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Facebook vs. Twitter – Which is Better for Marketing?

04 May

social-marketing-twitter-vs-facebookBusinesses of all kinds are jumping onto social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter these days.  Even funeral homes!  (Not really sure what they would be posting about – don’t think I want to know.)  It makes sense though because social sites are where we spend a lot of our online time these days.

If you’re a business, you need to think of your marketing goals and objectives first before choosing a platform.  Some may be better for your organizations needs than others regardless of how many potential consumers are found on them.  This is because they all have their advantages and disadvantages.  Regarding Facebook and Twitter specifically, you’ll see that many of Facebook’s advantages are Twitter’s disadvantages and vice versa.

Facebook’s Advantages and Twitters Disadvantages

There are 4 main advantages to using Facebook for marketing.  First, Facebook’s sheer number of users.  Facebook has 901 million monthly active users where Twitter only has 140 million monthly active users (“active” being the key word here).  Facebook can obviously give a company access to more potential customers.  Also, the more people a company can access through a sharing system like Facebook, the more potential word-of-mouth about the brand.

Second, Facebook is now the most popular social networking site in the world.  Based on an annual study of 136 countries regarding social network usage, Facebook is the dominant social network in 127 of them.  Facebook’s 901 million active users aren’t solely in the U.S. and a few other countries; they are in 127 different countries!  This may not matter for many small to medium sized businesses who may only work locally but for those international companies, Facebook can be a one stop shop for reaching all their markets.  Twitter doesn’t have the international reach that Facebook does.

Where social networks are used in the world

Third, the frequency with which Facebook’s user’s login.  Forty-one percent of Facebook users log in daily where only 27% of Twitter users do.  The more often a user logs in, the more potential they have to be exposed to your brands message.  The more often they’re exposed to your brands message, the more likely they are to take action on it (buy, donate, volunteer etc.)

The fourth main advantage of Facebook for marketing and Twitter’s fourth disadvantage is based in Facebook’s unrivaled ability to increase interactivity with consumers.  Both Facebook and Twitter offer the ability to include videos and photos in ones posts but Facebook also offers quizzes, polls, games and other means of interactivity.  Interactivity increases the time that a user spends with a brand and their brand message.  Many of these tools can also be very sharable which can make them viral and push the brand message further than the brand could by itself.

Twitter’s Advantages and Facebook’s Disadvantages

There are also 4 main advantages to using Twitter for marketing.  First, Twitter followers are more likely to buy from the brands they follow.  Sixty-seven percent of Twitter followers will buy from the brands they follow where only 51% of Facebook fans will.  Isn’t this one of the main reason a company would use social networks? – To have people buy their offerings?  Twitter gets things sold it seems.

Second, Twitter followers are more willing to recommend the brands they follow.  Thirty-three percent of Twitter followers regularly recommend the brands they follow to friends where only 21% of Facebook fans do.  There’s nothing better for a brand than having perpetual access to a large group of active brand advocates who actually sought your brand out (more on this next).

Third, Twitter is more of a “pull” medium where a brands followers are the ones that are likely to seek them out and initiate a conversation.  Brands on Facebook on the other hand usually have to use “push” marketing tactics where they make third-party offers to obtain fans.  An example of this is when Bing employed Zynga to offer “Farm Cash” rewards to “FarmVille” fans to entice them to become Bing’s fans.  Pull is always better than push as pull means the consumer sought your company or brand out on their own.  This means they’re already interested.  Push marketing requires the brand to “push” an offer or ad in front of the consumer to get them interested.  This can degrade the value of that base, since the offer is disconnected from the brand.

The fourth main advantage of Twitter for marketing and Facebook’s fourth disadvantage is that tweets get more clicks.  Tweets with embedded links get 19 clicks on average while Facebook’s shared links only get 3 clicks on average.  Clicking is interactivity; clicking can lead to viral sharing; clicking can lead to sales.

