Smartphones have gone mainstream. 65% of mobile subscribers in the U.S. now have them.
As more and more people make the switch and an increasing number of devices become wireless, everyone and everything is becoming mobile. But until now marketers and their money have not been keeping up with this trend.
Hang on to your seats folks, 2012 is the year everyone really dives in. From major retailers to financial services, insurance providers, healthcare companies and medical device manufactures’… a whole new crop of businesses and services are now tapping the “social, mobile, local” movement, and poised to launch major mobile initiatives in 2012.
Businesses increasing focus on mobile means this is the year you will finally see fully flushed out mobile marketing programs make a real impact, across a broad range of industries.
We’re talking about the kind of super strategic, smart, creative thinking that takes branding, engagement and reach to a whole other level. Using mobile payments, mobile instant messaging, augmented reality, location based tagging, micro-targeting, push notifications, image recognition technology and social media promotions that connect with consumers right at the point of action.
We’re not the only ones who think this way. Gartner (IT)recently predicted “brands will increasingly shift their marketing budget to the mobile channel and experiment with cutting-edge apps to capture new marketing and sales opportunities.” In fact, mobile app developer Bitzio (BTZO) claims worldwide, more than 14 billion apps have been downloaded to iPhones, Android, Windows, Nokia, Blackberry and other smaller mobile platforms.
But if you’re only thinking about apps, you’re missing the next big thing.
In 2012 you’re going start see an increasing number of people walking around with all sorts of ATTACHMENTS coming out of their phone…as everybody and their brother begins using credit card readers like Square or Intuit’s GoPayments (INTU ) to accept and process credit cards payments on the spot. Meanwhile companies like Qualcomm (QCOM) are using mobile and wireless technology to reshape the healthcare landscape. Making it possible for hospitals and medical device manufactures or health and wellness companies to launch attachments that turn your phone into an ECG reader that fits in your pocket, a sonogram machine that can be used anywhere or a wireless diabetes monitor that safely stores, analyzes and instantly connects your medical information to your doctor, caregiver or hospital anytime or place you happen to use it and sends alerts back and forth as needed.
Companies, technology and service providers, that embrace the latest mobile developments have a real opportunity to use the mobile channel to make their products stand out from the pack, enhance brand image, retain user loyalty and actually improve quality of life. Now how often do you get to say that?
From mobile payments, to mobile couponing, to innovative location based mobile marketing programs and digital outdoor promotions that enable consumers to wirelessly interact with a brand message, instantly upload or share information across social media, text with digital billboards and connect with a brand message through augmented reality experiences that allow advertisers to speak with consumers at the point of transaction…2012 is going to be the end of the world as we’ve known it…and the start of some crazy, awesome stuff in mobile.
LOCATION BASED FACT
The total user base of consumer location-based services to reach 1.4 billion users by 2014.
MOBILE EMAIL FACT
Gartner expects mobile e-mail users worldwide to increase from 354 million in 2009 to 713 million in 2014, to account for 10.6 percent of the global mobile user base.
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/slideshows/show.aspx?c=87261&slide=10
As a marketer, where do you put your offline “geo-targeted” efforts? A college film club, a local Alliance Française, a Chamber of Commerce, Singles Clubs? As you hone in on your intended demographic, you may have already or will one day find that Meetup.com can complement an online social media campaign. It continues to surprise us as to how many people overlook this fascinating resource to not only build brand awareness but even bring people together in the real world. This is of special interest to those marketing offline events. Upon a recent visit to an old ally at Southern California Outdoor Adventurers, Media Needle’s Bernard Yin was inspired to talk with founder Chris Ashford about his strategy and experience.
B: Chris, please tell me what social media platform has served you best and why? Maybe offer a quick example or anecdote. I know of you as a result of Meetup.com which makes a lot of sense to me because your community is all about outings and activities. Feel free to elaborate on how this has worked out for you.
C: Meetup.com has been a tremendous platform for SCOA and we have leveraged as much as their API allows. SCOA’s focus is all about being outdoors and active. Meetup’s is “Doing something” – the similarities enabled us to crowd source. With eyeballs, we built a crew and executed on some amazing activities.
