If you’ve ever wondered how much mention of a brand by a consumer through social media is worth, you are in luck. Someone has done the math:
There you go.
No one has quite figured out the perfect way to report on the success (or failure) of social media campaigns. That much is clear from my five days at SXSW this year. Followers, likes and clicks are not going away. Facebook has a new way of measuring “engagement” which is basically “shares” of the content, and this is helpful. But how do we know that we are connecting with the right audience?
We will know by the way the audience engages with the campaign and the overall word-of-mouth generated to help it spread online. You can measure all the clicks and likes and followers that you receive, but if the message you are communicating is off-brand, all wrong for your audience and similar to others in the marketplace, can the campaign really be considered a success because of clicks, likes and followers? Too many brands are jumping into social media campaigns to do something “cool” and “fun” and “different.” But they are forgetting to define the basics for any communications campaign:
I sat in on a great session at SXSW entitled Epic Battle: Creativity vs. Discipline in Social where the panelists shared examples of “epic wins” and “epic fails” in social media campaigns. The theme among the wins was:
The brands knew the campaign basics (outlined above) and measured each and every creative idea against those objectives to ensure the output was on-brand.
It is a simple as that. And it makes so much sense.
Examples of “epic wins” shared by the panel:
Examples of “epic fails” shared by the panel:
Knowing the target audience and where they spend time online and understanding what might engage them takes research on the front end. Just because social media is nimble, does not mean that it should be executed with reckless abandon. Research thoroughly upfront, agree on how the campaign will be measured, check every creative execution against the campaign objectives and audience, and don’t be stupid.
For your entertainment, here is the “Planet of the Apes” video:
I know this is not the first time I have used that headline on this blog. But location doesn’t seem to be diminishing in importance when it comes to mobile technologies, social sharing and finding cool stuff.
The trend in location is discovery. Discovering places, discovering people and discovering other stuff like deals, information and suggestions from your networks.
Yesterday at SXSW, we heard Dennis Crowley talk about the future of Foursquare. The service is going to continue evolving for its users, reading into the context of users’ activities to make recommendations for places to “explore.”
Today, we heard from keynote speaker Amber Case (founder of Geoloqi) as she talked about ambient location (location services always running in the background of your smart phone) and the the ways we can use it to learn more about our surroundings. And influence our surroundings (i.e., your house lights automatically come on when you–and your phone–get within a specified distance of your house).
Then here in Austin, we are surrounded by new ambient location apps that promise to connect us to new people who are in our near vicinity, provided we have something in common (friends, followers, mutual friends). These apps–like Highlight and Banjo–notify you when people are close. (Not going to lie: this creeps me out a little bit so far.)
It remains to be seen which of these apps will survive and the users will decide how the can best be used. But regardless, it is fair to say that location services are not going away and are only gaining in importance. Consumers are obviously looking for was to discover new places, people and experiences. They are asking for the information. For marketers, this is great news. It is simply a matter of being active in those spaces and sharing the information in the ways the consumers want to digest it.
I signed up for the Google+ as soon as I received one of those coveted invitations. But, once I got there, I couldn’t figure out what to do with it. A lot of people I knew were signing up, too. But no one was posting or sharing, we were all just kind of, well, there just to be there. So my profile has been sitting there, sadly unused since last summer when I registered it. Until yesterday.
Yesterday, at SXSW, I listened to Guy Kawaski grill Vic Gundotra about Google+. And during this grilling, Kawaski revealed his passion for all that Google+ offers as a tool for sharing. In fact, at the close of the session he announced his new book, “What the Plus?” The book is an e-book, available for immediate download and I decided to read it. It is a quick read and when I was done, I decided to give Google+ a second chance.
Google+ is this interesting mix of Facebook and Twitter, with a layer on additional features on top. It is not exactly intuitive, but once you understand the differences compared to the other social networks and practice with it a bit, it is fun to use. (Though a social network that needs an instruction book doesn’t feel very social.) Really, Google+ works a lot more like Twitter in terms of how people follow you and the more public nature of it compared to Facebook. The benefit of Google+ over Twitter is the long form posts with embedded links, images and videos right in the stream and aggregated comments, which are Facebook-like functions. For me, Google+ is going to be a place to share interesting finds that aren’t necessarily blog-worthy, but need more commentary than allowed on Twitter. The circles are greatly valuable for segmenting the messages you want to share and really giving you a way to use one social network for all your different audiences. Google+ has the potential to be a regular source of news and information for me as I find more people to add to my circles and I love that my using it can make my overall Google experience a better one eventually.
