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A CHASE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP INITIATIVE
BRAND-BUILDING IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA SPACE
Trends, tools, tactics and tips to help guide your business towards successful social media engagement.
THE SOCIAL ECONOMY AND THE DIGITAL CULTURE CONVERGEThe ascendance of social media has started a new kind of conversation among consumers and companies that is challenging the practices of traditional marketing and brand management.
From blogs and social networks to mobile devices and analytics – the social economy is being shaped by the digital culture. Consumers form online communities, interact with others who share their interests, and talk to brands they care about, forcing businesses to align their behavior with an empowered audience that is:
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Firmly in control of the message and the content.
Unwilling to be bombarded with marketing promotions.
Free to push back against brands.
Willing to get advice from socially networked friends and colleagues.
They also influence purchase decisions. In his book Socialnomics, social media thought leader Erik Qualman says, “Ninety percent of consumers trust peer recommendations while only fourteen percent trust advertisements. What it means: customers are going out to the social networks to ask for opinions on products. If you aren’t there, you don’t know what they are saying about you.”1 Those that fail to embrace social media or attempt it without planning properly risk losing more than just ground to their competitors. So what’s a marketer to do?
How do you get your arms around such a fast-paced, information-intensive field? What steps can you take to capitalize on the potential for growth? What resources will you need to cost-effectively engage consumers in social conversations and build your brand, your reputation and your bottom line? Let’s begin with some insight on the current landscape.
PREVAILING ATTITUDES
The Harvard Business Review Analytic Services released a study that took the pulse of 2,100 business leaders on the relevance of social media to their companies and found:
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69 percent agreed that social media use in their organizations would grow significantly over the next few years.
46 percent indicated that implementing social media programs was a core component of their company’s marketing strategy.
61 percent believed they have a steep learning curve to overcome before they can utilize social media.
50 percent believed social media would not be taken seriously until its impact can be measured and results tied back to return on investment.
Realists and skeptics voiced their opinions too. Social media tools were viewed as not very relevant by 21 percent, while the smallest segment (11 percent) believed that using social media for business purposes was a passing fad.
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“ Businesses don’t have the choice on whether to do social media; the choice is on how well they do it.”
– Erik Qualman, Socialnomics
1. Qualman, Erik, Socialnomics, 2013.
“ Build it, and they will come” only works in the movies. Social Media is a “build it, nurture it, engage them, and they may come and stay.”
– Seth Godin,
Best Selling Author
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ADOPTION DRIVERS
Sensitivity to both customer expectations and attitudes ranks highly among businesses that are using social media. Respondents to a recent online survey* of 1,020 marketing professionals conducted by Chief Marketer indicated that social media made sense for their organizations because it:
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Offers multiple touch points so customers and prospects can find them.
Reaches customers where they spend time.
Achieves viral spread of marketing message.
Additionally, the Harvard study found that thousands of U.S. companies believed social media and the technologies that enable it generate unfiltered consumer feedback and a better understanding of how customers perceive their brand – faster and less costly than traditional methods.
Survey results from the 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report fielded by the Social Media Examiner show that increased exposure and increasing traffic are the top two user benefits of social media marketing as reflected in the chart below. A robust 92 percent of the more than 2,800 marketers who participated in the survey indicated that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses.
There have been some positive changes since the 2013 study as marketers reported advances in developing loyal fans (up to 72 percent from 65 percent) followed by increased sales, which bumped up to 50 percent from 43 percent.
The Benefits of Social Media Marketing
92%
80%
72%
71%
66%
61%
58%
51%
50%
Increased exposure
Increased traffic
Developed loyal fans
Provided marketplace insight
Generated leads
Improved search rankings
Grew business partnerships
Reduced marketing expenses
Improved sales
Source: 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses, Michael A. Stelzner, Social Media Examiner, April 2014.
Despite the buzz, marketing in the social media space offers up its share of challenges – from financial to productivity to curating content. It’s no surprise that these issues ranked as the biggest pain points among marketers as reported in the Chief Marketer 2013 Annual Social Media Marketing Survey.
More than half the respondents listed the inability to both calculate true return on investment and link social media engagement to sales and profitability as their greatest frustrations. In addition, marketers saw creating, organizing and managing social content as time consuming, regularly supplying fresh content as overwhelming, and managing multiple social platforms without sufficient staff as difficult.
