Social media is constantly evolving so it’s useful to know how users feel about brands and how they interact with them, and according to new research from MySpace, one third of social network users are likely to click through to third-party websites and services.
The research involving 1,000 16-35-year-olds looked at how users interact with brands on the MySpace site and found that 40% said they remembered an advertiser on the high street after engaging with its social network profile. Almost a quarter of users surveyed spent up to 30 minutes a day on social networks, with one in seven staying for up to five hours!
Users were found to be receptive to freebies and entertainment from brands, although they were very aware of the motives behind such offers, and didn’t respond well to brands interrupting their online experience with pushy sales pitches
Showing posts with label Social Media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Media. Show all posts
Tuesday
Social networks alter minds of young people
Neuroscientist Baroness Greenfield has stated that social networks are altering the minds of a generation of young people.
The comments were made during a House of Lords debate around social networking.
Greenfield said that while the government was looking into issues around online child safety and privacy, the issue of how sites such as MySpace and Bebo were changing young people's minds had not yet been addressed.
One of the concerns about a generation growing up on social networks is that their minds would be “infantilized”, meaning they would suffer with short attention spans, sensationalism and an inability to empathise.
Those growing up online would also end up questioning their sense of identity as sites encourage them to build personal profiles, and that the government would not be able to accurately regulate social media without first understanding if, and how, they were 'threatening' young minds.
The comments were made during a House of Lords debate around social networking.
Greenfield said that while the government was looking into issues around online child safety and privacy, the issue of how sites such as MySpace and Bebo were changing young people's minds had not yet been addressed.
One of the concerns about a generation growing up on social networks is that their minds would be “infantilized”, meaning they would suffer with short attention spans, sensationalism and an inability to empathise.
Those growing up online would also end up questioning their sense of identity as sites encourage them to build personal profiles, and that the government would not be able to accurately regulate social media without first understanding if, and how, they were 'threatening' young minds.
Monday
Agent Provocateur embraces social media
Lingerie brand Agent Provocateur has launched an online social media campaign to promote its Hello Agent Provocateur blog using Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr.
HelloAgentProvocateur.com includes blog posts, updates and news revolving around relationships, romance, men and women, as well as Agent Provocateur promotional work.
Reviews of the latest romantic films, results of romance-themed surveys, and the history of the bra are all included in regular updates which also allow readers to comment.
Originating in the US, the website's launch coincides with the steamy new ad campaign with the slogan ‘Love me tender… or else!' designed to remind men to remember Valentine's Day. Agent Provocateur, in association with private equity house 3i, is also hosting a men-only party inviting London's bankers to a preview of the lingerie brand's latest lines over drinks and canapés.
HelloAgentProvocateur.com includes blog posts, updates and news revolving around relationships, romance, men and women, as well as Agent Provocateur promotional work.
Reviews of the latest romantic films, results of romance-themed surveys, and the history of the bra are all included in regular updates which also allow readers to comment.
Originating in the US, the website's launch coincides with the steamy new ad campaign with the slogan ‘Love me tender… or else!' designed to remind men to remember Valentine's Day. Agent Provocateur, in association with private equity house 3i, is also hosting a men-only party inviting London's bankers to a preview of the lingerie brand's latest lines over drinks and canapés.
Wednesday
Virgin Atlantic’s plans to roll out global travel community - Vtravelled
It appears that Virgin Atlantic is preparing a major push into social media with the launch of a community site called Vtravelled.
Vtravelled will be a dedicated travel portal which aims to tap into the 'inspirational' travel market, allowing visitors to organise and share their travel plans with friends and family.
Virgin Atlantic will soft launch the site on 28th February to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club members staff, cabin crew and Richard Branson's VIP contacts, and it is then hoping to recruit 2m founding members ahead of a public rollout in June, extending the community to a worldwide audience.
This follows Virgin Atlantic sacking 13 staff in November for using Facebook to criticise its safety standards and calling its passengers "chavs".
The travel market has come under increased pressure from the economic downturn, and according to ComScore, unique visitors for airline sites have fallen by an average of 19%, while in December 2008 Virgin Atlantic's traffic dropped 15% year on year, down to 372,000 unique users.
Phase one of Vtravelled will see Virgin Atlantic help ignite ideas for new trips by featuring 800 destinations with a strong focus on images and maps. It's then understood the airline is considering bringing a booking service onto the site in a bid to monetise traffic.