Privacy Issues

There are many ways that Facebook and Twitter can infringe on one’s privacy.  Here are 2 main ones.  First, a branded message can be imposed on you unwillingly.  On Facebook, not only are we forced to see ads in the sidebar but at times, a friend who may be a fan of a brand will respond to one of the brands posts which will then be shown on your wall.  The same happens on Twitter.

Second, games, quizzes external widgets and other websites that allow you to sign into their site with your Facebook account, though they may notify you of the information they will be seeing, sharing and storing, they are forcing you to choose between privacy and using these entertaining and handy features.  The word “choose” is key.  We “choose” to give up our privacy but it’s the fact that we must give it up to use these features that makes privacy an issue.

Though Twitter doesn’t have games and quizzes, they still give access to their users private information if the user wants to use the tools mentioned above like Facebook does.  Facebook offers some privacy controls that may deal with this but many users don’t enable them or they’re hard to find or the wording is skewed so they don’t understand how the control works.

Social networks are gaining users by the minute, so the pressure to use one is mounting.  Although, depending on your business, you may not need to use one.  If you choose to do so, be sure to choose the right one for your needs.

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Posted by on May 4, 2012 in New Media

 

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Using the Right Website Design Questionnaire?

17 Apr

Bad website design

The average visitor to your website will leave within 5 seconds if they can’t readily discern what you’re offering and how they’ll benefit from it.  I know…internet users are a fickle bunch.

I’m sorry to say that I’m one of these “leavers” who increases a sites bounce rate, or the number of people who leave a site before clicking anything else.  But, you probably are too.  We can’t help it though!  With almost innumerable sites at our fingertips, there’s no way that we’ll spend extra time reading all the text on a site and clicking through its various menu options to figure out what it wants from us and why.

Why does this happen though?  What causes people to “bounce?”  They bounce because the site’s designed wrong.  How is the site designed wrong?  The designer didn’t ask the right questions at the onset of the project.  The site needs to be built right because behind word-of-mouth, websites are the second most influential means to guiding purchase decisions.

Are we talking questions about layout, ease of navigation etc.?  Yes, but has website formatting alone ever made you want to look into a product and buy it?  Doubtful.  Various formatting issues will definitely push a visitor away but fixing those issues won’t always make them stay and buy either.

Products, services etc. are purchased because their benefits speak to their target audience on both a rational level (“This stain remover works 5 times faster than the competition”) and an emotional level (“This stain remover will save you from those embarrassing moments when everyone’s staring at that nasty stain on your shirt from that raging party you went to  last weekend”).  In order to convey both rational and emotional benefits of a brand, the web designer needs to ask questions about the brand to get to know those rational and emotional benefits.  The designer then needs to ask questions about the target audience in order to figure out how to convey those rational and emotional benefits to them in a way they will connect with them.

What Questions need to be Asked Then?

That’s a good question.  Some web designers do in fact ask the right questions while some do not.  Below is a list of links to some of the most thorough site design questionnaires I’ve seen.  Study them; compile your own list; use them in-house or give them to your contracted site designer.  You’ll notice there are far more questions about your brand, its purpose, its competition, the feelings the site should exude and elicit, the demographics and lifestyles of the brands target audience rather than how the site should be laid out and how navigation should function.

ClearLeft Ltd. website design questionnaire

Martha Retallick website design questionnaire

This last link provides a website questionnaire that seems thorough but almost completely lacks any questions about the brand or its target audience.  This is what not to do.

Riverside Media Group website design questionnaire

What Design Elements Convey Rational and Emotional Appeals?

Once the web designer has asked all the right questions about the brands rational and emotional sides, it’s time to figure out the best ways to convey them so the site visitor connects with them and gets drawn into the website and its offer.  The only way to do so is through using both images and textual elements, or as we will call them, “visuals and verbals.”  But how do you select the right visuals and verbals to convey a brands rational and emotional appeals?

