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Social Media Marketing Gives Brands Measurable Long-Term Benefits

In a study by BzzAgent, the long-term effects of social media marketing were put into metrics that the numbers-hungry executives are sure to notice. At least, we hope they notice — and listen.

According to the study, social media marketing campaigns generate an immediate boost in the likelihood that consumer packaged goods brand advocates would recommend a brand to other people. Purchase intent also gets an immediate bump among brand advocates after exposure to a social media campaign.

However, those are results that brand managers have been showing to executives for some time now. The significant findings in this study come from the long-term effects that social media campaigns have on brand advocates.

First, let’s take a look at the data from the study related to the likelihood that U.S. brand advocates would recommend a consumer packaged goods brand before and after exposure to a social media campaign. Data was obtained between summer 2010 and summer 2011:

  • Pre-campaign = 39% likely to recommend the brand
  • Immediately post-campaign = 61% likely to recommend the brand
  • 3 months post-campaign = 57% likely to recommend the brand
  • 6 months post-campaign = 57% likely to recommend the brand
  • 9 months post-campaign = 56% likely to recommend the brand
  • 1 year post-campaign = 55% likely to recommend the brand

Next, you can see how the purchase intent of U.S. consumer packaged goods brand advocates was affected before and after exposure to a social media campaign during the same time period — summer 2010 to summer 2011:

  • Pre-campaign = 38% said they would purchase
  • Immediately post-campaign = 69% said they would purchase
  • 3 months post-campaign = 69% said they would purchase
  • 6 months post-campaign = 64% said they would purchase
  • 9 months post-campaign = 63% said they would purchase
  • 1 year post-campaign = 61% said they would purchase

As eMarketer points out, this data shouldn’t be used as a barometer for how all social media campaigns will perform. However, next time you’re trying to convince your leadership team to devote a portion of the marketing budget to social media marketing, this data can help you demonstrate the positive effects that social media campaigns can have.

The important thing to remember is just as not every television ad or print ad will deliver optimum results, neither will every social media campaign. However, if you’re not experimenting and trying to learn the best ways to connect with your audience, particularly brand advocates, and motivate them to recommend your brand and purchase it via social media marketing, you’re missing an opportunity that your competitors are happy to take from you. Is that an opportunity your executives are willing to miss by leaving social media out of the marketing budget?

Image: Brian Wilkins

Twitter’s Public Commitment to Brands

If you haven’t stopped by the Twitter home page lately, go visit now. Don’t just go directly to your profile, another profile, the advanced search page, or your account. Nope. Type “www.twitter.com” into your browser search bar and take a look at the Twitter home page.

It’s changed so much since Twitter started to get noticed in 2008. For example, Twitter’s current home page clearly communicates the company’s commitment to brands. Take a look at an image from the Twitter home page below and see for yourself.

Read the copy in the image above, and notice that the message makes a point of saying that Twitter helps you, “Find out what’s happening, right now, with the people and organizations you care about.”

If there was any doubt about how Twitter feels about brands, that welcome message clears things up. Brands are a priority for Twitter.

In 2011, Twitter rolled out Promoted Tweets, Promote Accounts, Promoted Trends, and Enhanced Profile Accounts. Each promoted product helps Twitter earn the revenue it needs to generate and gives brands the opportunity to connect with consumers in a variety of ways. More recently, Twitter rolled out a quiet launch of self-service ads, which could open the doors for small businesses to invest in Twitter advertising and promoted products, too.

It’s safe to assume that this is just the beginning of initiatives that Twitter will launch to partner with brands. The opportunities for Twitter to make money and for brands to connect with the audiences they want to find online are huge and ready for the taking. 2012 should be an exciting year for brands to leverage Twitter marketing and the new opportunities that are likely to come along.

What is your brand focusing on as it relates to Twitter marketing in 2012? What do you think will be the big Twitter marketing trend in 2012? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

It’s funny to think just a few years ago there was a debate over whether brands should be on Twitter at all! There is no doubt who won that debate.

Branded Blogs to Debut on Huffington Post UK

In July 2011, the Huffington Post debuted a U.K.-specific website filled with local, regional, and global news as well as content targeted to the U.K. audience. Now, it’s time for brands to get in on the action.

On the Huffington Post U.S. site, partner brands can publish blog posts as a part of their social media and content marketing efforts. The brands get excellent exposure and the Huffington Post earns revenue, not just from the partner brands but also in the form of more page views, which boost ad rates and revenues overall.

This month, the Huffington Post U.K. announced that branded blogs are coming to the site very soon. While partner brands have yet to be revealed, the potential for brands to connect with consumers via this new opportunity could be very big. Branded blogs are expected to launch on the Huffington Post U.K. site during the first quarter of 2012.

Branded blogs and brands as media are trends that will surely dominate 2012 marketing strategies as more and more companies realize the importance of social media and content marketing to connect with and engage with consumers. On the flip side, publishers need to find new ways to generate income. Traditional online display advertising isn’t enough anymore, and with brands actively looking for opportunities to connect with consumers on the Web, the trend could deliver big rewards for publishers, too.

As long as branded blogs aren’t overtly promotional, audiences are likely not to mind them. If brands publish useful and meaningful content targeted to the site’s existing audience, branded blogs won’t be intrusive. Whether or not branded blogs will succeed on Huffington Post U.K. and beyond depends on the ability of participating brands to avoid self-promotion.