Check out the video from SXSW of Kawaski interviewing Gundotra about Google+:
Transmedia is about storytelling across multiple platforms, or basically, integrating online and offline experiences. “In transmedia, elements of a story are dispersed systematically across multiple media platforms, each making their own unique contribution to the whole.“ And when done right, transmedia puts a brand message on surround sound with the audience right in the middle.
At SXSW 2011, there was much talk about transmedia as an up-and-coming trend. But this year, there are brands that actually have transmedia case studies to share. I sat in on two sessions today where brands shared how they executed transmedia experiences successfully:
BBC
The standard audience for a BBC documentary is 55+ year-old males. They needed to broaden their audience and BBC decided to do that with a documentary called “The Code” by making it a transmedia experience. To pull this off, they partnered with a company that specializes in transmedia storytelling, Six to Start. Adrian Hon from Six to Start presented the story of “The Code” to the SXSW audience today.
Hon described how they took a traditional documentary (about seeing code and patterns in nature) and added the following elements to it to create the surround sound experience of transmedia:
BBC worked hard to keep the barrier to entry very low: it wasn’t hard to start playing the game or find the clues across the various channels. But, there were tiers to the reveal as BBC carefully considered the difficulty curve. Once a player put the first round of clues together, he or she unlocked an 86-page puzzle book. Solving the puzzle revealed more clues. On their own, players created a Facebook page and a wiki for helping each other piece together the clues.
Ultimately, the viewership of “The Code” documentary tripled viewership numbers of the traditional documentaries, tens of thousands of people participated in the wiki puzzle book conversations and a woman actually solved the puzzle first to win the “treasure” (a unique, 3D printed trophy made of varying medals).
Bravo
The panel from Bravo said they turned to transmedia out of desperation. They were basically using “Top Chef” leftovers online and gaining very little traction or engagement from fans. They needed something that could carry the show through fans’ lives more than the one time a week it aired on television. They set out with a transmedia plan hoping to generate about a million streams online.
The plan included:
Bravo executed this with one person dedicated to social media, but a full team of approximately 25 people helping to pull it all together. The web series got over eight million streams. It was the highest streamed series on NBCU ever and 26% of on-air show watched “Last Chance Kitchen.” They are still trying to understand the metrics for impact to their sole sponsor of the entire experience, Toyota, and are undergoing their most ambitious research effort ever to put together a full measurement report.
Because of the success with “Top Chef,” Bravo is looking across its other shows to determine how to create transmedia experiences for those audiences, as well. Up next: co-creation with and by fans with a social game for “Real Housewives of New York.”
Based on the level of complexity, the number of moving parts and the number of people that need to be involved to pull of a transmedia experience, embarking on a transmedia campaign can seem daunting. But, based on the results with the increased audience engagement, its seems an expense worth investing.
Read more about transmedia here:
I’ve been sucked into TED Talks this morning and couldn’t resist sharing this Talk about what makes videos viral. The bottom line: a “tastemaker” shares it. Still an enjoyable video to make you laugh this Tuesday morning.
I recently sat down with Roby Brock of Talk Business to talk about social media companies as the next big thing in tech stocks. Watch the interview here:
Tech companies are staying private longer and building up evidence of actually being able to generate revenue. Now that social media outlets have been established and are continuing interactions with large databases of users, they are starting to enter the public ownership realm. What makes companies such as Groupon, Zynga and Facebook valuable is the list aggregated information they have on individual populations of people and sectors.
“For the most part, today’s social media companies are generating (or at least forecasting) real accounting earnings. And nearly all of the popular offerings are based on businesses that actually have customers (instead of just a concept). But it is quite amazing to see the flood of capital competing for ownership of social media companies, and the implied company valuations.”
The response to LinkedIn has set the stage for other social-media IPOs, including Facebook, which is being rumored to go public in 2012.
