Social Networking Generates Leads, Closes Sales for Marketers

Via Research Brief - Center for Media Research from MediaPost.com:

According to a social media study by Michael Stelzner for the Social Media Success Summit 2009, 88% of marketers in a recent survey say they are now using some form of social media to market their business, though 72% of those using it say they have only been at it a few months or less.

Key findings from "How Marketers are Using Social Media to Grow their Businesses" about specific application show that:

• Small-business owners are more likely to use LinkedIn than employees working for a corporation
• Men are significantly more likely to use YouTube or other video marketing than women (52.4% of all men compared with 31.7% of women)
• For those just getting under way with social media marketing, LinkedIn is ranked as their number-two choice, pushing blogging down one notch
• Among those who have been using social media for a few months, Facebook is in second place. This group also has more Twitter use
• Twitter is used by 94% of marketers who have been using social media for years, followed closely by blogs. This group also endorses online video significantly more than the other groups

72% of marketers say they have either just started or have been using social media for only a few months.

The largest group just getting under way with social media marketing is sole proprietors, with 30.2% reporting just getting started, the survey found. Owners of businesses with 2-100 employees were the most experienced, with 29.3% reporting doing social media marketing for years.

64% of marketers are using social media for five hours or more each week, with 39% using it 10 or more hours weekly and 9.6% spending more than 20 hours each week with social media.

• Those working for a company are twice as likely as business owners to be committing 20+ hours a week to social media
• 44.8% of those ages 30-39 old spend 10+ hours weekly using social media marketing
• 40.3% of 20-to-29 year-olds spend 10+ hours weekly
• 38.7% of 50-to-59 year-olds spend 10+ hours weekly

According to the survey, 81% of all marketers indicate that their social media efforts have generated exposure for their businesses. At least two in three participants found that increased traffic occurred with as little as 6 hours a week invested in social media marketing. Owners of small businesses with 2 - 100 employees are more likely than others to report benefits.

Half of participants reported that a major benefit of social media marketing is the resultant rise in search engine rankings that often comes with increased efforts. Improved search engine rankings were most prevalent among those who've been using social media for years, with nearly 80% reporting a rise.

When marketers were asked which social media tools they most want to learn more about, social bookmarking sites slightly edged out Twitter as the number one response, with a four-way tie for third place between LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Facebook and Digg/Reddit/Mixx.

Please visit this site for the complete Whitepaper of the study, "How Marketers are Using Social Media to Grow their Businesses."

Social media works!

~Kristin Gritt, Online Insights Manager

Brand Mentions Preferred Over Ads

Via eMarketer: According to ARAnet, based on polling by Opinion Research Corporation, the best way to get Internet users to visit your website or follow your brand may not be advertising.

The report, released today, states that compared with banner ads, pop-up ads, e-mail offers and sponsored links, articles that include brand information were most likely to lead U.S. Internet users to read and act.

They say that a better approach to online marketing efforts include a more PR-focused strategy of getting the word out and building brand awareness, in some cases, "tailoring ads so they look like articles."

“A key finding for marketers is that younger audiences respond to information that reaches them in the form of articles,” said ARAnet president Scott Severson. “More than two-thirds of the respondents between 18 and 34 said they conduct Internet searches for products or services they read about in online articles either very frequently or somewhat frequently.”

The study also indicates that "long-shunned pop-up ads remained the least favorable option for every audience segment, regardless of age, race, income, sex, region or size of household: 87% of respondents said they were not very likely or not at all likely to read and respond to them."

So, a couple of simple things to keep in mind to begin to get your audience engaged with your brand: First, provide useful and relevant content that is engaging in a way that is not product-focused. Second, do your research and know where your audience is spending time online so that you can position content directly to them. Once you begin to do this, it's very important to continuously update this content so your audience has a reason to come back to you over and over again.

~Kristin Gritt, Online Insights Manager

Relevance.

I am amazed at how some brands just aren't getting it.
I read a rather large amount of blogs these days and they run the gamut of subjects. Social media, architecture, fashion, home design, you name it and I read a blog on it. What I used to see was blogs with some google ads on the side. Google ads don't really bother me all that much. Yes, they are basically irrelevant and not terribly engaging but they don't drive me as crazy as what I'm seeing now.
Big brands are putting their totally irrelevant content on the blogs I read. It's the equivalent of walking into a party that is supposed to be really great and seeing your high school teachers there (no offense teachers). I show up expecting high end design and I see Friskies. This makes me mad because obviously, Friskies doesn't care why I'm reading this blog. They don't care why I show up at Refinery 29 every morning. They just want to put a giant cat food ad next to Oscar De La Renta and call it a day. I call this laziness on the part of the advertiser.
I work in social media so I notice these things and I don't know if other people are being driven insane by this as well but I would expect that a brand take at least 1 minute to look at the blogs they are advertising on.
Solution: If your brand wants to connect with a specialized group of people, take the time to enter the party correctly. When you're invited to an event in person you would consider where the party is being held, who will be there, what the dress code is, and what kinds of things you can say and what might not be a good topic to bring up.
It's the same in social media. Tailor your entrance to the people that are there. Friskies could have sponsored a showing of high design cat bowls. They could have paired designers with breeds of cats, anything but the garish ad they have up there now.
~ Caitlin McCabe~~

