Captivating Connections.

how sharing is really shared.

Forget all the 'trends'...apparently it's all about 'old school' email when it comes to sharing...

"Ordinary email is still king when it comes to sharing content online, according to new research from ShareThis.

The company's 'ShareThis' button has become ubiquitous at the end of articles and blog posts, linking to a widget that lets users share material via email, instant messenger and social networking tools including Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon and Yahoo Buzz. With user data from 200 million monthly visitors across 130,000 sites, the service has amassed a wealth of data about how people share and engage with content.

Email remains the tool of choice for that purpose, accounting for 46% of content-sharing activity compared to 33% for Facebook, 14.5% via other channels and just 6% for Twitter. People who receive links through ShareThis also tend to spend time with the content, at an average 2.95 page views per click, followed by Facebook (2.76), with Twitter trailing at 1.66.

Where the microblogging service shone was in getting recipients of forwarded articles to click on links. Twitter generates 40% of the clicks generated by shared content, with email and other social properties accounting for 35% and nearly a quarter coming from Facebook.

For every post sent to Twitter, 18 people will click on that link compared to three for Facebook and one for email."

facebook still in the minds (and clicks) of college students.

Many people think that Facebook has become unpopular among college students, especially now that it's open to people of all ages. However, this isn't the case.

According to the “American College Students Survey,” "not only do the vast majority of US college student Internet users find Facebook cool, more than one-quarter of them rate it their favorite Website of all. That was nearly a 12-point increase over last year, and put Facebook more than 20 points ahead of second-most-popular Google.

How students use social networks is just important to marketers as they face that they do visit the sites, and the outlook is positive. Nearly six in 10 female college students learn about products on social networks, along with 44% of males. In addition, 80% of females and 76% of males get product information from Websites they visit regularly."

myspace gains imeem.

"MySpace's acquisition of imeem is complete. The company officially announced the transaction on its blog after weeks of speculation.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but sources with knowledge of the transaction say it was for less than the $1 million figure bandied about in earlier speculation. Also, the MySpace Music joint venture is the entity acquiring imeem, not the MySpace Inc. parent company.

The impact of the deal will be felt immediately. Starting tonight, imeem users will be redirected to MySpace Music. In the coming weeks, the company will migrate playlists created on imeem to MySpace Music profiles as well. On the business end, MySpace Music will also transfer imeem's ongoing ad campaigns on a case-by-case basis where possible.

Sources say MySpace Music is also very interested in imeem's mobile app and technologies. MySpace Music as yet has no mobile outlet, and extending the platform into the mobile space is of keen interest for the company in the year ahead."

the power of brand engagement.

"The power of online brand interaction is not to be denied: A solid majority of connected consumers have had their opinion of a brand swayed, either positively or negatively, by an online experience. And more than 97% said that experience influenced whether they purchased a product or service from that brand.

Razorfish’s '2009 FEED' survey polled US broadband users who had visited a community site, consumed or created digital media, and spent at least $150 online in the past six months.

These connected consumers were also connected to brands. About one-quarter had produced content to participate in a contest held by a brand, and close to the same amount had followed a brand on Twitter. Two-fifths had friended a brand on Facebook or MySpace.

The main reason to follow or friend a brand was to get exclusive deals or offers, followed by general fandom—because the user was a current customer, or because of interesting or entertaining content.

An impressive 64% of connected consumers told Razorfish they had made their first purchase from a brand because of a digital experience—be it a Website, microsite, mobile coupon or e-mail. And friending, following and content creation spurred upticks across the marketing funnel—from raising awareness to consideration, purchase and recommendations to friends."

 

social media marketing for dummies.

The Social Media Marketing for Dummies book is out, and MediaPost snagged an interview with its author, Shiv Singh, vice president and global social media lead at Razorfish. Check it out here.

And check out a selection of the dialogue here:

Q: What's the most common mistake brands make when it comes to social media?

A: Marketers often make the mistake of trying to do too much too quickly. Many suffer from the "me too" syndrome. If a competitor is doing something special, they feel the pressure to do the same -- even if it is out of sync with their brand or their customers. This pressure comes from the marketer's bosses, the social media specialists, the analysts, the advertising agencies and the media.

It is extremely important to recognize that as a brand, you can only participate successfully when you have permission to do so with your customers (or have a way to create that permission). Along those lines, it's important to start with strategy and do something that makes sense for your brand, that is in alignment with your business objectives and resonates with your customers.

all about social tv.

Is TV going (even more) social?

"TV has for decades aimed to deliver water-cooler moments, from 'Who Shot J.R.?' right on through to the return of Dr. Izzie Stevens on 'Grey's Anatomy' last week. What TV hasn't been able to do is keep hold of its audience once people move from watching these shows to talking about them -- until now. Using new social-media tools, producers are trying to build up their old-media offerings and beef up their audiences for advertisers.

