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Latest Updates: WOM and Social Networks RSS

  • I “Crave” That Place

    Jacob Hurwith 10:02 am on May 23, 2012 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
    Tags: , , WOM and Social Networks

    Engagement and content may be the hot words in our industry, but all marketers need hit that bottom line.

    As online mediums continue its rise to marketing significance, merchants need to find different ways to connect with their audience, engage with their audience, track their audience and most importantly, create advocates from their audience. Google backed start-up Ordr.in has taken that step.

    Two weeks ago, Ordr.in released their Facebook application that lets people order from their favorite restaurants and then share what they eat using the terms “crave” and “eat.” Perhaps more importantly, this application allows merchants to track the results, track their customers and track their advocates. A direct tie to ROI, Facebook and restaurant delivery is coming to a city near you.

    ordrin-pic

    “We wanted to create an application and make social engagement part of the purchase,” said David Bloom, CEO of Ordr.in. “Social media as a marketing concept is starting to mature, but social media as ecommerce is just at the beginning.”

    Key takeaway: Facebook applications that can directly tie back to ROI are bound to pop up. As they do, marketers won’t have to worry about proving social’s importance, but perhaps overcome the bigger obstacle of using this significant information to spread word of mouth and create more advocates than they ever imagined.

    Any person can use the Ordr.in application, but the product has only been released for merchants in designated areas. As the application matures, more markets are expected to open.

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  • 83% of Facebook Users Hardly Ever or Don’t Click on Ads

    Jacob Hurwith 9:57 am on May 23, 2012 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
    Tags: , , WOM and Social Networks,

    With their IPO, Facebook has had a lot of headlines lately. The more subtle, longer term trend of low ad click-through-rates (CTR) finally erupted when General Motors decided to drop all their Facebook ad buys, $10 million annually.

    graph-1

    This may come as a surprise to many marketers, but remember what happened with banner ads. There was a steady loss in CTR. Despite Facebook’s efforts to approve ads and block out spam, the same will happen.

    However, a lot of clicks may not be the end-goal for many marketers on Facebook

    graph-2

    Key Takeaway: Online behavior changes. What once drove a lot of clicks may now be best for awareness. This has happened before and it will happen time and time again.

    Read more about the findings at eMarketer.

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  • Social Media “Ludicrously Complicated”… Just like every other business sector

    Pat McCarthy 11:00 am on May 21, 2012 | 2 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
    Tags: , WOM and Social Networks,

    Last week, investment bank Luma Partners and software developer Buddy Media released an infographic that examined the complex relationship between all the different social properties.

    Click image for full size.

    social-luma

    Joe Chernov at Eloqua took issue with describing different social media properties as more complex than any other type of business. For instance:

    Consider the automotive rental sector. The industry is comprised of complex relationships between and among auto manufacturers, rental fleets, used car dealers, delivery services, repair shops, aftermarket equipment manufacturers and suppliers, limo services, lease companies, loyalty/points systems, shuttle services, insurance carriers, and logistics specialists.

    Key Takeaway: This is what industries look like when they mature – Lots of companies, different services, all competing and maturing the industry in the process. It’s called social business folks.

    Read Joe’s full argument at It’s All About Revenue, Eloqua’s blog.

    And check out Luma’s other graphics about mobile, digital capital, video, search and display. They’re very well done.

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  • [Infographic] Instagram Nation

    Pat McCarthy 9:54 am on May 18, 2012 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
    Tags: , , WOM and Social Networks,

    Digital Buzz Blog posted a great infographic from Online Colleges that showed how mobile, social media, and photos are becoming more intertwined.

    instagram-infographic

    Key Takeaway: Mobile will play a huge part in content consumption and creation. Create sharable experiences to ride the mobile photo wave.

    See the whole infographic at Digital Buzz Blog

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  • How to Get More Shares Every Day

    Pat McCarthy 11:17 am on April 20, 2012 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
    Tags: Advocates, WOM and Social Networks,

    The vast majority of word of mouth happens offline, but internet users are sharing more and more every day. Being sharable online involves a lot more than simply creating good content. You need to develop social referral programs.

    Extole recently released a report on the subject. It focused on C2C – Consumer-to-Consumer social marketing. And advocates are the engine that drives the C2C machine.

    The Anatomy of an Advocate

    Advocates come in all shapes and sizes – some share constantly, some share selectively. No matter how they do it, you should be helping them every step of the way.

    Make Referring Easy – Less clicks! Less to write! Easier login! Look at every single step of the consumer journey and optimize sharability.

    Increase Participation with Incentives – People like stuff (goods, discounts, points, etc.) but also think about the psychology of advocates. Many want to be seen as experts. Others share funny things. Some are altruistic, simply looking to help those who they care about. Find what they want and satisfy it.

    Add Recognition and Gamification – People like to compete and be recognized for their achievements. Think about how your or your advocates’ content could turn into a competition. Then fire the start pistol.

    Key Takeaway: There are a million tricks to be more shareable, but the most effective one of all is knowing how to inspire advocates to action.

    Download the full report at Extole

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  • 6 Losing Measurement Formulas

    Pat McCarthy 11:58 am on April 18, 2012 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
    Tags: , WOM and Social Networks

    To do something correctly, you must know how to avoid doing it incorrectly. As more dollars flow from brands into social media, the demand for results grows. But unlike established traditional media, social hasn’t had decades of data supporting the validity of key metrics.

    Jenna Lebel of Likeable Media took her client experiences and outlined six losing measurement formulas:

    1. Likes & Follows – People don’t buy stuff based on how many followers you have. Engagement that builds value sells. I’ll take a retweet over a follow any day of the week.