The site will also include “Trip Pods”, enabling travellers to put together their travel plans, to which friends can be invited to join the area, share photos, notes and chat. Brands will also be able to sponsor a Trip Pod, allowing users to view possible itineraries created by companies.
Virgin Atlantic believes there is a gap in the market that could be filled with inspirational ideas, and is aiming to associate itself with this sort of stimulation, hoping people will think of the site when making a travel decision. They also believe the global site will be a way for people to find personal travel content.
The site will be targeted at people who take holidays more than three times a year, with a focus on UK and US audiences. It plans to position it as a must-visit destination and aims to be the only truly global travel community site.
Their move follows a number of social media projects by rival airlines. Last year British Airways capitalised on the travel community market with the launch of Metrotwin, a social site twinning the best of London and New York.
This month Air France and KLM jointly launched social network Bluenity, enabling passengers to share tips from fellow customers.
EasyJet is also creating a dedicated portal allowing users to explore destinations and book flights. A redesign of its site to improve functionality is due to be rolled out this quarter, followed by the incorporation of its Inflight magazine site, which features destination information and downloadable phrasebooks.
Vtravelled will be a dedicated travel portal which aims to tap into the 'inspirational' travel market, allowing visitors to organise and share their travel plans with friends and family.
Virgin Atlantic will soft launch the site on 28th February to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club members staff, cabin crew and Richard Branson's VIP contacts, and it is then hoping to recruit 2m founding members ahead of a public rollout in June, extending the community to a worldwide audience.
This follows Virgin Atlantic sacking 13 staff in November for using Facebook to criticise its safety standards and calling its passengers "chavs".
The travel market has come under increased pressure from the economic downturn, and according to ComScore, unique visitors for airline sites have fallen by an average of 19%, while in December 2008 Virgin Atlantic's traffic dropped 15% year on year, down to 372,000 unique users.
Phase one of Vtravelled will see Virgin Atlantic help ignite ideas for new trips by featuring 800 destinations with a strong focus on images and maps. It's then understood the airline is considering bringing a booking service onto the site in a bid to monetise traffic.
The site will also include “Trip Pods”, enabling travellers to put together their travel plans, to which friends can be invited to join the area, share photos, notes and chat. Brands will also be able to sponsor a Trip Pod, allowing users to view possible itineraries created by companies.
Virgin Atlantic believes there is a gap in the market that could be filled with inspirational ideas, and is aiming to associate itself with this sort of stimulation, hoping people will think of the site when making a travel decision. They also believe the global site will be a way for people to find personal travel content.
The site will be targeted at people who take holidays more than three times a year, with a focus on UK and US audiences. It plans to position it as a must-visit destination and aims to be the only truly global travel community site.
Their move follows a number of social media projects by rival airlines. Last year British Airways capitalised on the travel community market with the launch of Metrotwin, a social site twinning the best of London and New York.
This month Air France and KLM jointly launched social network Bluenity, enabling passengers to share tips from fellow customers.
EasyJet is also creating a dedicated portal allowing users to explore destinations and book flights. A redesign of its site to improve functionality is due to be rolled out this quarter, followed by the incorporation of its Inflight magazine site, which features destination information and downloadable phrasebooks.
Social Media Monitoring Tools
Discovering what consumers are saying about a brand, their products, their services, or even their competitors, is becoming ever more important in what we do.
Social Media conversations are the fastest growing segment of the web – with more than 1 million new articles posted on a variety of sites and communities every day.
People are talking about brands, products, services, and people. Moreover with today’s digital communication tools they are publishing their thoughts to a worldwide audience. They write on blogs and in online communities, and they share pictures and videos on popular sites. Paying attention to these online conversations is a new imperative for anyone who cares about a brand’s reputation.
As more consumers turn to "peer-to-peer" web communications as their trusted source of news, information, and opinions, this growing phenomenon is creating a new generation of "brand influencers" who are collectively altering perceptions and purchase decisions.
Brands need to connect with consumers online and participate in ongoing social media dialogue about their products and services, so to be successful we need to understand the landscape of social media, including the most important sites, communities, and the most influential consumers.
Although there are several fee-based buzz monitoring services available, I have compiled a list of free, simple to use, but extremely valuable social media monitoring tools and techniques that will allow you to keep track of a brand’s reputation, or even spy on the competition.