The visuals and verbals a brand employs in its communications should always convey its lifestyle, personality and voice.  This is because often times, these are the aspects of a brand that act as rational and emotional appeals that connect with the consumer.

Sprite spark adRegarding visuals, the models used; their facial expressions; the lighting in the image; the clothing the models wear; the location of the shot and how the product is used in the image (if included) all convey the lifestyle, personality and voice of the brand.  If you saw an ad with a man in ragged clothing, crouching over a toilet throwing up while holding a bottle of Sprite, the lifestyle, personality and voice you hold in your mind about the brand would be completely different than if you saw the image to the left.  Would such imagery appeal to the consumers rational and emotional sides?  Would they feel that it is a logical choice to go with Sprite as their beverage of choice because of the lifestyle and personality portrayed here?  Would the imagery make them feel excited about and happy to try the brand?  No, on all accounts.  Visually convey the right lifestyle, personality and voice in order to convey the right rational and emotional appeals for going with your product.

The same goes for verbals.  The font type; word choice; how the text is arranged and where the text is placed all work to convey the right lifestyle, personality and voice for the brand.  If the font type doesn’t match the personality and voice of the brand, the message can be off.  Consider what the consumers brand perception would be if the World Wrestling Federation began utilizing a font with a bunch of artsy scrolling to it rather than a blocky, bold font.

Word choice is obvious.  Would Disney have ever risen to be the largest purveyor of entertainment if their slogan was “The World of Disney” rather than “The Magical World of Disney?”  Based on word choice alone, without the word “magical” in the slogan, the Disney lifestyle would be indiscernible, it would have no personality and its voice would be ineffectual.  Based on word choice alone, it would have no way of conveying the rational and emotional appeals of its brand.

“The Magical World of Disney” slogan immediately conveys a rational and emotional appeal to the reader.  “Magical” conveys a rational benefit of Disney; its capability to provide something you can’t find anywhere else, something that is better than other amusement parks.  “Magical” is an emotional word as well that elicits a sense of curiosity and excitement in the reader.

Of course, no one stops to analyze a brands visuals and verbals when they arrive on their website to see if they appeal to them in a rational and emotional manner.  Only marketing guys like me do.  A brands appeal is often discerned subconsciously.  This is why relevant visuals and verbals need to be placed in every marketing communication piece.  Without them, the brand won’t be able to build an understanding of how it fulfills rational and emotional needs in the consumer and thus the consumer won’t stick around on your site to try and figure it out.

There’s a lot that goes into designing an effective website.  Visuals and verbals aren’t the only thing that will keep a site visitor from leaving too soon but they certainly won’t scare them off if created properly.

 

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9 Tips for Brand Building with Web Design

Stop Designing Aesthetics, Start Designing Emotions

21 Factors that Influence the Perception of your Website’s Visitors

 
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Posted by on April 17, 2012 in New Media

 

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The Difference Between PC and Mac Users [Infographic]

27 Mar

Are you a Mac or a PC?  Probably both huh?

This infographic is one of my favorites.  Why?  Because of the depth of knowledge it gives the marketer about each type of consumer.  You would think that since both products are tech based that there would be some similarities between PC and Mac users.  According to this, there aren’t any similarities.  But we know that isn’t completely true.  There is overlap in any market, especially in the PC/Mac market because of the sheer popularity of Apple devices these days.  How many people own a PC like me but also own an Apple device like an iPhone, iPad or iPod?  Many of us.  Thanks to the popularity of Apple, the lines are beginning to blur between what constitutes a PC user and an Apple user.  Previously each had very distinct lifestyles, interests, purchasing trends etc.  Not so much anymore.  Aspects of the Apple lifestyle are now being adopted by the PC user/Android/Windows phone user.

The info in this infographic will allow the marketer to know what makes each type of consumer tick and how to make a product or advertisement that will appeal to their common interests.  It will help them know which media formats will help them best connect with these consumers.

