Captivating Connections.

CIC Socializer 5/11/12

OK, so every week I send out to my agency (MediaVest) the CIC Socializer, a rundown of 3 things that happened in the social space this week. Figured why not share the love and start posting them here, too?

UPDATE: Facebook Launches App Center, Betas Paid Apps
Facebook is launching a beta program that allows app developers to charge Facebook users a fee to use their apps. Part of the new App Center, a place for people to find social apps, this gives developers a way to not only grow their user base, but to go beyond in-app purchases and earn money via paid apps. This could be an interesting opportunity for Facebook to move into app categories beyond gaming

You can read more here: https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2012/05/09/introducing-the-app-center/

UPDATE: Google+ Goes Live
Google has launched Google+ Hangouts On Air, which allows users to broadcast live to their Google+ friends around the world. The key features is that users can now:

- Broadcast publically live Hangouts

- See how many viewers they have

- Record and re-share Hangouts as YouTube videos

Read more here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/google-hangouts-on-air-broadcast-your.html
Check out a video about how to use Hangouts On Air: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohlHn6Kt5YM&feature=player_embedded 

RESEARCH: When Is The Best Time To Share Links?
According to link shortening and tracking service bit.ly, there are best and worst times to share links via social media. Check out some of their network-specific findings:

Twitter:

- Posting 1-3pm Monday through Thursday is your best chance at achieving a high click count

- The peak traffic times for Twitter are 9am through 3pm, Monday through Thursday

- Posting after 8pm should be avoided

- Don’t bother posting after 3pm on a Friday since it appears that Twitter doesn’t work on weekends

Facebook:

- Links posted from 1pm to 4pm result in the highest average click throughs

- The peak time of the week was on Wednesday at 3pm

- Links posted after 8pm and before 8am will have more difficulty achieving high amounts of attention

Tumblr:

- Wait until at least 4pm to post

- Postings after 7pm on average receive more clicks over 24 hours than content posted mid-day during the week

- Friday evening is an optimal time to post on Tumblr

Read more here: http://blog.bitly.com/post/22663850994/time-is-on-your-side

kickstarter proves the power of social.

For those of you who read the latest issue of ‘Socializer’ (which I would assume is ALL of you MediaVest/Starcom readers!), you’ll remember that there was a call out on the company Kickstarter, showing the power of ‘social couponing’ and crowd funding.  T

he newsletter highlighted a recent campaign, the Pebble watch (which syncs with iPhone and Android smartphones to deliver texts, emails, etc.), which was Kickstarter’s most successful crowd funing campgin to date.

Since we published that news, Pebble has gone where no Kickstarter has gone before: MEGA! At this point in time, Pebble has raised over $7 million dollars from over 50,000 investors from around the world (myself included). This is WAY beyond the original $100,000 the Pebble team had.

If this isn’t proof that sometimes letting the crowd help your brand out and be a part of the creation process can be a good thing, I’m not sure what is.

Check out Pebble here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597507018/pebble-e-paper-watch-for-iphone-and-android

 

when will marketers recognize we need to market to PARENTS, not just mom or dad?

Listen, I get it: Moms rock. They're awesome. But so are dads. For reals!

In a world where the average family structure is changing and the roles people play vascilate, it's important to recognize that PARENTS run the family household, not just a mom or a dad. Sometimes if you only speak to moms, you make dad feel left out. And if you only speak to dads, moms feel like you're ignoring them.

So what's wrong with talking to parents as...wait for it...PARENTS!

According to work done Edelman and The Parenting Group, dads are social media monsters, too. In fact, "fathers—particularly first-time fathers—are engaging in the same types of social media activities that new moms enjoy...42% of new US dads who use social networks write family-related status updates on a daily basis. It further found that 56% of new dads post family photos at least a few times a week, while 21% post family-related videos."

