With a mountain of workload, paperwork, never-ending to do lists, social events, an injured ankle and a nasty cold (which 70% of London seems to have), I have neglected my blogging.
Shame on me. But really, there are only 24 hours in each day. Respect to those who keep blogging amidst other pressures. Thanks though to some of my loyal followers who pulled me out of my blogging hiatus with email and Twitter S.O.S calls.
Luckily I haven't neglected my passion for digital marketing and I've tried to keep up abreast of developments. On that note, this post is a compilation of some of the interesting things that have crossed my path recently. I find myself continually fascinated with social media, specifically with Twitter, trying to get my head around it as a Twitterer and a marketer.
Social Media is Growing
..but revenue lags behind. Consumers are embracing social media but the rules for marketers and brands have yet to be written. There is loads of experimentation going on e.g. on Twitter @Zappos, @Comcastcares, @Delloutlet and even @BarackObama have successfully harnessed it as a channel for connecting and broadcasting with audiences.
I personally have been contacted by @Norton and @MarketingProfs as a result of my tweets about both companies.
The next stage is a clear monetisation model, and unfortunately just as 30-second spots are to TV as banners are to websites, there is no "quick" revenue fix yet for social media. When we still rely on display advertising for revenue, lower click rates on social media sites like MySpace, Facebook and Bebo do not paint a rosy picture. Read more on this topic here on MediaPost.
Social media can help sales significantly. Richard Shepherd predicts it could be a big earner in 2009 as the recession keeps people indoors. For ROI and success his tips are to use social media to Raise awareness, Listen, Engage, Respond and Control. The full article can be found here.
Steve Semelsberger, SVP of Global Sales and Business Development, Pluck, believes that Social Media will be the second largest area of spend increase by advertisers and piblishers, next to Search. Read an interesting interview with him here.
Social Media for Publishers
I was privileged to attend a webinar by Chris Brogan on Social Media for Publishers. With my online background, I immediately thought it would be attended by bloggers and online media publishers, however I was pleasantly surprised to discover loads of traditional publishers in attendance and the topic of books in discussion. In the spirit of social media, the Webex LiveMeeting had constant chatter and it was fascinating to partake in a virtual webinar and still be connecting with so many people! It was exhilarating listening in to great content while I hovered over my laptop from my kitchen as I cooked dinner (we females pride ourselves in our multitasking abilities). The value was heightened by the combined ability to fire away questions (and get an immediate response from Chris) while getting some new Twitter folks to follow and followers e.g. John Byrne, Editor-in-Chief, Businessweek.com. You can view it here.
2009 Social Media Predictions
Thanks to Rohit Bargava, who highlighted this document on his blog about the 2009 social media predictions from BeingPeterKim.com, with key view points from top thought leaders and bloggers. An interesting, easy read.
Social Media Research & Measurement
Traditional market research and online research gets a new twist with social media. Duncan Southgate outlines YouBuild and YouTrawl as 2 new techniques. Essentially, YouBuild is the research version of "crowd-sourcing" and YouTrawl involves doing secondary research or "trawling" social media for insights and valuable conversations about brands or products. You can read the full article here.
Everyone seems to want to talk about measurement, but before diving into tools and metrics, we are reminded by Laura Patterson, on MarketingProfs, to look to outputs (e.g. number of positive reviews relative to the campaign cost), outcomes (e.g. behavioural changes like increase/decrease in number of reviews) and business results (e.g. how a specific business objective in achieved). The whole article can be found here.
Twitter
Aaaah Twitter. I could write an entirely new post on this, but in the interest of keeping it short, I have consumed by trying out 100 of the best Twitter tools from the ComMetrics blog. The Sharon Jaffe jury is still not out on Tweetdeck – I love the extra functionality but just struggle to scan and read tweets as comfortably as say in Outtwit or simply on Twitter.com.
Some Cool Stuff
- 12Seconds.TV: I discovered this video microblogging service thanks to Neville Hobson. It can best be described as YouTube meets Twitter with a nifty iPhone app. I would have tried it out if I didn't get such a shock seeing my face on my PC's webcam before applying any make-up first thing in the morning.
Masher.com: This is a nifty mashing site with clips and apps essentially allowing you to do the same as Apple iMovie, but online and with a community element. The term "mash ups" seems to refer to both 1) the combination of content consisting of music and/or pictures and/or text or 2) the integration of applications e.g. Twitter with Google Earth like in
Twittervision. This site represents the former.
So that's the end of my social media update for 2008. As the year draws to a close, I hope this post gives you some food for thought on Social Media, an exciting area for growth and experimentation in the near future (and my favourite part of digital marketing at the moment)!