Twitter and its Insane Influence

As an update to my newest forage into social media, I now have an active Twitter account and have even downloaded the Twitter app to my Blackberry (I know, so high-tech). As I delve into the complex world of Twitter, I am working to learn the lingo-hashtags, DM’s (direct messages), and OH’s (overheard) are now part of my everyday vocabulary.

To continue the conversation from my last post regarding Facebook and how brands can leverage its influence to reach their customers, I now want to look at Twitter. As a social media platform, any company would be amiss to neglect Twitter. Daily Twitter users are some of the most influential and passionate online consumers that a company can engage. Conversations that take place through Twitter have the capability to reach across other social media platforms, blogs, and even product review sites. It is this reach that makes Twitter such a valuable tool for any company.

A recent study conducted by Exact Target lists five “X-Factors” that make Twitter unique and how a company can effectively use it to interact with customers.

1. Influence: Active Twitter users have the ability to impact a company’s reputation, image, and ultimately their bottom line. A company must get to know and interact with their Followers. These consumers represent some of the most active online users who are more likely to blog, comment, or write an article that could potentially mention your brand.

2. Brevity: The 140 character limit is what makes Twitter unique. It’s this brief and concise communication that makes the content of what you’re saying so important.

3. Accessibility: Where else can you have a conversation with Miley Cyrus and the CEO of Home Depot? The Twitter community allows users to access and get to know more about the personalities behind celebrities, corporate representatives, and their favorite brands.

4. Interaction: Interaction is huge, and Twitter is one of the best forums available for a brand to build relationships with users. Consumers have come to expect real-time communication and timely responses, so if you choose to utilize Twitter, be prepared for the responsibility that goes with it.

5. Versatility: There is no right or wrong way to engage with Twitter and that is the beauty of the platform. What is important is that you understand your customer and their motivations and design a strategy that will communicate your brand personality.

How Do Facebook and Brands Work Happily Together?

So, this week I am really working hard to integrate myself into the world of social media. I have a Facebook page that I check every few days, a LinkedIn account that I sign into regularly, and a Twitter account which I have never used. I don’t get why people use FourSquare to broadcast their location to friends, and until today I thought del.icio.us was a social network site for foodies.

I am a part of the Millennial Generation, but friends and colleagues my age seem to be much more in touch with their online personas. This blog is one of my first experiments into really foraging into a new online medium and so far I am loving it!

The point of my story is that not only am I working to better integrate myself into social platforms, but I want to better understand the relationships between brands and their social media actions. I recently came across a study from ExactTarget detailing how consumers interact with brands via Facebook. The study found that nearly 42% of U.S. consumers say they access Facebook at least once a day, and there are millions more that use Facebook who don’t use their account daily.

With this kind of reach, the possibilities for brand engagement are endless, but understanding how users view this engagement is paramount. When users were asked about their motivation to “like” a brand on Facebook, the study found the following:

• 40% to receive discounts and promotions
• 39% to show my support for the company to others
• 36% to get a “freebie” (e.g., free samples, coupon)
• 34% to stay informed about the activities of the company
• 33% to get updates on future products
• 30% to get updates on upcoming sales
• 29% for fun or entertainment
• 25% to get access to exclusive content
• 22% someone recommended it to me
• 21% to learn more about the company
• 13% for education about company topics
• 13% to interact (e.g., share ideas, provide feedback)

I think that the most important thing to take away from this study is that marketers engaging in social media should craft a campaign that focuses on the various interests of your target market. Understanding their motivations for choosing your brand over a competitor can help you design content that will reach them. Remember that the goal of Facebook is to reach new customer, and you won’t likely be successful if you overload them with advertising.

Is Facebook Taking Over Corporate Websites?

Could it become a reality? Is Facebook taking the place of a brand’s website? A recent article in Ad Age discusses the craze behind the dominance of social media. Of course marketers realize the benefit and are flocking to integrate their online campaigns with sites like Facebook, Twitter, Four Square, and LinkedIn, but is that driving viewers away from their corporate sites?

The difference between the brand site and its social media counterpart comes down to content. Everything on a corporate site is managed and controlled by a marketing group, but when it comes to social media, a lot of the content can’t be regulated. This is a huge disadvantage for the social media movement- marketers are unable to control the brand experience.

Consumers expect interaction with a brand and there is no better platform than social media. It is an opportunity for a marketer to hear directly from a consumer regarding their product or service. It is an opportunity for a consumer to tell a marketer what they think or feel about their brand. One great example of a company that seems to have the right balance is Starbucks. With 12.7 million fans on Facebook, they have maintained their web traffic while increasing their social media presence.

Both company website and social media campaign should work hand in hand to complement the entire online user experience. While brands may be seeing a decline of web traffic to their company, is that necessarily a bad thing? Marketers should have a simple goal: engage, engage, engage. They should be creating relationships with consumers across multiple web properties, regardless of whether that communication is through their corporate site or via social media.

Google Instant-Good for Marketers?

It is the story of the week (or really last week). Every marketing/advertising news site I visit features at least two or more stories about the new Google Instant. Although the topic has been covered extensively, I felt I would be amiss to neglect the importance of this new search optimization and the benefits to marketers.