Online Advertising Will Increase in 2009

Via MediaPost's Online Media Daily: According to the latest edition of ZenithOptimedia Group's quarterly tracking study on the advertising economy, "The Internet is the only medium expected to reap advertising increases during 2009." (The study was released yesterday. )

They are predicting that the global ad economy will fall 6.9% during 2009 versus a 0.2% decrease predicted in their last report released in December 2008.

However, online advertising expenditures will rise 8.6% this year--this is down quite a bit from 2008's growth rate of 20.9%, but it continues to be forecast for growth.

The reports states that consumers who are considering purchases are using search more as they seek out the best deals.

In terms of the the specific categories of online advertising and their growth, the report cites:

"In the U.S. we predict search advertising to grow 9.0% in 2009, while classified grows just 1.8% and traditional display shrinks 1.8%. New formats are enjoying greater growth (29.8% from Internet video and rich media, 29.7% from Internet radio and 11.9% from podcasts), but these represent only 12% of US internet expenditure between them."

They also predict that as both consumer and corporate confidence rebound the Internet will once again resume double-digit rates of ad spending growth, and the agency now calls for the online ad economy to expand 11.3% in 2010, and 15.3% in 2011.

Overall, the Internet will become the ad industry's third largest medium this year, surpassing magazines, and coming in just behind TV and newspapers.

~Milissa Rick, VP Online Insights

Client Spotlight: Cannondale Sports Group™

Cannondale Sports Group is one of the newest users of Shoutlet. To promote their brand, CSG created a podcast for Schwinn Bicycles to help users find and maintain a bike that is right for them. An effective use of video is creating a podcast, which helps engage your customers with your brand. Check out the Schwinn Bicycles podcast at: www.schwinnbike.com/usa/eng/tnt.

~Kristin

Business Card Fail.

It took this guy 25 years to come up with this?
~Caitlin

Sway’s Shoutlet Enables Marketers to Launch Their Own Social Media Campaigns

For marketers looking to incorporate social media into their marketing mix in 2009, the challenge of how to get started still remains for most. With Sway’s Shoutlet – a comprehensive social media marketing tool - combined with a customized training package, marketers can execute their own Web 2.0 campaigns and take advantage of the impact social media marketing provides.

Shoutlet offers a streamlined way for professionals to integrate Web 2.0 formats into their marketing mix. This user-friendly platform gives users the tools they need to harness the power of truly connecting with people online, and Sway professionals are here to provide the support, knowledge, and expertise that guide users toward success in their online marketing endeavors.
Shoutlet was created for marketers and content producers who want to reach their target audience through emerging online platforms. It combines popular technologies such as Web 2.0 e-mail, podcasts, RSS, mobile messaging (SMS) and video syndication into one solution that marketing professionals use to create, distribute and track a variety of social media marketing campaigns. Companies such as Allstate Insurance, Cannondale Bicycles, American Girl, and Fiskars use Shoutlet to manage their social media marketing campaigns.

Users can sign up and use Shoutlet for free for the first 30 days. With licensing that starts as low as $25/month combined with a quick-start social media training package, marketers can easily start to successfully navigate the social media frontier.

New for 2009
In the past year there have been significant improvements to Shoutlet that include new partnerships, quick-start training, and product additions; all work towards enhancing the user experience.

As of February, Sway has teamed up with TiVo, Inc. to make Shoutlet the exclusive web platform for advertisers to be able to syndicate videos to millions of TiVo broadband subscribers. Shoutlet clients now have the ability to upload their sponsored content to the Internet platform, which is then placed in multiple Shoutlet distribution channels, such as Automotive, Comedy, Fitness, Food and Drink, How-To, Kids and Family, Lifestyle, Music, News, Tech, and TV Shows and Extras. Automatic distribution to TiVo through Shoutlet is then followed by comprehensive tracking data and in-depth reporting about how the content is performing among TiVo viewers.

The newly completed “Use Your Own Widget” flash wrapper allows users to import their flash application or widget to Shoutlet, place in the customizable wrapper, distribute, and have full reporting and sharing capabilities. Two other new widget additions include a sign-up widget and a polling widget.

Contact Sway today to get started!

~Kristin