Social Media Tools Gaining Fire

The first annual Community and Social Media Study conducted by the e-Tailing group showed that brands and retailers are exploring the social space at an extremely high rate. The study shows 75% of respondents feel brands have accelerated their use of, or commitment to, community and social media in the past 6 months.

The top 3 concerns of Marketers and Retailers in Social Media:

• Brand Degradation fear - people can trash my product in front of the masses
• Competence fear - using outdated marketing techniques
• Competitive fear - believing customers are willing to leave sites to find more social friendly brand/retailer sites

WomFire, a social media marketing company, is implementing various social media strategies, based on clients' goal, in order to let brands take an open, active and effective role in conversations online.

Facebook #1 Site For Time Spent Online

Nielsen just released their June report on Internet usage, and with 87 Million visitors, spending on avearge 4 hours and 39 minutes during the month on the site, Facebook has become the #1 (out of the top ten web brands) in time spent online, and #6 when is comes to overall U.S. traffic.

Why is time spent such a huge deal? In digital marketing, we try to find user eyeballs, the "ultimate currency" stated by Stan Schroeder in his Mashable blog post. Impressions and page views are beginning to lose their cache', with marketers focusing on users' time spent on a site, or in certain content.

Facebook is not necessarily the end all place for marketers to flood with advertising, but there is a paradigm shift that needs to be investigated. People spend hours on AOL, Google, and Yahoo! as well as other portal sites, but just because time is spent there, doesn't make it the best place for advertising.

Women Put Trust in Social Media

According to The 2009 Women in Social Media Study of the 79 Million women online, over half are taking part in social media on a weekly basis. This study by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners also showed that 64% of women are nearly twice as likely to use blogs than social networking sites as a source of information. 43% Use social media for advice and recommendations and 55% for opinion-sharing.

Social Media Activities include:

• Social networks (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn)
• Blogging
• Reading blogs
• Posting to blogs
• Message boards & forums
• Status Updating (e.g.Twitter)

Companies looking to tap into women for product advertising shouldn't question whether or not to enter social media. The real questions should involve "How to connect with my target audience?" and "What can I offer them via social media".

The study is definitely worth reviewing:

Source:http://www.blogher.com/files/2009_Compass_BlogHer_Social_Media_Study_042709_FINAL.pdf

Twitter Alone is Not Enough

A recently published study by Nielsen stated that more than 60% of US Twitter users fail to return back the following month. With only 40% of Twitter users being "loyal", marketers should be cautioned that Twitter, although growing at an incredible rate, is still only one piece of the total social media puzzle.

Marketing executives are looking to Twitter, the 140-Character micro-blogging site, as the answer to all their company's social media needs. The true of the matter is that social media involves a lot of work and hours, with more and more companies employing "community managers" to handle all of the companies social media tasks at a full time level. These managers Tweet on behalf of companies and manage brands in all social media by monitoring and responding to what customers and others are saying about their company, product, or service.

When companies and people are beginning their involvement in social media, it is important for them to be monitoring and reviewing the following:
-Facebook/Myspace/LinkedIn, etc
-Blogs, Micro-Blogs (Twitter)
-Message Boards /Wiki's
-Social Bookmarking & Sharing sites
-YouTube/Video Sharing sites

Social Networking on the Rise....Retailers Look to Follow

Alert: Social Networking is on the rise! 

According to a recent study by the University of Maryland School of Business, 33% more people are communicating with friends and family in social media this year compared to last year and 53% communicating the same amount as last year.  

Due to the amount of traffic and time being spent on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites, companies across the board are looking for ways to capitalize on this trend. Retailers are looking to investigate the potential this relatively new channel offers to reach consumers with declining interest in traveling to stores or making purchases. 

Retailers - including Netflix, Papa John’s, Pizza Hut and Kmart - have recently used social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter for promotional campaigns.

Source: "Social Networking May Help Retailers in Downturn"