CMO Guide to the Social...

We are suckers for an infographic chock full of information aimed at CMO’s. The 2012 CMO’s Guide to the Social Landscape does just that. We often mock the CMO for their seemingly disconnected existence from the social landscape. We also get a little shiver when we hear that those who climb to the top of the marketing food chain stay there only an average of some 23 or so months. I have said in the past it’s like CMO’s climb a burning rope to the top. What they used to get there is often already being replaced by newer more efficient (and yes cooler) communication channels. Remember, though, it’s not about technology, it’s about communication. So click through to enjoy the chart. Let us know if you agree or disagree as well. That’s always fun. You can visit an interactive version here as well. 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.

Twitter Expands the Bou...

Every couple of months, Twitter inches slightly closer to their goal of becoming an advertising force in social media. This week’s action was pushing Promoted Tweets out to the mobile apps. More importantly, they expanded who sees the ads and that’s great for marketers. Previously, Promoted Tweets only showed up in your stream if you followed that brand. Now, advertisers can choose to show Tweets to anyone with similar interests. The way I interpret this is, if I’m following Coca-Cola on Twitter, then Pepsi can choose to send me their Promoted Tweets. Twitter says they decided to make this move because the response they got to their mobile testing was positive. Will it stay that way? It does seem that people have stopped carrying on about the presence of advertising. Perhaps they’ve finally realized that it’s not only necessary if they want the app for free, but it can be helpful. Yes, I said it. Advertising is a good thing. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but perhaps my word will spread to the masses and people will learn to embrace ads, not run from them. Twitter says 55% of the more than 100 million regular users check in at least once a month using a mobile app. With the upgrades in navigation and presentation, this number should continue to climb. I had a real love affair with Twitter at the start, then broke away for several months. Now, I’ve found I really enjoy sitting on the couch, flipping through the day’s tweets with my iPad. The app allows me to easily click through to read submitted articles and I feel like I’m getting more out of Twitter than ever before. How about you? Do you use Twitter on mobile? How does it fit in to your marketing plan? 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.

Want to Lose Friends in...

What have you heard a million and one times in business? Don’t discuss religion or politics. Generally, that’s a good rule of thumb because it doesn’t take much to set off a firestorm if you have landed on the wrong side of a customer’s or prospect’s political or theological point of view. It appears that the same applies for social media as well. Here in the US, we are about to enter what promises to be a very spirited election season as President Obama seeks to be re-elected while someone from the other side (as of now TBD) tries to knock him out of office. Needless to say, tempers are flaring and we are still a solid six months away from the election itself. I for one wish it were over right now but that’s beside the point. Well, if you feel strongly about politics you may want to be prepared for some social media backlash. A Pew Internet research project (as reported by eMarketer ) reveals just how politics and social media can make for some rough sledding in “friendships”. Granted this doesn’t happen as the norm since most people are reasonable enough to allow friends differences in political opinion. I know that the folks I am friends with in the online space run the gamut of the entire political spectrum from far left to far right. I tend to stay out of the fray because there are many other battles that are actually worth fighting if necessary. Political stances are not one of them for me personally. Just a friendly reminder when you are gearing up for a political back and forth with your buddies. Not only do you risk alienating friends but you could also make a prospective employer a bit wary of bringing you on board since some are now looking for you to log on to your Facebook account during the job interview process . Chew on that idea for a while. That situation probably deserves a post of its own. SO how do you handle politics and the social media world? Do you simply say “damn the torpedoes” and let the social media chips fall as they may or do you show some restraint? It’s funny how quickly the idea of being completely open can become much less attractive when there are real relationships on the line. What’s your take? 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. Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Was Analytics Google’s ...