One trip we spent 10 days in the Yucatan swimming with whale sharks, learning about sea turtles, checking out amazing crocodiles and living as fishermen! We stepped up our local game with sea kayaking and spear fishing, which were unique to the pool of people served through Meetup. The old saying if you build it they will come was true in this setting. Two years after starting from scratch we had 2,000+ members. Once we had the numbers, we understood there was an opportunity to engage outdoor equipment manufacturers for sponsorship. At the time, Meetup.com was eyeing this space – and would not provide analytics to us! It was never our intention to build a web presence and community but due to the lack of the tools required to have a conversation with potential sponsors we had to. I can remember speaking with a large snowboard manufacturer who contacted us with an opportunity for sponsorship, Their first question? “What kind of traffic are you getting?” From that moment on our relationship with Meetup.com changed. Why were we paying for a service that served up Google Ads on the content we produced and a service we had to pay for? While we were trying to differentiate, they were advertising similar focused groups on our home page.
While we still leverage Meetup’s sourcing capabilities and some of their content our online focus is our 5,000 strong community of adventures. We chunk out 120 – 170 page views a month, 1.5-2M hits/month and about 2000 uniques. Some of your readers may say that’s it, why are they excited over those numbers? Keep in mind we are laser beamed focused on people in the SoCal region. We think more impressive is the 40+ events per month we host. During our busier months we reach 150-200 real live people. It is the latter that we look to capitalize with equipment manufacturers.
Think about it – Burton Snowboards spends millions on marketing to get customers but how much are they spending to keep them? Once they buy the snowboard, what brings them back for the jacket and hoodie? SCOA provides a laser beamed channel to active outdoor people hungry for adventure and product knowledge. Our customer loyalty programs are ready and just need a little push to get going.
It is an education process. We have hit the larger accounts but all they say is – ‘talk to us when you reach 10,000’. The small mom and pops typically do not have a marketing budget or the sophistication to take advantage of our services. But we keep working it everyday. We will find the happy medium.
B: Do you see a shift of any sort in how social media, technology and communications overall might affect SOCA in the next year or two or is “business as usual” the modus operandi for SOCA for the foreseeable future?
C: In order to stay ahead, SCOA will have to keep evolving. The Meetup.com pool is saturated with outdoor adventure groups. Differentiating ourselves is crucial. We are in the process of working some collaborations with Mountain High (http://www.mthigh.com/) and Adventure Link (http://www.adventurelink.com/). Their content and our social networks will increase awareness and ultimately bring activity. How much will depend on growing our Twitter and FB reach. For organizations our size – small – it isn’t enough to just have one. They all need to be connected and focused on specific goals. Our collabs for 2012 will provide unique contests and adventure content we think our members will get excited about and get outside – the win/win for everybody.
B: I am impressed by what you have achieved, what are some of the goals of SOCA? What is the “next level” in other words.
C: Thanks for the kudos. It has been a ridiculous workload and we were lucky, every step of the way we had competent, capable people around to execute. On the one hand, friendships, relationships are important to nurture. Ultimately you are talking about trust. On the other, the Internet is the great disrupter – as long as you keep it fresh and interesting people hang around and momentum grows. Skip a beat and lose momentum, it takes an inordinate effort to get it back.
B: Has the SCOA experience offered any insights of a “bigger picture” that you care to share?
C: Ultimately, marketing and advertising will be centered around your network’s recommendations. I have clicked on many the Facebook ad that has my friends’ recommendation by it. Recommendations are everything. At SCOA, we strive to provide a professional and well-run organization. We strive to work with other well-run and professional organizations. Hopefully our members recognize that and stay with us and spend their hard earned dollars with us!
B: Thanks Chris. You really hit the nail on the head with “SCOA provides a laser beamed channel to active outdoor people hungry for adventure and product knowledge.” and I feel this applies to most Meetup communities in general. We may circle back with further questions or thoughts to throw around.
Note: SCOA currently has Columbia Clothing as one of their sponsors.
