Archive for the ‘social media’ Category

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Google+ Engagement Is Low

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

Google+ claims to have 170 million users and to be growing by leaps and bounds. RJ Metrics was skeptical about this number, possibly out of a sluggish response to Google+ branding or based on personal experience, and conducted a study about engagement on the newer social network. The study was only able to measure posts that are made public, so there is some possibility it is not indicative, but the numbers are sobering.

Google+

Of users that make a public post, only 30% of Google+ accounts will ever make another public post again. This compares to an average of 70% across all social networks. That is a staggering difference that should make the social media agency hesitant to spend any money or effort on Google+. The average public post on Google+ is also seeing less than one +1 and less one reshare. This makes it nearly impossible for a post to go viral on Google+. Brands need to instead focus on other social networks for widespread sharing and engagements. Post decay is also an issue for Google+. When a new user signs up, then the statistics predict a public post, but the time between posts is long.

It seems possible that enthusiasm for Google+ is only in the beginnings, when an account is new. People then either give up on learning how to use the network or they abandon it for the networks that are already trafficked and seen by a user’s own circle of friends. Google+ might be gaining more traction as a forum for controlled posts, posts that are not made public and only shared among a small circle of friends. The study does not measure these uses. Whether or not that caveat if true makes Google+ a valuable platform for the social media agency is doubtful.

Google+ having trouble retaining users

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Posted in google, social media | No Comments »

FaceBook Releases Internal data About Brand Engagement

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

FaceBook conduced a month-long study of 23 brands, which measured more than 1200 posts. The study was looking to see what sorts of posts produced the most engagement, measured by likes, shares and comments.

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“By far, the biggest predictor of engagement was that the post was on a topic relevant to the brand,” is the ultimate conclusion of the study and a common-sense approach. The brand was, after all, liked for a reason and sticking to that message is already proven to be important to viewers. Other methods that have shown success, even thought the finding says they are not necessarily predictive of engagement, is to ask viewers to comment. The prompts for comments work best when it is posed as a question that begins with why, where, when or how. Without those words the prompts are seen to be less effective.

To propel a post into a user’s timeline, and hence seen by that user’s friends, is to post photos or videos. Those posts are more likely to garner likes or shares, which is a necessary step for the elusive ‘going viral.’

While this is not a conclusive list for the social media agency, it is helpful. The study is careful to elaborate that some brands have more success going into unusual areas, the Skittles campaign for example, than other brands. The social media agency will need to play with its clients to see which work for them.

FaceBook reveals data that offers insight on rules of engagement

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Posted in Facebook, advertising, social media | No Comments »

FaceBook Adds Functionality to Third Party Apps

Monday, May 7th, 2012

As the mobile revolution spreads to new people and becomes more normalized among those with smartphones, FaceBook has increasingly tried to capture them as part of the social network. Foursquare is a great example of this trend. Foursquare now allows its users to check in and then have that check in posted to FaceBook. Twitter is also functional with Foursquare, but FaceBook has just improved third party app interactions with it.

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Normally a third party app would appear in a user’s timeline and like a regular status update friends could comment or like that update. FaceBook is now allowing apps to have added functionality. A check-in on Foursquare will allow users to “save this place” instead of just like or comment. That place would then move onto the other user’s Foursquare app. And there will be other modes of interactions, which are not geography dependent.

This is a huge development for the social media agency. Foursquare, Yelp!, Urban Spoon and any other app that businesses use to attract people will now be able to use FaceBook for more than just information dissemination. By leveraging the world’s largest social network to also create actions on a person’s mobile apps the brands represented on those apps will have an increased ability to drive traffic to their stores.

FaceBook is letting developers add customizable action links to posts that come from apps.

