Posts Tagged Twitter
Why Twitter is not a social network! It is the telegraph of the internet.
A social network is characterized by a high degree of reciprocity. Take Facebook for example; there will not be anyone on your network that you have not accepted into it. If someone known to you sends you an invite you would most probably accept it. Also not many people who are unknown would actually send you an invite. Also most people in your network on Facebook are actually people you already know.
But Twitter is characterized by a high degree of non-reciprocity. Let me explain with an example. Kim Kardashian the reality show star has 10 million followers on Twitter but she follows only 140 odd people. Similarly Lady Gaga the most followed person on Twitter follows about 140,000 thousand and she has about 14 million followers. An analysis on others on Twitter shows a similar trend. As a matter of fact according to a research, I heard on a Freakonomics podcast 60% of the tweets on twitter come from roughly 20,000 followers, though Twitter has more than 200 million odd accounts.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Twitter on October 17th, 2011
Social Network Advertising Influences But Doesn’t Drive
According to a recently released report, a collaboration between Forrester Research and GSI Commerce, social media rarely leads directly to purchases online. Less than 2% of orders were the result of shoppers coming from a social network during the holiday shopping period between November 12 and December 20, 2010.
Addressing social marketing, Fiona Dias, executive vice president of strategy and marketing for GSI Commerce, says “… buying things from retailers is maybe 10th on the list of things they want to do on Facebook… from a retail and commerce perspective, social media seems to have no effect…”
She says, though, that social media outreach is somewhat effective for distributing news about short-term deals, as 5% to 7% of purchases are influenced by social media activity.
What does seem to work, says the report, is more traditional online marketing, including email and search advertising. Most consumers in the study were exposed to some form of marketing by the retailers before they made their purchase. 70% of transactions in hard goods categories (like lawnmowers) and 82% in soft goods categories (i.e. clothing) occurred after the consumers had engaged in some interactive marketing tactic before their purchase. 40% of hard goods transactions and 60% of soft goods transactions came to retail websites directly from email and search
| Transactions That Started With Search Or Email During Key Dates (Percent Of Transactions) | ||||
| Hard goods | Soft goods | |||
| Search | Search | |||
| Holiday (excluding key dates) | 22% | 17% | 37% | 23% |
| Thanksgiving weekend | 26 | 14 | 40 | 20 |
| Cyber Monday | 31 | 15 | 44 | 18 |
| Source: Forrester Research, Inc., May 2011 | ||||
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Social Media on May 11th, 2011
Less Than Half of Marketers “Like” Facebook’s ROI
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
Despite all of the talk about audience engagement, most advertisers, marketers, algorithms, and bots, miss one overarching factor, the human psychology. The mind of a person, colored by moods, remembrances of events past, and fear of potentialities yet to be lived, can’t be predicted or relied upon.
One person’s floor is another person’s ceiling. One end-user’s idea of a compelling ad is another end users idea of garbage. We are seldom a consensus.
I believe search will always be king because it makes us feel empowered. We are taking actions that we have decided to take to find something. And that is a different psychology from the person who goes to Facebook to read their feed, and to update their status.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Facebook, Twitter on February 9th, 2011
Relationship Management – How To Build A Community That Will Spread Your Brand’s Word
Forbes CMO Network
Douglas Atkin, who wrote The Culting Of Brands: How To Turn Customers Into True Believers, observes that brand communities have mushroomed since he published his book six years ago, and social tools like Facebook and Twitter have exploded. But, he says, most brand stewards are confused about what “community” means.
“Being a fan or follower is not the same as being a member of a community,” he writes. “Membership delivers a whole higher degree of commitment. It also demands a whole other level of engagement from participants and, consequently, a deeper appreciation by the community leader of their responsibilities.”
Atkin then offers five different strategies for building a community along with examples of marketers who have done so. But the golden rule in the brand-community business, he says, is “BE USEFUL.” If you prove that you genuinely care about the people who are giving you their hard-earned dollars, “the social networks will enable people to tell others. If you don’t, they’ll also enable people to tell others.” – Read the whole story…
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter on February 22nd, 2010
New Chart: Perceptions about Social Media are Changing – How Social Media is Perceived at Budget Time
By Sergio Balegno, Senior Analyst
The question was — Which statement best describes how social media marketing is perceived within your organization at budget time?
Considering that social media is at a very early stage in its lifecycle, a 7% confidence rating that it is producing measureable ROI and should be funded liberally is outstanding.
Conservative budget increases by half of all organizations at budget time — based on the promise that social media will eventually produce ROI — is another vote of confidence in the medium for the longer term.
The 17% of organizations who still believe social media marketing is basically free and should stay that way, are destined to get what they pay for.
Not surprisingly, those who have reached the strategic phase of social marketing maturity are far more likely to be producing measurable ROI or at least seeing signs of a return on their investment on the horizon.
On the other hand, marketers in the trial phase of social marketing maturity are more than four times as likely to not recognize the value this tactic has for organizations willing to invest appropriate time and resources.
For additional research data and insights about social marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from MarketingSherpa’s 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report.
Posted by eBrand Media Research Department in Social Media on January 11th, 2010