Tag Archives: brand awareness

Oct 01 2012
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Digital Marketing, Online Advertising, Social Media

Showroom Shoppers Willing To Purchase From Showroom

Showroom shopping is the activity encouraged by Amazon last holiday season that brought down a lot of criticism. A showroom shopper goes into a brick and mortar store and investigates a product. The shopper then does more comparison online and makes the purchase online. Recently the discussion has been about the large vendors—namely Amazon—to poach customers from other vendors even though the other vendors front the educational cost for the shopper’s decision.

A new study shows that showroom shoppers are quite willing to purchase from the showroom’s online presence instead of a competitor. Most of these decisions are motivated by price, but the data shows that customers may be willing to take a small hit in price to make the purchase from the brick and mortar’s online site, even if it is just a desire to remain consistent among vendors.

This data gives the social media agency a way to convince clients, or potential clients, for further investment in online options. For a shopper to make the purchase there needs to be an online presence. These shoppers are also sensitive to other mechanisms, such as coupons and apps and exclusive discounts for online purchases. Price is an important determinate, but what shoppers seem to ultimately be looking for is information. The social media agency needs to help clients provide as much information as possible to boost sales and prevent poaching from larger vendors.

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Sep 06 2012
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Digital Marketing, Social Media, Yelp

Yelp ratings Drive restaurant Traffic

A new paper from the University of California has looked at Yelp, a leading geo-location social network, to try and quantify if the service helps businesses or not. The results are exactly what the social media agency has been touting, but this time there is a serious academic study to back the posturing. For each half star improvement the study finds a restaurant will see a 19% bump in nighttime traffic. Yelp ratings will improve both traffic flows and reservations.

Yelp sees around 78 million unique users per quarter and the service now hosts 30 million reviews. Given the significant effect of improved ratings there is cynicism about the authenticity of some of the reviews. But purchasing reviews is not necessary for the social media agency to improve ratings. Simply encouraging customers to leave reviews helps, as most people who take the time to fill out a review will do so only if they have a positive experience. This simple call to action is a way the brand can simply increase its ratings on the service. Yelp’s ability to tie into other social networks such as FaceBook and Twitter is also a place where the social media agency can offer invaluable services to restaurateur clients.

 

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Aug 16 2012
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Mobile, Pinterest, Social Media

Pinterest Comes to Mobile Devices

Pinterest is the hot new social network for people to be on (their invite only status was dropped on August 8) and for marketers to reach audiences on. Its emphasis on the visual makes it particularly effective for brands trying to advertise their wares. One problem that has plagued Pinterest has been its limited mobile availability. Until Tuesday it only had an app for the iPhone. What had been missing, however, was a way for Pinterest to reach people on Android and iPad devices. But that has now been resolved.

The new apps will help bring more traffic and especially help where Pinterest can be of significant help: when the user is shopping and looking for similar products. The social media agency needs to ramp up its efforts to represent clients on the network. With the increased mobile availability it may even be possible to run in-store promotions with Pinterest, where customers are encouraged to immediately post stores the products have been seen or to repin images of products being purchased. Being able to reach Android users will help the digital marketing company improve the effectiveness of its visual strategy for products.

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Jul 24 2012
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Facebook, Online Advertising, Social Media, Social Network, Uncategorized

Facebook Testing Subscribe Button for Pages

A long time ago FaceBook switched from “Be a Fan of” to “Like” and that has caused some confusion among users. Many uses might like to follow updates from certain pages without having to tell others that she likes the brand. The simple solution would be a subscribe button similar to what is available on pages of public figures. That function, however, has not been made available.

The other day a ‘subscribe’ button was spotted and FaceBook has confirmed that it is now testing the button for pages. If this change is implemented, then it will require the social media agency to refine its numbers and ads. Currently some ads are only available to users that have liked certain pages. Would ads then be resolved to subscribers as well? This is something FaceBook will need to test for and announce and will require some diligence by the social media agency to figure out how to best refine ads.

This move could also be good news for brands and its agencies. As content creation becomes more and more important, implementation of a ‘subscribe’ button will help spread the content. There may be many users willing to see content and updates but not willing to like a page. This easing will help recruit more users into content dissemination. Overall, that will help marketing efforts on FaceBook reach more people.