 

PC users vs. Mac users

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Posted by on March 27, 2012 in New Media

 

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What I learned about marketing from Mindy Kaling

21 Mar

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)This is a guest post by Julie A. Novak, author of the blog Moving Target Media.

I just finished reading Mindy Kaling’s first book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns). I had been looking forward to reading it, anxiously awaiting my turn in the library wait list. I like to read a book before I decide whether to add it to my permanent collection. Kaling’s book made the cut, if only for the back cover photo. It never gets old. But more on that in a minute.

Kaling is an Emmy-nominated writer and actress on NBC’s The Office. She is young, hip and humorous. Her comedy is self-deprecating and observant. It’s not a hard sell, really. Yet Kaling eagerly approached her book launch with smart strategy, combining social media, signings and TV appearances to create anticipation. It lived up to the humor she promised and I could have broken my library admissions rule without regret.

Here’s what she did best, and why it worked:

  1. She plays to her crowd. Kaling knows her audience and what makes them tick. She observes others for creative material and shares her comedic insights about current events, fashion and behind-the-scenes moments from The Office. Her content is fresh, updated frequently and interesting. Perhaps most importantly, she regularly responds to fans, giving them a personalized, interactive experience on Twitter, Facebook and her blog.
  2. She stays true to her personality. If you’ve ever watched The Office, you know Kaling’s funny. But she consistently leverages her unique voice and perspective across platforms in different ways. Fans identify with Kaling because she lets her true colors show on air and online.
  3. She is not afraid to laugh at herself. This is where that back cover photo comes in. It’s both a lovely and horrible reminder of the horrifying experience of childhood and adolescence. It works for Kaling. But I don’t think my dorked out seventh grade photo – braces, adolescent chub and poofy bangs included – would have the same effect on increasing the readership of my blog. You be the judge.
 
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Posted by on March 21, 2012 in New Media

 

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Making Powerful Connections with Consumers Online

14 Mar

Connecting-customersThe bottom line mission of any brand is to build lasting relationships with their customers.  Is there really anything else a company wants than to have repeat business from loyal customers?  There are 2 reasons for building lasting relationships: 1) A lasting relationship is more profitable than beginning a new one and 2) a lasting relationship is how brand equity is built.  Brand equity is the intangible value that a brand holds in the mind of the consumer.  A brands equity depends on 2 things: 1) how aware the consumer is of the brand and 2) how positive the consumer is about what they know about the brand as perceived by its image, identity etc.  If a brand is able to build a lasting relationship with a customer, the customer will end up being very aware of the brand and will usually hold a positive perception of the brand.  The more relationships of this nature the higher the brand equity.

Building a lasting relationship requires the brand to offer a message and a product or service that the consumer identifies with; a message and product that inspires or reflects their lifestyle.  In order to inspire or reflect the lifestyle of the consumer, the brand itself has to live the same lifestyle.  Conveying a brands lifestyle is primarily done through its voice and corresponding visuals.  A brands voice and visuals work to convey a brands character, image and identity, which are the outward expression of a brands lifestyle.

What is voice and how is it established?  Brand voice is exactly as it seems.  It’s what the brand sounds like in written form and even spoken form.  To establish a brands voice 4 things need to be considered:

  1. What is the character or persona of the brand?  Is the brand friendly, warm, playful, professional, or…?
  2. What is the tone that the brand should have in its written and verbal communications?  Should the tone be personal, honest, scientific, humble, or…?
  3. What type of language should the brand use in its communications?  Is its language complex, serious, simple, fun, whimsical, or…?
  4. What is the purpose of your brands communications?  Is the purpose of the brands communications to engage, entertain, inform, educate, or…?

Visuals, like voice are a powerful means to conveying a brands lifestyle to the consumer.  Visuals can be even more powerful than voice though because they are an embodiment of the brands voice; they show what the voice wants to say.  It can be very effective to show what the brand wants to say even before the consumer reads what it wants to say.  This is why some ads that employ the right visual content are more effective than those that rely more so or solely on verbal content.