All of these tools are very powerful methods for gaining information and intelligence, and uncovering what people are saying online about our clients and their competitors, all of which can help us produce more insightful work for our clients.
The Full Service
You don’t have to be a developer in order to create your own custom buzz monitoring tool. Thanks to Yahoo Pipes, you can quickly set up your own RSS tracking, complete with filters, for anything you want.
Search Queries
News Buzz
Real Time Buzz
Serph is a very valuable tool that tracks keywords or phrases in real time. Serph doesn’t just look at search results it looks at all the available online information out there and it does so in real time. If you want to get a good snapshot for a particular term or phrase then Serph is the way to do it.
Social Media News
Blog Posts
Blog Comments
Blog Conversations
Blog Trends
Tags
Brand Tags
Forum Posts
Consumer Complaints
Keyword Referrals
Site Referrals
Bookmarks
Twitter Search
Photos
Videos
Changing Information
Job Listings
Conference Calls
Patents
Events
New Products
Social Media conversations are the fastest growing segment of the web – with more than 1 million new articles posted on a variety of sites and communities every day.
People are talking about brands, products, services, and people. Moreover with today’s digital communication tools they are publishing their thoughts to a worldwide audience. They write on blogs and in online communities, and they share pictures and videos on popular sites. Paying attention to these online conversations is a new imperative for anyone who cares about a brand’s reputation.
As more consumers turn to "peer-to-peer" web communications as their trusted source of news, information, and opinions, this growing phenomenon is creating a new generation of "brand influencers" who are collectively altering perceptions and purchase decisions.
Brands need to connect with consumers online and participate in ongoing social media dialogue about their products and services, so to be successful we need to understand the landscape of social media, including the most important sites, communities, and the most influential consumers.
Although there are several fee-based buzz monitoring services available, I have compiled a list of free, simple to use, but extremely valuable social media monitoring tools and techniques that will allow you to keep track of a brand’s reputation, or even spy on the competition.
All of these tools are very powerful methods for gaining information and intelligence, and uncovering what people are saying online about our clients and their competitors, all of which can help us produce more insightful work for our clients.
The Full ServiceYou don’t have to be a developer in order to create your own custom buzz monitoring tool. Thanks to Yahoo Pipes, you can quickly set up your own RSS tracking, complete with filters, for anything you want.
Search QueriesUsing Google is the easiest way to find out the overall impression of a brand online. You can start off by simply making sure a site even appears in search results. Then you can get a little more clever by trying queries such as “[brand X] sucks”, “I love [brand X]”, “[brand X] is horrible”, etc.
Keyword Alerts
You can keep track of the latest buzz via email using Google Alerts, which lets you track web, blogs, news and groups for any phrase you want. Select “daily”, “weekly” or “as it happens” updates and you’ll get an email whenever a particular keyword(s) that you select is mentioned. You can create several alerts for things such as brand name, product name, etc., and even for terms to monitor negative comments.
Search Query Trends
What search queries are popular on Google right now? Thanks to Google Trends you can get an idea of which keywords are most searched for. You can narrow your research to specific countries or cities – letting you know if a product has global or local appeal.
What search queries are popular on Google right now? Thanks to Google Trends you can get an idea of which keywords are most searched for. You can narrow your research to specific countries or cities – letting you know if a product has global or local appeal.
Industry News
If you simply don’t have time to track everything that specifically relates to a brand, or it’s competition, you can still track news that relates to its industry. Moreover and Yahoo are just a couple of resources that offer RSS feeds for aggregated industry news.
Mainstream News
One of the best ways to track mainstream media mentions of a brand is to use Google News. Enter the brand name, sort the results by date published, and then subscribe to the RSS feed. You’ll get instant RSS updates of any news items that mention the brand.
News BuzzIt’s one thing to track any news that relates to a business, but if you just want to know about the news that becomes popular then sites such as Digg and Reddit will let you search for submitted stories that match a company name. Subscribe to the resulting RSS feed and you’ll know about any story that mentions the company – or their rivals.
Real Time BuzzSerph is a very valuable tool that tracks keywords or phrases in real time. Serph doesn’t just look at search results it looks at all the available online information out there and it does so in real time. If you want to get a good snapshot for a particular term or phrase then Serph is the way to do it.
Social Media NewsBy the time a hot news story gets picked-up by the mainstream media, it could have made the rounds for days in the blogosphere. Technorati is one of the best options for tracking social media sites. Custom RSS feeds let you get quick updates on any blog that utters a brand’s name.