THE TOOL KITThe social media universe is vast and moves at such blinding speed that it’s virtually impossible to keep pace with all the emerging technologies, mobile apps, web sites and blogs on the social web. Successful engagement will rise or fall on the resources selected to plan, design, launch and maintain a social media initiative. To help, we’ve created a kit stocked with trends, tools, tactics and tips to enable positive brand building in the social media space.
TRENDS: ADVANCING THE NEXT BIG IDEA
Going Mobile. Smartphones and tablets have become ubiquitous and are now the key accelerator of mobile in business. According to comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, “159.8 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (66.8 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in January 2014, up 7 percent since October 2013.”3 In addition, some 73 percent of online adults use a social networking site of some kind and approximately 42 percent now use multiple social networking sites.4
Gartner, a leading information technology research and advisory company, reported earlier this year that5:
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Global smartphone sales outpaced sales of normal handsets for the first time in 2013, accounting for 53.6 percent of overall sales with 57.6 percent coming in the fourth quarter.
Overall 2014 smartphone sales are expected to increase to 1.2-1.3 billion devices from 968 million in 2013.
This dynamic growth gives users increased connectivity to social networks, developers a windfall opportunity for new apps, and marketers the chance to build online relationships.
TOOLS: SITES THAT DRAW A CROWD
Chief Marketer, in its 2013 social marketing survey, ranked the social channels used by respondents to conduct their online campaigns. It came as no surprise that the majority of marketers concentrated on the three largest social platforms with Facebook registering at 90 percent followed by Twitter and LinkedIn at 78 percent and 69 percent respectively.
The Social Media Examiner drills down one step further in its 2014 industry report by breaking out and comparing social media platform usage by the Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) communities.
The following chart shows how B2B social media use differs from those marketers engaged in B2C marketing. B2C organizations appear to concentrate their initiatives on Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram while the B2B group focuses more on LinkedIn, Google+ and blogging.
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“ As of January 2014, 58 percent of American adults have a smartphone.” 2
2. Cell Phone and Smartphone Ownership Demographics, Pew Research Center, pewinternet.org/data-trend/mobile/cell-phone-and-smartphone-ownership-demographics/
3. comScore Reports January 2014 U.S. Smartphone Subscriber Market Share, comScore, Inc., March 7, 2014.
4. Ibid. 3.
5. Gartner Says Annual Smartphone Sales Surpassed Sales of Feature Phones for the First Time in 2013, Gartner, February 10, 2014.
Where’s the Action?
B2C
B2B
89%97%
86%81%
52%60%
88%59%
41%51%
59%51%
64%50%
19%34%
12%20%
10%13%14%
12%12%
10%9%10%
6%6%
1%1%
YouTube
Google+
Blogging
Social review sites (i.e., Yelp)
Geo-location(i.e., Foursquare)
Forums
Social bookmarkin(i.e., StumbleUpon, Reddit)
Short-term video (i.e., Vine)
Podcasting
Snapchat
Source: 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses, Michael A. Stelzner, Social Media Examiner, April 2014.
Among the B2C segment, Facebook usage hit 97 percent while Twitter reached 81percent. LinkedIn – overwhelmingly populated by business professionals – was used by 59 percent of respondents. Conversely, in the B2B segment, the value of LinkedIn was apparent as it was used by 88 percent of respondents.
A point worth noting is where visual content-sharing site Pinterest ranked in the survey. An online pin board that lets users create, organize, manage, and share theme-based image collections, Pinterest, according to Nielsen, emerged as a social media star in 2012. Pinterest recently rolled out a version for business. Companies now can maximize their visual content, build online communities, and leverage Pinterest-driven referrals that, according to the company, spend about 70 percent more than those from non-social channels.
What about the mega sites? The following snapshots provide valuable statistics** that business leaders should know when evaluating their social media options:
Facebook. Considered the flagship social networking site, Facebook’s growth exceeded 1.3 billion users in Q1 2014. Its features, functionality and sheer scale qualify it for the social media-marketing short list:
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Revenue for Q1 2014 totaled $2.50 billion – an increase of 72 percent over Q1 2013.
Daily active users (DAU) were 802 million on average for March 2014, an increase of 21 percent year-over-year while mobile DAUs were 609 million on average for March 2014, an increase of 43 percent year-over-year.
