Blog: How Important is Your Facebook Brand Page to Your Social Media Strategy?

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been interviewing marketing executives for an eMarketer report looking at budgeting for social media in 2011. It’s been a fascinating exercise; the businesses I’ve spoken to are quickly leaving behind the experimental stage and moving toward full integration of social media.

One of the key questions confronting marketers as they develop their 2011 budgets is how much emphasis they should place on their branded Facebook page, and how much action (and interaction) they should logically expect. Last week, Shiv Singh, head of digital for PepsiCo Americas Beverages, asked this question of his Twitter followers:

How many Facebook users are active on pages versus the newsfeed and profiles? What percentage of users visit pages often. Wish I knewless than a minute ago via webShiv Singh
shivsingh

It’s an important thing to ask. There’s been a long-held belief that consumers are too busy interacting with friends to pay attention to brands in social media. But Facebook’s Like button has changed that. In a study of the ways US Internet users interact with brands online, ExactTarget found that 38% have followed at least one brand by clicking on a “Like” button, while 5% followed at least one brand on Twitter.

According to a survey by DDB Worldwide, 27% of people who have liked a brand on Facebook say they often click that little thumbs-up button, and an additional 49% do it occasionally.

These brand interactions are growing, but by no means are they taking the place of interacting with friends. ROI Research and Performics found in a survey conducted this past spring that 25% of US Facebook users visit company or product pages, but 54% make comments about other people’s posts.

What does this mean when it comes to budgeting for social media next year? A few things:

Consumers are more willing to interact with branded pages. It’s time to banish the idea that brands are ignored in social media. Brian Solis predicts in his blog that because of Facebook’s position as the center of social interaction on the web, by this time next year, marketers will spend “more time and resources on Facebook than you will on Twitter.”Interactions with branded pages will be a key metric to watch in 2011. As Singh’s question indicates, it’s one thing to know how many Likes you have, but how often do those fans actually interact with your page? The top brands on Facebook may have millions of followers, but the more important metric will be their actual interactions with the brand (and, of course, the effect of those interactions on product sales).The Like button isn’t just for social media. Jennifer Van Grove, writing on Mashable, described how the Golden State Warriors basketball team increased its Facebook “like” base by 20% by sending e-mail marketing messages asking fans to like the team in exchange for an opportunity to win tickets to preseason games.

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Blog: Will Yahoo!’s New Partnerships Help Rebuild Its Brand?

The same week Google introduced its local recommendation service Hotpot and Facebook announced its new messaging platform, Yahoo! said it formed partnerships with online gaming company Zynga and several coupon sites and local deal networks. But will these moves help make Yahoo! more significant again among users and advertisers?

Yahoo! is still the leading email property in the US, despite all the hoopla surrounding Google’s Gmail vs. Facebook’s “mail.” At the Web 2.0 Summit this week, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz said, “We serve 6 million different front pages a day”—her way of saying, “Yes, we’re still relevant.”

But is it? Much of Yahoo!’s business now relies on other companies. Its search business is outsourced to Microsoft. And rather than acquire or organically grow a “deals” platform, as Facebook and Google have done, Yahoo! has gone the outsourcing route. Its new “Local Offers” and “Daily Deals” are based on partnerships with four of the top five group-buying websites in the US—Groupon, LivingSocial, BuyWithMe and Tippr—as well as other local and deal sites, including Lifebooker and Coupons.com.

On one hand, these deals could put Yahoo! a step ahead of Google and Facebook, which are still building user bases for their own social commerce platforms. On the other hand, Facebook and Google are so hot right now that it’s tough to imagine consumers (or marketers) straying too far away.

Then there’s the partnership with Zynga. Ad spending on social games and applications is already on the rise. eMarketer forecasts spending to increase 33% in the US between 2009 and 2011, as my colleague Paul Verna wrote about earlier this week, and Zynga is a leader in the space. The partnership will boost traffic to Yahoo! Games and increase awareness—and, Yahoo! hopes, ad dollars—for other properties and games on the site.

Meanwhile, Yahoo! has a chance to build its popularity among gamers and users by partnering with Zynga. Teenagers surveyed by Roiworld and OTX in April 2010 said they spend 2.6 hours a week on Yahoo! Games, far less than the 4.8 hours per week they spent on Zynga, or the 7 hours they played games on Facebook. By aligning with a more popular brand, Yahoo! has the potential to increase time spent on its games site, which makes it more valuable for marketers who want to advertise, do in-game promotions or develop more innovative ways to interact with users.

The lingering question now is, “Will consumers use these new features?” Zynga, Groupon and several of the other local deal sites already have established user bases, so that helps.

But Yahoo! can’t continue to rely on the power of Zynga and others to improve its ad business. Now is the time to be innovative with its advertising and marketing platforms, building upon these partnerships with new ways for marketers to reach Yahoo! users. Both Google and Facebook have made mobile a major part of their new initiatives, so where is Yahoo!’s mobile element? How is Yahoo! improving its measurement and metrics for marketers? If Yahoo! can innovate, as well as continue to strike new partnerships, marketers will pay attention to the brand, even as it continues to face off with Facebook and Google.