Another trending topic at South by Southwest this year was the incorporation of game dynamics into social media, communications and generally any type of task where people need to be motivated to participate. The big question, however, was how are marketers going to leverage this idea and trend in their communications. We are now starting to see some experiment with game incorporation. Here is a round-up of examples:
Subway
Subway has partnered with Scvngr to promote adding avocado to its menu. Twenty-five Scvngr players can win two free tickets to the premiere of “The Green Lantern.” Other players can receive free tickets to see the movie in their local theater. “Scvngr players can win the tickets by earning points with the following game-like activities: ‘Superhero Fuel’ points will be rewarded to players who create their own sandwich with avocado as a central ingredient. ‘Quote It’ points can be accrued by users expressing their favorite Green Lantern quote. ‘Flex for the Camera’ points will be rewarded to those who take a photo of themselves next to a Subway logo, while flexing their muscles.”
“The retailer is offering shoe discounts to Scvngr players who check in at stores, complete challenges, and upload content to the app. The challenges include: snapping a photo of sneakers/shoes; picking three sets of colorful footwear and taking a picture; and telling a brief story about where the player would like to walk to if she could go anywhere in the world.”
New York Public Library
I love this one! Not only does the New York Public Library have its own Foursquare badge, but in May they launched a promotion that allowed a limited number of participants to sign up and spend the night in the library to go on a scavenger hunt. The promotion appeals to the younger, tech-savvy target and gets them into a place that rarely need to visit anymore: the library. Smart.
“’Find the Future: The Game,’ devised by renowned game designer Jane McGonigal, is a series of ‘quests’ delivered via an app on players’ mobile devices that can be completed at the Library’s 42nd Street location. … The challenges are designed to encourage players to explore and reflect upon the objects from the library’s collections. A player might be tasked, for instance, to scan a QR code located at the Declaration of Independence, and then respond to a creative essay prompt. Once enough quests have been completed, they will be “unlocked” for the public, who can begin playing the game online May 21.”
There is even a video to go along with it:
Through Facebook, the more people that like the Snoop Dog fragrance, the cheaper the price gets for the fans to buy it. Kind of fun.
Buffalo Wild Wings
Earlier this year, Buffalo Wild Wings partnered with Scvngr to allow “customers [to] complete challenges on their smartphones and win prizes, like Buffalo Wild Wings and Coca-Cola, which are redeemable on the spot. Such challenges, like snapping a photo with a fan of an opposing team, earn fans points that go toward winning the grand prize of a trip to see the NBA finals with Scottie Pippen, formerly of the Chicago Bulls.”
There are many other examples brands experimenting with game dynamics floating around out there, and most of them seem to use Scvngr as their partner in the efforts. While results remain to be seen, the approaches seem on track and look to be engaging for customers.
“Our morning social media browse to check in on what everyone has been up to became the equivalent of the old-timers’ early morning stroll to the diner for pancakes and coffee. We check Facebook and comment on a friend’s photo of her new shoes (which we know without asking are Kate Spades and were bought at Nordstrom’s because she said so in her status update) the same way we once would have remarked, ‘You look lovely in that hat, Margie,’ as we passed our neighbor.”
For those that don’t understand the draw of social media, the excerpt above can help put it into a context they may understand. In “The Thank You Economy,” Gary Vaynerchuk does a fantastic job of clearly explaining the significance social media can have on a business and its customer relationships. For those that are still wondering if and why they should engage with customers through social media, Vaynerchuk knocks down the arguments. The book is bursting with real examples of brands that have used social media to make a difference in the business engagements and the brands range in size, awareness and business type. Vaynerchuk shows that you can be a dentist and use social media with successes to show for the efforts.
Some quotes from the book that hit home for me:
“When given the choice, people will always spend their time around people they like. When it’s expedient and practical, they’s also rather do business with and buy stuff from people they like. And now, they can. Social media has made it possible for consumers to interact with businesses in a way that is often similar to how they interact with their friends and family.”
“Social media has transformed our world into one great big small town, dominated, as all vibrant towns used to be, by the strength of relationships, the currency of caring, and the power of word of mouth.”
“People thought they had seen a massive cultural shift when the public adopted the Internet into their daily lives, but the bigger shift occurred when the Internet began to allow for two-way conversation. Learn how to implement a culture of caring and communication into your business, scale your one-to-one relationships, and watch your customers reward your efforts by using their new and massively powerful word of mouth to market your business and brand for you.”
“The drawback to resisting social media engagement is clear: the longer you wait, the farther the competition can pull ahead.”
