SOCIAL MEDIA IN 2012 - TRENDS + PREDICTIONS

Note:  These predictions are by Freddie Laker, Director of Digital Strategy at SapientNitro.


SOCIAL MEDIA IN 2012 - Ultimately, share of voice, point of view and community influence will be more important than brand ownership — and marketers will need to get over it if they want to stay relevant in 2012.

1. Privacy expectations will (have to) change

There will be a cultural shift, whereby people will begin to find it increasingly more acceptable to expose more and more of their personal details on different forms of social media. Sharing your likes, dislikes, opinions, photos, videos and other forms of personal information will be the norm and people will become more accepting of personalized experiences, both corporate and personal, that are reacting to this dearth of personal information.

2. Complete decentralization of social networks

The concept of a friend network will be a portable experience. You’ll find most digital experiences will be able to leverage the power of your social networks in a way that leverages your readily available personal information and the relationships you’ve established. We’re already seeing the beginnings of this with Facebook Connect and Google’s FriendConnect.

3. Our interaction with search engines will be different

Real-time information in Google search, e.g. from Twitter, blog results and user reviews, will be more prominent. Google’s Social Search will change the way we interact with search engines by pushing relevant content from our personal networks to the front of search results, making them more personalized. The importance of digital-influencer marketing will increase significantly.

4. Rise of the content aggregators

The amount of content online is growing at an exponential rate, and most online users have at least three online profiles from social networks to micro-blogging to social news sites. Our ability to manage this influx is challenging, and content aggregators will be the new demi-gods, bringing method to madness (and make a killing). Filtering and managing content will be big business for those who can get it right and provide easy-to-use services.

5. Social media augmented reality

Openly accessible information from the social-media space will be used to enhance everyday experiences. For example: the contacts book in your phone links to Facebook and Twitter to show real-time updates on what the contact is doing before you put in the call, real-time reviews from friends and associates will appear in GPS-based mapping services as a standard feature, and socially enabled CRM will change the way companies manage business relationships forever.

6. Influencer marketing will be redefined

As social media continues to permeate more and more aspects of not only the way we interact with digital media but also other channels such as digital outdoor, commerce or online TV, we will see the significance of influencer marketing grow dramatically. As a basic example, the inclusion of Twitter in Google search results or Google’s soon-to-be-released Social Search will permeate search results with content that will not be managed by Google’s infamous PageRank but by social influence and relevance to your social network. Discovering people that can help you to reach your desired consumer will become exponentially more effective and important.

7. Ratings everywhere

In today’s world, having a commerce site that doesn’t have user ratings could actually prove to be a detriment to sales. In the near future, brands and businesses will more frequently place user ratings and accept open feedback on their actual websites. User ratings will become so common that marketers should expect to find them woven into most digital experiences.

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Note: There is also a complete Slideshare narrated presentation available.

See the full article at AdvertisingAge

Additional source: http://takemetoyourleader.com/2010/04/01/social-media-2012-presentation/

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR BRAND ON TWITTER

Digital Agency Razorfish has developed recommendation’s to help marketers take control of their brands on Twitter and establish a successful social presence:

1. Become familiar with Twitter by reviewing, or following, the activities of successful brands such as Dell (dell.com/twitter), Zappos (twitter.com/zappos) and Comcast (twitter.com/comcastcares).
2. Listen to what is already being said on Twitter about your brand.
3. Identify initial objectives for using Twitter, including what would qualify as a Twitter success story for your brand.
4. Look into competitive activities and potential legal considerations, especially if there is already a Twitter account that uses your brand’s name or other intellectual property associated with it.
5. Use the findings to decide on the appropriate opportunity — such as offers or community building, tone of voice and method of engagement — that may be right for your brand.
6. Since Twitter is an ongoing activity — even if your company is only listening in — dedicate a resource to monitor the conversations and competitors.
7. Map out a plan for the content you will share, including valuable initial content to pique user interest.
8. Integrate your Twitter account throughout your marketing experience, by embedding it as a feed on the company Web site, including its URL in communications and so forth.
9. Maintain momentum by following everyone who follows you, responding to queries and joining in conversations without being too marketing oriented.
10. Provide ongoing direct value through your tweets by continuing to listen, learn and fine- tune your Twitter activities.

