Tag: ROI

The ROI of WOM: Fusing Connections With Strategy

Posted on by Stefanie Peterson

Studies have gone back as far as the 1960s and WOM is the most powerful form of marketing and rightfully so! Think how powerful it is when a friend who actually uses a product evangelizes or gives his or her endorsement of the product. Trust is a big key.

92% of consumers believe in WOM making it the most important form of marketing. On that note, only 6% of marketers feel they are experts in WOM marketing and feel they need “more proof” since its very difficult to measure offline. Even if they may need proof for their own particular brand, WOM is responsible for $6 trillion of consumer spending each year.

WOM on average drives 13% of sales where all paid marketing is on average between 20-30%. Two-thirds of WOM is offline and is difficult to measure but can be tied to something that they saw online on social or in an email. Think of how often you talk to a co-worker or family member about an ad or post you saw in your news feed or Tweeted. You need to supplement your WOM marketing with paid ads because its likely that someone sees a paid ad and talks about it our tells a friend who goes to visit the site (both direct and indirect conversions).

WOM amplifies the affect of paid media by 15% and had a stronger and more immediate impact on the consumer. It appeared that conversions happened within two weeks of the recommendation, even for higher consideration items.

A WOM impression has more impact than a paid media impression but the increase is a wide gap (between 5x to 200x) depending on the pricing point, influence of the person who recommended, and budget. High consideration products and services are impacted more by WOM than a lower consideration product service.

Just starting your business? Make sure to work WOM into your marketing plan! New and smaller brands have a larger percentage of WOM marketing since they can dedicate the time to cultivating the relationship between the consumer and the brand. Lastly, we need to avoid the Paid vs. Earned silo because they work so closely together that it’s impossible to separate.

I want to thank Brad Fay, Lee Hurley, Beth Rockwood, Nancy Smith, Peter Storck, Erin Tavgac, and Jim Totten for a really great panel discussion. They really addressed a lot of concerns with measuring WOM and cutting through the noise.

Never Stop Learning: 10 Masterclasses You Can’t Miss

Posted on by Nicky Yates

Gandhi said, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

And we think it’s a good rule for life and business. Which is why we started bringing hands-on, practical classes to Social Media Week. This year, we’re giving you even more opportunities to leave SMW14 with practical skills that will advance your career or bolster your personal goals. These are ten you can’t miss next week:

  1. Navigating Internet Subcultures: Reddit, Tumblr, Snapchat, and Twitter
    If you want to get in, you got to be friends with the band. And the band so to speak of the Internet are the subcultures of Reddit, Tumblr, Snapchat, and Twitter. These subcultures can be some of the best sources of inspiration for real-time social media posts — but you need to understand them first. In this Masterclass, you’ll get the unwritten and incredibly nuanced rules of these communities and gain a playbook on how to use these sites as sources for real-time marketing.
  2. Build an Effective Email Newsletter (From Scratch!) with Basic HTML & CSS: Turn Likes into Sales
    Ok, we all know that email is one of the most effective ways to reach your audience (and we’ve been using and abusing that these past few weeks…), so that means knowing how to create campaigns and newsletters that people will open is critical to your marketing. So, we have two options on Tuesday and Friday for you in this Masterclass designed for beginners to learn how to create an e-mail newsletter from scratch.
  3. The Power of Hashtags: Case Studies and Mechanics for Both Users and Brands
    Oh, the hashtag… We love it in all its glory. But do you know how to really use it? In this Masterclass, Tagboard CEO Josh Decker will provide the do’s and don’ts from both the user and brand perspective, including case studies from some of the world’s biggest brands and professional sports teams.
  4. Building Wearables: A Hands-On Intro to Open-Source Interaction Platforms
    Put your phone down, it’s the year the wearable computing. And we’re teaching you how to be ahead of the curve. You’ll have two opportunities on Wednesday and Friday to create a basic wireless soft fashion cuff using an Adafruit Gemma.
  5. Data-Driven Channel, Content, and Campaign Intel, Presented by Unmetric
    Data, data, data. Decisions should be based on data to determine what content works best, and you’ll have two opportunities to learn how to use it. Unmetric is showing you the three C’s of social media intelligence and how social media marketers can use them to gain a competitive advantage on both Wednesday and Thursday.
  6. Your Spine Online, Rejuvenate and Reconnect with Breathe Repeat
    It’s not all work at SMW. Happy workers are more productive workers, and your health plays into that. So, that’s we’re bringing in Breathe Repeat to educate us all about our backbones and how being virtually connected can affect the natural flow of their own circuitry.
  7. Lean Marketing: “Think Like a Brand. Act Like a Startup.”
    Lean marketing is enabling brands, corporations and startups to accelerate speed to market, increase conversion rates, and improve customer engagement. It’s all about your ROI. In this Masterclass, General Assembly will share insights from this approach and how your brand can implement it.
  8. Making Longform Videos That People Will Watch
    Video is still king. But it’s not just shortform. Brands like VICE are seeing great success with more in-depth stories and longform content. In this Masterclass, Motherboard’s team will look at all aspects of video production, including finding story ideas, shooting, and editing.
  9. Winning The Participation Economy: Understanding Global Conversations and Developing a Social Strategy
    2014 brings us two global events that marketers can really capitalize on to create global conversations. How can brands stand out? Marketers of all sizes are welcome as Big Fuel shares the evolution of social media marketing and how it is changing once again in the context of global conversations. At the end of this Masterclass, you’ll have developed a sample social strategy.
  10. Programming For Non-Programmers
    Web development can no longer be relegated to an elite few. If you’re running a tech start-up, it’s essential that you know the fundamentals. Ultimately, knowing how to “talk to the talk” will help you communicate better with developers, and in this Masterclass, we’ll tackle development principles to get you on the right path and the differences between front and back-end development.