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Article: Food, Drink and Entertainment Top Brand Discussions

The first edition of “TalkTrack Great Britain,” commissioned by Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), News International and ESPN from Keller Fay Group, was the UK pilot of a study carried out in the US since 2006. TalkTrack surveys aim to discover how much consumers are influenced by word-of-mouth discussions about brands.

Keller Fay analyzed 14,000 brand conversations by 2,500 adults during two weeks in May 2010. Subjects recorded details of their talk about brands, such as when and how these discussions took place, which media were mentioned, and what the prevailing mood of each conversation was. Researchers also contacted the conversation partners of the 2,500 primary subjects, and asked whether the exchanges had influenced their views of a brand or their purchase intentions.

The most common category popping up in brand conversations was food and dining (mentioned by 64% of people each day). Media and entertainment was a close second (63%), with beverages in third place (57%).

62% of brand discussions were "mostly positive."

But some demographics were more likely than others to share positive views.

Adults earning at least £15,000 ($21,000) a year were more likely to make positive comments about brands, as were married people and those with children. Older people did not often venture complimentary statements, but they also made fewer negative comments—perhaps because many took a “polite” approach and were not inclined to disparage advertisers overtly.

Younger consumers, ages 18 to 24, appeared harder to please. Their conversations included “a high proportion of negative comments about brands overall,” said a Keller Fay representative. Yet consumers in this age group were more likely to be influenced by and refer to media and marketing.

36% of people who mentioned a brand were very likely to make a purchase.

Keller Fay also identified a crucial group of “Conversation Catalysts”: the 8% of respondents who exercised the greatest influence in brand discussions. Members of this self-selecting group were wealthier than the average and more likely to be in a professional job. They mentioned more than twice as many brands each day as the average consumer, and had almost twice as many connections in their social networks.

Advertising was the biggest single media prompt for word-of-mouth discussions, mentioned in 17% of cases. Editorial content, websites and point-of-sale displays were less influential.

Interestingly, the great majority (81%) of brand conversations took place face-to-face, while about 11% happened on the telephone, Keller Fay reported. Only 7% were online.

On this point, TalkTrack results reinforced the conclusions of the “TouchPoints 3” survey by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, for which Ipsos sampled about 6,000 UK respondents between September 2009 and March 2010. Ipsos found that 78% of brand conversations were held face-to-face, with 16% on the phone and 6% online. (This survey took place largely during the winter, which might account for a higher proportion of conversations on the phone, rather than face-to-face.)

Both sets of figures suggest that online discussions about brands play a relatively small role in forming consumers’ views. Yet the internet was the channel most frequently mentioned when media and marketing for brands were discussed, according to the TalkTrack study.

And there is independent evidence that UK web users are open to being involved directly with brands on social media. A study by Connect Insight found that 57% of internet users ages 16 and older polled in June 2010 were interested in doing this.

Here too the attraction of the entertainment and food and drink categories was clear; overall, 23% of respondents said they would be interested in engaging with entertainment, film and music brands, while 16% expressed an interest in food and drink.

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Check out today’s other article, “Email Still Tops Facebook for Keeping in Touch.”

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Marketing Strategies and Brand Management – Tom and Jerry Tales

By krish on February 10th, 2010  

Business likes to build brands that last. But not all brands last the distance or the time to stand firm in the consumers’ minds. It takes more than mere advertising and promotion to establish brands that live on forever, being looked upon fondly by generations together. Successful brands outlive the normal product lifecycle expected of products in a similar category, while they continue to provide high quality consumer service.

There are brands that were founded decades ago and still continue to rock the market – but it’s not that these brands were conceived with the intention of making them last for generations. The idea behind such brand building originally is to produce quality products and give it a tag that appeals to the target market. Consider the example of two of the most famous cartoon characters in human history. As you would have probably guessed, they are Tom and Jerry. Tom and Jerry cartoons are so powerful and all-pervasive that they still resonate among young minds as their favourite pals.

Tom and Jerry cartoon first came to light, showcasing the animated characters as rivals trying to outwit each other, seventy years ago, in February 1940. Since then, Tom and Jerry tales have been part of every child’s dream, tickling them with their funny anecdotes and hilarious crusades. And having been around as the most sought after entertainment brands for seven decades, they still create the same magic that they are used to creating. There are people who have grown up watching the cat fights between Tom and Jerry and there are kids who are just being introduced to the famous characters. And they appeal to people of all ages and make them forget their problems for a brief while that they are on screen.

Coming to think of it, Tom and Jerry haven’t tried to reinvent themselves to match the changing times. The brands haven’t tried hard to stay in tune with the electronic age, apart from the way they have adapted to being seen on the DVD and YouTube channel. But their core value has been around entertaining children and making people laugh. They have stuck to their knitting and have not diversified into unrelated territory. Tom chases Jerry and Jerry hits back – and the Tom and Jerry tales have been simple, extremely hilarious and have stayed focussed on the central theme. And they have consistently delivered value to consumers.

The secret behind marketing success is just that – to be focussed on value delivery and in making sure the brand management is tightly knit around its core. If products can achieve that and appeal to their target market the way Tom and Jerry have done, they would outlive the conventional limits imposed by product lifecycles.

Passion for Writing and Business; Post-graduation in Management; Some useful managerial experience and International Exposure; Belief in Risk-taking and in the spirit of the entrepreneur. That's me.

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