January 26, 2013

S.M.U.T #2

Following the first in my new regular series of S.M.U.T where I shall do a weekly post containing 2 or 3 Social Media Updates of Facebook, Google, Twitter or similar social channels, here is #2 in the series.

These posts will be of more interest to those working  in Media/Marketing.

My 3 social media updates are the following this week:

  1. Study showing that Facebook in a media plan can increase sales by 24%
  2. Facebook rolls out Ad conversion measurement tool
  3. Twitter releases a Video sharing App


    1. Study showing that Facebook in a media plan can increase sales by 24% 

  • Media intelligence company, Aggregate Knowledge released study results from 4th quarter 2012 of 25 brands, exploding the myth that social media doesn’t generate sales.
  • They identified that campaigns containing Facebook premium ads with supporting marketplace ads on right hand side, increased new sales by up to 24%.
  • Exposure to Facebook ads influences purchase consideration, even if users do not interact or click on them
  • Shows importance of view through attribution tracking of Facebook to tell a truer picture of the user’s path to conversion eg there is value in ad exposures, not just clicks
  • Click to link to Aggregate Knowledge study. 

 

 

2. Facebook rolls out Ad conversion measurement tool

  • Mostly suitable for small to medium businesses.
  • It shows such advertisers, the true value of Facebook ads on brand’s site conversions
  • Conversion measurement is important for marketers who treasure actions done on their websites particularly in direct-response industries, such as e-commerce, financial services, retail, and travel to measure ROI.
  • Facebook wrote in a blog that conversion measurement used with Optimized CPM in its beta tests cut the cost per conversion by 40 percent compared to CPC ads on similar budgets.
  • Here is link to Facebook studio for full explanation: http://bit.ly/XV4Ig6

 

 3. Twitter releases a video sharing app – Vine

What does that mean?

  • Well, in the same way that Tweets are 140 character text messages, a vine post displays only 6 seconds of video, similar to a GIF image.
  • The best way to explain it is to show the ‘Vine’ post that Twitter CEO did this week that got heads turning !
  • Click to see what could be the next huge phenomenon: STEAK TARTARE IN 6 SECONDS
  • It appears Facebook is currently trying to prevent the app finding your Facebook friends! To be continued!
  • Click here to go to App store to download the Vine App. 

Please feel free to provide feedback on any of my SMUT .

 

 

Posted by Rob Booth | Filed under: All, Media, Useful | 2 comments - read them or leave a reply

January 23, 2013

‘Must know’ Quebec Internet Info

For those of us who work in advertising/marketing, please consider your EXACT target group when deciding whether to allocate dollars to reaching them on the internet.

Although the stats are based on Quebec market, the key takeaway of my post will be similar in most developed countries.

And here’s why.

We often hear that internet penetration rate is approx 75% in Quebec (CEFRIO confirmed that is currently 74,5%) but here is the key,

IT IS FOR ALL QUEBEC ADULTS AS AN AVERAGE.

If we break down the target groups, let’s see what the penetration rate is and whether we should simply allocate a few dollars to web as an afterthought behind TV.

How many Quebec adults have used internet in week preceding the survey  - Demographic Breakdown (Jan 2013, CEFRIO)

  • Adults 18-24: 100% (yup!)
  • Adults 25-34: 94,4% (Not far from 100% is it and these are not teenagers)
  • Adults 35-44: 90,1% (Yes, 9 out of 10 adults in this key target group)
  • Adults 55+ 53,2% (Much lower than the others but is this your key target usually – it can be, but not generally) 
  • Households with family income exceeding $60k: 89%
  • Students: 100%
  • Professionals: 88%
  • Service and sales sector: 87,8%
  • Some college or university education: 86,3%

Conclusion

For the majority of key demographic groups , the web penetration rate is approx 90 – 100%. It is merely the heavily weighted older demographic of 55+ that brings the overall rate down to approx 75%.

It is very important for brand managers, marketing directors and ad agencies who allocate $ to engage these groups via marketing initiatives to know this key fact.

So please let’s not hear the wrong perception that ‘internet does not provide us with reach.’

It is quite simply not true.

Not only does Internet provide us reach as marketers, but it provides us with an:

  • engaging,
  • fun,
  • lean forward,
  • participative, 
  • sharable reach…when it’s done well ! And this is not just banners, page takeovers and big ‘in your face’ visuals. 

