PBNJ Marketing Blog

You can read the entire article here.

Hispanics are one of the largest growing populations in the United States. This has been pretty much public knowledge for quite awhile now. We(hispanics) are constituting a large piece of the population that are now internet savvy and computer ready with projections that these numbers are growing. It is no wonder that hispanics are turning out to be a large target market for many businesses. There is a large purchasing power that is still relatively untouched.

Social Marketing is touching every body, every ethniticity, every age, and every pocketbook. The only thing that I find that is disheartening is when you have a company(Pepsi) or even a state(AZ) for that matter, that cheapens themselves by not thinking through their strategies and proposals before making it public. Let’s not be just put some thing out there just to put out there without some form of study or at least some background checking. If you know your market, you can speak to the market.

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They say that people are going to start using Facebook instead of Google to do their searches.  Maybe I’m behind in the updates on businesses but i would probably guess that these two giants will merge one day.

Read more on this here

I used to wonder why I got invitations, game gifts, friend request, and all of the other requests that you send out in Facebook during the workday. Everyone is on at work and “visiting” Facebook. I play on Facebook as well so I can’t say anything bad about it. I’ve actually had to ween myself off of it because I was spending 1 hour every morning plowing, harvesting, seeding, or feeding the damn fish. TOO MUCH!

Check out these results from the article above:
Business Traffic and Bandwidth

Top five websites visited by businesses:

* 1. Facebook – 6.8 per cent of all traffic
* 2. Google – 3.4 per cent of all traffic
* 3. Yimg (Yahoo!’s image server) – 2.8 per cent of all traffic
* 4. Yahoo – 2.4 per cent of all traffic
* 5. Doubleclick – 1.7 per cent of all traffic

Top five business bandwidth sites:

* 1. YouTube – 10 per cent of all bandwidth used
* 2. Facebook – 4.5 per cent of all bandwidth used
* 3. Windows Update – 3.3 per cent of all bandwidth used
* 4. Yimg (Yahoo!’s image server) – 2.7 per cent of all bandwidth used
* 5. Google – 2.5 per cent of all bandwidth used

WOW! I wouldn’t be surprised that many companies are going to start blocking Facebook from their Internet Access.

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Today I came across these very simple but yet effective ways to promote sales via social marketing efforts. Read entire article here.

The three items listed are:
1) Expect social media to deliver measurable, qualitative outcomes, not quantitative novelty.

2) Trust your instincts, question your consultants and ask yourself, “am I a tool of the tools?”

3) Ask better questions that don’t seek universal standards.

Some think that creating a Facebook ad or group will accomplish their social marketing efforts. That is but the first step of many. There are several things that need to be researched in order for it to become effective. Any social marketing effort must have some sort of measurable outcome in order to know if it is truly working for you. Accumulating fans is great but how are you going to convert those fans to a sale? How are you going to keep your fans informed and interested so that they can keep coming back.

Questions needs to be asked of any marketing professional that is delivering this methodology to you and they should be able to answer all of them and/or at least go out and find the information for you. Innovation plays a key roll in all of this. What is ‘it’ going to be that makes me convert my status from a fan to an actual sales figure. Then once I become a ’sale’ why would I want to share that experience with everyone else. Those are the questions that need to be answered, tried, and practiced in order for any type of social marketing to take effect. You don’t just want to be like everyone else. You need to stand out and deliver.

“It is not easy being cheesy”, taken from the infamous Cheeto’s advertising, but you may have to think along those lines in order to get establish yourself an outcome.. that can be measured.

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A recent article in Advertisers Age about Pepsi’s new campaign targeting Hispanics is laughable. You can read the article by clicking here.

‘Yo Sumo’ which translated means ‘I Add’ and definitely not even close to the ‘I count’ tag line that they were hoping to capture. This campaign is laughable at best. As I read the positive and negative comments regarding this campaign, I wonder if big brands and ad agencies will ever “get it”. ‘Yo Cuento’ in spanish is as a clever as “I add” in English. I wonder if looking at it from that point of view, would Pepsi move forward with this campaign.