We all like to debate the merits of Google’s social media efforts. It makes for some spirited back and forth but the truth is that Google is not a social media giant today and may never be. With today’s announcement of social media integration into Google Analytics we may now have a vision into one way that Google could put a hurt on the likes of Facebook and Twitter without having to be a social media giant. You see, the world of social media is a lot of hype and promotion. However, the industry gets painfully clumsy when talk of measuring success and failure comes around the table. With this product introduction, Google could hold an important key for marketers. As a result maybe, just maybe, marketers will be looking more closely at more social media channels (including one Google+ ) and see the value of being in even more places. The Google Analytics blog tells us …. as the social industry matures, marketers and web analysts need true outcome-oriented reports. After all, although social is growing in popularity, brand websites – not social networks – remain the place where people most often purchase or convert. That’s why we’re releasing a new set of Social reports within Google Analytics. The new reports bridge the gap between social media and the business metrics you care about – allowing you to better measure the full value of the social channel for your business. We wanted to help you with 3 things: -Identify the full value of traffic coming from social sites and measure how they lead to direct conversions or assist in future conversions -Understand social activities happening both on and off of your site to help you optimize user engagement and increase social key performance indicators (KPIs) -Make better, more efficient data-driven decisions in your social media marketing programs I think by now you get the idea that you can find plenty of deep dive blog posts for report details around the industry blogs. That’s not necessarily where we play so I do invite you to “get into the weeds” with various reports like the Overview, Social Sources and the Activity Stream. All very cool things for sure and ones that will be jumped into with gusto by marketers who are starving for this kind of data. What strikes me about this entire thing is the list of Social Data Hub partners that is included in the Google Analytics offering that allows for further examination of social media impact with partner social outlets that include Blogger, Delicious, reddit, Google+, Read It Later, Disqus and about 15 more. Missing from that list, however, are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. So is this important? I believe so. If marketers will have a chance to find out more information about how certain social channels contribute to true KPI’s (like revenue and anything that drives it) they may start to pay more attention to these channels. Will that mean they will ignore Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? Of course not! That’s crazy talk. It could, however, help to shift their mindset away from the Big 3 a little bit more and help them discover ways to reach better sources of more measurable, and possibly more passionate, consumers. And it doesn’t hurt the folks in Mountain View that marketers can now see Google+ impact more directly either. With these reports available, Google may get brands to promote a Google+ presence more which, in turn, could bring more people to the social network thus growing numbers in ways that are impactful (ie more than just Internet industry insiders) rather than just for hype. Imagine if WalMart wanted to see the impact on sales of smaller outlets and started to say “Join Us on Google+” in their ads? Do you think John Q. Public might start to take a look? It makes sense if you think about it. While the ability to measure the impact of social media more precisely is indeed big news, the bigger story could be that Google has truly capitalized on what it does best: make sense of a lot of information. Let’s face it, even if Google hired the top social media minds the market’s preconceived notion of Google and social is that they are not in the same room together. Maybe Google has recognized that rather than fight that battle they can flank their social adversaries by doing what they do best rather than doing what they aren’t so great at. What’s your take on this offering? Are you excited? Would you like to see more insight into other smaller (and possibly more manageable and profitable) social options? These are interesting times we live in, aren’t they? 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.

Facebook’s New Privacy ...

Facebook has just released their proposed changes to their privacy policy and it’s got the masses upset. (Surprise!). First and foremost, they’ve changed the name of the document from Privacy Policy to Data Use Policy and that should tell you all you need to know. Let me pause a moment to reiterate my feelings on internet privacy. I see it as an oxymoron. If you put content in a public space, I don’t care if you mark it private and lock it up six ways to Sunday, you have to understand that it’s not secure. If someone wants that information badly enough, they’ll get it and spread it around as they please. So don’t put information online you don’t want your mother or girlfriend to see. Next, let’s talk about the cost of using Facebook. There is no cost, so you have to give a little in order to make it so. If that means allowing an advertiser to see you age and location, it’s worth it if you can play another round of Draw Something. Now, back to Facebook. The paragraph that is particularly disturbing is this one: When you or others who can see your content and information use an application, your content and information is shared with the application. We require applications to respect your privacy, and your agreement with that application will control how the application can use, store, and transfer that content and information. The bold phrase is a new addition to the policy. Going forward, it won’t just be about the apps you chose to use, but the ones your friends chose as well. I don’t know exactly how this is going to work, but it could simply mean I’ll see ads for games my friends like to play. It could mean that an app developer can see the ages of all your friends, so they can better target those ads. What it doesn’t mean is that the app developer can take my friend’s risqué, bachelorette party photos and email them to her fiancé just because I play their game. The new Facebook policy clearly states that they won’t allow any misuse of private information but they’re definitely opening the gates a little wider. Other changes include a lessening of responsibility for click fraud in section 11. It used to state “We do, however, have systems that detect and filter certain suspicious click activity.” The new phrasing is “We have systems that attempt to detect and filter certain click activity.” Attempt, instead of “we do” and they removed suspicious. (Note; I’m working from the track changes doc here, so it’s tricky reading.) They also updated the language concerning “hate speech” to be more specific. Actually, most of the changes are designed to clear up ambiguities in the original language and as such, are nothing to worry about. I see these changes as Facebook coming clean about the facts. They are in the data business and by using their free service, you’re giving them the right to use your data. It’s as simple as that. Anyone who doesn’t like it, can leave a complaint before 5:00 pm PDT, March 22, 2012. After that, its up to you to stay or go. 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. Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community