The 2012 Social Media Status Update

2012 Social Media Status Update Leah Messina │ CEO of Sinuate Media Emily Summers │ Principal of Market Torque October 2012

2012 Social Media Status Update

© Market Torque and Sinuate Media, 2012 2

About Sinuate Media Sinuate Media is The Organic Marketing Company. We envision and execute digital marketing strategies that encompass custom crafted solutions for unique companies. From the spark of an initial idea to a fully engaged plan, Sinuate Media provides a single source for all digital marketing needs. Contact: Leah Messina, CEO 443.992.4691 [email protected] sinuatemedia.com facebook.com/sinuatemedia About Market Torque Market Torque is committed to bringing fresh ideas sparked by rigorous research and intellect to new start-‐ups and ventures. Our core mission is to provide strategic marketing advisory services to companies that are looking for fast growth and getting traction in creative ways. We are entrepreneurs who are passionate about helping companies engage their audiences in meaningful ways. Contact: Emily Summers, Principal 703.869.2538 [email protected] markettorque.com facebook.com/markettorque



Who should read this: Entrepreneurs, business owners, and marketing executives who want to know more about the most important and effective components of a successful social media campaign. Table of Contents 1. Introduction—The Current State of Social Media .................................4

2. Why You Should Care.........................................................................................5

3. What You Need to Know...................................................................................6

4. Addressing Challenges.................................................................................... 10

5. Resources ............................................................................................................. 12



Introduction—The Current State of Social Media Since its inception, social media has been on a path of rapid advancement. Though it has been only a few years since “social media” became the buzzword in marketing and consumer circles alike, the advent of digital and mobile technologies have skyrocketed its usage so much so that it has become ingrained in nearly everyone’s life. While consumers are quick to adopt the new technology, marketers rush to adopt. The purpose of the Annual Social Media Status Update is to help entrepreneurs, business owners and marketing executives see where the technology stands and what lies on the horizon each year. Social media is ubiquitous among all ages, demographics, and most geographic locations.1 In the United States, the birthplace of many of the social networking tools that have gained in popularity, penetration has been especially high with 98% of the population using social networking.2 Social media makes lives easier but also causes more disruptions since consumers are now always “connected.” And it is not just for fun. While social media has changed the landscape of peer interactions, it also has infiltrated and changed the operations of search engine navigation, retail and e-‐commerce, political campaigning, customer relationship management, and sales. In addition, while it is true that women once adapted to social media at a faster rate than men, they are no longer the fastest growing group. In fact, that accolade belongs to males and users who are 55+. The younger, Digital Natives, prefer the interaction and depth of social networking. Email and instant messaging are aging technologies for which they have declining interest. Though first introduced in 2010, mobile technology has gained tremendous adoption in 2012 with the increased comfort with Apps, App Stores, and new ways to create content via mobile to share socially. Entrepreneurs, business owners and marketing executives are faced with the dilemma of reaching consumers on multiple screens—television, computer, tablet, and mobile phone—and finding ways to engage socially on each platform, sometimes simultaneously.