Look what our colleagues at 360i did in US  - The Great Bacon Barter

QED

For the full CEFRIO report (that I learned about from a Sam Parent tweet), click here: CEFRIO INTERNET USE IN QUEBEC 2013

Posted by Rob Booth | Filed under: All, Media, Useful | No comments yet - be the first

January 17, 2013

S.M.U.T #1 (Social Media Update Time)

I have decided to create a regular feature called S.M.U.T that identifies recent social media updates to Facebook, Google, Twitter etc that I consider to be significant.

The goal of these posts will be to provide my marketing/media friends with  latest social media changes in a concise, visual way with videos, images and examples.

Today in S.M.U.T #1, I shall explain the following 3 interesting social media updates:

  1. Facebook Social Graph Search
  2. Increase in size of Facebook link previews
  3. Different Facebook post organic reach, by post type

So here goes :

1, Facebook Social Graph search

  • Launched in small beta on January 15th to ‘hundreds or thousands of Facebook users’(very small test)
  • Allows Facebook users to search for various things such as music, restaurants, bars and much more,  based on what their friends like and have interacted with –  this social context makes search results more credible to the user

Here is an excellent video (that my good friend Carlos Pacheco) made me aware of that I find is an excellent demonstration of its functionality/capabilities – click on image below to view it.

If you want an excellent textual summary of ’4 reasons why marketers should be interested in Graph search’ (when it becomes available), click on our Dentsu partner’s, 360i, logo below to go to concise blog post about it:

2, Increase in size of link previews in Facebook

  • According to Facebook, it seems that they are increasing the size of link previews when you post a link (other than a Youtube video link.)
  • Size of image to double from 90 x 90 pixels to 154 x 154
  • More space for text
  • Greater chance that fans (of brands) or friends (of individual Facebook users) will see their posts and links, due to greater visual visibility on page

Here is the difference in size with the new 154 x 154 pixel link preview format vs previous 90 x 90:

An example of a Jame Oliver post link preview (not exact size but just to show what an actual link preview looks like) :

3. Facebook post organic reach – different by post type

It seems that Facebook organic post reach is different according to post type (eg the number of friends or fans who are exposed to your Facebook posts, without you increasing post reach by paid advertising .)

  • For video, images and link posts: 8-9% of your Facebook fans or friends will see them
  • For text status posts, 11-19% of your Facebook fans or friends will see them

Here is a post from social bakers that shows the decrease in overall organic Facebook post reach up to October 2012  - it contains the following very interesting visual for marketers

Conclusion

I shall try in future to regularly give social media updates in a clear concise fashion that requires little effort on your part, that will allow media, marketing and brand strategists to retain key takeaways quickly. I hope this was a helpful post. Everybody loves SMUT !

 

 

 

Posted by Rob Booth | Filed under: All, Media | No comments yet - be the first

January 12, 2013

Upcoming Facebook changes

There are two recent Facebook changes I want to discuss.

1. Change to Facebook Timeline

It would appear that the Facebook changes to Timeline that were being tested in November and December of last year are now being seen in certain limited markets like New Zealand. This is what one New Zealand Facebook User saw this week :

So what are the key changes to Timeline ?

  • 2 column newsfeed to one column
  • Right hand column now limited to : Recent activity, friends and other non messaging updates
  • Highlighted posts including life events can no longer be stretched across the page
  • Boxes that linked to friends, photos, maps and likes no longer appear by default – they appear via a menu
  • A ‘more’ tab offers access to about, friends, photos, maps, movies, TV shows, and music
  • Relationship status has gone from the header 
  • Friends are now called followers (sound familiar!)
  • Your job, where you live and your schooling now appears next to your profile pic, not below it

2. Paid Facebook Messaging

Following its IPO last year, Facebook continues to find new monetization methods.

It is currently testing a paid messages program that will :

  • enable users to reach out to those outside their network of friends for a fee of $1 per message, paid by credit card.

Although the service is early in the testing phase, it holds potential to alter the messaging function for both brands and consumers alike.

It is currently only be tested on individual’s Facebook pages but if successful, is likely to be rolled out onto brand pages.

