Digital Presence Management for High-Tech Marketers

InSitesConsulting recently released a report of the status of social media in 2012 with more than 2.000 facts & figures about social media in 19 countries. In this blog post, I will guide you through the 5 main conclusions of the report and add some final remarks on what to extract from the findings.

The social media landscape is quite stable: The large sites are getting larger and the small ones are getting smaller with the awareness level of Facebook close to 100%. People are not looking to join a new network, but want to stay on their current social platforms and are only prepared to create new accounts for sites, which offer unique functions, such as Pinterest and Instagram. However, users show a very high interest in joining these unique sites in the future. Mobile is the perfect accelerator for social media adoption and usage: 51% of internet users are smartphone owners and social network apps are the most popular ones. Consumers connect and interact with a limited set of brands: Consumers are fond of connecting with brands, and despite the frequent attention on social media storms and crises generated because of negative comments on social media, consumers are more positive than one might think: More than half of the comments concerning brands are positive and less than 10% are negative. Consumers reach out to brands: 80-90% of consumers want to be involved in co-creation, open innovation and structural collaboration with brands they love. All they ask in return is for the brands to give feedback on what they plan to do with the input. Brands are not yet sufficiently receptive to the fact that “Consumers are probably the most effective consultants you can hire.” There is an opportunity for brands to optimise conversation potential with consumers through structural collaboration between consumers and brands to take social media to the next level. Consumers are major fans of market research communities and after Facebook, a research community is the second most preferred platform – consumers want their feedback to have an impact.

 

See the full SlideShare report here.

 

Implications

The average social media user today has integrated one or two platforms into their everyday lives and has structured this landscape in a way that is not likely to change in the near future. Facebook is still the dominating platform and is therefore also an obvious choice for many brands, as this is the place where their potential and current costumers spend so much time. However, there are some very unique platforms out there such as Instagram and Pinterest . They have a very loyal and passionate user base, which brands shouldn’t ignore. Brands shouldn’t apply Facebook as their only platform merely because this is where most people are – especially not brands with a strong visual identity as well as brands targeting first-movers. They should instead be preparing for an Instagram or Pinterest presence, if they are not already there. It is crucial to pick the social platform that is right for your target group and to have a clearly defined strategy for your social media activities. Whether it’s a single or multi-platform strategy, it is crucial to be absolutely clear about what your purpose is and who your target group is.

Be open to co-creation, and don’t forget that this means a more equal power distribution to the companies and the consumers. Asking consumers for their opinion doesn’t mean that you are obliged to go through with their suggestions. But be transparent and stay in dialogue with the users, and most importantly, give them what they ask for: Feedback about what you do with the info they provide and how you plan to proceed.

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Learn the difference between how users see personal and professional social networks in this LinkedIn study.

 

As a social media user, do you find yourself in a different frame of mind when you log in to a personal social network like Pinterest compared to a more professional social network like LinkedIn? Whether you realize it or not, you probably are, according to LinkedIn and TNS's new study of 6,000+ social media users across 12 countries, aimed at uncovering how marketers can tap into users' different mindsets on personal and professional social networks. Get ready. Things are about to get a little psychological on the blog.

 

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The 4 C’s of the Conversation Company: still a long road ahead for most companies - Brian Solis

Via Xtreme Advisors

B2B copywriters need to remember that their job is to be clear in their communications. This article includes five tips to ensure that your copywriting generates the desired results.

 

SUMMARY: The best B2B copy writing is simple, with an emotional hook - Copy writing for direct marketing requires a good deal of humility, Christopher Ryan writes. That means putting the reader first instead of writing to please your own sense of prose, keeping the level between eighth and 10th grade, and bearing in mind the goal is to persuade, not write a masterpiece. Still, copy should lead with emotion to engage while remaining as short and simple as possible, Ryan writes.

 

READ ARTICLE 

Via Tocquigny, Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com

ForbesTwo Qualities of Content Marketing that Matter MostForbesIn my last post, “Content Marketing's Dirty Little Secret,” I suggested that most B2B marketers end up sacrificing quality for quantity as they feed the content marketing beast.

Via Sam Wee

Here's a round up of some of the most interesting digital stats we've seen this past week.

Via Xtreme Advisors

Constructing digital strategies on behalf of clients makes one thing clear: Clients are often confused about what digital strategy is and how to actually develop one.

 

When defining and developing strategy, marketers and agencies must ensure that their clients understand that strategy follows structure, it follows people, and it follows an idea. Second, they must make sure that clients get that profit and ROI are outcomes, not the strategy itself.

