Facebook | Internet Marketing Blog

Organic posts are most popular social tactic but paid ads are more successful: report

Despite the marketing potential that exists in social networks there has always been an element of doubt over the efficacy of buying social ads.

Some of the most convincing arguments against social ads are that people don’t want to be sold to while they’re socialising and that you can’t always trust the validity of personal data on networks like Facebook.

In fact our own head of social Matt Owen recently blogged about the problems he encountered with gauging the success of Promoted Posts due to poor targeting tools and fake profiles.

But a new report from Kenshoo shows that although organic posts (such as maintaining a branded Facebook page) are the most popular social tactic, paid ads actually proved to be the most successful approach.

by David Moth 20 May 2013 12:16pm 0 comments

Five lovely new features that mean Google Plus is about to take hold

Here's a brief summary of the main G+ improvements in effect today.

We at Econsultancy think it now has the chops to garner more users, and these features may enable the platform to take hold...

by Ben Davis 16 May 2013 12:15pm 17 comments

How BMW uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Over the past few months I've been looking at how different global brands make use of the main social networks, but so far I've neglected the auto industry.

I've rectified that this week by turning the spotlight on BMW, which as it turns out has a surprisingly strong Facebook presence.

This post follows on from similar articles focusing on brands such as Coca-Cola, Nike, Red Bull, Microsoft and Ikea.

And without further ado, here's a quick look at how BMW uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+...

by David Moth 16 May 2013 11:15am 3 comments

Why your engagement rate is low and how you can fix it

First off, there seems to be a lot of confusion over what an engagement rate actually is. In short, it’s a measure of the number of people that are engaging compared to the number of people who could be engaging.

Due to the nature of the different social platforms there are likely to be varying rates for each one. For example, the rates for Facebook will differ to those for Twitter. A good rule of thumb is to divide the number of interactions with your base. It isn't rocket science.

However, looking across the barren landscape of brand social media pages, achieving and maintaining high engagement levels does seem to be.

So what's going wrong? Broadly speaking there are seven reasons why your engagement rate is low...

by Mike Phillips 09 May 2013 10:52am 0 comments

How General Electric uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

B2B companies can often struggle to make social work as people don’t tend to use Facebook and Pinterest for professional reasons.

There’s always Linkedin of course, but that presents an entirely different challenge from the four main consumer networks.

General Electric has managed to buck the trend and achieve a strong social presence, though it’s true that the company blurs the lines between B2B and B2C.

In an interview with Digiday last year, GE’s executive director of global digital marketing Linda Boff said that social platforms have allowed the company to get closer to its customers and tell stories about the human impact of what it does.

by David Moth 08 May 2013 14:55pm 1 comment

How William Hill uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

The UK’s online gambling sector was worth more than £2bn in 2012 and bookies have been quick to adapt to the digital world to make sure they are maximising their market share.

For example, most of the major bookmakers have smartphone apps and Paddy Power has come up with some excellent viral ads to help raise its profile.

It’s an industry we’ve touched on previously, with stats showing the Irish betting shop is the top performing brand on social networks while Coral proved to have the most user-friendly website.

And with this in mind, I thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at how William Hill uses the four main social networks.

by David Moth 01 May 2013 10:23am 0 comments

Report: Australian companies need to rethink social plans

A new report has revealed that 7 out of 10 Australian businesses are using social media to deliver customer service, but only 3 in 10 customers are looking to interact via these platforms.

The adoption of social media by businesses is not new, in fact having an online presence is now the norm with even small businesses jumping on board, but a new study highlights that there is quite a large disconnect in Australia between how consumers use social media and what businesses expect from them.

by Claire Brinkley 30 April 2013 23:30pm 0 comments

70+ epic social media case studies, stats, blog posts and more

At Econsultancy, we publish a huge amount of content related to digital marketing and ecommerce. One particular area that gets a lot of attention (and rightly so) is social media, which has had a profound impact on the way that consumers and businesses interact with each other.

To help you keep up to speed with what’s going on in the field, we’ve assembled some of our case studies, statistics, infographics, opinion and best practice blog content all in one place for you to digest at your leisure. You could even bookmark and share this page to add to your ninja toolset.

And if you’re going to be applying for one of the social media jobs advertised on our digital marketing jobs board, these posts will help you brush up and look smart.

Read below for more…

by Andrew Warren-Payne 26 April 2013 15:55pm 7 comments

How Kellogg's uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

For the latest instalment in our series of posts looking at how brands use the four main social networks I have decided to turn the spotlight on Kellogg’s.

The breakfast brand has a massive range of products that appear to be well suited to social marketing, so one would probably assume that they have established a strong presence across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.

As you’ll see though, that assumption is almost entirely incorrect.

By way of comparison, check out our other posts that took a similar look at brands including Nike, Walmart, Red Bull, Cadbury and McDonalds...

by David Moth 24 April 2013 13:52pm 6 comments