Take for example Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s hamburger restaurants.  There is a reason he starred in nearly every Wendy’s commercial up until his passing.  Dave Thomas was a visual representation of the voice of Wendy’s.  He was a friendly character (character) that was honest and personal (tone), who spoke simply (language) to educate (purpose) the consumer about Wendy’s.  Below is a Wendy’s commercial with Dave Thomas to illustrate the point.

 

The most effective way to demonstrate a brands lifestyle to its target audience in an attempt to build a lasting relationship with them is to place ads that use both the brands voice and visuals in the places the target audience spends its time.  What types of media does the average consumer consume these days? According to a 2011 study, 56.5% of the media used by 5 different generations (Baby Boomers, Generation X, Adult Millennials, Teen Millennials and iGen) is offline media.  This includes radio, movies on a TV, TV, console games, personal media players, newspapers, magazines, books and music that is not on a radio.  The other 43.5% of media used is online media.  This includes news and information, Facebook, entertainment, videos, games and shopping.  This information concludes that using offline media would be the most effective for getting a brands message across because of reach, but which type of media is more involving in order to draw the consumer in and have them spend more time with the brand in order to be more influenced by its message, offline or online media?

It’s been said that online media, specifically new media such as websites, social networks, blogs, microblogging platforms, and mobile apps allow both the brand and the consumer a literal voice in a media cluttered world.  These tactics allow a brand to more fully demonstrate their voice and employ the use of strategic visuals as well as converse about the brand with the consumer directly, all of which allows the brand to become more live, personal and human in the eyes of the consumer.  By being more human the brand is more relatable and relevant to the consumer.  Being more relatable and relevant gives the consumer a reason to spend more time with the brand online and be affected by its message more frequently, likely leading to action on their part.  In essence, the brand can more easily convey the lifestyle it’s trying to create or reflect through online media.

A company that excels in the use of new media to create lasting relationships with its customers is Threadless.com.  Threadless is an innovator in t-shirt marketing and sales.  The company mainly makes trendy and quirky t-shirts whose designs are 100% crowdsourced from a large group of loyal designers who are also their loyal customers.  All of the designs are submitted by the consumer and all of the shirts sold on Threadless.com are there because the consumer voted to have them there.

Threadless is essentially a maker of makers; a creator of creators.  It’s a company that wants to consistently offer something new and unique and its patrons are the same in that they want to create what’s new and unique.  Both the designers and the voters end up creating the new and unique stuff that Threadless ends up selling.  This 100% crowdsourcing model is what helps perpetuate the Threadless lifestyle and the corresponding lifestyle of the consumer.

How does new media come into play in selling the Threadless lifestyle?  The only physical presence Threadless has is a single storefront in Chicago.  The company solely uses new media to spread its voice and associated visuals (the visuals are mainly pictures of the newest trendy and quirky shirt designs).  They have an online forum for designers and fans alike to connect; a blog that covers news and happenings at Threadless, a YouTube channel featuring news and funny employee and designer videos and social networking site such as Google+, Twitter and of course Facebook, all of which are used to promote the opportunity to submit designs and vote on them.  Most of these tactics are the best available for conveying a brands voice and including appropriate visual content which as mentioned previously helps in conveying a brands lifestyle.

For Threadless, the lifestyle they sell, sells the products more than the products sell the lifestyle.  This is because the consumer gets to have a say in what Threadless creates.  By being part of the creating of Threadless’s inventory, Threadless can almost be sure that the consumers who made the designs or voted on them will also buy the t-shirt they voted on or designed.  The creation process created the consumption.

Although the products themselves could in fact sell the Threadless lifestyle, it’s probably less likely because it’s less likely that a person who doesn’t know how to design will end up designing a shirt after they buy one from Threadless (becoming a maker or creator because of the product they bought).