Masterclasses are a special offering for our attendees with a Campus or Insider Pass only and are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. So, get your pass here now before sales end on Friday and join us, Nokia, and MKG for what will be our best SMW14 yet.

Social Media Does, In Fact, Matter — To Every Kind Of Business

Posted on by Lane Blackmer

Let me be honest: I’m sick of seeing posts on LinkedIn looking for volunteers or interns to run social media. Furthermore, many of those that do offer pay, they are only suggesting a $30,000 salary.

The fact is this: those businesses misunderstand what social media is about — as do plenty of fresh-faced college graduates who think the job description consists of tweeting.

Social media managers and strategists don’t post on social media. They create, plan and execute marketing campaigns.

It’s all about social media strategy. Social media matters simply because of this fact — it’s new-age savvy marketing, not a just social tool.

2014: the year of salaried social media jobs

OK, so many businesses aren’t understanding the full importance of social media, but it’s at least important that businesses of every kind — non-profits, corporate and small businesses — recognize its potential. A staggering 88% of marketers would like to know the most effective social media uses.

Forbes declared last month that in 2014, investment in social media would be more than just a luxury — it will become necessary. A quick scan of social media-related postings on LinkedIn show that it’s true — many listings have the words “new position” embedded in there somewhere.

And there’s even data to back up that claim: Business Insider cited Constant Contact’s Small Businesses: Then and Now Survey saying that 87% of small businesses are using social media as a legitimate marketing tool.

The publication also predicted there’d be a vast expansion in these six social media-related jobs: SEO Specialist, Social Media Strategist, Online Community Manger, Social Media Marketing Manager, Social Media Marketing Coordinator, and Blogger or Social Media Copywriter.

This expansion makes sense. The Internet is accessible almost everywhere and folks are consuming more tidbits of information than ever.

People certainly take advantage of it.

According to Chelsea Krost, the average person has their smartphone with them 20 hours out of the entire day. And 80% of people reach for their smartphone when they wake up.

But why are so many skeptical to jump on the bandwagon?

Here’s the big question in social media for businesses: how do I measure the return on investment (ROI)?

That question isn’t easily answered — because there’s no way to be 100% sure you’re tracking the right data to prove this… or that you even can track the right data.

Every company is different. And sometimes it’s about trial and error to figure out which platform is most effective for your business. B2B companies seem to have a lot of success on LinkedIn; while B2C companies, depending on what they do and if they’re business or service oriented, can see great success on Twitter or Instagram.

Regardless, Social Media Examiner reported that some businesses actually have mastered tracking ROI. It seems like most of those businesses don’t have direct proof per se, but use of social media is the differing variable when the company started to see decreases in spending or increases in sales.

Either way, Social Media Examiner’s 2013 Report finds 89% of marketers surveyed claimed increased social media marketing increased exposure and site traffic.

Social media matters — and here’s why

When I talk about social media use I don’t mean quoting eccentric family members at Thanksgiving dinner on Twitter (though I’m guilty of this). I mean using it for marketing, branding, developing brand trust, hearing from individual customers, and doing damage control.

It’s pretty much a given that businesses, marketers, and even individuals (in a lot of fields, you market yourself) should care about these things.

A lot of businesses may not see an ROI on their social media, but the question should be this: why?

Sometimes it’s not about the use of social media as much as how it’s used. Social media can be used poorly or used well. Someone doing a company’s social media should be paid for their expertise — because social media is not just about posting on the platforms, it’s about posting content to the platforms.

According to HubSpot, companies that blog 15 times or more per month see an increase of five times the traffic on their site.

The other key to social media is persistence. Social Media Examiner’s 2013 Report also cited that companies using social media for three or more years said it helped by improving search rankings, creating more partnerships, generating ideas, increasing traffic, providing marketplace insight, and reducing marketing expenses — to name a few things.

Social media in use — effectively — isn’t just about posting. It’s about executing a strategy specifically tailored to a company — and it is proven to help marketing efforts.

