research and consulting firm, Chadwick Martin Bailey (CMB) increased its reach within the market research community. The company established contacts, fostered business relationships and researched various case studies via LinkedIn, resulting in the generation of over 1,400 leads in just nine months.

Twitter:

For companies that already have a presence on other networking sites, Twitter can function as an added advantage. For instance, Virtusa, a global IT services company, has integrated social media into its PR and marketing strategies. The company uses Twitter along with other social media tools and blogs to supplement its existing marketing efforts.

• Twitter is great for updating your followers about ‘what you are doing’.
• You can follow competitors in the industry and know when something ‘worth reacting’ happens.
• Giving a personal touch to your brand is best done through Twitter. Automotive brand Ford’s @Ford official account does not have as many followers as the company’s @ScottMonty account (Scott Monty is the head of social media at Ford). The reason for this being Monty’s personal touch to the tweets.
• Twitter is very effective in providing 24/7 customer service in social media. JetBlue Airways maintains a Twitter list of off duty reps so that customers can know who they are interacting with at any given point in time.

Sensibly using the big three is centered on figuring out what your goals are. If the needs of your company are close to the goals discussed above, then the right social media combination (Twitter+Facebook, LinkedIn+Twitter, LinkedIn+Facebook etc) will help get your business to the next level.

Using Blogs Judiciously

Ever wondered how blogs can benefit your business? The last few years have seen blogs grow into powerful marketing tools. eMarketer’s study shows that the percentage of US companies that are poised to use blogs for marketing will increase from 34% in 2010 to 43% in 2012.

A well written blog can:

• Increase your website traffic & sales by attracting visitors and redirecting them to your company website through links and offers.
• Give a human voice to your business: For customers, the fact that there is a ‘real’ person answering their queries can be reassuring. When IBM decided to start using blogs, they did not simply create one blog, but managed to create an entire network. Through the blog, IBM gave customers an insight into what happens behind the scenes, thus highlighting ‘the people’ behind their products.
• Give you increased presence on major search engines: For instance, by using Google’s blogging tool, every post created in turn creates a new page on Google. This way you can have a lot of pages pointing to your site, bringing in a lot of visitors.
• Establish you as an Industry expert: posting relevant and valuable information regularly will establish you as an expert in your subject area. This gives your brand credibility, earning customer trust. General Mills’ strategy to establish itself as a health and nutrition expert in the food space saw the company target mommy bloggers. The company’s Mommy Club blog features nutrition tips, calorie charts and general information on how to eat better and live healthy.

The Importance of Videos

The current YouTube crazy generation is proof enough that video marketing is poised for a huge growth in the years to come. Forrester Research shows that videos are 50 times more likely to receive organic first page ranking then traditional text pages. The equation is simple:

1. More videos on more sites= increased results.
2. More results= more clicks, which translates into more sales.
3. Increased sales= Increase in ROI.

Although there are several digital marketing tools to choose from, videos engage people in a way that static text and images cannot. If you’re considering including videos in your marketing mix, we suggest tying videos with important keywords to increase the likelihood of your content showing up on the first page of search engine results. According to the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report:

• Larger Businesses are more likely to use videos (including YouTube) when compared to SMBs.



• Besides other social media marketing tools, nearly all marketers with +3 years of social media experience use videos.
• Marketers investing 40+ hours per week in social media are much more focused on videos (and blogs to an extent) when compared to those investing a few hours a week.
• When compared to B2C companies, B2B companies are more focused on videos. For instance, Thompson Reuters expanded its social media mix to include videos to satisfy the changing needs of corporate customers and reach out to prospects.
• 77% marketers have indicated that YouTube/video is a top area where they plan to increase their social media efforts in the future.

Most marketers know that videos help a) boost customer interaction b) drive sales c) encourage viral sharing d) and build brand awareness. Although, it is not necessary that every viral campaign will end up being the next Old Spice Ad, here are some reasons why you should use videos and how they can add value to your business:

• Spice Up your Website: by using YouTube or other available alternatives you can embed videos on your website. Ensuring that the videos uploaded are easy to share can be done by adding a ’share this’ button. This enables viewers to pass them along via other social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter etc).
• Using videos in Online Ads: Online video ads are highly effective in driving sales. Viewers of online video ads are most likely to visit the advertiser’s website or look for additional product information, thus increasing the possibility of sales.
• Keep it Simple: Creating a video is easy; however, the golden rule of digital marketing is to keep in short, simple and to-the-point. Time-strapped viewers may not have patience with lengthy videos. Creating 30-second to 2 minute videos will ensure your audience stays interested by avoiding information overload.
• Getting Exposure: Videos that feature valuable content pull traffic and increase brand exposure. Also, displaying your company’s website address by adding a text box to your video is an excellent way to get noticed.