Any way you slice it, branded blogs on popular sites like the Huffington Post U.K. represent significant opportunities for brands. What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Flickr

Trends to Watch in Marketing and Branding in 2012

With 2012 less than a week away, there is no better time than right now to look at what’s ahead in the world of marketing and branding for the new year. JWT Intelligence released two reports that shed insight into the year ahead: 100 Things to Watch in 2012 and 10 Trends for 2012.

Some of the key trends that JWT Intelligence predicts will be hot for the new year include the following:

  1. Price Opportunities: Brands will introduce low-cost entry-point products into markets for price-sensitive consumers with “stripped down offerings” and smaller sizes.
  2. Shared Value: Companies will shift from simply donating money to charitable causes to integrating social causes into brand strategies.
  3. Interactivity: With a growing trend toward making screens interactive, brands will focus on finding new ways to engage consumers through touch screens and experiences.
  4. Redefining Age: “Old age” is changing with the term focusing on an older audience than ever and a more active older audience. Brands will find ways to better communicate with and target the aging audience.
  5. Tangible Add-ons: As more content and products become digital, brands will look for ways to add a tangible, tactile experience to those digital products and services and vice versa.

These trends aren’t ground-breaking or innovative. They’re reactions to how the world is changing and examples of how brands need to adapt to macro- and micro-environmental changes. Brands that don’t adapt will fall behind quickly. However, these trends provide excellent strategic opportunities to leverage the changing world and consumer audience for positive brand growth.

The trick for brands in 2012 and beyond will be keeping up with the changing world and consumer audience. In other words, change always happens, but today, change happens faster than ever. Therefore, brands and businesses must be flexible enough to stay ahead of those changes in order to lead (or at least compete) in the markets where they operate.

Is your brand positioned to navigate through fast-changing consumers and markets in the short-term and beyond? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Apple Surpasses Walmart in Online Shoppers

Walmart might be one of the biggest retailers in the world, but Apple is the company with the most online shoppers as of November 2011 according to comScore (as reported by Ad Age).

There is one thing that’s pushing Apple ahead of Walmart — iTunes. Of the 79 million unique visitors to the Apple website from the United States in November, 30% of them came for the iTunes digital content store.

Digital content sales are exploding everywhere, and it’s a trend that’s going to continue to grow. Consumers are purchasing more digital content, including music, television shows, movies, and books than ever. With the skyrocketing sales of the iPad and similar tablet devices, more and more consumers are shifting their media consumption habits to digital content every day.

comScore reports that ecommerce sales are up by approximately 15% over a year ago, but digital content sales are up twice as much. In fact, Ad Age reports that December 25th has been dubbed “Download Day” because so many people are looking for content for the devices they received as Christmas gifts that day. Between December 25th through January 1st is the period each year when the most most digital downloads occur.

The rise of Apple’s iTunes traffic and download sales shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. What’s surprising is that so few competitors are making headway against Apple and the iTunes store. It will be interesting to look at these statistics again next year at this time to see how Apple and competitors are doing in the download market.

Another interesting point to consider is the overall trend toward digital content consumption and how that shift will affect download sales throughout the year. There’s no going back now. Digital is here to stay. Can another company compete with Apple in the short-term? Now is the time for someone to make a move.

What do you think? Who can give Apple a run for the money? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Flickr

U.S. Senate Calls for Thorough Google Antitrust Investigation

In June, word got out that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) planned to ramp up its investigation into Google’s position as the biggest and most powerful search engine. On Monday, the leaders of the Senate antitrust subcommittee delivered the results of their ongoing investigation to the FTC, and the results don’t look great for Google.

Of course, common sense tells you that it’s highly unlikely Google can deliver unbiased search results when its entire business strategy in recent years has been to try to make people Google-dependent by surrounding them with integrated products. The launch of the +1 button and Google+ don’t help Google’s case at all.

The subcommittee said as much in its letter to the FTC:

“Google has a strong incentive to bias its search results in favor of its own offerings. Rather than act as an honest broker of unbiased search results, Google’s search results appear to favor the company’s own web products and services.”

You can read the full letter to the FTC here.

Google’s response was exactly what you’d expect. The company spokesperson glossed over the importance of the investigation by saying people have a choice in the search engine they use and Google is “committed to competing fairly on the Internet’s level playing field.”

This story is far from over, and it’s a very important one. The results of the investigation could be widespread in the United States and around the world. Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that the European Commission is expected to release a 400-page document detailing its own antitrust allegations against Google in early 2012.

The problem that the U.S. Senate subcommittee and the FTC have with Google is not its dominance in Web search. The problem is in Google’s possible use of its position as market leader to drive people who use its search tool to its own products and services rather than providing unbiased results that put all websites and competitors through the same ranking criteria and on a level competitive playing field. Doing so without clearly disclosing it would be a violation of antitrust laws. Antitrust laws are intended to protect the free market by prohibiting anti-competitive behaviors and business practices for the benefit of consumers.

What do you think about these investigations against Google? Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment and share your thoughts about the company and brand that has become a household word for Internet search and allegations of antitrust law violations.

Image: Flickr