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Posted by on March 14, 2012 in New Media

 

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Invasion of the Brand Snatchers!

05 Mar

No, this isn’t about a 1956 sci-fi film that features aliens taking the form of their human captives.  Although, it is about something that is just as “B-rated:” brand infringement (queue 1950’s style scream of horror).

Brand infringement refers to the use of a brands intellectual property including copyrighted material; trademarks and registered trademarks and patents in ways they were unintended to be used and without direct consent of the property owner.  Each of these elements are central to the establishment and maintenance of a brands image and success whether online or off.  Copyrights protect original textual works such as books, songs and screenplays.  A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, sound, smell, character, logo, color etc.  A trademark may be registered in order to track who also is trying to use a trademark.  Patents protect from others using a product or service idea already owned by a company.

Infringement of trademarks alone cost U.S. businesses between $200 and $250 billion in revenue annually.  Factor in the losses from the rest of the intellectual property elements mentioned and the annual loss is unfathomable.  Examples of each type of infringement follows.

Copyright Infringement

Figure 1 shows a Dilbert comic strip.  Actually there is no comic strip because using a Dilbert comic without written consent is “altering” and “redistributing” United Media’s copyrighted material unlawfully.  Even placing copyrighted material in places the copyright holder doesn’t intend to have it is copyright infringement.

Avoiding digital copyright infringement can be done by following the suggestions found here.

Trademark Infringement

Dodge Ram logo trademark infringement

Figure 2. Dodge Ram logo trademark infringement.

Figure 2 shows an example of trademark infringement of the Dodge Ram logo.  A Florida high school used the logo and had been putting it on everything from t-shirts to their gym floor.  Although the logo didn’t incorporate the outer “shield” component of the Chrysler owned logo, the automaker approached the school board and the logo has now been dropped completely.  Just because the logo was modified a bit doesn’t mean it can be used without consent.

Avoiding trademark infringement can be done by following the suggestions found here.

 

Registered Trademark Infringement

Figure 3. "Brando" sofa.

Figure 3 shows Ashley Furniture’s “Brando” sofa; the cause of a registered trademark infringement lawsuit by actor Marlon Brando’s company Brando Enterprises.  Ashley Furniture was previously summoned to court for their “Bogart” sofa as well.  Just because the Brando or Bogart names weren’t used as a registered company name, doesn’t mean their use as a product name will be lawful.

 

 

Patent Infringement

Samsung Galaxy Tab and Apple iPad

Figure 4 shows the similarity between the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Apple iPad; the cause of a patent infringement lawsuit by Apple.  Apple claims that Samsung infringed on their “utility” patents or how the device is used.  The judge actually held up the 2 devices for the Samsung lawyers to examine simultaneously and when asked which is which the lawyers had a hard time doing so.  Anytime a product or service does the same thing a patented product or service does, infringement occurs.  Obviously whoever holds the patent wins and the copycat loses.

Avoiding patent infringement can be done by following the patent law found here.

It’s a great thing that the world wide web is still a place where freedom of speech reigns supreme but it’s important to note that intellectual property rights are still in force.  A brand can still have a good amount of control over its identity and consumer perception.  To extend this control it’s important to monitor the web for infringement.  Yet, because of the vast amount of information posted online on a daily basis, doing so can be an insurmountable task requiring an entire department of workers scouring the web or the employment of a third party service.  Either way, knowing the numerous ways that infringement can occur is a starting point to take control of your brand.  If you don’t control it, the brand snatchers will; “absorbing the minds and memories” of your intended target audience just like the aliens did in 1956.

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Posted by on March 5, 2012 in New Media

 

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5 Things You Shouldn’t Post On Your Social Media Sites

29 Feb

Social Media No No Man

5 Things You Shouldn’t Post On Your Social Media Sites.

This SoshiTech.com article provides great insight into common ways we as social marketers can turn off our current followers and limit the accrual of new ones.  Below are some highlights of the article:

“Spamming someone’s Facebook wall or Twitter timeline is another massive annoying habit. This includes posting links to someone’s wall or tagging them in pictures they have nothing to do with. Just throwing things like that in people’s faces is not a good way to build a relationship or network via social media.”

