Study: Social Media Transforming Our Influences on What to Buy

Blog Post by Tom Smith, Universal McCann

For the last two years I have been running global research at Universal McCann that tracks the usage of social media. The results of which have clearly demonstrated the massive growth in usage that is occurring across the world.

The most recent report interviewed 17,000 people in 29 countries and is called “When did we start trusting strangers.” It conclusively proves that as we thought, social media is now directly impacting the way we buy products and services. The publishing of billions of thoughts, opinions and experiences online in the form of blog posts, videos, ratings, reviews and photos is fundamentally changing the way everybody online sources opinions on products, brands and services when they buy something.

This has huge impacts on the way that advertisers and brands have to think about social media - moving involvement from a “nice to have” to an “essential to have.”
When did we start trusting strangers?

The clear trend that emerged was that consumers were sharing opinions in unprecedented numbers. Instant Messenger and email were the top online channels for informing people about products and services, with 44.5 %, 42% having done so in the last month. But more importantly, social channels where opinion spreads wider have become hugely significant, with over 29% having commented on a product or brand on a blog and 27% having posted an opinion on a social networking profile.

The level of commentary varied between product categories. At the top were the entertainment categories, with 60% having recommended a film and 52% music. But technology wasn’t far behind; 57% have recommended home technology, 54% portable technology and 54% a mobile phone service.

In fact, it has become so easy to influence that we can now consider everyone, well certainly everyone online, an influencer to some degree. Of course we’re not all equal, some people shared more influence than others, the prolific bloggers, photo sharers and the video uploaders – the sort of people who read Mashable, are at the forefront.

The result of this new revolution is that we look to and trust new sources for information and the research clearly shows we now trust the opinions of strangers we read online as much as our closest friends and certainly more than advertising. This demonstrates the fundamental importance of the social media revolution that we are living through now.

What do we say to our clients? Participation in social media is not a choice, it is now a default. This is a consumer revolution, they choose who takes part and they are already talking about and commenting on all brands. It is down to companies to decide whether to be actively or passively involved.

Secondly, transparency is essential. Consumers are constantly commenting on products and brands, so honesty and openness are vital. Companies should share their inner workings. Mistakes have to be admitted quickly and control has to be loosened to allow consumers to discuss, share and interact with your brand.

Most importantly, invest in product. The number 1 reason that consumers review a product is a good experience, or a friend having a good experience. In a market driven by consumer recommendation, good companies will shine out.

It’s also remembering that Brands have a major advantage over consumers. They have the resources and contacts to create exceptional online experiences, content and services all of which can establish their presence and reputation online. In fact, brands have some of the most interesting stories to share and have every right to share them. This content needs to be in social networks, blog and video sites, not hidden away in branded websites.

Tom Smith is Head of Consumer Futures at Universal McCann, a global media planning company. Tom’s role is to understand the impact of technology on consumer trends, in particular how it impacts advertising, marketing and media consumption.

(Source - http://mashable.com/2008/10/13/social-media-influence-on-what-to-buy/)

XCOM Media helps brands achieve the nirvana of one-to-one communication through online strategy and consultancy, design, development, web 2.0 and social networking, email marketing, mobile marketing, viral marketing, campaign management, technology and tools and analytics, with lower costs and higher returns than all other forms of marketing.

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Obama leads McCain in race for the virtual White House

The United States presidential election looks set to go down to the wire, but there is one area where Democratic candidate Barak Obama is clearly leading his Republican rival John McCain – virtual friends.

A report by the Pew Research Centre's Project for Excellence in Journalism found that Obama has 1.7 million Facebook supporters and 510,000 MySpace friends, compared to 309,000 and 88,000 respectively on the two internet sites for 72-year-old McCain.

On the vide-sharing site YouTube, 11 times more people had tuned into the official Obama channel last month than the McCain equivalent.

Researchers from Pew say Obama worked hard to connect with online voters early in the campaign, although McCain is desperately trying to make up ground.

Tapping into these online networks is seen as an important way to woo younger voters.