Then you stick a personality who is hispanic but gets by when speaking in spanish. There are several well-known personalities that speak spanish. If you are targeting the hispanic population, select someone who can speak both well and fluently. “We felt the Hispanic consumer needs to go beyond simply being counted, and count,” said Martha Bermudez, Pepsi’s senior marketing manager, multicultural marketing. Thank you for thinking of our community but don’t do something ridiculous and screw up the translation Ms. Bermudez. With the high ranking position that you hold, this should have been a big RED FLAG unless you yourself just ‘gets by’ with your spanish language literacy.

One more thing before I get off my soap box, this has nothing to do with not giving Hispanics enough credit or talking “down” to them. This campaign represents how disconnected Pepsi is to their target market. Maybe it’s time to try a new agency?

Yo soy hispano y yo cuento!

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In an article by Christopher Heine, with ClickZ, written on March 29, 2010, Facebook seems to be in the process of changing their ‘Become a Fan’ button to the  word ‘Like’. You can read the entire article below. This is going to be a tremendous change among how you can market your brand on Facebook and how many followers will perceive it.  If I am a Fan of something, I want to follow it and keep informed of any updates.  A sports Fan follows their teams every move and game.  If I like something, that does not necessarily mean, to me, that I am want to keep up constantly abreast of it.  I simply just like it.

But, in the bigger picture, I will tend to like more things than I would become a fan of and, hence, my profile will tend to show a more deeper side of me.  I then become part of a more specific demographic and more specific targeting trends.  Hmmm… interesting!

Read on and let me know what you think.

Facebook is scaling back on the word “Fan” and ramping up usage of “Like” on brand pages. According to a confidential e-mail sent to ad agencies today, the social media site will change the “Become A Fan” button to read “Like” within the next few weeks.

When asked about the change, Annie Ta, spokesperson for the Palo Alto, CA-based company, confirmed via e-mail that the words on the button would be changed. But she wasn’t able to offer other specifics about whether “Like” would replace “Fan” in other places on Facebook. “We’re still working on some of the details, but brand Pages can still be referred to as ‘Fan’ Pages after the change,” Ta replied.

Facebook, in the note to ad agencies, said it wanted to give the agencies advance notice about the change that could affect upcoming advertising campaigns or Facebook strategy.

Part of the confidential e-mail read: “Over time, as users adapt to the language change, we recommend that you invite people to connect to your Page by saying ‘Find us on Facebook’ or ‘Like us on Facebook’. You may also choose to put more emphasis on your custom URL than you used to.”

The e-mail also explained how the new “Like” button will be differentiated from the “Like” feature already seen in user updates.

How it may affect ads was also addressed in the e-mail to ad agencies. “Users will understand the distinction through explicit social context, messaging and aesthetic differences. An Engagement ad unit, capable of making connections, will feature the ‘Like’ button and show social context above it such as, ‘John Doe and 3 of your friends like [Page Name].’ Standard ad units, not capable of making connections, will simply feature the word ‘Like’ by itself, and may show social context above it that says ‘John Doe and 3 of your friends like this ad.’”

Facebook users have been clicking the current “Like” feature nearly twice as often as the “Become A Fan” button, according to the memo. And the social site appears convinced using “Like” more often will increase engagement between consumers and brands.

The e-mail read: “‘Like’ offers a simple, consistent way for people to connect with the things they are interested in. These lighter-weight actions mean people will make more connections across the site, including with your branded Facebook Pages. We believe this will result in brands gaining more connections to pages since our research has shown that some users would be more comfortable with the term ‘Like’. The goal is to get the most user connections so that you can have ongoing conversations in the news feeds of as many users as possible.”

Scott Kleper, CTO for the San Francisco-based social marketing firm Context Optional, suggested that the change could indeed create greater engagement as Facebook intends. “Becoming a fan of a brand is perceived as a large commitment and is an important measurement metric… ‘Liking’ can be another great driver of awareness and an opportunity for users to show an additional form of affinity,” he said.

Scores of brands, such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and Skittles, have cultivated online communities on Facebook.

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I will admit that I am a fan of Google Reader. I have my keywords added and every morning I have several articles to peruse. Several articles have been publicized on how to use social marketing or social media to brand your product to increase sales, on what to avoid doing, on what you should be doing, and several on “We are the best at it” so we can help you do all of these things. Every one has their recipe and, is one better than other, could be. I believe that for each opportunity comes a different recipe. A little bit more here and a little bit more there. A higher temp to cook faster or you may only want a simmer. I know these analogies are terrible but I think it’s true.