Blog PostsIf a blog happens to ‘ping’ the blogosphere, the chances are that it will get on Google Blog Search. Even if the blog isn’t in Google news, or doesn’t make the main Google index, Google Blog Search might still find that story that mentions a recent product launch. You can get alerts to matching stories via email or RSS.
Blog CommentsSometimes tracking a blog post doesn’t reveal the full conversation about a brand. The blog post might be positive, but those leaving comments could still attack its reputation. Services such as co.mments.com track the comments left on blogs. You can search for a brand and subscribe to the RSS feed for instant updates.
Blog ConversationsA negative blog post appears on a low-trafficked blog and there are no comments to track. End of story? Not quite, what if a very popular blogger picks up on the story? It could spread very quickly. Blogpulse’s conversation tracker helps you track who’s linking to that blog post about a brand.
Blog TrendsHow well is a competitor’s new product launch going? Blogpulse trends lets you track whether a keyword is getting growing blog mentions or not.
TagsWouldn’t it be great if you could enter a keyword and see who used that word as a “tag”? How much better would it be if you could see matching tags across more than a dozen sites? Keotag.com does just that, making it easy for you to track if someone tags a page using a brand or product name.
Brand TagsThe basic idea of brand tags is that a brand exists entirely in people's heads, therefore, whatever they say a brand is, the brand is. Brand tags is a collective experiment in brand perception in which all the tags are generated by people so you can see what people actually think a brand is.
Forum PostsSometimes the most important conversations don’t happen on blogs. Forums and message boards can host conversations about a brand and you’d never know about it. Sites such as Boardtracker.com keep an eye on popular forums and alert you by RSS if a company is mentioned in a thread.
Consumer ComplaintsRipoff Report is a worldwide consumer reporting website and publication, by consumers, for consumers, to file and document complaints about companies or individuals.
Keyword ReferralsSure you could probably take an educated guess as to which sites might get the most traffic for a particular keyword, but it’s more useful to actually spy on the competitors. Compete’s Search Analytics allows you to enter a keyword and see which websites are getting traffic for that keyword.
Site ReferralsMaybe you’re not sure which keywords you should target for an SEM campaign. Compete’s Search Analytics will also let you enter any domain name and see which keywords are driving traffic to that site, so you can see which keywords competitors are targeting.
BookmarksRemember the days when customers would bookmark a site and you would never knew about it? Thanks to online bookmarking services such as del.icio.us more people are sharing their bookmarks online. RSS feeds make it easy to track whenever someone bookmarks a web page that includes mention of a company.
Twitter SearchTwitter search is a great way to find out what people on twitter are talking about. Twitter search is a search engine for twitter and it’s an extremely valuable twitter monitoring tool. You can see what people are saying about a brand or a particular topic.
PhotosDid an employee release a photo of a new product? Did someone snap a photo of the MD leaving a strip-club? The chances are that they might upload it to image hosting sites such as Flickr. You can subscribe to an RSS feed that will update you on any new image that matches a company or product name.
VideosGoogle Video recently switched focus to index videos from many online hosting sites (such as YouTube and MetaCafe). Now you can keep track of videos that include brand names.
Changing InformationWikipedia is one of the most trusted resources for information on the web. You might be interested in any updates to a company profile, or maybe if your competitor is trying to remove links to a website. Fortunately you can track change history for any Wikipedia page by clicking on the “history” tab and have the changes sent to your RSS reader.
Job ListingsIf a competitor wants to start a new service or launch a new product, the chances are they’ll need to hire new staff to achieve this. Classifieds search engine Oodle scours many online job listings and aggregates the information in a central location. Set up RSS feeds for searches on competitors and you’ll know whenever they list a vacant position.
Financial Filings
You can get a good feel for the financial health of publicly-traded companies by keeping a close eye on their SEC filings. Use Edgar Online to see if they are subject to an SEC investigation or if they are dumping stock!
Financial FilingsYou can get a good feel for the financial health of publicly-traded companies by keeping a close eye on their SEC filings. Use Edgar Online to see if they are subject to an SEC investigation or if they are dumping stock!
Conference CallsSometimes you can learn competitive information by listening to a company’s conference calls. SeekingAlpha lets you subscribe to an RSS feed of conference call transcripts. Open up the transcript and you can quickly get a snapshot of their financial health, or new product launch.
