Majority of Users Say S...

Need a shot of the milk of human kindness? Spend a little time on a social network and your faith in humanity will be renewed. So sayeth the majority of the 2,260 adults who responded to the latest Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project study. “ The tone of life on social networking sites ” takes a look at people’s perceptions about their interactions on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. 85% of adults said that their experiences were mostly kind. 68% went so far as to say that they had an experience that made them feel good and 61% felt closer to another person thanks to social media. And how about this? 39% said they frequently saw acts of generosity by others. Frequently! By comparison, only 13% of adults said someone was mean to them. The same number reported ending a friendship thanks to a social media faux pas and 11% ended up with family problems. The worst of the bunch, a mere 3%, said they got into a physical fight due to an experience on social media. Incredibly, 3% was also the percentage of people who got in trouble at work due to a posting. Teens had higher instances of negativity with 25% saying social media led to a face-to-face argument and 22% saw the end of a friendship. Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information. Watch Your Language To go along with their more negative bent, teens also reported higher instances of foul language and offensive images. 34% of Millennials used the word “frequently” while only 17% of GenXers noted offensive content. Logic would say that older people find more things offensive, thus would have the higher reported percentage, but the opposite is true. That tells me that the Millennials are simply hanging around with more people who present this type of content. What’s interesting is that the survey shows teens are more likely to get involved when things turn ugly. 61% of teens said they would defend a person who was being attacked and / or tell the offender to stop. 45% of adults said they’d ignore the behavior. Teens also took the higher number when it came to thinking twice about posting. 55% said they decided not to post something that might have made them look bad. Only 45% of adults made the same decision. This could mean that teens are more concerned about how they appear to others. Or it could mean that Millennials are simply smarter about social media usage having grown up with Facebook as a part of their life.

Compete Says Google+ Is...

No matter how you feel about Google, Plus 1′s and Google + or how you think they should or should not influence search results you have to admit that Google has created some positive social waves for the first time in its history. So just how big is this impact? Compete calls it enormous It is now safe to say that Google+ is becoming an enormous success, with nearly half of the unique visitors of Twitter (40,411,065 unique visitors in December). With a steep upward trend and knowledge of the power behind a Google product, expect continued growth from the unequaled search engine’s social platform known for ingenuity, creativity, and revolutionary product offerings. Compete uses the following numbers as the support for this claim. Now comes the question as to whether visitors are what defines success or, especially in the case of a social network, is that the key performance indicator (KPI) that you use to claim success? I say that it can certainly be one element but it is not enough to make the claim that Compete does. Social is about interaction and that is something that is much more difficult to put in a measurable fashion. We like numbers like visitors because it is something we can all agree on and can get our hands on much easier. The trouble is that it falls far short of being a true measure of success in the social media world. So do you think that this metric is enough to say that Google+ is an enormous success? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments! Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information.

What Does a ‘Like’ Get ...

We often talk about how much a “like” is worth in terms of marketing. But what is a “like” worth to the consumer? Take a look at this chart from eMarketer. The results clearly show that consumers expect to get something in return for their click. But when the CMO Council asked marketers what they thought, they said that consumers clicked out of loyalty or love for their product. It is true that clicking the like button does imply a certain fondness for a brand, but love will only get you so far. Once the bloom is off the rose, consumers want to be rewarded for their loyalty. You could go to Jared, or you could offer coupons, discounts, and freebies, They’re the best way to get me to like your Facebook page. The second most popular choice is an interesting one. At first, I was surprised that 60% of people wanted to interact with others. That’s because my initial concept of a branded Facebook page is one devoted to a product, restaurant or store. Then I thought of the official pages for TV shows, movies, bands, charity organizations, sports teams. . . all of these are the perfects places for sharing thoughts, photos and links. Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information. Now drop down four spaces to “Find service and support.” Half of the respondents chose this answer and it’s a big one. More and more, I see consumers using Facebook pages to register a complaint. I did it myself, a couple of days ago. And you know what? The company didn’t reply. Even after I left a follow up comment and three other people left complaints, the company still hasn’t replied. That’s a company that won’t be getting anymore of my money and all they had to do to keep me was answer. Facebook pages are an excellent way of encouraging commerce with coupons, perks and games. But you have to monitor your pages. You have to respond to the comments, good and bad (especially the bad) and you have to keep the conversation going. If you plan to build a page and forget it, then don’t build it in the first place. What’s happening when you’re not there could do you more harm than good.