Some dads are even 'beating' moms: "There was even one area in which dads were actually ahead of their female counterparts: Millennial dads have more online friends than millennial moms. These dads reported an average of 96 online friends, while moms averaged only 70."

So how do you appraoch this dads? I like how Mark Wildman, vice president and group publisher of magazine and digital media company The Parenting Group, sums it up. He points out that, as a dad himself, “I don’t just view myself as a provider. The nurturing, the cooking, the food buying—I am doing it in partnership with my wife.”

What do my parent readers think about this?

how do you use email vs. social media?

Brands looking to engage with consumers need to recognize that not all forms of communication result in equal types of communicating and engagement.

According to Chadwick Martin Bailey, consumers engage with brands differently on email than they do via social media. How so? While "consumers connect with brands both via email lists and by 'liking' companies on Facebook...while users want to receive discounts and special offers via both channels, connecting with a brand on social media is an added public display of support," while email if more private.

What causes consumers to engage with a brand via email or social media? Much of the driving forces are the same, with discounts and offers driving participation. The major difference between engaging via email and social media is that social media is far more public, and supporting a brand becomes a reflection of who you are, what your likes are (so to speak), and what you're interested in. Consumers wouldn't publicly declare that they like a brand if they were embarrassed by it. Therefor, social media is a way to make your own declaration of interest.

Spill it: Why do you engage with brands via email or social media?

Facebook user growth slows as Twitter's grows.

Let's be serious: Everyone and their mother (literally!) is on Facebook. Therefore, it's not a suprise that new user growth is slowing down. How do you maintain growth when there's nobody new to sign up?

According to eMarketer, "As recently as 2010, growth in US Facebook usage was well into the double digits, at 38.6%...But with 116.8 million US internet users already logging on to the site at least once monthly that year, growth rates were bound to plateau.

By 2011 Facebook user growth rose a comparatively small 13.4%, and this year will be the first when growth rates drop to the single digits. Rates of change in the US will continue to decline throughout eMarketer’s forecast period."

Meanwhile, Twitter, which is still pretty new to a lot of people, is experiencing mega growth, driven by people becoming increasingly comfortable with social media and increasingly proficient (and in possession of) smartphones and tablets.

"On Twitter, by contrast, growth is stronger. Last year’s 31.9% increase in users outpaced that of 2010, when growth was at 23.5%. Similar to Facebook’s trajectory, Twitter’s growth rate will also fall in the coming years, but still remain nearly four times higher than Facebook’s growth rate in 2014."

only 1% of facebook 'fans' engage with brands.

It doesn't matter how hot your brand is, it seems that everyone struggles with Facebook engagement.

New research from Ehrenberg-Bass Institute claims that "less than 1% of fans of the 200 biggest brands on Facebook actually engaged."

In case you're dubious, they figured this out "based on a six-week study of Facebook's People Talking About This metric, with researchers considering the number as a proportion of fan bases. Only 0.45% of fans engaged, if you subtract likes to isolate for more meaningful activity, including shares and comments. This confirmed something many readers already suspected: Facebook fan bases and actual engagement aren't the same thing."

Here's the really interesting part:

"One of the more interesting questions arising from the study is whether the findings apply to passion brands, like Nike or Harley-Davidson, as opposed to ubiquitous products that, loyal as their audiences might be, don't get folks lathered up at the mere sight of the logo. Though the short answer is that passion brands might get slightly more engagement, it's not enough to throw off the overall findings.

Looking at 10 passion brands -- including Nike, Old Spice, Harley-Davidson, Porsche, Ford Mustang, Jack Daniels and Tiffany & Co. -- the researchers found an average engagement of 0.66% The average engagement for the 10 brands with the largest fan bases was 0.36%.

Gen Ys & luxury spending.

According to a survey by American Express Business Insights, Gen Y consumers aren't always the broke, penny-pinching consumers some of you make us out to be. In fact, we "upped spending on premium, full-priced luxury goods by 31% in 2011 over the prior year." BOOM!