Marketing videos are great to drive home a point to potential customers and contribute to your business’ success. By incorporating creative and interesting marketing videos on your website you can not only make sales pitches, but also introduce new products. We recommend using videos as an integral part of your marketing mix as they are fairly inexpensive, highly accessible and simple to create.

Conclusion

With so many social media platforms to choose from, each with its own advantages and limitations, it’s easy for marketers to try and fit in everything in an attempt to harness maximum benefits. This can often be confusing as social media is a crowded place. Twitter, on one hand, is perfect for sharing information and engaging with customers; however, it becomes necessary to sync Twitter with other tools if you want to get the most out of your social media marketing plan. Selecting the right social media mix is centered on the purpose of your marketing plan and the company type. The smart approach here would firstly involve figuring this out and then integrating two or more social media platforms.

While Facebook continues to be the undisputed leader of social networking, with Twitter and LinkedIn the hot favorites, blogs and videos are poised to make their presence felt as well. In fact, the versatility offered by videos and blogs makes them flexible enough to be used in tandem with other tools. Facebook, for instance, can feature company videos, whist LinkedIn can be used to share links to your blog(s) and company website(s); the possibilities are endless.

Social media is dynamic and presents unprecedented marketing opportunity. With nearly 90% of marketers and brands placing high value on social media, we recommend marketers to move beyond experimenting and focus on a social media mix that works best for them.

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This week’s hot news, events and videos from the online marketing and social media world.

• Social Strategy: Why You Aren’t Getting What You Need Out Of Social Media Monitoring… Yet.
• Open Social: Why Hide your Social Media Presence?
• How-to: Integrating Twitter and Facebook Marketing in your Business.
• Social Budget: Giant Social Media Red Flag: Is Your CMO Tuned Out?
• Flashback: 6 Painful Social Media Screwups.

• Functionality: How Google Instant’s Autocomplete Suggestions Work.
• Balancing Act: Larry Page Just Tied ALL Employees’ Bonuses To The Success Of Google’s Social Strategy.
• Analytics Tips: Use Google Analytics to Develop Social Media Strategy.
• Lesson: Ten Things We Can Learn About Google SEO – from Angry Birds.
• SEO Tips: How to Optimize Your Images For Search Engine Traffic.

Video of the Week YouTube Recasts for New Viewers. Google Plans to Organize Site Around ‘Channels,’ Fund Original Content as TV and Web Converge.

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A growing number of companies are jumping on to the social media bandwagon, with Facebook Pages and Twitter streams helping them reach out to worldwide markets and supplementing traditional blogs and media handouts, with a community of followers that can be reached quickly and cost-effectively. Companies are also discovering the risks of outsourcing the “engagement” bit of their social media strategy.



There are several pitfalls to be avoided with social media, and we will cover them in detail soon. When it comes to engagement, however, with social media usage being a relatively recently phenomenon, it is clear that there is no single established “best strategy”, but rather, a collection of strategies that work together while approaching the medium in different ways. A recent Forrester Research report delineates the most important steps companies can take to better engage their social media audience:

…In 2011, success and differentiation within social channels will come from distinctions in strategy and not just tactics. Being present in your customers’ preferred social channels may be a best practice, but superior social media marketing results will only be delivered by:

Brands are moving from simply being present on social networks to taking a more active role on social media. Here are three recommendations for businesses to effectively leverage their social media assets:

Involvement and Crowdsourcing

Get your current and prospective customers involved in providing feedback or improvements to your products and/or services. Take advantage of the interactivity of social media sites by conducting opinion polls and actively helping your fans use your products and/ or services better. Crowdsourcing, or involving large numbers of people to generate ideas, suggest improvements,

According to social media strategist Robert Ball, “Study their behavior, listen to their thoughts and comments and learn how your products and services can help solve a problem they have. This will determine how you will engage. Good engagement leads to sales or improved customer service, everything else is just noise and clutter. Remember: Customers don’t want to be “messaged,” “pitched,” or “positioned.” The days of “spray and pray” are coming to an end. There’s a reason it’s called interactive advertising.”

Everyone can appreciate a company going the extra mile to provide a superior experience with your brand. Examples:

• Dell’s IdeaStorm is an interactive site dedicated to collecting suggestions from its worldwide customer base and allowing viewers to promote or demote ideas. Members can even see some of the top member contributions that were implemented by Dell.
• Nokia’s Beta Labs offers early-adopters and tech-savvy users a platform to use, test and provide feedback on unreleased features and often innovative new ways of using mobile telephony.
• Pepsi Cola’s Refresh Project pays out approximately $1.2 million every month as funding to support innovative ideas proposed by contributors that improve the state of the Arts and education, as well as enhance community participation in reducing crime, drug use and access to healthcare.
• Clorox’s Dr. Laundry blog is chock full of useful laundry tips and tricks that were contributed by users as well as Clorox’s fabric care specialists.