The importance of points five, six and seven cannot be stressed enough. Brands that create an account but do not respond to followers’ posts have found their reputation tarnished for not using Twitter in the 
best way.  On the flip side, brands that have entered into Twitter with the right attitude are reaping the
rewards. For example, Dell used one of its Twitter feeds to promote discounts and generated more than 
$2 million from Twitter followers.

Nestle’s “Jesus” Kit-Kat: Viral Magic

Multiple “Jesus” sightings (in inanimate objects) had occurred in rapid succession in the Netherlands with growing coverage in the news.  

To capitalize on this buzz, on the Friday before Easter, Nestle’s agency in Amsterdam (UbachsWisbrun/JWT) seeded fake news content (with pictures) to the country’s largest news websites. 

The story identified that a Dutchman had found the image of none other then Jesus Christ in his Kit-Kat bar.  Kit Kat wanted to play on its 'Have a break, have a Kit Kat' tagline within this context. Have a break in the Netherlands means "give me a break" or "enough is enough". Instead of creating an ad, they created a sighting of Jesus in a Kit Kat. 

A credible fake email was created and sent from a person who had apparently just taken a bite out a Kit Kat and found, to his utter disbelief, an image of Jesus.   Within four days the Jesus Kit-Kat was on more then 100,000 websites around the world.  

Watch the Case Study

COMCAST TOWN -Equal parts Second Life and Social Gaming with a dash of product placement.

Comcast Town is Goodby’s fun Sims-style (isometric view) game experience that allows users to choose a neighborhood and build their own space using the capabilities of (Comcasts) “Triple Play” bundle feature (TV, phone, internet).  Subtle.

Comcast Town allows users to express their identity visually using avatars, rather than just through written words. It also leverages social networks like Facebook and makes great use of Facebook Connect integration for a fluid user-experience. 

View Recent Comcast Town TV “Future Hopping” Ad

Visit Comcast Town

by Goodby Silverstein and Partners, working together with Nexus Productions and Unit9.

CASE STUDY: STARBUCKS SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Let's get this straight right away: Return on investment in social media is not measured in how many friends you have on Facebook or how many followers you have on Twitter. It's not calculated in trending topics or YouTube comments. It should, in fact, be held to the same criteria other marketing channels are: Did it move your business?

It's done just that at Starbucks, which is a digital marketer worth watching. No one would have guessed at that turn of events during the chain's dark days of early 2008. Sales and traffic had begun to slip for the first time in its history as a public company. Founder Howard Schultz, returning to handle day-to-day management, even admitted that Starbucks had lost its soul.

As part of Mr. Schultz's multifaceted turnaround plan, the chain launched MyStarbucksIdea.com in July 2008 as a forum for consumers to make suggestions, ask questions and, in some cases, vent their frustrations. The website now has 180,000 registered users. Some 80,000 ideas have been submitted, 50 of which have been implemented in-store.

Chris Bruzzo, Starbucks' VP-brand content and online, said amassing Starbucks' 5.7 million Facebook fans and 775,000 Twitter followers could be tougher for a dental-floss brand. "Maybe we have an unfair advantage because in so many ways Starbucks and the store experience is like the original social network," he said. 

Consumers "come in, hang out and talk to our store partners. They sort of got to know us as a brand in a very social way." But he's quick to point out that Starbucks' advantage could easily have been squandered. "If we had approached it not from 'what you know and love about Starbucks' but as a marketing channel, we would have taken this down a path that would have been very different," he said. "This was not [built as a] marketing channel, but as a consumer relationship-building environment." More important than the number of fans, however, is that the coffee chain is beginning to see sales lifts following social-media promotions.