The basic premise of content marketing is simple…provide good content to your customers, your community and beyond…and the appreciation will build authentic relationships that may result in leads, sales as well as others promoting you and your product(s). There’s no one size fits all approach to what kind of content and how to make it available, but here’s a breakdown of what kind of content companies are creating: social media (79%), article posting (78%), in-person events (62%), e-newsletters (61%), case studies (55%), blogs (51%), white papers (43%) and webinars/webcasts (42%). This infographic from the Marketo blog provides a lot more stats and info, but the idea of content marketing, “the beacon approach,” etc., provides the foundation for any inbound marketing strategy. (Click on the image to expand)
Businesses Don’t Like Daily Deal Sites….BUT They Keep Using Them
Posted by Erick B on December 6, 2011
Hmmm. Is this the Stockholm Syndrome in action? Is there a love of punishment? What’s the story? 82% of businesses are unsatisfied with the amount of repeat business they generate after running a Groupon deal. That said, 45% of local businesses indicate they would advertise with Groupon again.
This is a great infographic from BuySellAds.com that tells the story of the divide between consumers loving the deals, but the businesses…not so much.
With 135M+ users and 11k new members every 90min, Linkedin has dominated the professional social media space as we all know it.
A question that’s come up from the sales side of business is “what can a sales person do on LinkedIn?” How should one sell via LinkedIn? Using an MBA framework, consider “The 5Cs” of How to Sales-In LinkedIn:
CONNECT - CREATE - COLD-CALL - COLLABORATE - CLOSE
CONNECT: Just as a sales person needs to leave the office to meet new prospects, he or she also needs to connect with new prospects on-line.
CREATE: In the era where “Content is King,” a sales professional also needs to be a source of knowledge and information. A well-crafted editorial agenda comprised of engaging & “non-salesy” content can position you and your sales team as a credible resource in your industry.
COLD-CALL: Rule #1 is to never cold call on LinkedIn, i.e., sending a request to someone you don’t know. However, finding a prospect’s Twitter handle/username, for example, and then following them and eventually replying to one of their clever tweets can be a very classy way to develop a relationship.
COLLABORATE: Get your sales team to cooperate and collaborate on LinkedIn. Develop discussion groups for teammates to exchange contacts, information and insights. Use the team’s collective LinkedIn connections to generate more leads and don’t forget to recommend one another.
CLOSE: Considering that any given prospect has a never-ending number of options at their fingertips, so focus on being an expert and educating the prospects before they have a need for a solution. If you manage the process correctly, the prospects will be closing on you instead of the other way around!
As Aristotle once said, “A friend to all is a friend to none.” With that in mind, go out there and focus on making relevant LinkedIn connections and sharing your knowledge and the sales will follow.
Everywhere we turn, we hear how businesses are hurting. Ad budgets are shrinking, fast. People are worrying if they can make payroll and keep locations open, yet everybody has money to promote facebook and Twitter.
What gives?
Last I heard, facebook and Twitter were doing okay. They have billions of dollars. They are working to take over the world. And guess what? They don’t run ads. They know that social media works organically. They also are enjoying the fact that companies, large and small, promote them for nothing, giving their logos all kinds of real estate not only on their online properties, but on their traditional print and TV ads.
Sure, you want people to know you’re “with it…” “Visit us on facebook! Follow us on Twitter!” Sure, if you’re online you can include a link, but anywhere else, print, radio, TV, let’s take a breath and reconsider. While it’s nice to make things as easy as possible for the consumer, people who are really using social media will know to look for you there.
If your brand has something to say, people will listen. The problem is, having something to say is a lot harder than putting a facebook logo on an ad. Of course facebook and Twitter are powerful tools, but we don’t need to sell the category. People are really into this stuff. It has become the fabric of their lives. And they know when you are just pretending to be in the space and when you are really utilizing it. The challenge is understanding how to spend the time, energy and resources to do something meaningful on facebook and Twitter.
Recently, companies have begun to run online ads that focus less on pitching products than promoting Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, according to the NY Times.
According to the article, the ads in question resemble mini-web sites, allowing users to click within the ad to see more advanced technology, such as updated Facebook wall posts or a brand’s video content from YouTube – all without leaving the Web page where the ad appears.
This new trend is a breakthrough for advertising. Internet users rarely click on an ad to leave a page- only one in a thousand users do so, according to Google. Allowing site visitors to engage with various forms of content without leaving the original webpage, then, is a major coup.