Published by SmartCompany (http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080916-Obama-leads-McCain-in-race-for-the-virtual-White-House.html?source=cmailer)

XCOM Media helps brands achieve the nirvana of one-to-one communication through online strategy and consultancy, design, development, web 2.0 and social networking, email marketing, mobile marketing, viral marketing, campaign management, technology and tools and analytics, with lower costs and higher returns than all other forms of marketing.

To view our work or to find out how XCOM Media can help your business contact us.

Study: Baby Boomers Love Social Networks Too

The widely known maxim is that if parents like what the kids are listening to, it's time for the kids to ditch that music and move on. So what happens when mom requests you as a friend on Facebook?

The notion is not inconceivable, according to a new Entertainment Trends in America study by The NPD Group, Port Washington, N.Y. Social networking sites used by teenagers and young adults are also being adopted by baby boomers (aged 44-61). The findings show that 41% of baby boomers have visited social networks, such as MySpace or Facebook, and 61% have been to sites with streaming or downloadable video.

The study, which surveyed 11,600 consumers online, also found that over 57% of Web users overall have stopped at social networking sites in the past three months. Baby boomers stopped on average of eight times in that period.

"There is an older demographic that is shifting over the youth-centric things on the Web," said Doug Akin, evp-brand development at Mr. Youth, New York. "There is a humor to having one's mom as a Facebook friend in some circles. But it's not actually cool for most people."

He noted that few brands that cater to an older crowd have made a My Space page or a Facebook presence mandatory, somewhat of a miscue.

NPD's findings confirm what many marketers already know: "Younger brands" like Apple and Red Bull have paved the way, and now "older brands" must realize that there's a more mainstream approach to reaching all types of consumers, said Akin.

BMW—with an average buyer aged at about 45—earlier this year used Facebook as a medium to promote its new 1-Series.

Most brands, however, have done a poor job of making themselves known to older consumers. "What we've found is that technology, media and consumer goods are doing a good job of marketing, overall, in social networks," said Jeremiah Owyang, senior analyst at Forrester Research. "Everyone else is failing."

Owyang said that older social network users are there for different reasons than younger users and are less likely to leave messages or otherwise interact with others. A Forrester study conducted earlier this year found that 41% of 18- to 24-year-olds leave comments or create content on social networking sites; only 14% of those 55 and over use the sites for the same purpose.

"It tells me that younger consumers want to engage, while older [consumers] are there for information. Which is a good place for any marketer to be," Owyang added.

NPD also found that baby boomers that are engaging with social networks or streaming video are 15% more likely to buy CDs and DVDs than their unengaged peers.

"Overall, these sites offer a great opportunity to marketers at many age levels, but the boomer visits are really a surprise," said Russ Crupnick, NPD's entertainment industry analyst at. "These things may be targeted to a younger audience, but as we are seeing, there are more older people who enjoy these services."

Published by BrandWeek (http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/digital/e3i651eebcf2abebf43eeabffccbdc658d3)

XCOM Media helps brands achieve the nirvana of one-to-one communication through online strategy and consultancy, design, development, web 2.0 and social networking, email marketing, mobile marketing, viral marketing, campaign management, technology and tools and analytics, with lower costs and higher returns than all other forms of marketing.

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Facebook's search engine second fastest growing on the web

What did Microsoft get when it signed a deal in August to serve ads against search results on Facebook? The right to make money off the second-fastest growing search engine on the Internet, according to a ComScore study. Facebook served 173 million search queries in July 2008, up 10 percent from 157 million in July 2007. Facebook doesn't allow its users to search the rest of Web from its site. Even then, its search engine reached a sixth the size of Microsoft's own.

A dandy of a deal for Microsoft? Perhaps not. Look closer at ComScore's chart and you'll see that the fastest-growing search engine is MySpace, which gets all of its search ads from Google. Google doesn't make much money from them, though, CEO Eric Schmidt admitted earlier this summer. Probably because no one searches MySpace for something to buy. Will Facebook prove any different?

Published on Valley Wag (http://valleywag.com/5046097/facebooks-search-engine-second-fastest+growing-on-the-web)

XCOM Media helps brands achieve the nirvana of one-to-one communication through online strategy and consultancy, design, development, web 2.0 and social networking, email marketing, mobile marketing, viral marketing, campaign management, technology and tools and analytics, with lower costs and higher returns than all other forms of marketing.