1 Pew Internet 2 ComScore Media Metrics, October 2011



1. Why You Should Care Whether your customers are consumers or other businesses, having some social aspect is important. Below are three main reasons that building and maintaining a strong social presence makes sense for entrepreneurs and marketing executives. Marketing Presence has a New Definition Of the Top 100 Inc. Fastest Growing Companies, nearly 77% of them are on Facebook and 71% on LinkedIn. These are two must-‐have social networking tools for 2012. For those with additional abilities to invest resources into their social media marketing, Twitter and YouTube are the next most popular. Sixty-‐six percent of businesses on the Inc. Fastest Growing Companies list are on Twitter, followed by 32% on YouTube. Less than 9% are not using social media. Your Customers are Online Inevitably, customers will take to social media to complain about a product, service, or brand when they are unhappy. Businesses must listen and monitor these conversations to protect their brands and address customer issues before they potentially escalate into a public relations nightmare. For example, JetBlue Airways uses Tweets to push out information about flights (see right). Targeting is at Your Fingertips Digital advertising has made tremendous advances in the last year. It is now possible to set up and run campaigns from Google AdWords and Bing to both websites and mobile devices. Targeting is getting better. Facebook has launched options for Broad Targeting or Precise Targeting, enabling the advertiser to handpick interests by category or keyword for who should receive their ad. Google predicts that by 2015, 75% of display ads will become socially-‐enabled, meaning the ads themselves will be interactive and integrated into social activity.3 There will be a major shift in focus from the consumer to mobile devices, and advertisers will follow, making the mobile screen the primary place to advertise by 2015. In addition, more than half of online ads will also contain video as advertisers look for ways to cut through the distraction of the surrounding environments, while aiming to provide a richer and more engaging experience. 3 Google, “Seven Display Ad Predictions”



2. What You Need to Know In this section, each of the major social media tools is given a score based upon how well they serve the marketing needs of small businesses. Because small and large businesses have different needs, the grades would be different for large organizations. As marketing consultants specializing in the digital and small business marketing spaces, we share our experience of the Good and the Bad features of each tool to help entrepreneurs, business owners and marketing executives determine their optimal mix. We start this section with a scoring guideline.

How We Scored:

A – Overall, it meets the needs of small business and may generate a positive impact. It is within a reasonable budget to implement and provides the best amount of exposure for the effort.

B – Can serve a small business in generating exposure but may take either more effort or funding than other options. Typically, can be implemented with additional external assistance.

C – Rarely recommended due to significant technology knowledge, funding, and/or creative expertise needed in order to successfully leverage the tool.

D – Not recommended for marketing a small business. Either not the right audience, or requires too much financial investment with uncertain return on exposure.

Facebook GRADE: A In 2012, Facebook continues to dominate the social media scene. Nearing the one billion-‐member mark, for most businesses, it makes sense to have a presence there through a Page and/or advertising. However, this year has been full of changes for the social networking behemoth. In March, they rolled out major changes to their design with the launch of Timeline, a departure from the Wall as we knew it. Having gone public in May 2012, Facebook is increasingly looking for new ways to monetize as they transition from a social networking to “primarily an advertising platform,” as a Facebook executive recently stated. We can expect to see ads change in response to this. The Good: For businesses, their most beneficial tool provides the ability to create a business page that creates a platform for recruiting and communicating with people who are asked to “like” your page (equivalent to a “fan”). It is free to sign up and gets added points for increasing the ability



to brand the page in keeping with your company’s look and feel. Insights, or page analytics, provide valuable data about the audience of the fans, which lean and intelligent companies can leverage for their interactive marketing plans. For more advanced users, Facebook also provides the ability to integrate aspects of the page into the business’s website, enabling positive cross-‐promotion. Plus, who doesn’t want to leverage an audience of nearly one billion potential customers? In addition, highly sophisticated and recently enhanced targeting allows you to identify prospective users efficiently saving costs in travel, tradeshows and other traditional targeting methods. The Bad: Like most social media, managing a Facebook Page is a time commitment, and can come with some stumbling. This is a challenge for smaller businesses with limited resources. Outsourcing the management and maintenance with teams including consultants and interns is a legitimate solution. It also may take some time to build up your audience to a meaningful threshold as well as post content that resonates with those fans. Advertising tends to be more expensive than others and click thru rates are lower than networks like Google and Bing. They believe the higher cost is justified since they are able to target by more detailed options such as interest and activity, such as other pages liked on Facebook. Twitter GRADE: B+ The microblogging site, Twitter, has not yet reached its saturation point. In fact, it is continuing to grow at a rate faster than Facebook. Since it does have a smaller member base, there is more room to continue growth. It is expected to obtain 5M more members in 2012, bringing them up to 28.7M total. Who are these new visitors? Primarily 18-‐24 year olds4 are flocking to Twitter. For businesses looking to reach this market, Twitter may be worth the time investment to engage them there. For 25-‐34 year olds, there has been a decline (as perhaps many of these users are now spending time on Pinterest), along with users over 64.