Today I came across this article that deals with the 10 Essential Rules for Brands in Social Media by Taddy Hall from Advertisers Age. He points out some interesting facts if you are trying to sell your product utilizing Social Media and he even states that this is not an exact science.

Here are the steps for you to read:

1. The 1% Rule
In category after category, our data show that a small fraction of site visitors are responsible for a substantial portion of total site traffic. On average, the percentage of influential users (defined for our purposes simply as a visitor who’s subsequent sharing actions result in at least one additional site visitor) on a given site is 0.6% and rarely above 4%. However, these influencers regularly generate 20%-50% of total site traffic and an even higher share of conversion (defined however a site owner so decides). To make social media marketing effective, marketers have to identify and engage — and better recognize and reward — these super-influentials.

2. The 2-4X Rule
When it comes to conversion, visitors driven to a site by influencers are to to four times more likely to convert compared to visitors from other sources, such as display advertisements or paid search. That means your landing pages for people coming from shared links and social sites should reflect these visitors’ interests and offer enticing deals that will encourage them not only to convert but to share the deals with others.

3. The New Media/New Pipes Rule
In today’s socially driven internet, it matters far more what consumers do with your content than what you do with your content. What they say about your brand means more than what you say about your brand. Our data shows that content spread from consumer to consumer through word-of-mouth is far more powerful at driving brand preference and purchase intent than content distributed by the brand itself. This has profound implications in social media. To illustrate, if a brand puts content on its Facebook fan page, it is far less likely to go viral than if an influential consumer puts that very same piece of content on his or her page or posts it to a relevant community of enthusiasts.

4. The Martha Stewart Rule
Throw your own party; don’t just cater someone else’s! If you base your social campaigns in venues you don’t control — such as Facebook or YouTube — you may get great “attendance,” but data show it’s hard to convert and retain these party-goers. If your goals are anything beyond building brand awareness, it’s better to have a house of your own where friends can find you — such as your own branded social site, contest site, or customer forum.

5. The Power of “Weak Links” Rule
Influentials generally do have many direct “friends” and “followers,” but what makes them truly valuable is the number and relevance of their extended or indirect connections. As Albert-Laszlo Barabasi illustrated in “Linked,” you are far more likely to find your next job through a friend-of-a-friend than through an intimate contact. These “weak links” matter in the “real world,” and they matter even more online. A critical implication for marketers is the need to track the extended social graphs of their content if they are going to be able to understand and activate the dynamics of influence.

6. The Feed the Fire Rule
Consumers love to share relevant, engaging, useful, and entertaining content with their friends. Make it easy for them to find your content and make it easy for them to share your content. Ninety percent of internet pages have fewer than 10 links pointing to them — making them effectively unfindable. Avoiding this abyss of irrelevance requires more thought and effort than just pasting a sharing tool on your pages. It means actively syndicating and curating your content and distributing it not only through your brand’s social graph, but through the graphs of your most influential advocates and fans. Easy ways to do this include following/friending your influentials’ followers/friends and retweeting/posting content even if it’s not yours.

7. The More Things Change Rule
Our research consistently demonstrates that e-mail and IM remain popular ways to share content. So don’t throw out your old e-mail marketing methods just because Facebook and Twitter are the newest communication platforms du jour. The tried-and-true methods of getting customers to share links via e-mail and IM are still extremely valuable sources of traffic. Furthermore, incorporating social elements into your e-mail, such as incentives to share, can dramatically enhance an investment you’re already making.

8. Horse Before the Cart Rule
Success in social media happens when brands infuse their content with social dimensions (Facebook Connect, most notably), not when they simply stick their ads and content in social forums. In other words, if you want to succeed in social media, your brands and content need to have social attributes — content worth sharing, brands worth talking about, sites that encourage consumer participation and dialog. If your social strategy relies on advertising in social media, it’s probably better to hang on to your money.