    2.  Facebook Insights All the Way – Facebook and many other social media sites have free insights. While useful, these don’t give the full story. Dig deeper with third-party tools. Many are free or very inexpensive. Jeremiah Owyang made a helpful buyers guide earlier this year.

    3. You Aren’t Telling a Story – Can a set of numbers really capture the conversation in your community? Show the best comments. Show emotions. Show a story and the very same numbers will actually mean something.

    Read Jenna’s three other measurement tips at Likeable Media

    ———————–

    Jenna will speak at WOMM-U, May 7-9, alongside Maureen Sticco of Bimbo Bakeries USA about their National Donut Day campaign.

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  • Timeline To-Dos: No More Procrastination

    Pat McCarthy 10:07 am on April 2, 2012 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
    Tags: , , WOM and Social Networks, ,

    Yes, the last month was busy and that dang March 30 deadline for Timeline conversion slowly approached. It has come and gone, and whether you like it or not, Facebook Timeline is live.

    Affect, a strategic PR, marketing and social media agency, published a helpful guide.

    Must Dos:

    1. Change your Cover and Profile Photo. Odds are, your Profile pic is being displayed poorly unless it’s a square. The Cover Photo needs to be 815 x 315 px and can’t be too promotional.

    2. Write your history. If your company existed before Facebook, you should add in significant dates that were previously omitted. When did you start, merge, go global, rebrand, or get bought by Google? Your community wants to know.

    3. Forget default landing pages. They’re gone and probably not coming back. This affects promotions and the value of tab apps in general.

    Should Dos:

    1. Post more videos and photos. The visual appeal of Facebook just exploded with this change. Take advantage of the engagement opportunity.

    2. Minimize your tab apps. Only three are visible. Cut your page down to the bare essentials. This will help boost the effectiveness of what remains.

    3. Pin top posts strategically. This is your hero post. Choose wisely and don’t let them fester. And don’t just think of it as a banner ad. Nobody will like that.

    Read more tips at Affect’s blog, Tech Affect

    Affect is a WOMMA member.

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  • Political Campaigns are Getting Deeper in Social for 2012

    Pat McCarthy 10:59 am on March 19, 2012 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
    Tags: WOM and Social Networks, ,

    austin-lytle

    By Austin Lytle, Social Business Strategist, Spredfast

    @AustinLytle

    A SXSWi Session Recap

    Political campaigns, while good at sticking to tried and true methods, are typically early adopters in new technologies that could provide an edge. Unlike businesses slow adoption, the marriage between social technologies and politics in 2008 released unrelenting political adoption of new social technologies.

    Social trends that did not exist in 2008 are already proving valuable in shaping the 2012 election cycle. In a panel named “2012: Social’s new role in politics” with Khris Loux, Matt Blumenthal, Vishal Sankhal, and moderated by Ben Parr on the new role for social in 2012, here are some emerging trends that I think political campaigns and business alike should be aware of.

    sxsw-politics-panel

    Since 2008, the shear growth of social networks has made communicating to a base viable. It’s also no longer the 20 and under crowd (“non-voters”) who have adopted social. If my Mom and Dad are posting about something so-and-so did, campaigns are in a different phase within social.

    Continue reading…

    ———–

    WOMMA had several reporters in the field at SXSW. We’ll publish their session takeaways throughout this week on All Things WOM.

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  • SXSW Recap: The State of Social

    Pat McCarthy 9:56 am on March 16, 2012 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
    Tags: , , WOM and Social Networks,

    corbin_vitrue_small

    By Corbin Kappler, Field Marketing Manager, Vitrue

    @CorbinKappler

    Panelists included:

    • Brad McCarthy, Managing Editor The Next Web
    • Joe Chernov, VP of Content Marketing for Eloqua
    • Becky Brown, Director, Social Media Strategy at Intel Corporation
    • Tyler Willis, Vice President of Business Development at Unified

    Three topics were covered by this packed-house panel, the first of which was on global reach and local impact. The concept was quickly illustrated when the conversation turned to the new app Highlight. An example was made that spectators for this panel had traveled from all over yet many of us had the same application, this is global reach. The local impact aspect of the concept derives from however marketers choose to utilize this service to deliver value, whether it be a local deal or other incentive.

    The next topic that was discussed on this panel was that of the persona of one.

    Continue Reading…

    ———–

    We had several reporters in the field at SXSW. We’ll publish their session takeaways throughout next week on All Things WOM.

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  • 3.5 Reasons Pinterest out-socials Facebook

    Pat McCarthy 10:39 am on March 12, 2012 | 0 Comments Permalink | Post Your Comment!
    Tags: , , , WOM and Social Networks,

    Shiny object syndrome (SOS) has hit Pinterest. Or has it? SOS usually refers to flash-in-the-pan web properties. These usually have an interesting twist, like questions with Quora, that is quickly replicated on the primary social sites like Facebook and Twitter. Patrick Thoburn at Matchstick found 3.5 reasons Pinterest out-socials the other all-stars.

    Pinterest is different than other SOSs, or perhaps just timed really well. It resembles Delicious more than any other network. Pinning, like tagging/bookmarking, relies purely on content – original or otherwise. That’s the first difference.

    Discovery plays into Pinterest’s success and differentiation as well. It is more open than Twitter and Facebook because the content is more subject-based than user-based.

    That said, personal boards act as living mood boards. The visual nature of Pinterest shows who a person is much more than a list of Likes tells about a person.

    pinterest_someecards-image-spring-2012

    The last half reason? Friendsheet, a Facebook application that mimics Pinterest, was recently liked by Mark Zuckerberg.

    Read more at Matchstick’s blog

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