Search engine technology and the way we can track online usage is paramount for companies to reach new audiences. With nearly $2 billion spent each month by advertisers on Google search ads from around the globe, the impact of this key word prediction software is far-reaching. From the first keystroke, Google amasses search results – it is how these results are tallied that will affect ad impressions and click-through rates.

One of the most potentially game-altering implications for this new technology is brands visibility. For example, when you type in the letter “n,” Netflix is the first site to pop up. For Netflix, this seems like a home run – it will increase ad impressions, but not necessarily click-through rates. Google will need to do a lot of research into how consumers are changing their search and click habits.

From the advertiser perspective, it is likely that the use of unique queries will become less prevalent. What does this mean for advertising spending, and especially those companies that are getting the highest ad impressions from a key letter search? Google could potentially charge more for these impressions. It’s not only key letters, but also the most popular key words that would be affected. As advertisers are looking for ways to increase their online visibility, the old rules of search engine optimization are quickly becoming obsolete.

Groupon is Hot

I am a huge fan of Groupon….I look forward to that email hitting my inbox every morning. I can’t wait to see what deal they’re offering. It could be anything from a discounted meal at a local restaurant, a special on a one-hour massage, or even a helicopter ride over the city. I purchase from the site pretty often, as evident by the pile of coupons on my kitchen counter. It makes sense – I fit into their target market of mostly female, affluent, 18- to 35-year olds.

Mobile coupons are hot right now, and the Chicago-based Groupon is poised to take advantage. Generally, Groupon emails a deal of the day based a subscriber’s local area, but two weeks ago they launched a coupon with The Gap to huge acclaim. In the one-day promotion, they sold 441,000 units for more than $11 million.  The success of promoting a national retailer has many wondering whether we’ll see more.

The “buy-in-bulk” concept is not new, so why has Groupon exploded onto the scene? I think there are two reasons. One idea is that Groupon offers retailers an opportunity to increase traffic, gain exposure, and cross-sell.  Sure, the deal at Gap was $25 for $50 worth of merchandise, but how many people are going to spend more than that? More importantly, it gets people into the store.

Another reason for the wild success of the brand is its integration into social media. It has a Facebook page where you can “like” a deal and share with friends. According to Groupon Founder, Andrew Mason, he calls this medium “social commerce.”  “It’s commerce layered on top of the social graph. It’s a method of buying things that’s propagated over sharing tools like Facebook or Twitter, without which it couldn’t exist.”

Retargeting is Some Creepy Stuff

Online privacy is a hot topic in today’s world. It seems that more and more we are sacrificing our personal information for convenience. How many times has it happened to you? You go online shopping for a new pair of running shoes and you’re inundated with banner ads from brands like Nike and Adidas. But it’s not just a generic ad; instead it’s the exact pair of shoes that you clicked on to get more information.

This happened to me recently when I was shopping for a pair of Converse sneakers for my niece on Zappos.com.  I didn’t end up purchasing anything, but the shoes have literally been following me ever since.

Advertisers are looking more to new technology to understand purchasing patterns online and how to customize their ads to reach consumers. A recent article in the New York Times explores this new technology which has been around for a while, but is becoming more widely used. Personalized retargeting has been implemented by sites like Zappos.com, eBags.com, Diapers.com, and Art.com in an attempt to create a highly personalized shopping experience.

But how far is too far? Retargeting can feel a little like you’re being stalked. Digital advertisers need to toe this line carefully or else risk alienating customers. No one wants to feel as though their personal privacy is being compromised.

As retargeting continues to grow in popularity among advertisers, the concern is for an increased industry regulation. In an article written by Michael Learmonth for Advertising Age, he discusses the phenomenon and the potential repercussions. He wrote “As tracking gets more and more crass and obvious, consumers will rightfully become more concerned about it. If the industry is truly worried about a federally mandated ‘do not track’ list akin to ‘do not call’ for the Internet, they’re not really showing it.”



Overwhelmed by the World of Emerging Media?

So, this is my very first attempt at blogging.

I feel very detached from the online world and this is my attempt to rectify the disconnect. Like many others, I have a Facebook page, a LinkedIn account, and even follow Twitter, but realize that there is so much more out there to explore. Blogging is completely new to me, and after spending a few hours setting up this blog page, I plan to use this as a tool to investigate the complicated and exciting world of modern communication and emerging media.

I’ll be honest. The world of emerging media overwhelms me. There is so much new information out there! I have procrastinated on writing this post, only because I wasn’t sure where to begin. So, let’s start with the obvious – what is emerging media and why is it important?

If you thought new media just encapsulated social media and blogging, you would be right –  but there is so much more!  New media, a.k.a. emerging media, a.k.a. modern media, is all about communication. That communication can take the form of websites, video ads, RSS feeds, pod casts, chat rooms, Bluetooth, online films, and banner ads.

And why is this important to marketers? These mediums are designed to allow communication with consumers in a way far different than that of traditional media sources. Modern media allows two-way communication and creates an opportunity to build a brand by reaching consumers on a number of different levels. Building strong relationships by providing information is at the heart of new media, and as marketers, we must take advantage of all of the resources at our disposal to engage and connect with our audiences.

So, I hope to learn a lot as I explore the unfamiliar world of emerging media. I plan to learn as much as I can about this topic so to avoid the “overwhelmed” feeling, which in turn will lead to less procrastination on my part!