So why aren’t you investing in social media?

Lane Blackmer is a self-employed former journalist. Although she’s no longer a newsie, Lane since discovered other uses for social media such as public relations, marketing, job searching and trying to win gift cards from her favorite local businesses through contests. Lane inhabits Philadelphia, where’s it’s not always sunny…but at least there’s cheese steaks. You can follow her on Twitter at @LaneBlackmer.

Image courtesy Social Media Examiner 2013 Report. Featured image courtesy Dan Meyers.

All Earned Media is Not Created Equal

Posted on by Nicky Yates

This week we’re hearing a lot about earned media, ROI, storytelling and brand ambassadors. But is all earned media the same?

Our partners House Party say no.

It’s a bold statement and they can back it up. Friday, they’ll be covering in more detail (and we recommend you check it out here). But to prepare, we think you’ll enjoy their newly released White Paper.

We know that creating experiences is invaluable for brands. It’s not about pushing out content; it’s about conversation and relationships. You hear it every year. But what may get overlooked is that experience-driven social marketing, when properly done, can be the most powerful medium in the mix.

Brands seek out earned media over paid media because it is the most powerful form of advertising. The same should be true for experience-driven advertising. The deeper engagement of in-person brand experiences will ultimately drive stronger advocacy. This leads to bigger and longer-lasting brand and sales lifts. And the better you do, the stronger results.

But it doesn’t stop there. If you have a truly experience-driven social presence, then the rest of what you do is so much more effective- and much more measurable.

“Experience-driven social wins hearts and minds.” House Party has found that experience-driven social can increase favorability by 161%, advocacy by 206%, and purchase-intent by 187%. That’s impressive.

“Experience-driven social opens wallets.” House Party also found that it can increase sales by 10% and ROI by $2, in gross profit.

What’s more, if you do your campaign well, you come out with incredible content, and user-generated content at that. There’s also more opt-ins, feedback and audience feedback. This all goes back to your ROI- and doesn’t let up.

The moral of the story? Create experiences. Download House Party’s White Paper to learn more- then join us tomorrow to engage in a deep discussion around it.

A Student’s Perspective: Why Engagement Should Be Spelled A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N

Posted on by smwnyc

Trinna Leong is a student at Columbia’s School of Journalism. She is one of ten students providing on the ground coverage of SMWNYC- all from the student’s perspective. She is providing her report from Why Engagement Should Be Spelled A-T-T-E-N-T-I-O-N, hosted by SocialVibe.

“If you are asking for someone to pay attention, you are probably doing the wrong thing.”

Engaging consumers has been a difficult task for all advertisers in today’s fast paced age. The day’s panel of five industry experts in the field of advertising and marketing came together to discuss what works and what doesn’t in capturing audience’s attention.

“People are more interested in being the curator, purveyor,” said Vanessa Montes, Vice President of Integrated Marketing at Fuse. All panelists agreed that consumers usually pay attention through “word of mouth” when friends introduce an item or brand.

That said, brands would want to generate positive talk-ability amongst its audience. Examples given by the panel included the Chipotle ad that aired at the Grammys; an ad that Adrian Barrow, Head of Planning at JWT’s New York office, thought was “artful” (while stating that overall “brands have developed the touch on how to behave on entertainment channels”); and the PETA ad that Michael Learmonth, Digital Editor at Advertising Age, felt strongly against. With the PETA ad, Leamonth felt that the message was that being vegan increases sex drive, but by painting a woman who looks sexually abused, PETA was not sending out a positive message.

Another key point brought up by the panelists is that in social media networks, brands have ended up looking at numbers instead of content. Quantity has been ranked higher than quality, causing brands to lose sight of engagement with their audience.

“Social media is a media that exists between people. For it to pay off, it has to be nurtured,” added Ian Schafer, CEO and founder of Deep Focus.

“Instead of focusing on number of likes and posts, advertisers should focus on what people are talking about on the page,” said Schafer.

The general consensus from the panelists was that advertisers in the midst of trying to pull in more fans end up failing to determine what to do with the fans they have on social media. The worst metric to measure is one that measures how long users spend on a page.

Barrow also argued that consumers now want “something that can help them make the best use of their time” because then “they’ll award brands with some attention.” This defines a new role for agencies to produce new ideas that is useful for consumers.

Panelists also commented on the importance of brands making sure that their brand stays relevant by encouraging audiences to talk about the brand instead of the celebrity that endorses it. Ultimately, the main takeaway for brands is to have engagement fueled by consumers not by brands.

 
Trinna Leong is from Malaysia and had two years of work experience in the online advertising industry before deciding to trade the sweltering tropical heat for a chance to pursue journalism at Columbia University. Prior to switching fields, she has worked on projects for Nike, IKEA and Citibank. You can follow her on Twitter at @trinnaleong.