Results


Starbucks posted its first U.S. same-store sales gain in two years for the last quarter during a time when the company relied on digital and social-media promotions instead of what had become an annual TV blitz. The chain partnered with Pandora to sponsor holiday playlists, staged a Facebook sing-a-long and leveraged its partnership with Project RED to drive traffic to a dedicated microsite -- and its stores, offering a free CD with a $15 purchase.

Mr. Bruzzo said that the company is benefitting from a trend "toward this intersection between digital and physical." "We're seeing the beginning of that," he said. "The experiences you have online can translate to rich offline experiences."

The first time Mr. Bruzzo noticed this intersection was on Starbucks' "Free Pastry Day" last summer, when consumers could visit the company website or its Facebook page and download a voucher for a free pastry. Mr. Bruzzo, who visited multiple stores that day, said he was amazed at the number of people standing in line holding coupons they'd printed out. He said the impetus for free pastries was the volume of faithful online followers asking to be included on new products or other company news.

The secret to Starbucks' social-media success is, at least in part, the fact that it plays it cool. "It's not like we started our Facebook community, got to a million people and started pushing offers at them," he said. "We built up a community of people who enjoy engaging with our photo albums from our trip to Rwanda, who loved to have these shared moments around their favorite drinks." Then, fans started asking the company what was going on, and how they could be included.

'Straight scoop’ An added benefit of Starbucks' social-media progress has been the ability to quickly manage rumors that could have dogged the company for days. Last January, a story spread that Starbucks was donating its profits in Israel to fund the country's army -- even though Starbucks doesn't have any cafés in Israel. These days, Mr. Bruzzo said, when misinformation gets out, it's easier to nip it in the bud.

Internally, it's called the "embassy strategy." Starbucks strives to make MyStarbucksIdea and its Facebook and Twitter pages places that "when you go there you know you're going to get the straight scoop," he said.

After ceding its usual first-to-market status to competitors, Starbucks launched two iPhone apps in September, one for general café purposes, with store locators, details about specific blends and nutrition information, and the other to support its loyalty card. Moving forward, Mr. Bruzzo said the company will be looking for ways that consumers can connect with each other from inside the apps.

In the meantime, Starbucks is testing functionality that allows loyalty-card holders to pay with their phones. Starbucks' agencies are BBDO, PHD and Blast Radius.

Starbucks tweeter in chief

Unlike many marketers, Starbucks doesn't run its Twitter feed out of its PR department. The chain's voice on Twitter is Brad Nelson, 28, a former barista who rose through its IT ranks.  When the company was looking for ideas to re-engage with its core customer in 2008, Mr. Nelson suggested that he begin a Twitter handle for the brand, and it now has 775,000 followers. The brand relies on the 28-year old to translate the Starbucks experience for the online community, search out confused or disgruntled consumers, chat about store offerings and even crack jokes.

Chris Bruzzo, VP-brand, content and online, said that Starbucks was beginning to institute its turnaround plan in early 2008 when Mr. Nelson announced he was ready for something new and wanted to get involved in the chain's online efforts.

"I sent him away and said 'Fine, sure,'" Mr. Bruzzo said. But about two weeks later, Mr. Nelson gave him a presentation about Twitter and the opportunity to communicate directly with consumers as questions arise. Mr. Nelson sweetened his pitch by adding, "It's a lot like being a barista on the internet." Mr. Bruzzo recalls greenlighting the project, and after a period of working with Mr. Nelson, let him loose on Twitter.

Mr. Bruzzo gives credit to Mr. Nelson and his "willingness to take smart risks," but shares some of the kudos for Starbucks. "I guess you have to have a brand like this and an environment that's open to innovation and someone like Brad with the passion and personality."

Now Starbucks is finding more ways to use Mr. Nelson. He took a weeklong cross-country drive last fall with comedienne Erin Foley and an Edelman entourage to help launch Via. The group made stops for a web series along the way, passing out product samples.

Read original article.