“Some people try to use social media…by pushing sales pitches and gimmicks. Their efforts might get brief attention, but the message will fade and it certainly won’t have long-term value; it’s just not worth thinking about. If you’re going to launch a campaign, it has to be one that evokes an emotion–positive or negative–so that people feel compelled to share. Give them something to talk about, unleash the power of word of mouth, and allow them to pull you into their consciousness.”
“The Thank You Economy works when you build a sense of community around your brand, not when you simply sell to it.”
I heard Vaynerchuk speak at SXSW this year where he enthusiastically revved up the audience with his passion for social media. You can feel his personality, enthusiasm and passion come through in this book. This book can make a believer out of the biggest skeptics to social media.
Recommendation: read it.
I have to appreciate the most recent approach that Taco Bell has taken in response to the lawsuit about the percentage of beef in their products: a bit self-deprecating. Check out some of the latest Twitter posts by Taco Bell:
Of course the laughter comes only after they made it over the hump of seriously addressing the lawsuit with an official video and statement from the company president last week:
The responses from Taco Bell, both the serious and the funny, were the right ones. No one really believed they were eating 100% beef when they ordered from Taco Bell, especially those that are actual customers. And they don’t care because they love the brand and the products. The news only rallied Taco Bell’s dedicated following: their Twitter and Facebook pages are practically love fests.
While Taco Bell had to address the situation, the acknowledgment of the humor in the situation makes the brand all the more likable and really aligns with its established feisty brand personality.
Here is the video referenced in the Taco Bell Twitter post above. Enjoy.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Gordita Supreme Court | ||||
|
||||
Last year was one of significant growth for Foursquare: 3400% growth in 2010, according to the site. Foursquare has released an infographic with some interesting facts. Thinking about Foursquare from a branding and business-building perspective, these are a few of my favorite data points shared by Foursquare:
Knowing when a consumer is more or less likely to check-in and share their location with friends and followers can give a business the opportunity to offer special deals during slower time periods to try to drive traffic.
This graphic tells me when to stay home!
Clever. Consumers love clever. Brands should think about the unique qualities of their brands and leverage the data to make the consumer smile in appreciation. Then, check-in because they want to be part of the inner circle offered by the brand.
The year 2010 proved that location sharing was relevant to the social consumer. Foursquare has by far dominated that scene. Some of the questions in 2011 will be:
It is that time of year when predictions for 2011 abound across the web. It’s always tough to make predictions about technology due to the speed of innovation, but that hasn’t stopped the blogosphere from throwing opinions against the wall. Outlined below is a summary of some the most talked about and interesting predictions for 2011.
Online Video Viewing Continues To Grow and Results Ensue
Prediction: More Companies/Brands Using Video to Sell. Every minute, 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube. In four years, more than 90% of internet content will be video.
Online video viewing is now more than just cute kittens. The kittens might get the most views, but consumers are actually just as interested in interacting with brands via videos as they are in laughing at pet tricks. Brands that engage consumers through video demonstrations are seeing the results on their bottom lines. Zappos, as one example, added simple videos of people holding shoes and moving them around to its sales pages and increased conversion rate from 6% to 30%. Based on that success, by the end of next year, Zappos will have ten full working video studios, with the goal of producing around 50,000 product videos by 2010, up from the 8,000 videos they have on the site today.
Toyota is another example: its “The Swagger Wagon” music video garnered over seven million views, only three percent of which were driven by advertising.
And, Travelocity was the first brand to jump on the Chatroulette fad early in 2010 when they placed their signature gnome character in front of the webcam holding signs with clever travel messages. Over 40 days and nights, the Roaming Gnome generated 350,000 impressions on the site, engaged in 40 conversations, and generated over 19 million media impressions for the brand.
In the next year, we will see more brands using video to sell their products and services.
Sources: Mashable, Streaming Media
Prediction: More Mobile Video Sharing. Smartphones with video recording abilities are not new to consumers, and even the ability to record HD video is not new. Up until this point, however, we have not seen mobile video capturing and sharing take off. This is most likely a result of the difficulty in uploading and sharing video instantly due to bandwidth limitations. In the next year, we will see wireless providers improve bandwidth, allowing friendlier video uploads and we will devices improve video compression without sacrificing quality that will assist with immediate sharing.
