Monthly Archives: September 2011

Are women better at helping ideas spread?

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are women better at helping ideas spread?A few weeks ago I wrote about the 9 types of storylines people like to talk about the most. These storylines prove to be useful when planning a marketing communications strategy. The next step is to find out who your talkers will be or are and with the rise of social networks this becomes a lot more interesting.

Recent research suggests that women dominate men at social networking. Harris Interactive conducted a survey to find out which services people use to keep in touch with family, friends or colleagues.

The survey results showed that 68% of women and 54% of men use social networking to communicate with friends; 60% women and 42% men use it to stay in touch with family; and 34% women vs. 22% men for colleagues.

Women dominate men at social networking

All in all, women use social networks much more than men do. But, if you’re a woman, you knew that already.

But what would be more interesting to know is if women, the top social networkers, are also the best at helping ideas spread?

On a separate new large-scale field experiment on viral marketing by INSEAD Assistant Professor of Marketing, Andrew Stephen, evidence suggests that socially active people are the best drivers of virality:

“What we found in research with viral marketing companies is that you don’t need experts or brand evangelists. You need social people who like to talk and most of those conversations happened offline.”

Compared to traditional advertising on print media, online advertising was much more effective at stimulating action.

The research found, “the most talkative and socially-interactive participants online also tended to be the most talkative and socially-interactive participants offline.” That is, word-of-mouth marketing is only as effective as the number of mouths involved, and the most active viral campaign participants (based on sharing product coupons with others in this particular case) are those who are more sociable rather than knowledgeable.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a subject matter expert, what matters more is that you’re a talker! And that usually means women have the upper hand in the ‘talking’ department.

Taking these two studies together, it’s easy to conclude that when preparing a viral marketing campaign we should target women. But that’s just an assumption because most products will not appeal to women.

Anyways, this is an interesting discussion and would love to know your thoughts on this. Do think women are better at helping ideas spread?

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What do customers want from a brand they choose to follow?

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What do customers want from a brand they follow?When a person chooses to follow your brand online they are doing it because they want something in return. This is true but it shouldn’t be taken as a given.

If you read my last post, I wrote that people really want to engage with brands. Sure there are people who are looking to save some money and get a better deal, but that would mean we are making the assumption that all people are the same. Not so. You see, people actually do want to engage with brands online. They just don’t want to be forced to.

what social followers wantFrom eMarketer:

Users described as “max connectors”—those with at least 500 social connections—were less interested than average in getting deals. Instead, they cared about new products and company culture, demonstrating the deeper engagement expected by social media power users.

With that said, consumers also expect to be serviced online and may provide a helping voice while voicing their opinions. This simple fact, creates the opportunity for brands to engage with customers.

From eMarketer:

Listening and responding to complaints on social media also offers brands a chance to connect with customers in an additional channel, and to potentially increase customer satisfaction.

Social Media is about listening which leads to engagement

Because there is so much focus placed on treating social media as another marketing channel, businesses don’t see how it may help them improve customer satisfaction.

The Holy Grail in social media marketing is your ability to satisfy customers through these channels. Because these channels become a part of your overall brand experience, being able to influence customers to purchase your service or product it becomes very important that you execute against it.

online experience influences purchase decisionTo conclude, your customers do want to engage with you online. But it’s on their terms, not yours. Understand this and make it easy for them to engage with you, satisfy their needs and turn then into loyal customers.

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2 reasons why you need to engage your customers

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Two quick things you need to know:

  1. From Mediapost: 40% of customers now say they will not buy a brand if they can’t find the right information about it online.
  2. From Cone Research: Four-out-of-five consumers have changed their minds about a recommended purchase based solely on negative information they found online.

What does this mean for you?

It means that in a world where consumers can easily access information online before making a purchase, not only should you have all the available information your customers need to make an informed decision online, but you should also make sure this information actually helps them achieve their preferred outcome.

People have many options at their disposal, this is a double edged sword because they ask their friends or look for reviews about you.

The only way to counter this is to engage customers. How? Social networks provide you with a great opportunity to do it because you can see what people are looking for, searching for, asking for. Combine this with your website analytics and you have a good idea of how and where to position your message.

To counter the second point, well let’s just say you have to do what you say. Marketing is about what you do, not what you say. So if you don’t want people saying negative things about you, do what’s right. It’s as simple as that!