To view our work or to find out how XCOM Media can help your business contact us.

Social Networking: Common Mistakes Small Businesses Make

Social Networking: Common Mistakes Small Businesses Make

Posted by Kelly Spors

Many businesses these days are venturing into the Wild West of social media, trying their hand at things like blogging and Twitter and creating profiles on social-networking sites. But along the way they’re making lots of mistakes.

These mistakes shouldn’t be taken lightly. How your business is perceived in the Web 2.0 world will affect your reputation and your ability to connect with customers, associates and potential customers. (Who wants to hire a company that can’t even manage an engaging, thought-provoking blog?)

Sta.rtup.biz, a small-business social-networking site, recently had some thoughts on how small businesses are botching their forays into the social-media world. Here’s a look at some of the most common mistakes from them and other social-media experts:

– Bare Profile: Signing up for a Facebook account is the easy part. Before you blast emails to 1,000 of your customers and friends, a business should spend some time thoughtfully building a profile with an attractive photo, background and contact information.

– Too Little Personality: Lighten up. The social-media world is about engaging customers on a more personal level. Your “About Me” shouldn’t just be dry facts about your business. Make sure you add some personal touches. Humor often helps.

– Too Much Hype: Using social media shouldn’t be about blatantly selling a business. It’s about making connections and creating credibility so that people will like you and trust you and eventually want to buy from you. Use it to interact and meet new people – don’t get overly promotional.

– Not Enough Fresh Content: Engaging others through social media needs to be an ongoing, frequent process. You can’t just build a profile and let it sit idle. Preferably you want to be refreshing your content regularly (daily, if possible) so people come back for more.

Published by The Wall Street Journal (http://blogs.wsj.com/independentstreet/2008/08/21/social-networking-common-mistakes-small-businesses-make/)

XCOM Media helps brands achieve the nirvana of one-to-one communication through online strategy and consultancy, design, development, web 2.0 and social networking, email marketing, mobile marketing, viral marketing, campaign management, technology and tools and analytics, with lower costs and higher returns than all other forms of marketing.

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How Australia's big banks are harnessing the power of social networking: Boyd

Tony Boyd

Australia's oldest bank will soon be Australia's biggest bank. It will also have the credentials to be classed as the country's most connected bank.

The merger of Westpac and St George will bring together two banks that have put plenty of thought and effort into harnessing the power of online social networking. Their rivals are struggling to catch up.

Westpac showed its management had moved a long way up the technology yield curve with the launch in May of a social networking site for female business customers called the Ruby Connection.

The Ruby Connection is the brainchild of Westpac's women's markets division headed by Larke Riemer. It was developed to support the needs of women in business. It grew out of Westpac's research into the needs of women customers.

The research found that Westpac's branch network had failed to connect with female customers. Women believed they were not treated with the respect they deserved. The research showed women wanted to do research before making financial decisions.

The bank's response to the research was a series of educational seminars that have evolved into a web site that aims to educate, providing a place for customers to meet online and talk about business, life and whatever is on their minds. The Ruby Connection has more than 20 blogs from an eclectic mix of businesswomen.

Westpac's engagement with social networking goes beyond the Ruby Connection. It allows staff to use popular social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace during work hours provided they abide by the bank's internet code of use.

The bank recognises that Gen-Y will want to use social networking sites. It sees a business case for staff to access knowledge and participate in communities. For example, Westpac staff have shared their experiences online following voluntary work with Cape York Partnerships.

The merger with St George will bring together two like-minded organisations.

St George takes the view that in the current tight labour market organisations need to accommodate the interests of younger staff to attract and retain them. With that in mind, the bank allows staff to access Facebook. In addition, St George is rolling out an internal instant messaging service.

The bank says it is just experimenting with the Facebook access during work hours to see if it has any impact on staff retention and productivity.

