by Pam Dyer on September 18, 2011
A new study by marketing firm Constant Contact and research company Chadwick Martin Bailey sheds light on how consumers interact with brands on Facebook. According to 10 Quick Facts You Should Know About Consumer Behavior on Facebook (below), it turns out that people engage with their favorite brands on Facebook far more than on any other social network.
CMB asked 1,491 respondents to share their social media habits. The data shows that more than half of Americans over the age of 18 spend an hour or more each week on Facebook, and over a quarter of them are connecting with their favorite brands.
Read More
by Pam Dyer on September 4, 2011
A new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project on social media reveals that nearly two-thirds of adults on the Internet say they use social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, up slightly from a year ago. Drilling down further, the research also shows that social media use among Baby Boomers is growing at a faster clip — among users aged 50-64, 33% say they visit a social network daily, a 20% increase from last year.
Among online adults:
- 83% of 18-29 year-olds
- 70% of 30-49 year-olds
- 51% of 50-64 year-olds, and
- 33% of those ages 65 and older
use social-networking sites.
Users generally enjoy their experiences, describing them as mostly “good”:
Read More
by Pam Dyer on August 14, 2011
Meaningful exchanges constantly take place all over the social Web on a variety of platforms, connecting people and enabling them to share, critique, and interact with content 
and with each other. The type of information we share reveals a lot about who we are, who we know, and what we know — people tend to talk about the things they care about/are most knowledgeable about with others who are interested in similar subjects. The impact of those relationships affects our Web authority.
Social influence occurs when a person’s thoughts, feelings, or actions are affected by others. Essentially, influence is the art of persuasion — the ability to cause a change in mindset or actions so someone thinks or behaves in a certain way. In the world of social media marketing, influence is currency. In order to raise awareness, foster brand advocacy, win attention, and generate real-world action, businesses want to know the answers to questions like:
- Who are the influencers in my brand category and how do I find them?
- What are they saying about my brand?
- How many of my Twitter followers are clicking my links and retweeting my content?
- Does my Facebook page create the kind of engagement I’d hoped?
- What is my brand’s “true reach”?
Read More
by Pam Dyer on July 30, 2011
Social media is about more than marketing and branding — it’s quickly becoming an essential part of customer outreach for brands. In addition to using social platforms to monitor conversations about their industry, competitors, and products, companies are increasingly reaching out to to their customers via the social Web to communicate messages about what they have to offer. In fact, social media is transforming the way organizations communicate — the many social tools that are available today are very cost-effective compared to traditional approaches such as email and online advertising. Blog posts and tweets enable businesses to create communities, offer immediate feedback or assistance, and promote their products and services.
A surprising number of companies of all sizes have yet to use social media as a communication tool. Socialcast has compiled an interesting infographic that visualizes data ![using social media as a customer communication tool Using Social Media as a Communication Tool [Infographic]](http://www.pamorama.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/using-social-media-as-a-customer-communication-tool.jpg "using-social-media-as-a-customer-communication-tool")
from many sources, including eMarketer, the Center for Marketing at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and Nielsen, about how Fortune 500 companies use social media. The majority of companies studied found social platforms such as blogging, social networking, and online video to be successful. (In March of last year, I shared some data about about how Fortune 100 companies were using social media at the time.)
Read More
by Pam Dyer on July 16, 2011
Google+ (or is it “Google Plus”?), the search giant’s big social initiative, has arrived and there’s a lot to learn. Google’s answer to Facebook has been in the works for a year and has been delayed several times due to disagreements about its design, purpose, and execution. Facebook’s threat to Google’s domination of the Web was a wake-up call that ignited the development of the new social platform. Even though Facebook’s traffic seems to be slowing in the U.S. and Canada, the network’s exponential growth frightened Google’s leadership into taking action. When Facebook discovered the company’s plans, it went into “lockdown” for 60 days and focused on completing new features like Facebook Groups, Facebook Messages, and Facebook Places.
Google refers to Google+ as a “project” rather than a product, stressing that its goal is to make Google itself more social rather than being a standalone social network that competes directly with Facebook. “It’s ‘Plus’ because it takes products from Google and makes them better and ‘project’ because it’s an ongoing set of products,” said Vic Gundotra, Google’s senior vice president of Social. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably, well, a duck. And Google+ looks like and quacks like Facebook in many ways.
Read More
by Pam Dyer on June 26, 2011
In an effort to build customer engagement, an increasing number of airlines are creating an active social media presence — Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, and check-in locations for location-based apps. SimpliFlying, “a unique blog offering insights, hindsights, and foresights into the world of airline and airport branding”, has created an infographic that shows how the airline industry has allocated resources to social media. We all know that it’s easy to set up social media profiles, but many brands fail to follow through and dedicate the huge amount of time and energy it takes to gain followers and create meaningful dialog. And who could forget the string of recent airline-industry PR debacles that had the companies scrambling to redeem themselves? These days, a social-media presence is vital for public relations, branding, marketing — everything, really.
Read More
