The "Best in Social Media" Round-Up May 7, 2012
POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 1:57 PM
Insight and Studies
Social Media in Regulated Industries from Social Media Today
Social Media use increases in Financial Services and Healthcare industries:
Social media use in regulated industries such as Financial Services and Healthcare is beginning to take hold. The benefits are clear - market your products, communicate with customers and get a pulse on your brand image - but it's important to adopt such technologies while adhering industry regulations.
Social Media Give You a Megaphone for Word-of-Mouth Marketing from Social Media Today
Is WOM the best kind of marketing?
Word-of-mouth has been and remains the best marketing. But these days, more people are talking, more are listening, and their conversations go far beyond the back fence or the local coffee shop. Social media are a megaphone for word-of-mouth marketing and a boon to small businesses and start ups. Inexpensive and far-reaching, social media bring impressive results.
The Most Actionable Social Media Metrics (1to1 Media)
Yet another take on metrics:
The past two years have seen an increase in maturity among many companies that engage in social channels. Carnival Cruise Lines, American Airlines, and Cirque du Soleil are examples of companies that use social media metrics to inform marketing decisions and reveal the optimal social investments.
Social Media
Why Big Brands Are More Socially Fit from MediaPost: Marketing Daily
Big brands do social media right:
Social media has hit the big time -- or at least has become the province of big companies. A recent study on the fitness of social media reported that large and mid-size brands significantly outscored their smaller counterparts, and reveals intriguing insights into the state of social media.
The Next Phase of Social Marketing from MediaPost: Marketing Daily
How to turn fans into advocates and advocates into cash:
Marketers must focus on how to activate fans -- turning them into brand advocates and essentially evolving their social media presence into a research lab, idea store, and full-fledged peer-to-peer marketing channel.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ And The Social Sharing Avalanche [Infographic] (All Twitter)
Helpful infographic!
Facebook may be nearing its audience peak in the United States, Europe, and the U.K., but it (and Twitter) still has a huge and largely untapped audience across the rest of the world. This infographic collects the data on who's sharing what and the effect on brands.
Buddy Media Launches BuyBuddy Social Ad Service From Online Media Daily
New Facebook ad platform service from Buddy Media:
BuyBuddy, a self-service offering advertisers can use to create, track and optimize campaigns on Facebook. Built into the company’s existing platform enabling social content publishing, app creation and e-commerce, the aim is to help companies better combine owned, earned and paid media efforts on Facebook and other social sites.
Social Gaming to Social Good—Brands Matter to Youth Market From Online Media Daily
A really interesting perspective to think about when working with the Gen Y bloggers, and which "social good" campaigns resonate well with them:
Status symbols for the under-30 demographic show their commitment to the environment, global access to clean water, better access to nutritious foods and other social good causes. Today's youth market is consciously conscious, and they hold their brands accountable to representing their values.
Pinterest: It’s Time to Go ‘Pinternational’ from Mashable
Going global will allow more brands to participate in the popular platform, and more target audiences reached:
The photo-centric website announced in a blog post that it’s looking for translators in French, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. Though Pinterest a visual-based site, the company said translators are now necessary to make the website truly global:
Twitter to upgrade "Discover" feature from CNET
Twitter personalizes reach and targets appropriate consumers based on their interests:
Twitter's "Discover" feature will get an upgrade, turning to a user's followers list for personalized signals to determine which stories to highlight. The feature will be rolled out to the website before it comes to mobile applications, the company says. CNET
Gap, H&M, Sephora and Others Unwrap Social Gifting in the U.S. from Wall Street Journal
A great way for parents to give their college-aged child a special gift, or to give friends a long way away a "I’m thinking of you" pick me up:
“It works like this:
-
- Using Facebook and a mobile application, people can give their Facebook friends free gift cards, commonly valued at $5 to $15.
- A notification saying that they’ve received a gift card is posted to that friend’s wall, where anyone can see it and contribute more money if they wish.
- The person, who received the gift card, can then redeem it using a mobile application in the store.”
Facebook’s New “Life-Saving” Tool? It Could Be for Fighting Cyberbullies. from Wall Street Journal
Cyberbullying is real, and parents worry about their children being the victim. Do these tools that Facebook is hinting at really make a difference? Will they help?
“Slated to air Tuesday evening, ABC News has snagged interviews with Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg, in which the two will debut a mystery tool “which has the power to save lives,” according to the company.”
5 Facebook Insights Your Business Can’t Ignore from Social Media Today
There’s a lot of data available on Facebook that could have potential for measuring campaign success:
Using third-party tools can be useful, but when it comes to Facebook, there is more than enough data in its native Insights information to get any business off and running on the right foot. The following are five Insights your business can’t afford to ignore.