Gartner research analyst Brian Prentice says it is smarter for companies wanting to utilise social networking in business applications to allow it to develop from the grass roots upwards. The worst thing would be for a company's IT manager to issue an edict that Facebook was the new vehicle for collaborating on projects.

Prentice says that, at its simplest, social networking can be defined as a group email. But he would not be surprised if the group email evolved into staff getting their information from a manager through reading his blog. But it would be some time before social networking in the enterprise reached what Malcolm Gladwell called the "tipping point". "We have not quite hit the critical mass that will make social networking self reinforcing," says Prentice.

He says, however, that only businesses from the “dinosaur era” would ban their staff from accessing social networking sites at work. After all, how can you deny people the right to do personal things at the office when they are working 50 to 60 hours a week.

Gartner research director Nikos Drakos said in a report released this month that overly restrictive policies and controls can substantially inhibit community growth and can lead to the failure of the social application initiative. "Managing an appropriate balance between freedom and control is crucial to community growth and maintenance, and must be tuned continuously."

The Gartner research has found that 10% to 15% of corporations ban access to social networking sites from their corporate network.

Richard Kimber, chief executive of social networking site Friendster, told Business Spectator that social networking sites were ideal for providing the framework for customers of financial services businesses to interact.

Kimber is the former head of Google in South Asia and before that spent about 20 years working in online banking and broking. He was CEO of FirstDirect in Britain, head of personal ebusiness at HSBC and worked at Westpac and Macquarie banks.

He says that social networks can link staff in the workplace, customers and competitors and that the differentiator for successful companies will be the technology.

“Obviously, given my background in financial services we are looking at ways you could use financial services with social networking,” he says. “Social networking is any network of people who have common interests. So you could imagine a network of investors or network of investment professionals who want to share ideas using a social network.”

Kimber says social networking sites differ from Google in their advertising proposition because they offer the combination of all of the users' attributes, across all the demographics, combined with great reach.

“The interesting thing is you can get targeting and reach through a social network whereas you usually have to trade off one or the other. You either have a lot of reach or not much targeting, or you have got really good targeting or not much reach. You actually have the best of both worlds.”

Meanwhile Westpac's major competitors are trying to catch up. NAB allows its staff to use Facebook and MySpace during work hours provided it is within the bank's principles on appropriate internet access. The bank may use social networking in business applications but that will have to wait until its systems are upgraded over the next five years.

ANZ says it has no specific policy on social networking websites but is reviewing the business case for their use.

This article first appeared on Business Spectator.

http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/The-Briefing/20080819-How-Australias-big-banks-are-harnessing-the-power-of-social-networking-Boyd.html

XCOM Media helps brands achieve the nirvana of one-to-one communication through online strategy and consultancy, design, development, web 2.0 and social networking, email marketing, mobile marketing, viral marketing, campaign management, technology and tools and analytics, with lower costs and higher returns than all other forms of marketing.

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Facebook's Redundant Ad Rating System

by Erick Schonfield

If you’ve bothered to look at the ads on Facebook lately (don’t worry, nobody else looks at them either), you might have noticed little thumbs-up and thumbs-down icons at the bottom of each ad. If you click on one of these, a box pops up asking why you liked or didn’t like the ad. This presumably will help Facebook target ads at you more effectively in the future.

The ad-rating feature was quietly rolled at least two months ago. But it seems a bit redundant. After all, ads already come with a natural, built-in rating system. If an ad resonates with me, then I will click on it. If it doesn’t, I won’t.

But ads on social networks in general perform so poorly that perhaps Facebook is hoping to get some feedback from the 90-percent-plus of members who never click on a particular ad. In effect, Facebook is throwing up its arms and asking consumers diercty: why do our ads suck so much?

You’d think that Facebook members would have better things to do with their time than instruct Facebook on how to d a better job targeting ads. But then again, we are talking about Facebook.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/10/facebooks-redundant-ad-rating-system/ Published by Techcrunch

XCOM Media helps brands achieve the nirvana of one-to-one communication through online strategy and consultancy, design, development, web 2.0 and social networking, email marketing, mobile marketing, viral marketing, campaign management, technology and tools and analytics, with lower costs and higher returns than all other forms of marketing.

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