iMediaWorksConnect by @iMediaMichelle

Brands: Unlock Your Social Reach

Recently the CMO Club reported nearly two-thirds of chief marketing officers plan to increase their spending on social media marketing next year.  Their research found that more than eight in 10 respondents (81%) expect to link up to 10% of their annual revenues to social media investment next year.  That’s no small bet.

Despite this deliberate shift in media spending, many of these CMOs are unsure about their return from marketing on social networking Web sites.  TV, radio and print have all enjoyed the confidence and repeat investment by brand marketers for over half a century.  Yet there is still a pervasive perception that social media is not as legitimate or proven to garner the same level of consumer eyeballs and interest around a particular brand.  Given that the population of social networks like Facebook and Twitter are exploding, this comparison hardly seems fair.

In fact, the influence of the Social Web is quickly maturing and we’re now starting to see its direct impact on actual consumer purchase behaviors across the purchase funnel:

Most telling is the correlation between consumer social media exposure and their online shopping behaviors.  Social media is a bona fide traffic driver to brand websites.  With the expected growth of smart phone adoption and the mobile web usage, that linkage is certain to become even stronger.

Social media influence clearly matters, but how much of it is out there?

According to Facebook, the average user has 130 friends.  For Twitter, the average account has 40 followers.  While these figures may not translate into exact uniques, they do start to convey the potential reach and power of Facebook page and Twitter account audiences.  And for some Fortune 500 brands, their combined potential Facebook and Twitter reach are starting to rival some of the most popular television properties:

• 15 F500 brands have a potential social reach that exceeds a single episode of American Idol (29.5M),
• Another 2 F500s have more potential reach than an evening of NBC Sunday Night Football (20M),
• Another 5 have more than Glee (8.17M),
• And an additional 22 beat an hour of The Daily Show (2M)

Check out the Fortune 500 brands in the Social Power Top 50 for combined social reach:

 

Imagine being able to tap into these potential audience levels all day long, instead of just a 30-60 minute time block one night or one day per week.  While lots of large brands may have captured the initial interest of social consumers to “tune in” via channels such as Facebook, and Twitter, few have taken steps to capitalize on it:

Few are Part of the Real-time Conversation

For the average Fortune 500, barely a quarter of the brand share of voice directly comes from real-time status updates, which are quickly becoming a part of consumer’s daily routines.  Photo and blog posts still eclipse Twitter updates as primary sources of brand social mentions.

Some are Not Connecting Frequently with Fans

The average Facebook Fan audience for an F500 company is 75,000; for Twitter it’s almost 13,000.  Taking into account the reach factor of both channels, the potential combined social reach for an average F500 brand exceeds 10 million.  Amazingly, 43% of F500 Facebook Fan Pages and 41% of Twitter Accounts have remained inactive for more than six months.

Most are Not Integrating their Social Presence

Only 9% of Fortune500 brands feature any part of their social media presence on their website Home Pages.  Amongst those who do, typically only one social media channel is highlighted.  When it comes to cross-pollination of key social media channels within one another, the pattern is only marginally better at 12%.

Time to Unlock Your Social Reach

Still believe you shouldn’t get engaged on social channels until you have the perfect strategy?  Watch out…if you don’t start tapping into your brand’s social audience, someone else eventually will.  Here are three simple steps you can take to begin unlocking the power of your social reach to engage and potentially influence your consumers:

1. Stop Playing Hide and Seek - Make it easy for fans to find you.  If your brand already has a Fan page, then openly join, talk to the creators, start participating in the existing conversations and add a visible callout above the page fold of your Home Page, About Us and Contact Us pages.  Don't limit cross-pollination to just your blog page; include visible references to all of your key social channels within your YouTube profiles, Facebook Fan Page tabs and Twitter Account backgrounds.
   