Super Bowl Social Media...

With the Super Bowl being this weekend and the fact that two major metro teams, the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, are participating there is A LOT of press coverage. Usually the Super Bowl hype is overbearing but even to this sports fan (and New York Giants fan) this one is getting a bit ridiculous. One reason is social media. I decided to follow a few athletes just to see what they might say. I usually don’t do this for two reasons: 1. I like the games. The rest of the “stuff” that goes with it I can live without. 2. I don’t want to know too much about the players Seems odd, right? Wouldn’t the players thoughts and insights be great and add value to the game? Well, that can happen but based on this tweet, which I have decided to keep anonymous rather than pick on one person, my theory of knowing too much played out in a way I wish it hadn’t. Of course, there are hints as to the possible ID of the player so if you want to sleuth it you can. Every giant fan know’s that we are here to get a job done and we are going to play are hearts out this week. Damn I just can’t wait to play. This shows great passion and desire which is great. That’s fun. That’s good. The pitfall for this player and many others, I suspect, is the revelation that whatever time they spent in college may not have been too close to the classroom. A person’s proficiency with the English language can be important for any athlete for one main reason: the ability to get endorsements which is additional income. Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information. Additional income for professional athletes you ask? Are you nuts?! They already make enough! That’s a popular perception but one that, like so many other popular perceptions, is wrong in most cases. The truth of the matter is that most of these players are not making multi-million dollar salaries. Also, most of these players have a very short window of opportunity to capitalize on being in the NFL since the average career is somewhere between 3-4 years. Finally, there are a lot of people dipping into these players’ salaries; agents, hangers-on, family etc. You name it. Why else would 70% of the players in the league be bankrupt just three short years after leaving the game? So what you ask? For these athletes and for marketers who want to attach their brands to them, this kind of thing is critical. It may not be to everyone who follows these guys but it could restrict opportunities for the athletes in the rest of the world. These social media “interactions” are like tryouts for the athletes with advertisers. It’s like an advertising NFL Combine. Marketers can see who may have the chops and who may not. So unless someone is coaching these athletes or “handling” them they may be doing themselves a larger disservice than service through social media. What are your thoughts? Do you care about any of this? As a marketer would you tie your brand to a player who may not be able to represent your brand to your standards? Oh, and no matter what any of the players say or do it doesn’t change my mind one bit. GO GIANTS!

Revenue Starts to Figur...

We’ve been saying the same thing for a while now. Everyone knows social media marketing is good for business, but no one has a surefire method for quantifying the results. To get around this, most marketers make themselves feel better by saying that social media marketing is primarily about brand awareness. This is true and important. Having your name out there is better than not, but awareness alone doesn’t pay the bills. That awareness needs to convert into sales and that’s the problem. Not the “getting sales” part but the “measuring sales” part. Wildfire just put together a new infographic on this very topic. You can see the whole graphic when you click here . I’d like to focus on one part. Most marketers are still focusing in on the things they can count, likes, comments and fans. However, an increasing number of marketers are looking at revenue. I don’t have the stats to prove it (if you do, please feel free to link me) but it seems like it wasn’t that long ago that revenue wasn’t even a factor. It was all about collecting fans and creating awareness. Finally, we’re expecting to see a dollar return on dollars spent. 58% of those surveyed by Wildfire said that social media increased sales and partnerships. 41% said that social media helped them cut costs! Maybe because they fired their blogger and got interns to post to Facebook for free? I don’t know that we’re ever going to find a way to accurately count the dollars derived from social media marketing. It’s not in the nature of the beast. Social media is all about sharing from person to person. It’s about giving info to your current customer with hopes they’ll use it to bring in a new customer. How do you quantify that? Does it matter? Marketing Pilgrim’s Social Channel is proudly sponsored by Full Sail University, where you can earn your Masters of Science Degree in Internet Marketing in less than 2 years. Visit FullSail.edu for more information. If at the end of the month, your company made a profit, then keep doing what you’re doing. You may not know if those sales came from Twitter or Facebook but you made your numbers and that’s all that really counts.