Facebook provides ‘Organ Donor’ status- and will save lives from Social Media Today
What else will Facebook come up with to represent our offline choices on our profile page?
Recently they've [Facebook] made some pretty good moves: there was the anti-bullying initiative and a referral system for friends expressing suicidal thoughts. Now comes an 'Organ Donation Status' which will hopefully push up the numbers of people around the globe currently registered to be organ donors.
Wrapp Up Social Gifting On Facebook From Online Media Daily
This is very cool - we love this idea:
Gifting Starbucks coffee, lipstick or a free week of online access to The Wall Street Journal could become the new currency for Facebook Fans.
4 Ways to Drive Engagement With Facebook Ads from Mashable
More authentic ads may be the most beneficial when driving engagement:
The run up to Facebook’s fast-approaching IPO, the company is making extensive and ongoing improvements to its advertising platform. The most recent updates, which are not yet live, will allow marketers to optimize their ads for any Facebook action (not just likes). These new capabilities will also give advertisers a much greater understanding of their consumers, allowing them to segment marketing messages based on certain user groups. All of this goes to support the general belief that Facebook wants to turn their ad platform into the main driver of a brand’s reach. To be successful in this space, brands will have to be very authentic.
YouTube
YouTube Commits $200 Million in Marketing Support to Channels from ADWeek
As YouTube and other online streaming platforms become the new TV’s, and DVR has decreased the effects of TV Ads, marketing dollars are better spent in platforms such as YouTube:
YouTube's "brandcast" event (please don't call it a NewFront) started off with a bang and ended with vp, global head of content Robert Kyncl pledging some $200 million in marketing dollars on YouTube and Google's Display Network to support its 100 new professionally produced channels.
LinkedIn 4x Better for B2B Leads than Facebook or Twitter from Social Media Today
This article is focused on B2B but it's interesting that LinkedIn created more conversions than the other social media sites:
In a study of 3,128 HubSpot B2B customers, LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.60%, four times higher than Twitter (.67%) and seven times better than Facebook (.39%).
Marketing to Moms
The New Mommy Wars from MediaPost: Engage Moms
Stay at home Moms are working Moms. To say otherwise is both an insult, as well as detrimental to your company:
Smart marketers who target moms know these women work hard. The best among these marketers create and sell products that help make their work easier. Key denominators in products and services that are directed toward an audience of moms are convenience and ease of use.
Mobile Marketing
Study Finds Gen Y Responds To App Ads from MediaPost: Marketing Daily
Mobile app ads more revelant to Gen Y:
The study found that adults 25-34 are more likely to value the influence of advertisements, and they recall seeing more ads while using mobile apps, particularly video ads or fully sponsored/branded apps.
Branded Social Media Campaigns
How Four Brands Manage Their Wildly Successful Facebook Pages (Ragan.com)
Successful brand Facebook Pages – how they differ.
Imagine having legions of engaged fans commenting, liking, and sharing your brands' brilliant posts. For the following four brands, that's a reality. Here's a look at their best practices (among them: strong content) and what you can learn from each one.
How 7 Top Brands Are Using Facebook’s New Ad Tools from Mashable
Brand show how to effectively use the new Facebook Page:
Among the products Facebook introduced were Premium on Facebook, Reach Generator, Offers and Logged Out ads. The company also asked brands to embrace a paradigm shift from advertising to “Stories,” Facebook’s preferred term for brand-related messages. Since that time, a few big brands have experimented with the new tools. Here are a few examples or, if you prefer, Stories…
Coke and Pepsi face off on Facebook from SmartBrief
Coke and Pepsi wars start again – yet this time via socal media:
Coca-Cola and Pepsi are rolling out rival campaigns on Facebook and other social media platforms. Both are taking creative approaches to social media outreach, with Pepsi wheeling out celebrities for its Pepsi Pulse campaign, and Coke teaming with Spotify to integrate music into its Facebook page. "Consumers are incredibly empowered, and what used to work to get their attention now needs a bit more thoughtfulness," author Brian Solis says. USA TODAY
There's a lot to read here. I have a few blogs on social media that I follow and these are interesting as well.
The cases presented in many of the articles posted in the sites you have recommended assure us of one thing- the role of social media has not diminished in any way. If anything, more and more companies are taking advantage of the power of social media. They have proven that they can reach more people by connecting with customers through Twitter and other networks.
Businesses that are new to this strategy can learn by adapting some of the strategies used by other companies.
Posted by: Gwen@techdealsmag | 11/06/2012 at 05:21 PM