With this in mind, businesses might consider encouraging consumer use of videos to share their brand and product experiences. Providing customers with back-drop and props, allowing access to a wireless connection to assist in upload speed, and giving them a place to share their videos with other customers are all ways to promote brand-specific videos.
Source: Mashable
Photo Sharing Gains in Popularity
Prediction: More Mobile Photo Sharing. Mobile sharing services will hit critical mass as smartphone users install apps in order to keep up with their friends. The iPhone photography app Instagr.am, which launched less that three months ago, claimed this week to have surpassed 1 million downloads. Services like Instagr.am have become so popular because they emphasize simplicity and make it easy to share your photos on social networks; Instagr.am, in particular, is liked for the filters it offers, the community they find there and the ease of cross-posting Instagrammed photos out to other networks like Flickr, Facebook and Foursquare.
With tools like these, average users can look more like professional photographers and they want to show off their work. And, although people already post photos to Facebook, we will probably see an improvement in their photo sharing features that include integration into their Places app that launched in 2010 so that users can share their work with a broader audience of people who also visit that “place.”
Expect to see photo sharing increase in the next year. Businesses can capitalize on this trend by launching promotions that reward customer participation by photographs or gives customers a forum for sharing their amateur photography with others.
Sources: ReadWriteWeb, CNN, Mashable
Group Shopping Gaining Momentum
Prediction: More Ability to Share Purchases Through Social Channels Allowing Customers to Become the Advertisers. When you add in a reward component, like with Groupon, there are many more people willing to share their individual purchases (or purchase intent) through their existing social platforms. Groupon was introduced to the central Arkansas area in 2010. It is a daily coupon for a local business that only becomes active if enough people purchase it that day. “This creates the incentive to share the deal with friends and family, until ‘the deal is on.’ It’s great for local businesses because they can set the parameters for the offer and they know a minimum for how many offers they will have sold in advance.” Businesses establish the offer and people who have signed up for Groupon receive the notification. If the user decides to buy the offer, they have the option of telling their friends about it – through Facebook or Twitter, thereby spreading the word to their networks, too. Groupon gets its offers in front of buyers via the word of mouth of its 13 million subscribers.
Groupon’s effectiveness is evident in its claim that it now has 35,000 companies clamoring to be a part of the service offerings and only one in eight applicants is accepted. The companies that register with Groupon must already be getting good reviews at online review sites like Yelp, CitySearch and TripAdvisor, and the deals must offer a substantial discount from normal prices and not be similar to other promotions regularly offered by the vendor.
In the next year, consumers will become increasingly comfortable sharing their purchases and getting their friends on board to make the same purchases. Businesses should make this easy for their customers to do. With tools like Facebook Connect and linking to Twitter accounts on their websites, companies can encourage customers to share their purchases through their existing social media tools.
Sources: Social Media Explore, TechCrunch, Forbes
Location Sharing Is (Still) Not Going Way.
Prediction: Location Services Will Continue to Grow in Popularity. People will get more comfortable checking in to a business when they realize they can get deals and coupons for doing so. Additionally, with options like privacy blocking, enhanced security will ease the transition.
“Relevance will distinguish [location] services from each other as the two biggest players, Facebook and Google, have the most powerful social graph data to customize deals for consumers. Don’t count Groupon out, though. It more than makes up for its comparative lack of technology with brand equity and scale, as its massive sales force will remain dominant in 2011 by further monetizing local commerce beyond the recently launched self-service platform.”
If you are a business owner, it is “time to acquaint yourself with sites and applications such as Foursquare, Facebook Places and Gowalla. These sites will help you better target prospects’ likes and interests, pique interest and influence purchase decisions by offering discounts, promotions or giveaways when they ‘check in’ to your business.”
Sources: Mashable, Entrepreneur
Consumer Influence Continues To Grow Online
Prediction: Consumers Get More Selective With The Brands They Allow In Their Social Streams. In the coming year people are going to be much more diligent about curating their own content into a more manageable form. While following a brand on Twitter or Facebook is getting consumers good coupons and deals, it is also turning their streams into undesired and overwhelming advertising channels that drown out the social sharing from their friends. “Therefore, what’s happening in Facebook is that consumers are turning off brands posting to their walls, using friends lists to pay close attention only to their ‘real’ friends, and commenting on or sharing only when something is really juicy. In Twitter, a company called Cadmus aims to change the way we view our streams by determining what content is most relevant to you based on your Twitter usage patterns. Other tools, such as Paper.li and Flipboard (for iPad), also curate Twitter, primarily based on content popularity, and make that content much more reader-friendly.”