'We are in the early, early stages of what is now kind of being deemed 'social TV,'' said John Moore, exec VP-director of media services at Interpublic Group's Mullen agency. He envisions more TV programming having a built-in social component over the next decade. Consumers between the ages of 18 and 24 'don't want this isolated TV experience,' which he thinks will prompt TV networks to connect their content to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and various widgets that will be packaged with a new breed of TV sets.

Companies that produce TV shows are trying to monitor when fans talk about the programs, then harness that chatter as another tool for sponsors. Getting the attention of someone who is texting, tweeting or talking about a TV show might still be good enough, after all, if you can't get them to watch the TV show in the old-school manner.

Viewers of recent episodes of Warner Bros.' syndicated 'Ellen DeGeneres Show' watched as Jeannie, one of the program's production assistants, drove across the country in a new 2010 Terrain from General Motors' GMC. But fans that follow the show's Twitter feed, @TheEllenShow, also had the chance to participate in a gas-card giveaway from GMC. As of Nov. 6, 2009, Ms. DeGeneres has 3.6 million followers on Twitter, third only to Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears, Warner Bros. said."

social media's impact on the holidays.

"A new study reports that 17% of adult shoppers say they will use social media in some aspect of their holiday shopping, and 19% will rely on their mobile phones.

The survey -- part of Deloitte's 24th Annual Holiday Survey, a poll of more than 10,000 adults in the U.S -- says that of the nearly one in five who plans to use social media sites, 60% say they will do so to find sales, discounts, and coupons; 53% intend to use sites like MySpace and Facebook to research gift ideas, and 52% say they will check the wish lists of friends and family.

While young people certainly have greater amounts of social-media savvy than more grizzled consumers (52% of those in the 18-29 group will use social media to shop), interest is relatively strong among other age groups. In the 30 to 44 age bracket, 33% will use social media as a shopping tool, and in the 45 to 60 age group, 10% plan to do so.

Of the shoppers who plan to use their smartphones, 55% say they rely on their devices to look up store locations, 45% to research lowest prices, 40% to find general product information, 32% to get coupons, and 31% to find reviews. This year, consumers are literally putting their money where their mouth is: A full 25% say they will also use their phone to make a digital purchase."

making 'connections'.

"To help marketers boost their reach on Facebook, the company has added an option that lets companies advertise to friends of their brand fans on the social network.

The new 'Friends of Connections' targeting feature allows you to 'expand your audience reach by delivering your ads to the friends of people already connected with your Page, Application, Group or Event,' according to a a post on the Facebook Ads Page. So when someone sees the ad, they will see which of their friends is a fan.

Previously, advertisers could only target people who 'fanned' their pages, used their applications, or signed up to any company groups or events via the site.

The new targeting capability "should lead to increased conversion on Facebook Ads (Facebook's performance advertising system), because users will find the social context and implied endorsement more interesting," according to the Inside Facebook blog. That's the idea, anyway."

young ladies heart social media.

"Generation Y females have redefined the idea of 'peer group' to encompass online friends, bloggers and anonymous reviewers, according to the 'Why Y Women?' report from PopSugar and Radar Research.

Looking to this expansive group of peers, rather than experts or celebrities, Gen Y women are particularly influenced by social media.

Younger women are nearly twice as likely as their Gen X counterparts to say they had discovered a new brand or product when a friend mentioned it in an online status update. They are also significantly more influenced by blogs, by both professionals and especially by 'someone like me.'

Telling friends in person or on the phone is still by far the most common way for Gen Y women to spread the word about products or brands they love. But they post about products and brands on social networking sites or online forums nearly twice as much as older women. Gen X women, on the other hand, are more likely than younger females to share information via e-mail."

is sharing caring?

"Tweeting the name of a product's brand on Twitter may have become one of those so-called 'touchpoints' in the sales funnel that marketers try desperately to capture. It all boils down to where marketers will spend the dollars as they try to allocate budgets for next year.

It may help to know that nearly half -- 48% -- of people who saw a brand's name on Twitter went to a search engine to look for the product, compared with 34% on any social network. That's according to a joint study released Thursday by Performics, the marketing arm of Publicis Groupe's VivaKi Nerve Center, and ROI Research, an analytics and technology firm.

At Ad:Tech on Friday, Performics Marketing Senior Vice President Michael Kahn will present the findings. Of the 3,000 active social network users in the United States, about 70% use Facebook, 40% use YouTube, and 22% use Twitter. Participants answered about 100 questions total that focused on how they use social networks to discover products, and the type of advertising they will tolerate.

It appears that consumers will tolerate more interaction than marketers first believed. 'Consumers are receptive to brand marketing messages,' Kahn says. 'Being in a social network is like going to someone's barbecue. People are talking about the experiences of their lives. The sharing experience that happens in the physical world also happens in the social.'"