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Posted in Facebook, Mobile applications, social media | No Comments »

Pinterest Is Still Valuable for Brands

Saturday, May 5th, 2012

Not only is Pinterest growing in popularity, but it also boasts a better conversion rate than when a customer finds a product on a different social network. The reasons are still not entirely known, but there is speculation. The social media agency needs to take its clients onto Pinterest and possibly even use that as the main social network as its platform. Users are able to use Pinterest to share onto FaceBook and Twitter, so a focus on Pinterest does not leave the other networks in the cold.

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One of the concerns with Pinterest is the domination by women. That number is changing though. From January to March the percentage of men on the service rose from 20% to 28%. Most of these users are making a decent income. Almost half make between $25k to $50k each year. The next largest group resides in the $50k to $75k income bracket. One thing to note, however, is that a product’s pin is twice as likely to be shared if it does not include a price.

The most important data to consider is about the percentage of internet purchases derived from the main three social networks. FaceBook is still dominant but its dominance is slipping. From the second quarter of 2011 to the first quarter of 2012 the percentage of referrals from FaceBook fell from 89% to 82%. Twitter’s relevance dropped precipitously from 10% to 1%. Pinterest seems to be the network stealing those numbers as its share rose from 1% to 17% of all purchases referred by a social network.

The social media agency needs to develop a Pinterest strategy. This strategy would also help on the other networks as images become more and more important to a brand’s attempts to recruit sales and conversions.

Measuring the interest in Pinterest

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Posted in Digital Marketing, Online Shopping, social media | No Comments »

Spotify Launches Brand Apps

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

While Spotify specializes in music streaming, it is also aiming to make itself more like a social network. The social media agency would be wise to start thinking of it as such. Spotify allows friends and sharing. There is even an ability for users to message other friends, so it is not limited to just music.

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Next Week Spotify will announce the newest addition, which is very similar to FaceBook: brand apps. Spotify has an API and allows anyone to build a functioning app for free. The first brands to seize the opportunity will be AT&T, McDonald’s and Reebok. The apps will provide a deeper integration for users within the service as well as bring in more users to the service.

Brands can build playlists and even join in partnerships with artists or labels as a way to provide users with music that might be related and also energizing to customers. The social media agency can also use Spotify’s new service to capture some of the sharing that happens as a way to build a customer base for clients.

Spotify Becomes More Like FaceBook

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Posted in Technology, music, social media | No Comments »

Google Analytics Coming to Google+ Accounts

Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

Google has been updating its Analytics package to make it more powerful and easier for the social media agency to use. One thing missing, however, is social data. There is not (yet?) a pairing with FaceBook or with Twitter for access to that data. Those two social networks seem unlikely to cooperate with Google in any near future. Other social networks, however, might be more receptive. The easy partnership is with Google+ and leaked photos show that integration is coming. The integration appears simple enough, an existing GA account number entered into the appropriate tab and all the Google+ social data is now being tracked into an Analytics account.

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It will be easy for users to see the data, as a new tab from within Google+ will show the data, eliminating the need to log into a GA separately. The expected statistics will be measured: visits, pageviews, average time and bounce rate. This is a welcome addition to the social media agency’s arsenal, and will help significantly with measuring the effectiveness of a brand’s Google+ presence. Although, the ultimate problem with Google+ remains. It is relatively small compared to the alternatives. Businesses need to be on both Google+ and FaceBook, but no matter how brand-friendly Google makes the network it will always come in second unless it attracts more users and more frequent usage among its users.

Google+ Becomes Analytical

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Posted in Digital Marketing, google, social media | No Comments »

Google Will Launch a Commenting System

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

The FaceBook commenting system is found on millions of websites. Google has decided that it does not want to miss out on the action and is launching its own service. It will be just like the FaceBook version, where third party sites host it and the comments then track back into Google’s network. It’s the deeper integration that makes it possibly better than FaceBook’s system.

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Google will be able to combine its already large data pool with what people are saying on third party sites. Once Google also finishes its semantic data engine, then measuring what people say will be immediately testable against what they also buy and where they go online. The commenting system will also have some serious implications on Google’s search business.