Keeping track of patent filings was notoriously difficult before Google Patent Search came along. Now you can keep any eye on patents filed that relate to your industry, or even ones that might violate company held patents.
Yahoo’s Upcoming lets you get RSS alerts on any new event that matches selected keyword. You can keep track of conferences that you might want to attend, or sponsor. In addition, you can keep track of seminars or meetings being held by competitors.
New ProductsSay you want to get some ideas of products that might be hot right now. The community tagging section in Amazon.com lets you view product “tags”, and then review similar tags. You can use this to get an idea of companion products.
Thursday
Social Media in plain English (albeit with an American accent!)
Isn't this social internet thing great… people share ideas and stuff to make other people's lives easier and more fun.
This short video put’s a nice slant on what social media is all about:
http://www.vimeo.com/1083838?pg=embed&sec=1083838
This short video put’s a nice slant on what social media is all about:
http://www.vimeo.com/1083838?pg=embed&sec=1083838
Consumers use social media to share customer care experiences
As social media usage becomes more ubiquitous, affluent consumers are using social media channels to share their personal customer service experiences and learn about others' care experiences when making purchase decisions, according to a study conducted by the Society for New Communications.
Highlights of the study, “Exploring the Link Between Customer Care and Brand Reputation in the Age of Social Media.” More than 300 consumers who are active Internet users participated in the survey focusing on how customer care influences brand reputation given the widespread adoption of social media.
Top findings include:
Dell and Amazon were cited more often than any other company when asked which types of companies have done the best job in using social media to respond to customer care issues. In terms of industry segments, technology, retail, and travel companies were reported as doing the best job, while utilities, health care, and insurance were least likely to receive positive endorsements.
With consumers increasingly using social media to share feedback on their care experiences, it has become increasingly difficult for businesses to ignore or hide from bad experiences. We should look to help our clients’ better support, communicate with, and understand their customers during customer care interactions. As this research highlights, the consumer’s voice is louder and travels further than ever before. One poor customer interaction can have a very significant impact on a public impression of a brand.
This study indicates that there is a growing group of highly desirable consumers using social media to research companies: 25-55-years old, college-educated, earning £50,000+ - a very powerful group in terms of buying behavior. These most savvy and sought-after consumers will not support companies with poor customer care reputations, and they will talk about all of this openly with others via multiple online vehicles, so this research should serve as a wake-up call to companies: listen, respond, and improve.
Highlights of the study, “Exploring the Link Between Customer Care and Brand Reputation in the Age of Social Media.” More than 300 consumers who are active Internet users participated in the survey focusing on how customer care influences brand reputation given the widespread adoption of social media.
Top findings include:
- 59.1% of respondents use social media to “vent” about a customer care experience
- 72.2% of respondents research companies’ customer care online prior to purchasing products and services at least sometimes
- 84% of respondents consider the quality of customer care at least sometimes in their decision to do business with a company
- 74% choose companies/brands based on others’ customer care experiences shared online
- 84% of respondents consider the quality of customer care in their decision to do business with a company at least sometimes
- 81% believe that blogs, online rating systems and discussion forums can give consumers a greater voice regarding customer care, but less than 33% believe that businesses take customers’ opinions seriously
- Search engines are the most valuable online tools for this research, according to respondents. Those rated of no value include micro-blogging sites like Twitter or Pownce (39%), YouTube (27%) and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace (22%)
Dell and Amazon were cited more often than any other company when asked which types of companies have done the best job in using social media to respond to customer care issues. In terms of industry segments, technology, retail, and travel companies were reported as doing the best job, while utilities, health care, and insurance were least likely to receive positive endorsements.
With consumers increasingly using social media to share feedback on their care experiences, it has become increasingly difficult for businesses to ignore or hide from bad experiences. We should look to help our clients’ better support, communicate with, and understand their customers during customer care interactions. As this research highlights, the consumer’s voice is louder and travels further than ever before. One poor customer interaction can have a very significant impact on a public impression of a brand.
This study indicates that there is a growing group of highly desirable consumers using social media to research companies: 25-55-years old, college-educated, earning £50,000+ - a very powerful group in terms of buying behavior. These most savvy and sought-after consumers will not support companies with poor customer care reputations, and they will talk about all of this openly with others via multiple online vehicles, so this research should serve as a wake-up call to companies: listen, respond, and improve.
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