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Jul 11 2012
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Digital Marketing, Facebook, Online Advertising, Social Media

The Benefits of Social Media Liking

There is a new survey by Ipsos OTX and Ipsos Global advisor about the effects of a like or a follow on a user’s social circles. When users were asked if they would be more likely to buy a brand because a friend had liked or followed the brand, 22% of global users, 18% in the US, said they would be more likely to make the purchase. If only measuring the under 35 year old crowd, then that number ramps up to 23%. The survey found little difference based upon the sex of the respondent.

The study then asked why people were following brands. Most users do so to keep up with the brand’s developments and news. Other reasons are to be able to share content, see what others are saying about the brand and to share their own opinions and comments.

This study is good for the social media agency because it helps solidify value to its labor. Lately social networks are coming under fire for not driving conversions or other metrics that show an immediate return on investment. This survey says that social media efforts do indeed have an effect on future sales for a brand.

 

 

 

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Jun 26 2012
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Digital Marketing, Social Media, Twitter

Report on Twitter Best Practices

Buddy Media, the social media marketing firm, conducted a study of brands and Twitter usage between December and February. Many brands are not making the best use of their Twitter accounts or their followers. Of the week, the weekend is 29% and yet brands are publishing only 19% of their tweets on the weekend. This is an issue because tweets receive 17% higher rates of engagement on Saturday and Sunday than during the week.

There are different results for different industries. Publishers and brands in the fashion industry have much higher engagement results on Saturdays. However, most of the tweets occur at precisely the wrong moments. Buddy Media shows that effectiveness is often inversely proportional to when the brands are most active tweeters.

What is really remarkable is the inverse nature between Twitter and FaceBook concerning effectiveness. While FaceBook posts tend to gain the most engagement after work hours, Twitter engagement rises during work hours.

Tweets that are less than 100 characters also earn higher engagement rates than tweets closer to the 140 character limit. Tweets with links are 86% more likely to be retweeted. Hashtags also double the odds of retweeting and yet only 26% of tweets by brands do contain hashtags. Another easy action brands can use to increase engagement with a tweet is to ask for retweets. That asking alone results in 17% bump.

There are some more best practices by Buddy Media in the report. Many brands consider Twitter to be important for their social media presence but it is still not employed most efficiently. The social media agency needs to review the report—it is free—for these best practices.

 

 

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May 23 2012
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Facebook, Online Advertising, Social Media

FaceBook Ads Under More Fire

A recent survey by The Associated Press and CNBC shows that most FaceBook users never or hardly ever click on a paid ad on the network. Of respondents, only 17% selected that they often or sometimes click on the ads. Even with the best case scenario those are pretty grim numbers, especially coming on the heels of GM’s withdrawal of its paid advertising budget on FaceBook.

The problem is not one of impressions, but rather the problem may instead be FaceBook itself. Users are reluctant to leave the FaceBook environment. Despite the ominous sound of this finding the social media agency should not be discouraged. Chad Warren, the senior manager of social media product marketing for Adobe, says the problem is that advertisers use the wrong metric. A metric which measures only direct clicks will be more pessimistic than warrants. Paid ads function like posts and shares for the same brand, they build awareness.

It is understandable that advertisers want to see direct results from their spending, but Warren says that is a mistake. Maybe the answer is to cut paid ad spending and invest more in the brand’s presence on the network, but paid advertising is still important to brand awareness. Paid advertising can be used to build the fan base and to complete calls to action within the FaceBook ecosystem and that might just be a more profitable use of advertising dollars.

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May 02 2012
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Digital Marketing, Google, Social Media

Foursquare As The New Local Leader

Foursquare celebrated April 16th as its unofficial holiday (April is the fourth month and 16 is four squared) by releasing a set of amazing statistics. It has now had more than 2 billion check-ins. There are 20 million users and over 35 million places in its database. Most of those places are businesses.

All of that data makes the Foursquare database amazing in scope. It has millions of data points for behavioral analysis. There are also millions of keywords and all the text in tips add up to make Foursquare one of, if not the, largest local search engines available. Restaurants on Foursquare are particularly in luck as Foursquare beat both Google Places and Yelp to add menus to the database. Foursquare recently updated its web site to include its mobile version of Explore, which will also help users curate the data once it becomes better known. Unlike some of the other local search options, Foursquare has also developed its sociality.

Foursquare is becoming one of the prime outlets for the social media agency when trying to promote a client on local search engines. Of course, Foursquare emphasis should not come at the expense of the other options, but Foursquare needs to be seen as one the premier locations. The size of the user base alone mandates constant brand monitoring of the tips and information for accuracy. The social abilities of Foursquare can also help a brand spread its message and awareness.

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