4 eMarketer, June 13, 2012, “Daily Twitter Use on the Rise” http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1009113



The Good: Twitter is an excellent resource for the right kind of business. It provides a robust platform for timely conversation and pushing out relevant information on current trends, topics and targeted updates. It is easy to set up and integrate into other platforms such as Facebook and the blog publishing tool, Wordpress. It is also an excellent tool for researching the latest trends globally or regionally. The Bad: The biggest complaint smaller businesses have about Twitter is that they still “don’t get it.” Much of this concern can be attributed to the fact that the businesses don’t really know what to say, how they will be perceived, and how they will attract other members. It also gets knocked down a point for lack of insights or analytics. On the right is a chart forecasting the growth of Facebook and Twitter users. LinkedIn GRADE: A- LinkedIn has securely carved out its place as the only business-‐to-‐business social network. While some think of the site as just a collection of resumes, those that use it to virtually “work the room” get much more out of it. The Good: LinkedIn is where connections come to life, and for the business community, it can be like panning for gold. As a great repository of information, many companies are finding success in using LinkedIn for competitive research, to search for trending topics that can spark content for blogs & newsletters, and to showcase one’s expertise. It also allows you to post questions to your groups, participate in discussions and target specific groups virtually. It is very simple to maintain once you have set up a LinkedIn profile. With their recent acquisition of SlideShare, the presentation-‐sharing site, we can expect to see improvements in the way content is shared throughout LinkedIn. The Bad: Some may be hesitant to share their connections with others or give away too much background information, so crafting your personal brand truly elevates in importance here. Expect to get invitations to connect from people you do not know, especially job seekers and salespeople. Determine who truly is a legitimate connection (you know the person or have a mutual contact) before accepting the request.



YouTube GRADE: B The majority of video-‐sharing sites have shuttered as the cost of hosting video has risen. However, YouTube, with its integration with Google search and Facebook for sharing, has reigned as the leading video sharing website. But for the business community, the value of YouTube truly depends on one’s industry. For many small companies, they struggle with developing video content for numerous reasons, particularly cost and content. The Good: Now with improved analytics and a change in profile layout, YouTube can be more meaningful to marketers who want to know what kind of influence their video content is having. Video is increasingly prevalent online and can increase the time spent on one’s website. The Bad: The biggest challenge, and the reasons YouTube received a lower mark is because small businesses have a serious issue will developing affordable, effective, and interesting video content. Without video content, YouTube cannot provide much value to the business and stalls them from embracing video content marketing. There are two new social networks vying for attention: Google+ and Pinterest. Though they have been around for a short time, both have received a lot of attention, especially as brands begin to dabble in using them as marketing tools. Google+ GRADE: B- After some unsuccessful attempts at launching a social network, many are wondering if Google+ is the one that works. It grew to 25 million visitors in less than a month, making it the fastest growing social network ever. However, Google has a leg up compared to other start-‐up networks. Its “embeddedness” into our culture with Gmail, YouTube, etc. has made its “learning curve” shorter and its sign up easier. William Sonoma, Zagat, and MAKE magazine are brands actively using Google+. It is a space to watch in 2013 as more brands test out customer engagement with their Google+ Pages.