Offers and Incentives

Whether it is a simple discount coupon, a rebate on a new product, or some other benefit offered to loyal customers and future prospects, everyone loves to get a good deal on a purchase, and such offers can keep a customer coming back for more.

According to a recent survey, when asked what types of interactions new media users look for when they engage with brands and companies online, the response breakdown was as follows with a single tactic far exceeding the rest:

• 77% = Offer incentives such as free products, coupons, and discounts.
• 46% = Solve problems and provide product or service information such as customer service.
• 39% = Solicit feedback on products and services.
• 26% = Develop new ways for me to interact with their brands, such as widgets, mobile apps, online games, and contests.

A few examples where brands have seen success using incentives:

• Logos Bible Software has worked hard to build its email list of 300,000. So choosing to shun that email list for its Black Friday promotion says a lot for the chosen alternative – social media.
• Microsoft promises attractive discounts and rebates with its Incentives site to help cement customer loyalty and bring in new customers.

Transparency

Firms must try to become more open in their interactions with customers and the media, rather than being secretive. If there is a problem with a product or service, they need to own up to it and get in touch with affected parties to resolve the problem. This will increase trust in your brand and improve customers’ experiences with your company, which will inevitably propagate via word-of-mouth and affect your bottom-line down the road.

• Dell’s recent social media initiatives, such as setting up their Command Center, were set up to improve customer service, in response to disgruntled user stories widely reported and blogged, such as this one, or even this Guardian article, though not as poetic as the rants in this sailor’s blog.
• Bing has apologized on Twitter for a tweet that many viewed as a way to gain exposure in the name of raising money for victims of earthquake in Japan.
• A “drunk” tweet was accidentally sent from the American Red Cross Twitter account. The Red Cross handled the situation pretty entertainingly–something that doesn’t happen much these days–and released a charming followup tweet.
• Sitecore uses social media as one of their customer support channels to respond to customer questions and upgrades.

Tapping Into Collective Behavior Helps Engagement

According to Gartner, Inc., many social media efforts are failing because some enterprises just don’t understand how to employ social media to facilitate collective behaviors. The study concluded that “Enterprises can employ these collective behaviors as the link between business value and social media technologies. They can use them to examine a target community and formulate new ways that people can interact to achieve enterprise value. By understanding the most prevalent technologies, collaborative behaviors, business use cases and business value for six collective behaviors, enterprises can more effectively plan for successful community-based social media initiatives.”

“Social media is not an end in and of itself– it is an enabler. Social media technologies are tools and, like any technology, it is how people use those tools that delivers enterprise results” said Anthony Bradley, group vice president at Gartner.

It is now only a matter of time, indeed inevitable, for businesses to have a social media presence. For many companies, though, much of the current engagement efforts barely consist more than the occasional product update. There are exceptions to these generic business “follower” pages, of course, proving that enlightened and interested business owners and managers can successfully engage with their prospects and customers.

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By Rajiv Parikh, CEO, Position²

Thanks to the group that filled our Ask-the-Experts Roundtable session at DMA 2010. Given the placement of the sessions, I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t get to share our new presentation and new Social Media ROI analysis for addressing unresolved issues and engaging to drive new leads. Instead, we had a great session with companies from around the world. While much of the examples in my deck were B2C, many of the questions were B2B. I was happy to share our experiences and learn from the group. If anyone is interested in a copy of our deck, please write to us.

The DMA 2010 conference has evolved from discussing the latest in database marketing techniques to a much more holistic event that this year was heavily weighted towards social media. There were many beginners and some experts. I went to a few sessions and took away some interesting tidbits.

The best session was the Social Media Face-Off moderated by Sean Muzzy with industry luminaries like Brian Solis, Vivek Sodera and David Berkowitz.

They discussed the need to research first before you get involved and to budget more senior resources than the social media intern. This is your company’s brand presence and should not be left to the whims of someone without real experience.

I liked Solis’ comment about the need for the brand to exude a higher purpose.

“You need to see the brand in a more aspirational sense than pure features and function – think Apple and Disney.” – Brian Solis

Then there’s the reality that Michael Friedman expressed about needing to drive new sales.

“Giving freebies to influencers is not enough. It has to lead to real growth. Hence the need to model the return on investment. When you are a restaurant owner, image is one thing, but it better fill the seats.“
- Michael Friedman

Of course, Solis won the “battle” of the day. It’s partly because he’s steeped in the subject. He also gave away a copy of Engage. That never hurts

Given our experience in social media area, there is a way to map conversations in a market to a particular capability like customer services, sales opportunity, or competitive intelligence. The difference is the magnification aspect and permanence of conversation. What you say stays. We are big believers of relating this to customer lifetime value because it wraps acquisition costs, customer services and retention marketing to profitability over time. If you are interested in discussing this more, please write to us.