2. Inspire the Crowd - Offer people something meaningful to do with their time.  Invite followers to help shape decisions on corporate philanthropic efforts.  Educate and entertain the crowd with demonstrations unique to your product or service.  Challenge fans to come up with their most innovative uses of your product.  Share some little known brand history or solicit past memories through brand nostalgia with classic tv spots, radio jingles, famous billboards or other memorabilia.
3. Feature the Best of the Best - Curate and promote valuable content.  Aggregate and feature the best consumer-generated "how to" videos out there for your product within your YouTube Channel.  Create Twitxpert lists of subject matter experts and known insiders within your industry field and tweet your favorites of the week.  Run Facebook Polls ala Digg style to uncover interesting bloggers and others posting content around relevant hot topics of interest to your fans and feature the results on your the Landing Tab of your Fan Page.
   

Superbowl season is fast approaching and with it a blitz of high-powered media for one of the single largest consumer audiences worldwide.  But with the potential social reach power of Facebook and Twitter, many brands may already have a superbowl size crowd just a click away.  No matter what you choose to do in these channels, maintain your human side.  Your customers and fans will thank you for it.

Research Note:  The Fortune 500 data cited in the above post was collected in 2Q2009 and represents the largest Facebook Fan Page and Twitter Account per brand on the individual day of collection.

RESEARCH: The Social Media Habits of the Fortune 500

We’re on the verge of 2010.  A decade ago the World Wide Web was starting to catch on within our society and soon after brand marketers claimed they “just needed a website”.  The rules of Web 1.0 boasted by self-proclaimed experts were straight forward and simple – “build it and they will come”.  Well, for those of us who were rolling up our sleeves and getting our hands dirty with global content management systems and complex e-commerce integrations, that mantra quickly proved to be false.  Websites needed dynamic content and specific calls to action.  They also required intuitive search to drive traffic and smart interactive design and editorial programming to attract users and keep them engaged on sites.

Now ten years later, social media is on a similar rise, with most brands “just needing a Facebook Fan Page and a Twitter Account”, believing their fans “will just come”.  But instead of a single digital domain that brands absolutely control, the Web has evolved into a multi-dimensional conversation with scores of voices and influence that brands no longer dictate.  The digital world is now run by everyday individuals, many of whom not only have access to, but actually have a direct hand in creating the innovative tools and rich content that are shaping the Integrated Social Web.  Hmmm…I’m starting to hear those familiar Twilight Zone sounds, are you?

Social media is the next frontier brands are aspiring to master and master it they should.  We are already starting to see that good social media habits matter in 21^st century marketing along several areas:

• Customer Satisfaction - consumers are increasingly using social channels such as Blogs, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to express their satisfaction levels with specific brands and seek problem resolution. (Airlines in particular are learning this; some are excelling and others are learning lessons the hard way)
• Cost Savings - consumers freely share tips, best practices and other product and service how-tos with one another, helping to reduce strain on customer call centers as well as resources needed to create and maintain self-help content
• Direct Sales - consumers are proactively seeking out new channels within social to research, shop and purchase discounted goods and services. (Dell has demonstrated the power of social shopping with sales through its Dell Direct Twitter Account)
• Revenue Generation - unique social campaigns that become viral are sparking branded searches that help drive users to a brand's social as well as Web sales channels
• Brand Love - as social media increasingly becomes part of the mainstream, more consumers are relying on a brand's participation within social media to serve as a benchmark for its personal credibility and immediate relevancy (see my previous post, JCrew, Whoops: Your Personal Shopper is Socially MIA)
  

Earlier this summer, I became increasingly curious about how large brands are utilizing the Social Web and the audiences they attract through their key channels.  Were there thriving communities or desolate graveyards in the F500 social landscape?  Were F500 brands and their agencies learning anything, or just repeating the same patterns from Web 1.0?  To answer these and hundreds of other questions, I began an independent study on the Social Media Habits of the Fortune 500.  My research examines eight social media habit dimensions, within eight key social media channels, across sixteen industry segments.  Some interesting highlights so far on the F500:

• Over 6 million people are engaging F500 brands in key social media channels
• LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are the most prevalent channels amongst F500 brands
• YouTube, iPhone applications and Podcasts are the most heavily used to promote product usage and sales
• Over one third of F500 key social media channels have been inactive for over six months
• Facebook Fan Pages drive 77% of the Fortune 500 audience within their key social media channels
• Photos and blogs are primary channel sources for brand mentions for 59% of the F500
• Facebook Groups are the largest source of negative branding for F500 brands
• Only 18% of the F500 are integrating their key social media channels
  

You can view more of my initial summary observations via my SlideShare Presentation.  Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing additional snippets of the benchmark data, along with my and industry peer’s analyses on the implications for brands on their road to social.  Stay tuned for upcoming segments on specific industries, channels and habit best practices – as always, your comments and questions are welcome.  For my readers, a little poll to kick off the discussion – which industry, do you expect to have the “best” social media habits and why?  Please tag your posts/tweets with #getsocial.

Brands + Social Media Series: Will They Stay or Will They Go?

The digital frontier continues to explode - now well into its second consumer decade, are brands and consumers still infatuated with one another in this space, or are they looking for daylight?  From the earliest days of blogs, social networks, and YouTube to virtual worlds, mobile communities and Twitter – brands have done everything from watch, explore, dive in, drop-off and/or ignore these channels.  Now, many consumers are wondering if brands are truly in the social media space to stay or just out for their own immediate fame/pr value.  One of my favorite songs by The Clash seems to be an appropriate anthem for this phenomenon:

Darling you gotta let me know
Should I stay or should I go?
If you say that you are mine
I'll be here til the end of time
So you got to let know
Should I stay or should I go?

Always tease tease tease
Siempre - coqetiando y enganyando
You're happy when I'm on my knees
Me arrodilla y estas feliz
One day is fine, next is black
Un dias bien el otro negro
So if you want me off your back
Al rededar en tu espalda
Well come on and let me know
Me tienes que desir
Should I stay or should I go?
Me debo ir o que darme

Should I stay or should I go now?
Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
An if I stay it will be double
So come on and let me know

This indecisions bugging me
Esta undecision me molesta
If you dont want me, set me free
Si no me quieres, librame
Exactly whom I'm supposed to be
Diga me que tengo ser
Dont you know which clothes even fit me?
saves que robas me querda?
Come on and let me know
Me tienes que desir
Should I cool it or should I blow?
me debo ir o quedarme?

Should I stay or should I go now?
yo me frio o lo sophlo?
If I go there will be trouble
Si me voi - va ver peligro
And if I stay it will be double
Si me quedo es doble
So you gotta let me know
Me tienes que decir
Should I stay or should I go?
yo me frio o lo sophlo?

Lyrics courtesy of www.lyricsfreak.com.  Here's the tune for those of you who want to get in the mood: ♫ http://blip.fm/~7oi4r

This song inspired me to take a step back and look at what brands have and have not done with various social media channels.  I sense many consumers starting to wonder – do brands really care about me or are they just in the social media relationship for themselves?       

I recently began a study of the Fortune 500, to learn more about their initial adoption and usage of eight social media platforms in an effort to uncover best practices as well as watch outs.  So far, I’ve assessed 80 corporations and already discovered a few industry standouts who have really embraced and leveraged the power of social media to have a dialogue with their consumers.  Surprisingly, there are a lot more who've barely made an entrance and are letting their opportunity to have dialogue and connect with a relevant audience pass them by.

I’ll be hosting a multi-part blog discussion series with members of The Social Media Club, examining the history of brand adoption and usage of social media channels as well as their impact on the community.  Listen in live on BlogTalk Radio, every Thursday at 4pm (edt) / 1pm (pst) and catch the episode recaps here on iMediaWorks Connect each Friday.

Next week, we’ll begin with “PART 1: The Digital Gold Rush” – be sure to tune in.