As Gen Ys move into professional jobs and begin earning their own money, while many are paying off debt and bills, many are also taking time to reward themselves and splurge.

So what else is impacting Gen Y luxury spending? Flash discount sites like Gilt Groupe! How does that impact? "In other words, Gen Y’s early adoption of flash sale ecommerce shopping has paved the way for full-price luxury purchasing. In addition, according to the American Express study, seniors now exhibit a growing appetite for flash sale merchandise."

So what are Gen Y looking for when considering making a luxury purchase? "Young, digital-savvy consumers are frequently turning to ecommerce sites and other webpages for product research and purchases. A November 2011 study by customer experience management company Empathica indicates luxury goods shoppers visited company websites slightly more often than they did companies’ brick-and-mortar locations. Moreover, almost half of luxury buyers told Emphathica that they read online reviews and 14% visited social media websites prior to purchase."

"liking" vs. loyalty.

Brands tend to be all about getting the Facebook 'Likes', thinking it will solve all their social problems.

However, according to a new eVoc Insights study, while "59% of Facebook users have “liked” a Facebook brand or company page in the past six months," what that action means to consumers is still questionable.

How do consumers see the "Like" action playing out? "54% of users who “liked” a brand or company page on Facebook that sells a product or service said they were somewhat or much more likely to purchase from that brand," while 48% believe that it has no influence on purchase intent.

This highlights a disconnect in "Like"s vs. loyalty, and shows there's a lot of work to be done.

apparently ladies DO run the world (of purchase decisions).

There are a few key targets marketers and advertisers have always aimed for, knowing that they influence key purchase decisions. You've read about the 'pester power' of kids and how women are the 'household CEOs'.

Fleishman-Hillard International and Hearst Magazines proves this later point with a new study, finding that "54% of American women believe it’s their responsibility to help their friends and family make smart purchase decisions, and a similar number said they regularly influence friends and family to buy or not buy a product or service. When the first study was conducted in 2008, only 31% felt they regularly influenced those decisions." 

That's some big percentages and big potential spending. As a lady, what's cool to see is women helping each other out; "According to the survey, a third of women (33%) have recommended a product or service in the past six months. Only 19% said they recommended someone not buy specific product or service."

For those digitally involved, it won't surprise you that social media is really driving connectivity and decision making. "In the past year, the number of brands a woman follows on Facebook has increased 12%. (And 65% of women are a friend or fan of a company, compared with 52% of men.) At the same time, 73% of women use Facebook, compared with 65% in 2010."

Ladies, can you relate?

no offense, consumers don't talk about you as much as you may think they do.

I've heard a lot of people tell me that they'e convinced that social media is like 'Field Of Dreams' for their consumers...if they build a Facebook Fan Page or Twitter account, consumers will come and chat their Internet connections off.

Meh, not convinced it's totally the case. When you're online for personal reasons, are you more likely to Tweet at your friends, or Tweet at a brand? When you log on to Facebook, do you go straight to a brand page or to a ex bf/gf's page to stalk (or something like that!)?

According to research company AYTM, "whilemost marketers leverage Facebook and Twitter to communicate with customers, not nearly as many consumers comment about these companies and brands on the social sites."

They found out that on Facebook:

- 57.8% of US Facebook users had not mentioned a brand in their status updates as of October 2011

- Only 0.5% of Facebook users posted only negative mentions about brands on Facebook

- More often, they reported commenting on brands in a positive way (25.3%) or with a mix of both positive and negative mentions (16.4%)

This was quite similar to Twitter findings...

-  61.3% of Twitter users saying they have not tweeted about a brand

- 25.4% of Twitter users said they only mentioned brands in positive tweets

- 0.4% said they only mentioned them in negative tweets

- 12.9% said in both positive and negative tweets

This means that not only is there work to be done to make your social presence more engaging, but recognize that social doesn't work in a funnel. Consumers engage in more than one type of media in many different ways, so you should be too!