social media

How Brands Using Social Media Ignite Marketing and Drive Growth: Measurement of Paid Social Media Appears Solid but Are the Metrics for Organic Social Overstated?

• Posted: November 30, 2015

The 2015 Warc Prize for Social Strategy is a competition that challenges marketers to demonstrate how effectively they had used social media in their marketing efforts.  In this September 2015 article in the Journal of Advertising Research, Gian M. Fulgoni, co-founder and chairman emeritus of comScore, shares the insights he gained as a judge when he reviewed the finalist case studies submitted by companies worldwide in competition for the Warc Prize for Social Strategy.

Fulgoni commented on his experiences:

“As a judge, I was struck by the creative use of social media and the positive impact it had on many business results. My thoughts can be crystalized into five dimensions—what I call the “Five S’s of Social Marketing”:

-Social as a Supplement to media spend

-Social as a Substitute for media spend

-Social as a Savior

-Social as a Soft Metric of effectiveness

-Social as a Sales Driver.”

The author also discusses the details of some of the winning campaigns from this competition: Coca-Cola, ‘Share-a-Coke US’; Oscar Mayer, ‘Wake Up and Smell the Bacon’; and Chobani Yogurt: ‘#PlainInspiring’.

The case studies for the 2015 Prize for Social Strategy demonstrate that social media has become central to the marketing efforts of many brands and organizations, according to Fulgoni. He also discusses the challenge of isolating and measuring the business results of social media campaigns for both organic and paid forms of social media.

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Managing Brands in a Prickly Digital World

• Posted: November 2, 2015

Companies that ignore or do not respond quickly and effectively to negative social media may find that the perceptions of their brands, and their corporate revenues, profits and stock prices are impacted.  Donald E. Sexton, Columbia Business School, writing in the September 2015 issue of the Journal of Advertising Research recommends an action plan for brand managers to respond to social media criticism.

Social media has had a great impact on the ability of customers to share negative experiences with a company or dissatisfaction with a brand.  Customers can share these experiences via social media very quickly with a large number of consumers.  Sexton discusses the high rates of non-response by companies to negative stories or complaints by customers.  He points out that negative posts which are not addressed quickly and effectively can result in decreases in the brand’s perceived value, which will have a negative impact on sales, revenue, and the stock’s price.

Sexton’s suggests the following action plan for brand managers faced with social media complaints:

-Monitor the quantity and content of comments on social media regarding products and services in real time.

-Ensure that complaints on social media are dealt with quickly and effectively.

-Understand the drivers of the monetary perceived value of the brand’s products and services.

-Know the financial outcomes of actions before taking them.

Sexton concludes that companies must monitor and respond to social media complaints to avoid negative impact on their brands.  He also advises that customers should be considered members of the marketing team.

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Social Media Platforms Will Rise to a 5% Share of All TV Marketing Dollars In 2016 and 2017 According to The Diffusion Group

• Posted: November 2, 2015

The Diffusion Group, a firm which provides research and advisory services focused on media, reports that social media will increasingly be used by TV networks to supplement their program tune-in marketing. Social media platforms will rise to a 5% share of all TV marketing dollars in 2016 and 2017.  This spending will climb to 10% in 2018, 2019 and 2020, and this increase reflects the growth of OTT (over-the-top) platforms to promote shows.

Alan Wolk, senior analyst for The Diffusion Group, stated that “Social is going to become the new tune-in driver.”  The report also suggests that Facebook will become the big player for all things related to social TV.

This Media Post article references additional sources that estimate the four major TV networks can spend $20 million to $30 million in off-air marketing for TV shows for the start of the fall season.

The article also discusses projections for 2021 and beyond, and suggests the social media platforms that will become more relevant for TV marketers.

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An Hour-By-Hour Breakdown of When People Post on Instagram

• Posted: October 13, 2015

Christopher Heine, writing for Adweek presents major findings from a study of Instagram users by Mavrck.  This study analyzed 1.3 million Instagram posts and reveals details of the posts.

This study revealed:

-Marketers might achieve greater engagement with consumers between 6 a.m. and noon.  While posting volume is relatively low during these hours, users are still regularly reviewing their feeds on their smartphones.  There is less competition for their attention during these hours.

-Midnight is the most popular time to post.

-Millennial women between 25 and 40 years old are the best “micro-influencers.”

-The most popular hashtags: #TBT (throwback Thursday) and #WCW (woman crush Wednesday).

-Age matters on Instagram.  Every extra year in age among influencers (people with thousands of followers) correlated to a 0.15% decrease in followers.

For each 1% increase in the number of users they follow, influencers gained a 0.79% increase in followers.

 

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What Motivates Consumers to Re-Tweet Brand Content? The Impact of Information, Emotion, and Traceability on Pass-Along Behavior

• Posted: October 13, 2015

This article from the September 2015 issue of the Journal of Advertising Research analyzes the cues that influence pass-along behavior (re-Tweeting) of brand messages on Twitter.  Theo Araujo, Peter Neijens, and Rens Vliegenthart, all from the University of Amsterdam, analyzed 19,343 global brand messages over a three-year period, and found that rich information content about the brand and its products were predictors of higher levels of re-Tweeting. Especially effective were product details and links to a brand’s website, social network sites, and photos or videos.

