Thursday, October 21, 2010

Four Social Media Trends for 2011

In a recent Social Media Today article.

Here are 4 Social Media Trends, all maketers and business owners should keep in mind when using social media to grow their businesses.

1. Social commerce. Social who? In short, you can now sell on Facebook by letting your customers buy, but also letting them tell their friends. And letting their friends tell their friends. Even if you don’t offer ecommerce on your website, it’s now possible to provide that service through the social network. And it’s overly simple to set up.

2. Group buying. You’ve heard of sites, such as Groupon, that sell for discounts if you get your friends to “group” together to buy a product or service? Based on the $1 billion price tag Groupon received earlier this year, expect them and like-minded sites (such as LivingSocial, YouSwoop, and ScoutMom) to continue to grow, offering you a new way to reach different audiences.

3. Q&A sites. It may seem crazy if you’re not a high user of the social platforms, but people are beginning to make real decisions based on recommendations from their virtual friends. Sites such as JustAnswer will begin to pop up, allowing people to ask a question and get real answers, from real people. The marketing possibilities become endless because you’ll begin to collect data from groups of people instead of one customer at a time.

4. Mobile. It’s no surprise our phones are becoming like third hands for most of us or that we’re eons behind Asian countries on how we use them. But we’re beginning to catch on and move toward abandoning our laptops for phones. Watch for movement toward mobile payments and begin thinking about how to accept payments via an application on the phone.

So, other than content, customer engagement, net neutrality, FTC rules, social commerce, group buying, Q&A sites, and mobile, what trends are you seeing, using technology, for 2011?

Recently I completed an in-depth 75min teleseminar on “How to use social media marketing tactics to grow your business” For details go to: at http://budurl.com/qhxc/

Monday, October 11, 2010

Facebook Fan Page Brands are Profitable

A recent Article reports:

A new six-country survey from DDB reveals that Facebook users who like a brand's page on the social networking site use its products regularly or occasionally and, after following the brand on Facebook, more than a third of the respondents "want to buy this brand's product more."

Brand page fans on Facebook also feel comfortable recommending the brand to friends, with 49 percent of the respondents saying they would "certainly" do so and 43 percent saying they "probably" would. Collectively, that's a whopping 92 percent who qualify as brand advocates -- a figure that staggered survey leader Catherine Lautier.

"I was expecting [brand page likers to be] a lot more benefits orientated versus, 'I'm joining because I actively want to recommend it to friends,'" said Lautier, director of business intelligence at DDB France in Paris. "I thought it would be a lot more passive than that."

The "Facebook and Brands" survey -- which DDB shared first with Adweek -- polled more than 1,600 Facebook users in the U.S., U.K., Italy, France, Australia and Chile that were already connected to brand pages. The polling took place online between Aug. 27 and Sept. 27.

Through its research, the Omnicom Group shop hopes to better understand the relationship between brands and Facebook, which with 500 million users and an array of advertising tools represents fertile ground for marketers and agencies.

The survey sample skewed female (55 percent) and had an average age of 31, according to DDB. Most of the respondents are fairly active on Facebook, with 76 percent visiting the site either once or several times a day. On average, they follow nine brands, the bulk of which (55 percent) are in the media/entertainment sector. The next biggest sector was causes, at 51 percent, followed by fashion/luxury goods, at 46 percent.

The survey found that ads are the primary driver to brand pages, followed by invitations from friends and Web searches. And once there, fans expect more than downloadable coupons. Rather, they want to feel more like a VIP who can access exclusive content, information about new products and yes, promotional offers, before the general public can, DDB discovered.

When ranking the most important reasons why they follow brands on Facebook, respondents cited promotional benefits first, followed by liking the brand, wanting to know about new products, gaining access to exclusive information and being able to provide opinions about the brand. So, to keep fans on Facebook, brands should consider them loyal customers and apply the principles of classic customer relationship marketing, Lautier said.

Creating and maintaining a brand page, of course, is a substantial undertaking. Operators have to freshen such pages regularly with content that fans find relevant, interesting and useful, according to Lautier

So what are you waiting on? Your company needs a Fan Page that is monetized.

To connect with me on facebook go to: http://www.facebook.com/transitionmanfan
Like my Page and join my newsletter and I will give you a free report on how to netized your social networks.

Recently I completed an in-depth 75min teleseminar on “How to use social media marketing tactics to grow your business” For details go to: at http://budurl.com/qhxc/