For example, if you want to send a message to someone you heard speak at an event but are not friends with, or if you want to message someone about a job opportunity, you can use this feature to reach their Inbox

However, an AYTM survey of  Facebook users about this capability, found the vast majority in opposition—90% of users said they would definitely not pay $1 !!

But would you like to message Mark Zuckerberg?

Currently, the social network giant is testing different price ranges with a select number of Facebook users and has, seemingly, put a hefty price on being able to message Facebook’s CEO.

Certain individuals are being given the chance to do this for $100 per message. It doesn’t mean he’ll read it apparently but it won’t go into his ‘other’ folder ! This is how they can do it:

 Hopefully, Zuckerberg is still using Facebook and hasn’t moved to Tumblr like most people of his age! Average age of Facebook user is now 38 ! True dat !

 

 

Posted by Rob Booth | Filed under: All, Media, Useful | No comments yet - be the first

November 27, 2012

Ariel’s dirty shirt shoot

Very clever initiative for Ariel washing detergent in Stockholm, Sweden.

How better to demonstrate the cleaning ability of washing detergent to the Facebook community than to set up an interactive booth in a busy train station where downloaders of a Facebook app could control an interactive gun and fire various messy liquids at pieces of clothing that they could win.

Check out the video by clicking on the photo below:

My net takeaway

The Pros – A really out of the box, fun, innovative approach to try to engage users with their brand in a very unsexy brand category where brand engagement is usually very minimal. (People generally don’t care about washing detergents.)

Seriously high tech for a brand initiative – connecting online to offline to giver users control of their gaming experience

The Cons – Judging by the relatively small number of YouTube video views (approximately 75 000) for such a unique piece of video content that they created, it seems that they may have put most of their $ efforts into the technology behind producing an interactive gun and the development of a Facebook app that connected to the impressive live onsite event, and perhaps assumed that the content would be strong enough to spread virally without paid ad placements.

As is often the case, even the strongest video content needs support from paid media placements to ensure that the content is exposed to more people initially, who will then hopefully share or comment on it.

Final thoughts

Creating a unique onsite event/experience for a brand such as this one for Ariel,  should not simply be judged on how many people will potentially see it on site (eg the foot traffic at the Train station at any given time), but rather as the creation of quality, share-worthy video content that if exploited correctly with a strategic plan and media dollars behind it, is capable of reaching millions of online users globally in an engaging and fun way.

 

 

 

 

Posted by Rob Booth | Filed under: All, General, Media, Useful | No comments yet - be the first

November 15, 2012

20 Sexy Social Facts

We read a lot about Social Media but I thought I would compile 20 lesser known facts to surprise the non-believers. So here they are:

  1. Links about sex in Facebook are shared 90% more than any other type of link
  2. 7% of Americans have never heard of Facebook (What?!!)
  3. There are 10 likes in Youtube for every 1 dislike – a bit like real life actually !
  4. 5,3 billion searches in LinkedIn annually
  5. Google+1 button is used more than 5 billion times a day
  6. 97% of fans on Pinterest Facebook page are women
  7. Earlybird is the most popular filter in Instagram (12% )
  8. 500 years worth of video are shared every day in Facebook
  9. Facebook acquired 1 new user every second for 3 years from 2009-2012 (and that is just in US)
  10. 2,7 billion Facebook likes per day
  11. >1 million linked in groups
  12. In 2011, Youtube had an average of 140 video views for every person on earth
  13. 829 000 videos uploaded to Youtube daily
  14. 30 billion pieces of content are shared in Facebook each month
  15. 34% of social media users never post anything – Cyber voyeurs or what ?!!
  16. >1 million LinkedIn groups
  17. Twitter handles more search queries than Yahoo and Bing combined (24 billion vs. 4,1 and 9,4 respectively)
  18. Average age of a Facebook user is 38, average age of a Google+ user is 28
  19. Average time spent by a user on Pinterest per visit is nearly 16 minutes
  20. Gangnam Style is the most viral video ever with 679,620,147 views although my favourite is Charlie Bit Me with only 494,074,850 views !!

Sources:

  • Google Blog
  • Google Investors report
  • Tech crunch
  • Pinfluence
  • Edison
  • Instagram Press centre
  • Linkedin press centre
  • Power Formula Linked In User study

 

Posted by Rob Booth | Filed under: All, General, Media, Useful | 4 comments - read them or leave a reply

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