9. The PR Pitfalls Rule
Blogger outreach and content seeding may be popular ways to get your message into the social world, but our data show that more than 90% of seeding has no material impact. Up to 5% gets some response, but less than 2% of seeding drives valuable traffic. In other words, if you can’t track efficacy of these efforts, don’t bother.

10. The Customer-Service Rule
Social marketing programs succeed when they provide a service to the consumer. Traditional media-planing processes that begin with reach and frequency targets are largely unhelpful in social media. Reach and frequency — as well as engagement, preference and conversion — are positive consequences of giving consumers content that is sufficiently relevant and useful that they propagate your message across their own social graphs. Focus on providing useful content and offers to your target audience and they will spread your messages for you.

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Spending to quadruple as B2B marketers warm to new channels

by Bethan Jones

NEWS

Mobile and social channels will be the fastest growing areas of business-to-business marketing spend, analysts have predicted.

The cash splashed on B2B mobile marketing in the US is set to quadruple over five years – rising from $26m in 2009 to $106m in 2014, according to a report from analyst Forrester.

The rise and rise of the smartphone in the enterprise means marketers are waking up to the mobile channel as a valuable tool for getting their message across, the report said.

Spending on social media marketing in the US is also set to boom, reaching $54m in 2014 – up from $11m this year.

According to the report, businesses must interact with their customers in order to get the most from their social media spend.

“Explore the use of cost-effective social marketing tactics like blogs and Twitter that allow you to connect and converse with your customers, and use display advertising to build excitement around your products and direct customers to these more immersive experiences,” the report said.

Forrester raises a caution flag, however, against businesses diving into social media without a firm strategy in place. The report suggests setting up a social media hub that spans all areas of the business: “We recommend creating a cross-functional social media committee or centre of excellence to develop social media strategy, process and guidelines,” it said.

Marketing spend across all interactive marketing channels – including paid search, display media, SEO, mobile and social – is expected to double from 2009’s figure of $2.3bn, climbing to nearly $4.8bn in 2014, the report added.

Increased spending on digital marketing has been stimulated by the need for marketers to avoid expensive offline campaigns and adopt channels where ROI can be more readily proved, Forrester said.

My comment:

Thank you Bethan for this information.  It is hard to believe that I so much money is going to be available out in the market.  The days of newspaper ads and yellow page deals are pretty much counting their days to extinction.  If your marketing proposal doesn’t come with an application that works on Iphone, has an ad on Facebook, an immediate tweet on Twitter, or any one of the several social marketing techniques, it may go without saying that you have a very good chance of not getting the contract.

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Seems like social media is not for the rock band, small business or celebrity anymore.A recent study by Burson-Marsteller showed that the 100 largest Fortune 500 companies are jumping into social media by using one or two social avenues while a smaller group is jumping in with all social media options. Companies seem to be settling in with some social channels more than others, even though there is still a learning curve on how to get the most out of them. Twitter is the leader of the pack with 54%, Facebook 29% and corporate blogs 32%. 20% of those 100 Fortune 500 companies are using all of the social media options mentioned.

This is still unchartered territory as many companies don’t know how to measure these channels or are not clear on what exactly they are getting from it. Many Fortune 500 companies are seeing positive results from their Facebook Fan Page and Twitter strategies. Corporate blogs are still around providing fresh content but are being updated 7 or 8 times a month on average.

So, after all those statistics, what have Fortune 500 companies learned about social media? Social media is becoming the “gauge of the people”, a real time suggestion box where the consumer will be heard using a plethora of social media options. You don’t have to wait anymore to see how well your product did or how your latest ad campaign is doing; just ask the masses, they are only a post away.

The million dollar question is: Is there a downside to this real time communication? Could social media become a niche for a specific size of company? So far, small and medium companies are benefiting from the unlimited resources of free advertising using creativity and out of the box thinking. Also, traditional media is financially acquired (Fortune 500 companies with their multi million dollar Ad budgets) while social media is dominated by content. (Free, free and free) That means that the smallest contender can become a giant among the masses and take some of the limelight away from these massive ad campaigns with some savvy content and a fresh point of view.

By no means am I saying that Fortune 500 companies are doomed when it comes to social media but the rules of the game are changing. Can these companies adjust, learn and succeed at the rate of change? Stay tuned…

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