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Yes, Social Media is fun. If what you are doing is not fun then why do it.  Same goes for Social Media.

If you want to promote your business through social media and business networking, but still have your doubts on it, then I suggest you drop it.

Like I said earlier, if what you are doing is not fun then don’t do it at all. Promoting your business through the social media sites can prove to be very beneficial to your business and bring in a high ROI.

We often hear people say that promoting your business has to be taken seriously.  That is true, but who said that serious cannot be fun.

When businesses drop their feelings and hide behind their logos and not show their face, it brings in more fun, curiosity and excitement to Social Media. Getting them to do it is hard and not fun, but once they do it more business comes to them from consumers though having better trust in whom, it is they are doing business. A positive result in business is where the fun begins.

Sites like Facebook, Twitter, My Space, etc helps create a network with friends and other people, with whom one can establish contact and not just share what’s happening in and around their little world, but also exchange some very important information, like important links, or create homepages, etc which could prove to be very useful in the future.

Sites like LinkedIn, which is a business related though, can also be fun too, where people can exchange contacts and important information on any events happening related to their business.

The entire premise of Social Media is based on drawing attention to something by using effective communication through social channels.  What draws consumers to something is fun. If it is fun and exciting, they will come.

So what are you still waiting for? Unless you give Social Media a try, you will never know what you’re missing out on.

Contributed by Pooja Giri

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The Internet was abuzz with the launch of Apple’s iPad. While the world was busy reacting to the iPad, our team set out monitoring social networks to track iPad buzz. We tracked activity from January 27 through February 28. The results are here to see!

Priced modestly at $499 for the 16GB base version, the iPad packs in quite a punch. Compared to e-readers, this sleek unit has a stunning screen, wireless broadband connectivity, a touchscreen and the ability to run over 100,000 iPhone apps. However, the iPad has received mixed reactions online. Critics have written about missing features like a camera, flash and the fact that it cannot multitask. You cannot listen to your favorite Pandora station while writing an email. At the same time, with winners like the iPod, iPhone and iMac, it’s hard to count Apple out.

Below is a summary of the tracking study.

Number Of Mentions – Apple iPad

Among social networks, there was an explosion of Tweets with over 5.2 million posts. There were 70,796 news articles, 199,979 forum posts and 246,886 blog entries. Rarely would you see so many articles about a product launch, even an Apple one.

Overall Popularity



After a burst of posts on January 27, iPad social media mentions had its normal drop in popularity. What is more interesting is how there is a steady stream of posts even over a month afterwards. There are still around 50,000 mentions per day for a product that has not shipped or advertised on TV. That is, until the Oscars on March 7th. The ad is worth watching.

Sentiment Analysis Of Blogs

In the blogosphere,

• The overall sentiment was split into neutral at 47%, positive at 41% and negative at 12%.
• After an initial burst of positive sentiment, it turned more negative as critics commented on missing features.
• Towards the end of February, positive sentiment has been rising as negative sentiment is dropping. More people are making decisions about the device. It will be interesting to observe sentiment once advertising picks up.
• Among countries, U.S. blogs commented most about the iPad followed by U.K. and Germany.

Features

• It’s a light-weight device with a 9.7 inch display
• iPad’s multi-touch screen makes gaming and navigation an experience like no other
• The new iBook app transforms the iPad into a digital reader
• For a modestly priced gadget, the iPad has a long battery life of 10 hours
• The app store with 140,000 apps make the iPad a real steal

The Verdict – Lines At The Apple Store?

With lines at the store for upgrades of the iPhone, the answer is… definitely. The Apple iPad launch demonstrates the power of consistently strong marketing and product development. Loyal and vocal followers drive the mix as well. The initial buzz has translated to consistent mentions over a 30 day period. Sentiment has varied with time because experts were expecting more features and functionality than what was announced. At the same time, positive sentiment has risen consistently as people are digesting a new product category distinct from the Kindle or Tablet PC. The power of Apple’s positive brand equity is clear when news stories are reporting on TV ads released during the Oscars. It’s clear that Steve Job’s company is a master at marketing. While we do not know whether the iPad will be a high-flyer like the iPhone or a relative dud like Apple TV, we’ll continue to track the buzz.

Methodology: We compiled results from Sysomos as well as the Google AdWords keywords tool, to arrive at a keywords set for the Apple iPad.

Keywords: “Apple iPad”, “iPad”

Contributed by Sanjeev Dhanaraj, Social Media Marketing, Position²

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