The new technology is called a “cloud-based ad platform” because it infuses ads with live content from other sites including Facebook and Twitter.
Kontera, a media company, is also using in-text advertising, where advertisers pay for keywords to be hyperlinked within an article/blog post. Clicking on a word through Kontera pops out a window on the same page, rather than taking the user to the advertiser’s Web site. The brand recently used this technology for ads for Ritz crackers to highlight a promotion with “Glee.”
This brings up the question of paid media: An increasing number of social media websites are finding that the only real way to structure advertisements so that they have any significant ROI for sponsors is to integrate them into the social nature of the website itself. Previously, the key to successful social media marketing through the purchase of paid advertisements was discretion. Today, however, the consumer has caught on. So the key to success is ease of access for the consumer. Users don’t like losing their place on a website; they don’t want to click on something that takes them to a new page. Hence, the cloud-based ad platforms. The in-text advertising. The new wave of social media.
Enter other services which “guarantee” social media. Media Needle, for example, can provide guaranteed LIKES and guaranteed YouTube views, enough to push dozens of videos onto the YouTube home page. Having worked with major brands and studios from Sony Pictures to Disney to Dos Equis through “viral seeding,” we’ve helped brands gain followers and views (for a price). Is this still social media? It can certainly be a powerful jump start for a social engagement campaign.
We believe that combining paid and earned with as many strategies as possible leads to best outcomes. The risk in using paid media is in alienating your consumers, which should be avoided if you maintain a full-disclosure policy.
What do you think- how does paid media fit into the realm of social media?
Working from home can be a blessing and a curse. Many in the world of social media work out of their homes; in fact, I’d be willing to bet that most blogs are written by someone wearing bunny slippers. But while sleeping late and schlepping around the living room in your underwear definitely have their merits, there are times when you want to feel more like … well, an adult—a professional, surrounded by other professionals, producing whatever it is you produce without the potential distractions of daytime TV, the cat, the fridge. Sometimes, too, you might need to take meetings, but your apartment is most definitely not suitable for viewing, and the idea of a noisy hour in Starbucks is simply no longer appealing.
Increasingly, young Internet entrepreneurs are turning to shared office rentals as an alternative to the home office. In addition to a professional work environment—with receptionists, IT assistance, coffee machines—these shared spaces offer access to like-minded people who, in addition to inspiring and motivating you, may actually give you solid business leads. Who knows, they may even want to date you! That’s not going to happen when you’re on your couch covered in cat hair and Cheetos dust.
So, if you are interested in getting some fresh air, adding structure to your workday, meeting new people and, most likely, increasing your productivity, check out a shared office space. Not only are they affordable and require little to no commitment, they now exist in nearly every metropolitan area, and the latest companies are targeting young Internet professionals just like you.
Take, for example, WeWork, which has three locations in Manhattan (including the hipper-than-thou Meatpacking District) and plans to open soon in San Francisco and L.A. Designed like the coolest boutique hotels, these offices offer all the business infrastructure you might need—including high-speed Internet, conference rooms, and mail service—as well as pool tables, Xbox lounges, and even happy hour parties. Just like you, they’re concerned about the environment: the offices have fair-trade organic coffee, purified water systems, bike storage, and discounts for Zipcar rentals.
So, it might just be time to take the plunge: get yourself dressed, and get to an office where you can network with your peers. Not only is it highly likely to help your business, it will almost certainly provide new fodder for your blog, your tweets, your Facebook page, and what have you.
For more about shared office rentals, check out this article on All Business: http://bit.ly/okY1Bg
Meanwhile, you will be happy to know, as I write this, I am fully clothed.
Facebook just announced a bunch of changes that will affect the visibility of brands and the engagement users have with brands. Here are some key elements to keep in mind.
Timeline
Facebook released an entirely new perspective on a user’s social profile called Timeline (https://www.facebook.com/about/timeline). Timeline is fundamentally a catalogue of the user’s whole life (at least as he may have uploaded it to Facebook) curated by the user. Users choose a cover photo and highlight life events (e.g, birth of a child, marriage, etc.) to tell their story. To make the whole timeline manageable, Facebook condenses the information that is displayed in the user’s Timline the further back in time you scroll.