In addition, the authors found that although emotional cues did not influence re-Tweeting on their own, they reinforced the effects of informational cues and traceability cues (hashtags) when combined in the same message.

This article also provides a literature review on the subject, methodology for the study, a presentation of the results, a discussion of the results and findings, managerial implications, limitations and recommendations for future research.

 

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YouTube Will Allow Third-Party Verification of Ad Viewability

• Posted: September 21, 2015

YouTube will begin allowing third-party measurement tools for viewability verification by the end of 2015.  This represents a change from its long-standing policy of using only its Active View Measurement tool for ad viewability.  David Kirkpatrick, writing for Marketing Dive, reports that The Financial Times cited Unilever and Kellogg’s as the brands that pressured YouTube to make this policy change for independent verification options.

According to a study done by Google:

-Active View reported 91% of YouTube ads.

-54% viewability across all of its video ad networks.

Kirkpatrick also provides a quote given to The Financial Times by Google about the change in their policy, “We’re committed to meeting all of our clients’ measurement needs” and “are taking our clients’ feedback into account as we continue to roll out new solutions.”

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Despite Measurement Concerns, CMOs Continue to Increase Social Marketing Budgets

• Posted: September 7, 2015

CMOs continue to have concerns about the reliability of social measurement.  Only 15% of marketers surveyed believe they currently have the proper tools to prove the effectiveness of social media according to a survey of 255 chief marketing officers by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Despite these concerns, marketers expect to allot 23.8% of their budgets for social media over the next five years. According to Christine Moorman, a professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and the Director of The CMO Survey, “Closing the measurement gap is an area that companies must address if they are going to move social media into the canon of marketing strategies.”

Among the factors contributing to these concerns: most advertisers are still in the learning phase, and nearly a quarter of social media activities are being performed by outside agencies.

Additional findings from this study:

-Social media spending is currently 10.7% of marketing budgets.

-Marketers rank their integration of social media in the overall marketing plan at 4.2 on a 1-to-7 scale.

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TV is a Major Driver of Social Activity

• Posted: May 11, 2015

Yuyu Chen, writing for ClickZ, discusses a study by ShareThis, “Social TV Research Study.”

TV drives 11 percent of online sharing. On average 16 percent of viewers share ideas, opinions and content about the shows they watch. In terms of the types of programs and platforms with greater sharing:

-Reality programs create the most buzz.

-Streaming services, like Netflix, draw 2.1 times more social engagement than broadcast programs.

-Twitter is especially active during live broadcast time, followed by Facebook and Reddit.

This study also reveals that social activity helps drive TV viewership. Users who click on shared TV-related content are 2.4 times more likely to become viewers.

Social data provides vital insights into audience behaviors, and can increase viewership by current audiences and discovery by new viewers.

For more on this topic, check out the Advertising Tab in Morning Coffee.

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Tips to Increase Engagement With Facebook Image Posts

• Posted: May 4, 2015

Angie Pascale, writing for ClickZ, discusses the power of images to increase brand engagement with consumers on social platforms.

Pascale states that photos receives 53 percent more likes on Facebook than the average post, and 84 percent more link clicks.

She suggests the following tips when creating and posting images on Facebook:

-Share the images of real people, preferably customers or influencers

-Focus on faces

-Use lifestyle imagery

-Write brief copy

-Encourage short responses to simple questions

-Create image galleries

-Capitalize on the nostalgia effect

Keeping the above points in mind when posting images on Facebook will increase consumer engagement with brands and products.

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New Product Launch Plans Impacted by Social Media

• Posted: April 20, 2015

Joan Schneider, CEO of Schneider Associates, discusses the impact that social media has had on the launch of new products, services, businesses, and communities in a Harvard Business Review article.

Based on research published by Schneider Associates, the 2014 Most Memorable New Product Launch Survey, the media plan for a new product launch must carefully consider the target market.  Each generation has a unique media profile.

In general, consumers now seek information from six or more sources before purchasing a new product.  According to the Schneider survey, TV commercials are the most used source for new product launches, followed by Facebook.

Schneider provides ten tips for brand and marketing managers:

-Use social media as a supporting character, not the star performer.

-Use social media to leverage and support an in-person launch event.

-Use social media to build or capitalize on a consumer’s emotional connection to a brand.

-Use social media to support a launch by knowing the target demographic and their social media

preferences.

-Use social media to host contests that foster loyalty and reward brand.

-Use a blogger outreach strategy to help launch the product.

-Use a hashtag to create, ignite, and track the conversation on social media.

-Use visual social media to give people an inside look at a B2B company.

-Use social media to let consumers create the new product.

-To maximize effectiveness of a social media campaign, always stay ahead of “the next big thing.”

  

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