Pinterest GRADE: B+ Pinterest, a virtual pin boards network, has been readily adopted by creative types and the brands that attract them. Real Simple (see example on right), L’Occitane, Lacoste, and Sephora are some of the brands that are embracing the new phenomenon and pinning photos. The site caters to the shortened attention span by offering a simple product that primarily relies on visual elements. The site also skews heavily female—80% of its members are female, with the majority aged 25-‐445. Supported by direct integration with Facebook and Twitter, they have succeeded in eliminating the need to create a separate profile on Pinterest, which is ideal as consumers are feeling social media fatigue. 3. Addressing Challenges Throughout this whitepaper, we have discussed general trends in social media, why social media can be valuable for small businesses, as well as the tools that can be helpful. In deciding on how to optimize your social media presence, there are three main challenges you will likely or have already encountered. This section is devoted to our recommendations for addressing each of these challenges. Challenge #1: Creating Content The major challenges businesses now face with managing their social presence is the constant development of content. Simple and efficient ways to develop content for your social profiles are to look at existing marketing and sales material, such as white papers, newsletters, articles written for trade publications, or training material written for clients. Often times, these pieces can be broken down into smaller chunks suitable for social media. Don’t forget to look at what marketing is already happening for your business, such as attending trade shows or speaking engagements. Photos, video, and even information promoting these events will contain valuable information that can be posted to Facebook, Twitter, and others. 5 Living the Path, April 2012, http://community.pathoftheblueeye.com/Data/data-‐pinterests-‐user-‐demographics-‐april-‐2012



Challenge #2: Leveraging Connections While some businesses may easily collect new fans, they will now be looking to leveraging those connections to turn into actual customers. For those in a business-‐to-‐business environment or even online business, social media can be beneficial for warming sales leads. Having an integrated marketing campaign will go a long way to do this. This means your sales efforts, email marketing, and offline marketing support your social media. On the flip side, your social media should publicize contacts at your companies for customer service or sales questions, encourage newsletter sign ups, and direct potential leads to in-‐person events and meetings. For those in a retail environment, social media can be very useful to promote sales, rebates, coupon codes, and other promotions for customers. Proactively promoting and submitting coupon codes to sites such as RetailMeNot.com and CouponChief.com is a way to support such efforts. Challenge #3: Investing Wisely in a Changing Landscape What is your money and time best spent on when it comes to social media? That is the question that many businesses have, especially when there seems to be new “It” tools launching each day. This was especially true earlier on in the lifecycle of social media when sites like Friendster and MySpace popped onto the scene, and then fizzled out. However, social media has since evolved and the platforms are much more engrained into our culture than its predecessors. With membership in the millions of users, nearly every business can now make the case to invest in one or more social networks. A combination of content on owned properties of the business (a company website, blog) with presence on social networks (Facebook, Pinterest, etc.) provides both a comprehensive presence for the business as well as the opportunity to protect the investment. Repurposing content across all channels is also an ideal way to get more mileage from your work.



4. Resources Social Media News & Tips Mashable—www.mashable.com Social Media Examiner—www.socialmediaexaminer.com Social Media Explorer—www.socialmediaexplorer.com The Social Media Marketing Blog—www.scottmonty.com SEOmoz Blog—www.seomoz.org/blog Brian Solis—www.briansolis.com Social Media Today—http://socialmediatoday.com Social Networks & Platforms Facebook—www.facebook.com Twitter—www.twitter.com LinkedIn—www.linkedin.com YouTube—www.youtube.com Pinterest—www.pinterest.com Google+—www.google.com/plus Blogging & Web Publishing Tools WordPress—www.wordpress.com / www.wordpress.org Tumblr—www.tumblr.com Blogger—www.blogger.com HubSpot—www.hubspot.com Social Media Tools HootSuite—www.hootsuite.com Management tool for posting & scheduling updates to a range of social networks. Cyfe—www.cyfe.com For metric-‐lovers, an analytics dashboard for monitoring the progress of your social networking profile & web traffic. Involver—www.involver.com Apps for Facebook Pages, like Twitter, Slides, Contests Wildfire Interactive—www.wildfireinteractive.com Apps for Facebook Pages Tabsite—www.tabsite.com Apps for Facebook Pages, for running contests, posting photos, email signup forms, and more