What is most meaningful for marketers is that users can connect applications to their Timelines. Once connected, an app automatically loads information and actions into a user’s Timeline. The actions can be any verb and noun combination – listening to music, cooking a recipe – that the brand establishes for its apps. If it meets relevancy criteria (see GraphRank below) the auto-inserted information appears in the Ticker of the user’s friends. The insertion continues forever or until the user actively stops it – which is great for brands!. Important events also appear in the user’s News Feed. The Ticker drives social discovery of your app, and your brand, by the user’s friends.
GraphRank
For marketers, application and brand discovery have always been a problem on Facebook. To help solve the discovery issue, in addition to the compelling solution of the Timeline and the Ticker, Facebook has built a relevance filter called GraphRank. GraphRank promotes information based on the amount a user and his/her friends interact with an application and its content. More interaction – greater visibility, For marketers, this ups the ante to create and deliver applications and content that users want to, and do, regularly engage.
The above italics are quoted from Direct Message Lab‘s email newsletter. Nice write up!
Social media is affecting the world in big ways, both good and bad. Just a few years ago, news didn’t travel as quickly as it now does through Twitter, Facebook, news aggregators, etc. Positively, this means we have access to world news in a matter of seconds, and we no longer have to wait for the evening news to catch up on daily occurrences (see: social media’s role in Egypt’s 2011 Revolution). Negatively, especially for those in the public eye, this means that nothing goes unreported, even private pictures sent through a site like Twitter (see: Anthony Weiner). We take a look at some ways social media is affecting the way we look at religion, sports and politics:
Religion: The Catholic Church has joined Facebook and Twitter. In June, The Vatican announced the launch of a social media-integrated official news website, news.va, that will make heavy use of social networks. Pope Benedict XVI himself sent out the first papal tweet. News.va will function essentially as a Vatican and Catholic Church-related news aggregator, republishing stories from L’Osservatore Romano, Vatican Radio, Vatican Television, the Fides news agency and from Vatican media relations. Livestreaming of Papal events will also be featured, along with links to homilies, statements, and speeches. Spanish, French, German, and Portuguese-language versions of the site will be launched over the next few months. Users will also be able to post links on Twitter and share stories on their Facebook walls.
Sports: The International Olympic Committee has issued rules for athletes using social media at the 2012 London Games. The athletes are encouraged to “post, blog and tweet their experiences,” but forbidden from using Twitter, Facebook or personal blogs for commercial or advertising purposes or to share videos filmed at Olympics venues. If the rules are broken, athletes are warned that it can withdraw accreditation, shut down online operations and start legal action for damages. These new social media rules come after some controversy at the 2010 Vancouver games, where US skier Julia Mancuso was asked to stop online merchandise sales after her silver medal-winning performances generated interest in her official website. Some of the other social media stipulations for London? Posts, blogs, etc. should be in first-person, should not contain vulgar or obscene words or images, and should not reveal confidential information. “Unlike in Vancouver, where the rules were adapted to fit changed circumstances, the rules in force in London have been properly codified,” the IOC said.
Politics: In mid-June, Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., resigned from Congress in the wake of a sexting scandal. The move, which abruptly put an end to Weiner’s on-the-rise political career, serves as a warning to politicians and lawmakers about dealing with the social media world. To recap: Reports indicated that a college student had received a sexually suggestive photo from Weiner’s Twitter account. Weiner denied sending it, saying the account had been hacked, but as more texts and photos of the congressman surfaced, Weiner finally admitted that he’d sent the photo. The story picked up and more revelations surfaced, including messages to a 17-year-old Delaware girl. Ultimately, Weiner sought a leave of absence and said he’d seek treatment. While Weiner isn’t the first politician to deal with a sex scandal, the incident reverberates as politicians grapple with the new world of social media. It should serve as a “serious warning sign to politicians,” said Steven Schier, a professor of political science at Carleton College in Minnesota, that that they need to be careful. “They send out this stuff unfiltered, so the risk is increased considerably,” Schier said.
In what other ways is social media changing the world? Tell us in the comments!