Good reads for 05.05.08
Posted on May 5, 2008
Here are some good reads on using/creating communities on social networking sites:
>> Who rules the roost: MySpace may still top the social networking sites, according the Nielsen, but LinkedIn is the runaway winner last month with a 319% growth year-over-year. Wowzers. That’s quite a success story.
>> Kids are consumers, too: Is your brand engaging teens & tweens (9-17 year olds) on social networks? It better, because nearly half of these kids are likely to seek out and interact with advertiser brands, according to an Alloy Media + Marketing whitepaper.
What this means most to me is that it could be point to how marketing and information sharing/consumption will change and grow in the next few years with these kids.
Among the findings:
* Nearly half (47%) of 9-17 year olds, including more than half (55%) of teens, report participation in one or more advertiser-branded activity types in the last month.
* More than 90% of tweens and teens say they’d like to hear about one or more types of entertainment products in social-networking sites.
* Close to half (45%) say they’d like to hear about enthusiast or special interest products, such as technology, sports, and automotive.
* Four in ten, including more than two-thirds of girls (68%), say they’d like to hear about apparel and personal care products on social-networking sites.
* One-fourth want to hear about food and beverage products.
* 31% also say they want to hear about more serious offerings such as college information or products that can help them with school.
* Overall, 20% of teens report adding branded content to their own websites in the last month.
>> Gender plays a role: Women use social networks more, have more friends than men, according to a Rapleaf study of 30.74 million social networkers. The report looked at people using Bebo, Facebook, Friendster, Hi5, LiveJournal, MySpace and Flickr.
This doesn’t surprise me too much (including the quote below), but it’s good to keep in mind when working within these sites. You need to know who your reader/consumer is and why they’re interacting with your product:
Rapleaf therefore theorizes that women are spending more time on social networks building and nurturing relationships, whereas men are likely spending more time acquiring relationships (a transactional approach) than nurturing them.
>> Posting about your brand is a social experience, too: What drives consumers to post content about products and services to the Web? It’s “product experience,” according to survey data from Nielsen CGM/Homescan Buzzfacts.
Critically, “product experience” includes both the quality of the product and the quality of customer service, stresses Pete Blackshaw, EVP of Nielsen Online’s just-launched Digital Strategic Services (DSS) group.
…
Over half (55%) of consumers said they posted because they had used and liked a product; 28% because they had used a product and didn’t like it, or wanted a refund; and 27% said they had read a comment about a product on a site, blog or message board and responded to it.
>> Going viral may be a buzzword, but is viral marketing being used effectively? Or is it just plain overused? Andrew Wallenstein for Hollywood Reporter says “viral marketing has gone positively bubonic” with the lead up to the summer movie season.
… when too many movies adopt the same understated marketing tone, its novelty wears off. When “Cloverfield” played around with viral strategies, it was cool. Now that everyone else is copying — not so cool.
He continues …
But are these elaborate schemes worth the resources the studios devote to them. Even among the most dyed-in-the-wool fans, it is hard to believe too many have the time or inclination to justify all this. And even if they did, what sense is there in pitching woo so fervently to an audience already guaranteed to show up to theatres? Maybe money is better spent targeting audience segments that aren’t as likely to buy tickets.
Work your network
Posted on April 7, 2008
"… 26 percent of hiring managers have used Internet search engines to research potential employees. More than one in 10 admit to using social networking sites in their candidate screening processes. Of the managers who browsed such sites, 63 percent found dirt that caused them to dismiss a candidate.”
Virtual world users to marketers: It’s the activities, stupid
Posted on April 4, 2008
Virtual world users to marketers: It’s the activities, stupid
"… on average, almost 40% of virtual world participants said that their primary reason for going in-world was to play games. In contrast, less than a quarter said that their main goal was to satisfy curiosity or to socialize with others."
Why business bloggers Are Twittering
Posted on April 3, 2008
Why Business Bloggers Are Twittering
"… the short updates from friends, colleagues, acquaintances, or people you’d like to get to know, you start to notice patterns. You start picking up small clues about their personalities, about their priorities, and about events in their lives."
New York Times: Facebook Strategy
Posted on April 2, 2008
New York Times: Facebook Strategy
"We’ve seen a positive effect on traffic. Referrals from Facebook to NYTimes.com have increased since the launch of our NYTimes.com profile page last fall, as has the number of Times articles being shared among Facebook users."
Social Applications: monetizing the intersection of Advertising and Technology
Posted on March 31, 2008
Social Applications: monetizing the intersection of Advertising and Technology
"At first, Social Applications might not seem as appealing as widgets to an advertiser, as the interaction is consumer-with-consumer instead of consumer-with-brand. But the longer view reveals a huge opportunity for brands. Enabling genuine social interaction can be as rewarding to a brand as entering into individual dialogues with customers. The challenge of scale is easily overcome, and the social context casts a warm glow over the underwriting advertiser.”
Why ‘08 isn’t mobile’s year — again
Posted on March 31, 2008
Why ‘08 isn’t mobile’s year — again
" … five reasons why — and five fixes that could make 2009 the year the channel becomes really, truly, we’re-not-joking meaningful."
The top 5 ways smart people use Twitter
Posted on March 28, 2008
Do you Twitter?
Says Sharon Sarmiento: “Like cell phones, email, and blackberries, Twitter is a tool that can either add value to your working life or become the perfect interruption machine, depending on how well you use it.”
Here are her top 5 smart uses of Twitter:
1. Marketing and Communication.
2. Microblogging.
3. Business Networking.
4. Breaking news & getting scoops.
5. Streamlining your electronic inboxes.
And here’s a video explainer of “Twitter in plain English”:
OK, I’ll give it a try.
Mobile ad spending projected to top $19B by 2012
Posted on March 27, 2008
Mobile ad spending projected to top $19B by 2012
"A breakthrough mobile app would also have to include some type of social element–since cell phones are, at the core, communication devices. "Then you get that killer consumer experience where people are going to dive in," du Pre Gauntt said."
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