Advertising revenue was $2.27 billion, an 82 percent increase from Q1 last year with mobile ad revenue totaling approximately 59 percent of advertising revenue for Q1 2014, up from about 30 percent of advertising revenue in the Q1 2013.
From a paid social media perspective, the overwhelming majority of marketers use Facebook ads (90 percent), followed by LinkedIn ads (20 percent) and Twitter ads (17 percent) while B2C marketers are using Facebook ads more (94 percent) than B2B marketers (82 percent).6
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“ Our head of social media is the customer.”
– McDonald’s
6. 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report: How Marketers Are Using Social Media to Grow Their Businesses, Michael A. Stelzner, Social Media Examiner, April 2014.
Twitter. Functioning as an event planner, business tool, and news reporting service, Twitter is the perfect “social messaging” platform for following people and being followed from a mobile device using short messages with a 140 character maximum. Current statistics show:
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Q1 2014 advertising revenue totaled $226 million, an increase of 125 percent year-over-year while mobile advertising revenue was approximately 80 percent of total advertising revenue.
255 million active monthly users.
500 million Tweets are sent per day.
78 percent of active users are on mobile.
34 percent of marketers have generated leads using Twitter.
LinkedIn. The world’s largest professional network recently surpassed 300 million members. With Q4 2013 revenue hitting $447.2 million, a 47 percent increase over Q4 2012. LinkedIn continues to be the go-to social network for people to manage their careers, promote their skill sets and create, find and share opportunities. Companies market here because:
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Over 2.8 million organizations maintain an active company profile.
More than 2.1 million LinkedIn groups are listed.
Two million C-level executives have LinkedIn profiles.
Mobile friendly content attracted 43 percent of unique visitors in Q1 2014.
Google+. Aligns all of Google’s peripheral products (Gmail, Google Maps, Search, Google Calendar, etc.) into one cohesive network. Engineered to be as open and as connected as possible, Google+ integrates everything searchers use at Google into a comprehensive, social dashboard. Google+ growth has been steady based on:
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Reaching over 1.15 billion users in Q1 2014 according to account ownership and active usage data from the Q1 2014 Global Web Index Social Summary.
Ranking as the third most active social platform after Facebook and YouTube.
While 54 percent of marketers are using Google+, 65 percent want to learn more about it and 61 percent plan on increasing Google+ activities in 2014.7
TACTICS: THE MEANS TO AN END
Social Search. An evolving method for the way search engines factor content from a user’s social network into the results they get for their search queries. Social search hit the radar with the development of Google+ and the launch of Bing’s social search engine, and the trend has continued to draw more attention from search engines. Facebook joined the ranks by announcing Graph Search, a search engine that uses social signals to elevate more relevant, personalized results to refine search results.
Content Marketing. Brands are developing more compelling content to attract and engage consumers and position themselves as trusted experts. As they ramp up, they are becoming able publishers according to the 2013 BTB Content Marketing Benchmarks – North America study8, which revealed the following, results:
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Over 90 use content marketing with social media the most popular tactic.
54 percent plan to increase their content marketing spend in 2014.
More BTB marketers are leveraging rich content to achieve their content marketing objectives which rank as follows: customer acquisition (74 percent), brand awareness (73 percent, lead generation (71 percent) and thought leadership (64 percent).
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“ At Twitter, mobile is in our DNA … For us, it’s all about mobile, and it always has been.”
– Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter
7. Ibid. 6.
8. BTB Content Marketing: 2013 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America, Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs, 2013.
Crowdsourcing. Referred to as a distributed problem solving and production model, crowdsourcing is the act of companies making an open call to a broad community to solve a problem, either through collaboration or competition. Strategically, it enables businesses to connect with consumer audiences and supports a process where the crowd (users) form into online communities, submit ideas and solutions and ultimately refine them to select the best ones. For smaller companies and entrepreneurs whose pockets may not be deep enough to fund traditional research and development, crowdsourcing provides the incubator for ideas.
Reputation Management. In the digital age, your online reputation quickly becomes your real world reputation, and it is vital that you remain in control of it. Brands can be put at risk quickly as open conversation travels at warp speed across the Internet. Consumers now have the power to talk back at you – even “out” your mistakes. Managing it requires daily tracking of online news and social conversations about your brand, fostering positive sentiment and actively engaging in social networking for the organization. There are many tools available to keep marketers out ahead of what people are saying about them. Google, for example offers a suite of tools including Google Alerts, Google Discussions and SocialMention for tracking news, mentions and conversations.