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Nielsen: Mobile Social Media use is on the rise

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This week, the media research firm Nielsen released its Q3 report on the state of social media. Unsurprisingly, social network usage is up, and the findings showed that nearly 80% of US internet users spend time on blogs and sites like Facebook and Twitter.

More importantly, 37% of consumers access their social media networks through their phone.
mobile social media use is on the riseSocial media’s popularity continues to grow, connecting people with just about everything they watch and buy.

The latest Nielsen insights provide some answers on exactly how powerful this influence is on consumer behavior, both online and off.

Nielsen’s “State of the Media: The Social Media Report – Q3 2011” presents a snapshot of the current social media landscape and audiences in the U.S. and other major markets.

Download the report

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10 Quick facts about consumer behavior on Facebook

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Constant Contact and research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey, analyzed the behavior of 1,491 consumers ages 18 and older throughout the United States and revealed a number of details about how people interact with brands on the world’s largest social network.

The study pointed to a number of encouraging stats for businesses, including:

  • 56% of consumers said they are more likely to recommend a brand to a friend after becoming a fan on Facebook
  • 51% of consumers said they are more likely to buy a product since becoming a fan on Facebook
  • 78% of consumers who “Like” brands on Facebook said they “Like” fewer than ten brands
  • 58$ of users like a brand because they are a customer
  • 45% of Facebook users’ time is spent on the newsfeed
  • 69% of Facebook users want to hear from some brands more than others
10 Quick Facts You Should Know About Consumer Behavior on Facebook
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26% of companies are integrating social media with offline tactics

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One of the main challenges of social media marketing is integrating it with traditional marketing channels. As you can see in the chart below, based on survey results of more than 3,300 marketers — looks at the percentage of organizations incorporating social media into the marketing mix, and the scope of the integration.

Only one-quarter of organizations surveyed were extensively integrating social media with both online and offline tactics, with an additional 31 percent working towards this state.

To what extent are marketers integrating social media?

This isn’t surprising. It’s necessary for corporate marketers to understand that integrating social media (online tactics) with traditional marketing channels (offline tactics) isn’t easy. But it’s necessary. The problem is that the majority of companies still don’t value social media because ROI is difficult to calculate. Executives want to know that whatever they’re spending on social media brings results.

That’s not to say that all companies who are successfully integrating social media with other channels follow the same logic. As I wrote last week, KFC takes a different approach to the ROI thing. KFC thinks companies should measure their ROI as a result of customer loyalty. They’re focused on driving advocacy first, sales second. Is this the right logic to follow? I think it is.

It would be very interesting to know what logic companies that integrate social media with traditional channels follow.

If you’re a community manager or a marketing manager in company that’s trying to integrate, what logic does your company follow?

What do you think?

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Gallup: Brand advocacy drives customer loyalty

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According to KFC’s Public Relations Manager Rick Maynard, companies should measure their ROI as a result of customer loyalty:

“It’s really about connecting with fans and making sure the brand remains relevant.

 

“We don’t spend a lot of time figuring out the value of a Facebook follower. We see it as 3.5 million people who opted in and feel strongly about the brand, and we owe them the interaction and have a lot of fun doing it.”

 

Apparently, KFC Executives don’t put pressure on their marketing department to deliver tangible business results.

While I understand the logic behind this, and it makes sense, the majority of businesses don’t have established brands like KFC does and don’t have the same mindset. ROI is the order of the day and the majority of Executives want to know what they’re getting from all these status updates and follows.

Brand advocacy drives customer loyalty

A Gallup poll of 17,000 social media users found evidence that social engagement with a brand doesn’t directly drive customer loyalty and acquisition, Blaise James and Jim Asplund write. Instead, social tools empower brand advocates to spread the word about a company — which does drive loyalty and customer acquisition, they write. “You’re less likely to engage prospects directly through social media. Encourage or guide your current customers to advocate on your behalf instead,” James and Asplund write.

Bingo!

Your status updates aren’t going to lead to any type of customer loyalty, what will drive it is if you’re fans advocate for you. You’re better off activating your current customers than reaching out to others to begin advocating for you.

With that said, KFC is really onto something. They engage with their fans and in turn those fans advocate for KFC which drives customer loyalty and then drives new customers to KFC.

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