It is no longer enough for companies to be in these channels generating regular content. The content that brands and companies post is going to have be worthy of consumer curation into their social streams. “If your content is truly compelling and share-worthy, it’ll get noticed and Liked, it will generate Comments and Retweets, and you’ll be okay because it will have legitimately earned its way into people’s streams. If not – you’ll have to have a combination of search optimization savvy [and] fans in high places (influencers).” In the next year, as consumers get more selective in their follow habits, brands will get more creative in their ploys to make into the social streams.
Source: Social Media Explorer
Prediction: Online Influencers Are Celebrities. Consumers want to be heard, and more importantly they want answers. Consumers are already scouring the social web and polling their friends and followers to decide where to eat, shop and stay. Websites dedicated to customer reviews will dominate the social media landscape. Sites such as Groubal.com, consolidating common user-submitted complaints and presenting those petitions to businesses, demanding answers for their wrongdoings.
As consumers are doing all of this, brands are desperately trying to insert themselves into those relevant streams by analyzing Twitter, blog posts and reviews to understand not only who has the largest audience, but how much influence individuals have. These influencers become well-known locally, regionally and nationally as their content is commented on, retweeted and linked to, driving them higher in search results. The past year also saw some brands go full throttle on Foursquare’s game-like geo-location platform, attempting to reward mayors and creating custom badges for the network’s power users. To measure the relevant influence of these online “celebrities,” tools like YouTube’s Partner Program is being joined by new services such as Klout to create an official layer of social credibility.
We will see brands doing more research on their social consumers in the next year as they figure out ways to influence the influencers.
Source: Mashable, Entrepreneur, Harvard Business Review
During the last few weeks of 2010, there were several studies released that revealed social media use by demographics. As businesses continue integrating social media more into their communications executions, this information is valuable looking toward 2011 plans. Here is a recap of stats from across the web; look for some more detailed thoughts on leveraging these findings in communications strategies in the coming weeks.
In 2010, Twitter increased by more than 100 million users, bringing the total users to 175 million. Eight percent of the American adults who use the Internet are Twitter users.
And these users are influential, with 16% having more than 100 followers. Of those queried, 62% said they post updates related to their work life, activities or interests, with 12% doing so on a daily basis. Twitter users are nearly equally divided between those who check the site on a daily basis (or multiple times per day) and those who check the site infrequently or never. Just over one-third of Twitter users (36%) check for material posted by others on a daily basis or multiple times per day — this is roughly comparable with the two in five (41%) who say they check the site less than every few weeks, or never do so at all. The remaining one-quarter of users say they check the site for updates a few days each week or every few weeks.
Some of the groups who are notable for their relatively high levels of Twitter use include:
Women and the college-educated are also slightly more likely than average to use the service.
Additionally, these new Twitter users are more comfortable sharing their personal information and show evidence of comfort with their online presence: were much more likely to provide a bio (69%), detailed name (73%), location (82%) and website URL (44%) as part of their public profiles. All of those percentages are more than double what they were in 2009. Also noteworthy is that 22.5% of users are responsible for 90% of all tweets.
Before getting too excited about Twitter stats, keep in mind that email use is still 38% greater than Twitter use.
Sources: Mashable, Pew Research
Overall, 50% of all 500+ million Facebook users log on to Facebook in any given day. Drilling down a bit, 81% of upscale Gen Yers (average age 27) use Facebook every day, nearly twice the number who watch TV or read newspaper content.
The average user has 130 friends and is connected to 80 pages, groups, and events.
Of the Gen Y users, 63% use social media to engage with brands and more than 50% say that Facebook, blogs and brand videos affect their opinions about products. In fact, 44% of overall shares occurred through Facebook in 2010, up 33% from last year. That number does not include shares done via Facebook’s “Like” button, which means the actual, universal percentage of shares through Facebook is likely higher. And, Facebook users are updating their status millions of times per day.
What are their sentiments when Facebook users are posting all those status updates? Facebook did some analysis on their own users and Facebook’s data team found:
And, by the way, if Facebook was a country it would be the third-largest in the world.