Blogging. Blogs are the catalyst for real-time discussion and offer immediate responses to questions, viewpoints or thoughts. Marketers value blogging because it boosts traffic as search engines favor websites that offer regularly updated content; makes Web publishing easy using automated blog software like WordPress; and establishes expertise as a thought leader and resource for industry influencers. Results from HubSpot’s 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Study showed that the increased frequency of blogging correlates with increased customer acquisition. In fact, the research showed that 82 percent of companies that blog saw positive ROI for their inbound marketing – a holistic, data-driven strategy that attracts and converts visitors into customers using personalized, relevant information and content –- not interruptive messages – and follows them through the sales experience with ongoing engagement.9
Budgeting. Allocating funds for marketing and advertising – either traditional or social – is predicated on a variety of conditions – from the goals set by individual companies to their financial health to the media channels that deliver the greatest return on investment. The B2B Magazine 2013 Outlook: Marketing Priorities And Plans survey shows how B2B marketers plan to increase their digital marketing spend. While website development ranked first, the digital media elements that drive web traffic – e-mail marketing, social media and online video – followed with social media receiving a healthy endorsement from 56 percent of respondents.
Digital Marketing Tactics...
70.1%
61.9%
56.0%
55.8%
52.5%
35.5%
Web site development
Email marketing
Social media
Online video
Search
Mobile
Source: 2013 Outlook: Marketing Priorities And Plans survey, BTB Magazine, 2013.
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“ The goal of social media is to turn customers into a volunteer marketing army.”
– Anonymous
9. 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Study, Hubspot, 2013.
“ If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.”
– Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com
TIPS: BEST PRACTICES FOR GETTING STARTEDGet Off the Sidelines. Create profiles on Facebook and Twitter, and do the same for your business on LinkedIn. Add visual content like “how-to” videos and embed presentations to share information and build credibility. Join the conversation, create fans and drive them to your business by following peers, influential bloggers in your industry and those consumers who show interest. Reply to, comment on and share their content, plus be responsive to all feedback.
Use Best-in-Class Resources. The following web sites are rich with ideas, tips and tactics: -
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Socialnomics (socialnomics.net) -
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Social Media Examiner (socialmediaexaminer.com)
Mashable (Mashable.com) Social Media Today (socialmediatoday.com)
HubSpot (hubspot.com) Hootsuite (hootsuite.com)
Promote Yourself. Add links to the leading social networks on your web site and on all printed marketing materials so people can find you. Ask customers and brand advocates to share your content across their online communities and add Facebook and Twitter “follow me” buttons to your web site. Use a call to action so visitors can select their next step – from share, post and retweet to reblog, subscribe and bookmark.
Optimize for Search. Search engines are the 21st century’s version of the Yellow Pages. Search engine optimization uses various strategies to help web sites and web pages rank higher in Google, Yahoo and Bing. This makes it easier for consumers to find you and increases web traffic. Fresh content is a key driver. Posting it on social sites will get it indexed by the search engines, so optimize every social media post for search. Include keywords, tags and links.
Don’t Forget the Back End. While it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of front-end marketing, the rubber meets the road on the back end at the intersection of cost vs. results. The intellectual and financial capital you’ve invested in social media can become worthless if results cannot be measured. The availability of analytical software tools like Facebook Insights and Google Analytics permit tracking of social data like fans, followers and engagements and marketing metrics like leads, referrals and conversions to ensure oversight, transparency and accountability.
THE TAKEAWAYWhen you make the business case for using social conversation to build credibility, relationships and ultimately business, remember to listen, analyze and convert consumer insights into strategies that will have a positive impact on the bottom line.
As social media becomes more important to the company balance sheet, funding for online marketing initiatives will become more strategic. This is where our expertise can help. Chase solutions include credit and cash management services, merchant services, business checking products, and other financial tools and resources to help your business access working capital, improve cash flow and compete more effectively. For more information on how Chase can provide the financial products, services and support to help move your business forward, please contact your local Chase Banker today.
The information presented herein is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be, nor should it be construed to be legal, business or tax advice. Consult a qualified advisor regarding your particular situation.
© 2014 JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Equal Opportunity Lender.