BIG-ASS MESSAGE GENERATOR GOES VIRAL

Not that we ever tire of covering the most lavishly integrated campaigns spread across multiple touch points, it's just that sometimes, it's nice to be dealt an unbranded distraction.  It was therefore with disproportionate glee, that we began playing with bigassmessage.com - a glorious waste of time. 

Check out www.bigassmessage.com

By visiting the site, users can input their own 48-character message, which is then made 'big-ass' with its own URL for sharing with friends/victims/loved ones. There are four different display themes to choose from: Basic, Magic (the magic being that the flashing screen will trigger a seizure if you stare at it for too long), Pepsi (in which certain letters are substituted for the brand's infamously revised logo) and Jeopardy (think the typeface used in the iconic gameshow). 

Props to Björn Johansson (formerly of farfar, Stockholm and now at Ogilvy, New York) who created the site. Be sure to head over to the homepage of creative collective Bjernie's Fast Food to check out more of his deviant side projects.  

Read Original Article

FACEBOOK METRICS MOVING BEYOND INSIGHTS

Facebook has released an ad conversion tracking tool to a limited set of advertisers.  As Facebook describes the service, “Conversion tracking allows you to track activity that happens on your website as a result of someone on Facebook seeing or clicking your Facebook Ad.”

The new service will allow Advertisers the ability to assign a specific value to an action on their own websites and effectively determine the ROI of their Facebook advertising campaigns. This also promises to save a lot of time for advertisers who currently need to dump their data into spreadsheets and cross-reference that data when tracking ad spend ROI (return on investment).  Once the ad conversion tracking tool is fully released to all, Advertisers will be able to track conversions, tag conversion values, and a SKU codes.  Also, rather than providing the type of conversion funnel tracking provided through Google Analytics, Facebook is recommending that, “advertisers use a series of SKU codes for each page on your site”.

Facebook has realized that the more tools they can provide to advertisers, the more likely advertisers will be to spend money on the platform in the future.   And then there was light. ;)

View Conversion Tracking Tutorial (Slideshare)

CHEVROLET TESTS THREE SOCIAL-MEDIA APPLICATIONS AT SXSW

Chevrolet, exclusive automotive sponsor of SXSW music, film and interactive festival for the next three years, will use its freshman presence to get ideas on best practices and emerging technologies in social media. More important to Goodbuzz, Chevrolet is also using the show to test three social-media applications.

The first is a mobile location app from Austin-based Gowalla that tells a cell phone user's contacts where he or she is. When Gowalla users check in at various locations in Austin, they will get text messages with offers from Chevrolet and SXSW, such as a free ride in a new Equinox for those who use Gowalla when they get to the airport.

Chevrolet will also use Quick Response (QR) codes to tout the three vehicles it is featuring at the show. When mobile phone users photograph QR codes on the display vehicles, they will open a microsite detailing vehicle features.  Users who download the Chevrolet iReveal Augmented Reality AR application, available in Beta form, will be able to unlock three-dimensional models of Chevrolet vehicles. The application will provide key specifications of the vehicles, and insert the virtual image of the car over the actual streetscape viewed through the smart phone camera lens.

Finally, Chevrolet will run a team-based road rally called "See the USA in your Chevrolet: A SXSW Road Trip," in which teams will drive to Austin from various places like New York and San Diego while completing missions selected by followers on Twitter, and using social media and user-generated content to record their trips. 

The GM division will have a Chevrolet Volt Recharging Station for digital devices and a fleet of Camaros, Equinoxes, Malibus, and Traverses for conference attendees. Chevrolet will also offer rides to and from downtown, to exclusive events, and restaurants.  “The idea is to contribute to what people are there to do rather than brand all over the place."  All we can say is "Go GM!" ;)

Targeting the Influencer: The Ripples of Social Media

SOCIAL MEDIA RESOURCE LISTING | Q4-09 CREATIVE

The following list represents all content, articles, news, and resources posted to Goodbuzz.ca in OCT/NOV 2009.