 

If you’re wondering what developing such a strategy looks like, here are the key steps.

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SUMMARY: Fear of being the industry outlier can stifle content marketing - One of the biggest fears for companies considering content marketing is that their industry doesn't do that as a standard practice, Rachel Foster writes. To overcome the fear of change in the C-suite, start small, prepare to make a case for return-on-investment, show examples of others' content marketing, and clearly explain to the prospective team what is required of them.

 

READ ARTICLE 

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Consumer sharing of data. According to Experian stats, 82% of UK consumers are happy to share their information with brands across at least one channel. 18-24 year olds are most likely to share information about ...

Via Mick Say

Analytics matter but not every marketer knows where to start – especially when it comes to landing page analytics.

 

In our most recent infographic, we’ve outlined five critical analytics you should know when assessing your landing page optimization performance. We also added additional best practices to improve these key metrics and industry benchmarks.

Via C-Marketing

Learn the difference between how users see personal and professional social networks in this LinkedIn study.

 

As a social media user, do you find yourself in a different frame of mind when you log in to a personal social network like Pinterest compared to a more professional social network like LinkedIn? Whether you realize it or not, you probably are, according to LinkedIn and TNS's new study of 6,000+ social media users across 12 countries, aimed at uncovering how marketers can tap into users' different mindsets on personal and professional social networks. Get ready. Things are about to get a little psychological on the blog.

 

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Nice simple infographic that paints the current email picture

Via Simply Friday

A new installment on leveraging SEO through content marketing.

There are several ways in which content can support SEO by boosting search presence:

1. Content drives search presence

2. Content variety can increase SERPs penetration

3. Fresh content is good

4. Unique content has value

 

Via malek

According to a Report produced by Royal Pingdom, Internet 2011 in numbers, there were more than 2.2bn email users in 2011 and 3.4bn email accounts, this figure growing by 500m. According to Radicati, this number is expected to grow to 4.1bn by the end of 2015.

There is always a tendency when new technologies come along to throw out the old in favour of the new. Email is often seen as out of date and its value diminished by the exciting opportunities that social media appears to open up.

Of course it’s essential to build in emerging channels to our marketing strategies to keep us in contact with our growing audiences but as its true that marketing cannot rely on digital alone, so it is that we need to ensure we are maximising all channels we have at our disposal. And while social is a constantly changing environment, email remains a core feature in our everyday lives and has proved its effectively time and time again.

While social media can be great for raising a brand’s profile, most consumers still respond better to offers made in an email. In this sense, social media is the tool that acts to warm up the audience with email coming in to close the deal.

 

HostPapa has created an interesting Infographic comparing email and social across 5 major success factors; Benefits, Growth, Usage, Reach and Features with an interesting, but maybe not unexpected result.

 

By Daniel Rowles. http://bit.ly/R0TJvC

Email-Statistics-Report-2011-2015-Executive-Summary By Radicati. http://bit.ly/PE3l55

Infographic by HostPapa. http://bit.ly/O0wxTE

Source. http://bit.ly/Rt1jjh

Via maxOz

Marketing Smarts podcast guest Kipp Bodnar says B2B has always been about the relationship sale. If that's true, then doesn't social media as a marketing tool for B2Bs make perfect sense?

 

“B2B has always been about the relationship sale. What social media does is help scale those relationships.”

 

That’s what Kipp Bodnar told me when I interviewed him for this week’s episode of the Marketing Smarts podcast. His comment got me thinking. As “sexy” as social media is (if it still is sexy; it’s also possible that social media is dead), is it possible that social media makes more sense as a marketing tool for B2B companies than it does for B2C companies?

 

The Social Sell

To the degree that B2B companies sell to people who represent companies, the sale is not only relationship-driven, as Kipp said, but inherently social. That starts with the buyer who must think socially because he is not just buying for himself but for a social entity. Accordingly, the buyer often needs to take a diverse collection of needs into account, beginning with those in his immediate department or area of influence, and branching out to include those his department serves, those who hold the purse strings and those who guide the company into the future.

 

The social aspect of the sale means that the seller needs to sell beyond the immediate buyer. Sometimes this means actually selling to a committee or meeting with all the diverse stakeholders, but it can also mean making it easier for the immediate buyer to convince these stakeholders that the product or service on offer will meet all their needs. To facilitate this process, B2B companies need to provide both their sales force and their buyers with information and lots of it.

 

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