Sources: Mashable, Mashable, Mashable, Problogger
Blogging
When it comes to blogging, as only half as many online teens blog compared to 2006, while users ages 18 to 33 also blog less than before. Blogging did see a slight uptick among older generations (ages 33 and up), but still accounts for a relatively small number of total users. However, as of December, 2010 there are over 32 million WordPress publishers; someone is still blogging!
Sources: Mashable, Problogger
Online, in General
The Milliennials – those ages 18 to 33 – are more likely to engage in many online activities than older generations, namely social networking, using online classifieds, instant messaging, playing online games, listening to music, participating in virtual worlds and reading blogs. Users ages 34 to 45, or the Gen X, however, are more likely than Millennials to visit government websites or get their financial information online.
Regardless of what they are doing there, Americans are increasingly spending more time on the Internet. In fact, Americans are now spending as much time using the Internet as they are watching television, and the amount of time people spend on the Internet has increased 121 percent over the last five year.
Sources: Mashable, New York Times
The NFL has cut a spot together that features captured video of the Saints winning last year’s Super Bowl and have been airing it during the playoffs this year. The full story of how it came together can be read here.
Watch the video here (while the NFL did the video right, they didn’t embrace the full power of the social web to make it embeddable; a fail in my opinion).
Crowdsourcing is not a new conversation topic on this blog. I am always impressed by well-done, crowdsourced videos. And, today’s example actually gave me goosebumps. Maybe it is because I am from Louisiana and I am proud of the Saints. Maybe it is because I have become more engaged in football lately with my Fantasy Football obsession (although a losing proposition). Maybe it is just because I love the fact that through social channels, everyday consumers can contribute to a major advertising campaign. Maybe it is just really well done.
Organizations today are thinking about how to take their business local, mobile and social in an effort to reach consumers where they are spending their time and money. Using opt-in tools like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Gowalla, businesses are attempting to gather followers with relevant messages in hopes of generating new business. These tools are fantastic for businesses with an existing dedicated fan-base that is interested in helping to spread the word. However, as technology continues to evolve, new tools are becoming available for businesses to reach out to new customers that may never have heard of the business. One such tool is Groupon.
Groupon leverages the collective power of consumer interest by making a deal available only when a certain number of people agree to make the purchase.
“This creates the incentive to share the deal with friends and family, until ‘the deal is on.’ It’s great for local businesses because they can set the parameters for the offer and they know a minimum for how many offers they will have sold in advance.”
As a consumer, I love Groupon: discounts for items I might buy anyway or otherwise wouldn’t buy due to high cost of entry and introduction to brands I’ve never encountered before. As a communications adviser, I can see the benefits of Groupon: introducing new users to instigate trial, driving traffic and encouraging frequency of existing users. However, I can also understand the hesitancy of business owners to engage with Groupon for fear of losing money and never seeing results.
The Groupon site has over 35 million registered users. (Source: Mashable) This is how small businesses can reach a large bank of consumers that might never have heard of them before. It can be a source for lead generation. However, “Groupon offers such a wide variety of products (spas, restaurants, and all sorts of weird local businesses)…This attracts a certain type of customer (people who want ‘deals’ and aren’t focused on business quality or returning) and encourages a certain type of behavior (namely low retention because of the deal volume).” (Source: Quora question/answer)
Determining the value of participating with Groupon takes a series of calculations and guesses, which this New York Times post sums up nicely. To start, consider that Groupon takes a percentage of every coupon sold. According to The New York Times, “The members who buy the coupon get 50 to 70 percent off on a product or service, and Groupon splits the proceeds with the retailer — usually leaving the retailer with about 20 to 25 cents on the dollar of retail value….Groupon is advertising….It costs money. Instead of writing a check for an ad, you are choosing to lose money on sales.”
There have been many documented complaints from businesses when it comes to their individual Groupon results: minimum purchases, single visits, poor tipping, etc. However, there have also been success stories: new customers, sales increases, etc. Groupon may be successful for some businesses and a risk to large to take for others. Regardless, it is a great opportunity to reach new users and it is the business owner’s responsibility to deliver service and product that encourages repeat visits. Businesses interested in using Groupon should prepare for impressing new customers and gaining their future loyalty.
While poor performance can’t be solely attributed to the Groupon model, there are ways that Groupon might improve the experience for business-owners (disclaimer: they may already offer these things, but I can’t find any information about it):