1. The Ripples of Social Media 
2. All Ripples are Good Ripples 
3. Social Media in Plain English (Video) 
4. Understanding the Influencer 
5. The Social Media Revolution (Video) 
6. Casino’s Saving Face Online 
7. How Consumers spend their time online 
8. Why use Social Influence Marketing 
9. Social Influence Marketing Glossary 
10. Creating Synergies Across Multiple Digital Platforms 
11. Top Ten Social Marketing Tips 
12. Fluent: The Razorfish Social Influence Marketing Report 
13. Ten Things Social Media Can't Do 
14. The Ten Commandments of Social Media 
15. Social Media Marketing – Top Three Mistakes 
16. Four Emerging Trends of the Real-Time Web 
17. Social Relevance meets Social Networking 
18. A Pocket Guide to Social Media and Children 
19. Your Social Media IQ and eCommerce 
20. Embracing Social Media Boosts Traffic 
21. 2009-10: State of Social Marketing Report 
22. Top Twenty Five Social Networking Sites – Feb 2009 
23. The 3′Cs Rule For Pharma Marketing 
24. Corporate Monologues are Dead
25. Social Influence Marketing (PPT) 
26. Social Media Influencers are not Traditional Influencers 
27. Social Media Marketing versus Social Influence Marketing 
28. Companies 'approach social media marketing on an ad-hoc basis' 
29. Brand social success fueled by consumer greed 
30. Brands, fans… and online conversations 
31. Where Interactive Marketing Dollars Are Going 
32. Social Media Q&A 
33. Trends in Social Influence Marketing 
34. What Social Search means to your business? 
35. Social Media ROI: Socialnomics (Video) 
36. The New Media Ecosystem: Conversations, Influence and You (PPT)
37. A Brave New World: Social Media and the Economy of Trust 
38. Tips from Coca-Cola’s Social Media Marketing Strategy 
39. Harley Social 
40. Hyatt Hotels Social Media Case Study 
41. Content First 
42. Social Networking Goes Professional 
43. Facebook Location Targeting 
44. Finding your Customers Social Profile (PPT) 
45. JACK-IN-THE-BOX DRIVES CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA 
46. CHEVY GETS SOCIAL 
47. ‘JERSEY BOYS’ LEVERAGE MOBILE + SOCIAL MEDIA
48. Five Tips for Optimizing Your Brand’s Facebook Presence
49. Get Real Business Results From Social Media 
50. Will Facebook be the next big online shipping site? 
51. NFL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION (NFLPA) EXPANDS SMS MICROBLOGGING PLATFORM 
52. PBS MediaShift: Social Media Marketing 
53. 2010: "LUXURY SHAME" AND TAKING SOME OF THE GUILT OUT OF Shopping 
54. Slipping under the Radar: Advertising and the Mind 
55. How to bridge the distance between business strategy and design 
56. Taking a Page from Organized Religion 
57. Using UGC Video Example 
58. Online Retailers To Focus On Facebook And Twitter During Holidays 
59. Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More 
60. Twitter Times
61. The Science of Retweets on Twitter 
62. Coca-Cola, Ford, Microsoft, McDonald’s®, SunTrust and Whole Foods Among First To CoTweet 
63. PR Students Need to Learn Social Media Business Strategies 
64. What's the Buzz About PR 2.0/Social Media? (Video) 
65. Social Media and Blogging: PR Power Tools 
66. Pull PR Will Shape Your Future Public Relations Strategy 
67. Is your PR agency Social Media Saavy? 
68. The New Influence Factor in Social Media 

ONLINE CONVERSATIONS AND COLLABORATION

With the complexity of social media today, Goodbuzz consultancy services enable you to define strategic direction and educate your team.  We can start from scratch, or assess your current activities and help maximize your return on investment.   

Just so you know, we can work with you or your agency.  On or off the radar as they say.  Entirely your call.  

Contact now to speak with a Social Expert.