10 ways to measure social media success
There’s so much talk about social media that it is easy for people to become cynical, perhaps losing track of the fact that it can have a positive impact on your business.
So how can you determine whether a social media strategy is proving beneficial to your business? How do you know that it is working out for you? And is now really the best time to find out?
Rather than focusing on individual social media campaigns, I’d like to look at social media measurement from the perspective of a business that a) buys into social media, b) commits to it over a period of time, and as such c) has an integrated social media strategy. You people know who you are!
Brand loyalty doesn't come cheap
The economy may be pushing prices lower, but when it comes to brand loyalty consumers still aspire to lofty expectations. That's the conclusion of the latest BrandKeys customer loyalty survey and it could portend a strategy change in internet marketing for brands that are trying to hold the high ground.
Brand value, according to BrandKeys CEO Robert Passikoff, means a lot more than brand pricing. The just-released index says that consumer expectations regarding brand value went up 20% this year versus last.
Consumers control social media, and brands need to wise up
A recent study by Netpop Research serves to only further assert the fact that social media is rapidly changing the way brands operate, due to the increase of consumer control.
The report is purely US-based, but it certainly seems fair to suggest that this trend can be applied globally, as there is an ever-growing permeation of social media into daily consumer life. The study concludes that there is a shift in consumer internet usage from entertainment towards communication, and it's being driven by social media and networking sites.
Agency IOUs: Big brands wimp out on payments
I will gladly pay you Tuesday for an advertisement today. Well, make that four months from Tuesday. That's no problem, is it?
As the Feds bail out the banks, the advertisers have apparently decided their agencies are banks. At least, that's how they're treating them when it comes to payment terms. Both the Wall Street Journal and Ad Age are taking a long, hard look at the story today.
It seems many agencies are willing to go along with advertising on the installment plan, forced on agencies by enormo brands such as GM and Anheuser-Busch. Reportedly, GM, whose brand portfolio includes Cadillac, Buick and Pontiac, has offered to pay ad production firms half a TV spot's production costs 60 days after the first day of shooting, and the remaining half when the ad is finished.
Lastminute.com to open high street stores in the UK
In a challenging market environment it’s a good idea to have a plan, especially when that plan is bold and forward-thinking.
It turns out that lastminute.com has such a plan, for the online pureplay is moving into the seemingly perilous world of offline retailing.
Whither celebrity endorsements?
In this tough economic environment, it's no surprise that big brands are thinking more carefully about celebrity endorsements.
After all, celebrity endorsements don't come cheap, they don't always deliver and, as we've seen recently, sometimes celebrities' bad decisions put them at odds with the values of the brands they're paid millions to represent.
I'm a Mac Store, I'm a PC Store
There's something almost portentous about the news coming out on Friday the 13th, not to mention the day before Valentine's Day. Microsoft, following Apple's lead, will open its own line of branded retail outlets.
Microsoft briefly had a San Francisco store during the dot-com boom, which quickly folded. Apple Stores, meanwhile, are prospering and flourishing. Openings in new cities are eagerly anticipated events on the scale of major rock stars coming to town: people stake spots in line a day in advance, often spending the night on the sidewalk in anticipation of the doors opening. If Apple introduces a hot new product like the iPhone, the whole process repeats.
Here in New York, our three Apple stores are must-see tourist attractions. And they're bound to be bustling on Valentine's Day tomorrow - I keep seeing articles in mainstream media citing Apple stores as one of the top places to meet members of the opposite sex.
Why do top global brands like Coca Cola ignore Twitter for engagement?
Recently we’ve been looking more and more at the online performance of brands, which is increasingly key to success in a multichannel world.
Historically, many FMCG brands have not considered their products as being relevant for the internet, and certainly not in terms of e-commerce. It is understandable. Nobody really visits Google to find a place to buy a Coke.
Nevertheless, the brand owners spend countless millions, and in some cases billions, on multichannel advertising campaigns. Partly because they have to, and partly because they can.
But here’s the truth of the matter: many ad campaigns aren’t delivering what they should be because budgets aren't being invested into digital channels to encourage (and capture) engagement.
All too often the internet (and mobile) is a last-minute thought, when it should be built into a campaign at the outset. More than that, it should now be hardwired into marketing strategies by default.
Should more charities be making use of Twitter?
A Twitter account is free to set up, and keeping it updated doesn't need to take too much time and effort, so some charities are now making to use the site for fundraising and increasing awareness of their causes.
In the UK, I have found Twitter accounts for Oxfam, War Child, Greenpeace, though there may be others. One charity making excellent use of Twitter for promoting its cause is Dog's Trust.
I've been asking Alex Goldstein, the charity's social media and community editor, about Dog's Trust's use of Twitter and her tips for other charities....
Measurementcamp and the risk of social media silos
When I read the word
'Silo' I recall the massive industrial grain storage silos that used to scare
me as a child.
Having grown up on a UK TV diet of Doctor Who, Blake 7 and The Tripods, anything that looked vaguely like an enemy spaceship became the subject of irrational fear and bad dreams.
These days I fear silos of a different nature.....
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