The social media agency will be able to have a much more comprehensive understanding of their potential customers once this system goes into place. It might also be helpful to begin testing products and brands on different platforms so the commenting system will immediately begin accessing that information.

Google Battles Facebook

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Posted in Digital Marketing, Facebook, google, social media | No Comments »

Federal Trade Commission Reignites the Privacy legislation Debate

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

The FTC issued a report on Monday morning calling for more rules and practices governing “data brokers”, which are firms that trade in personal information like names, addresses and purchasing information. The FTC does acknowledge industry self-governing standards that were implemented and are in the process of being implemented. However, the FTC calls for more governance than the self-imposed kind.

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Not only should those self-imposed rules remain in place, but the industry should also create a centralized database outlining their practices. Congress is also being called upon to create legislation that would also provide more safeguards for individual consumers. Congress would codify the rules as well as create a system of rights that customers can appeal to. It would also clarify that do-not-track means not only do-not-advertise but also do-not-collect.

These concerns are old hat, which is not to say unfounded. The social media agency needs to do what it can to be fair and transparent as well to explain the benefits of these practices. Even though the FTC called for certain action, keeping public opinion in check is necessary to prevent Congressional legislation from overreaching. While the social media agency is often not the one doing the tracking, they are involved in the concerns and need to make sure the system appears as necessary and beneficial as possible.

The FTC Deals Privacy

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Posted in Customer Serivce, Internet News, social media | No Comments »

Twitter Hits Two Milestones

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

On Tuesday Twitter announced that it is now releasing promoted tweets into user’s timelines on mobile devices. The rollout is only for iOS and Android devices. Twitter is also allowing brands using promoted tweets to target desktops or mobile devices only, as well as specific platforms of the mobile devices.

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Until this announcement promoted tweets were limited to users that followed the brand purchasing the promotion. Twitter says it’s testing has gone very well and now similar interests will be enough to deliver a promoted tweet into a timeline.

Twitter also announced on Wednesday that it now has 140 million active users. 55% of those users log into their Twitter accounts at least once per month from a mobile device. This is a huge base of people that can be reached via Twitter. It is also a very quickly growing base. The 140 million figure represents a 40% growth since September.

Being able to reach people that are not a brand’s followers but that do show similar interests is a huge boon for the social media agency. Given the size of Twitter’s base and the ease of reaching them with promoted tweets, Twitter should be a top social network for brands’ outreach.

Twitter’s Milestone

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Posted in Mobile, Twitter, social media | No Comments »

Swaylo Offers Normally Hidden FaceBook data

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

Swaylo is a new third party app for FaceBook. Users sign in to it and if they earn high enough influence scores, then Swaylo offers them free gifts and reduced items. The catch is that the user must give Swaylo access to not only his data but also to friends’ data. Swaylo then offers users a range of data about their impact and their audience on FaceBook. It is a unique service Swaylo offers not only to individual users but also to brands and social media agencies.

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Swaylo sells the collected data. There is some disagreement about if this violates FaceBook’s terms of services, but Swaylo management has an argument that might protect them. Even if the argument does not stand up to eventual scrutiny that is possibly a reason why firms should consider contacting Swaylo while they can.  An executive from Horizon Media says Swaylo’s data is much better than what FaceBook’s Insights offers. Horizon Media has decided to pass on partnering with Swaylo until FaceBook reviews the app and potential blowback has been assessed. It’s a prudent course of action and one that social media agencies need to consider.

The payoff for a well-sorted data set is not a secret. There is room for blowback, although it might be directed at the user who allowed an app to access his friends’ data. Regardless of what does happen brands need to take a look at the service and evaluate if it is for them. Aside from purchasing the data, using it as a platform to offer discounts for a brand’s goods might also turn out to be lucrative once its user base widens.

Swaylo Reveals Facebook

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Posted in Digital Marketing, Facebook, social media | No Comments »

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