“Sending out mass messages could perhaps be one of the most annoying of them all.”

We as marketers may do some of the things mentioned in this article unknowingly.  In essence, social media should be used to build sustainable relationships with customers; one’s that are as personal as possible.  Ask yourself, “Would I do these things to my closest personal friends?”  If the answer is no, which it should be, then don’t do them to your Facebook fans or Twitter followers.

Social media is the best way to make friends for your brand.  To do so, basically do the opposite of the 5 no-no’s mentioned in the article and you will do well.

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Posted by on February 29, 2012 in New Media

 

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How Do You Measure the Effectiveness of Emerging Media? – As Best as You Can

28 Feb

Media Measuring Tape

Emerging media consists of new media formats that can be used in marketing.  These include social networks such as Facebook and Twitter; social media sites such as Pinterest and YouTube; websites; apps; widgets; podcasts; RSS feeds; banner ads; blogs; in-game advertisements, Bluetooth marketing and much more.  Emerging media is called such because it is simply newer than traditional marketing formats such as TV, radio, and print advertising.  It is the newness and evolving nature of these media that makes measuring their effectiveness harder (think of Facebook’s ever changing advertising rules, privacy policies and user interface or how Pinterest popped up out of nowhere and already has over 11 million unique monthly visitors a month).

Todd Watson, eRelationship Manager for IBM, said in an interview with Google that there is such a “land rush” of new and emerging media that if we really want to figure out how to measure these new media well enough, we would have to wait until the land rush stops and for standardized measurement metrics to be developed.   He and we both know that the land rush will not be stopping anytime soon.  He goes on to say that because these new media aren’t standardized and because new media formats are developed constantly, we need to use whatever we can to measure their effectiveness.

 

I feel the best way to standardize the measurement of emerging media is to use both web metrics and online consumer surveys simultaneously.  Using web metrics can quantify the success of an emerging media format by counting click through rates (number of people arriving on your webpage, RSS feed, YouTube channel etc.), conversion rates (number of online purchases), bounce rates (how many leave soon after they get there) etc.  Using consumer surveys can qualify the reasons behind the click through rate, conversion rate and bounce rate.  A survey can discover why the consumer clicked or why they made a purchase or why they spent so much time on the site.  It’s good to know that a company’s app is attracting more click throughs and conversions than the company’s normal website but knowing why is important.  Knowing why would lead to an improved website experience for the consumer and an improved brand experience overall which can lead to numerous things – purchase, repurchase, word-of-mouth etc.

These 2 measurement formats can standardize the measurement of an emerging media tactics effectiveness because 1) web metrics are already standardized – a click is a click whether it’s on a website or a podcast and 2) once survey questions are formulated properly, they can be asked at different times during the life of the company’s use of an emerging medium and still be applicable – a question about how confusing a website is when it’s first launched will still be applicable if asked 1, 5 or 10 years later.

These 2 measurement tactics will not only standardize the measurement of emerging media formats but also provide actionable measurements to benefit the company.  Is there any other reason a company would go through the trouble to measure effectiveness of their marketing program than to take action based on the results?  Attempting to standardize measurements will provide more consistent results over time and help to prove that any action taken as a result was merited.

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Posted by on February 28, 2012 in New Media

 

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The Science of Social Timing

23 Feb

This infographic provides some great insight as to when to post on Facebook and tweet on Twitter.  Timing is everything.  Post or tweet too soon or too late in the day or on the wrong days of the week and no one will be ready to read what you have to say.  Don’t waste your time and money; post when appropriate.

science of social timing part 1

Original article: The Science of Social Timing

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Posted by on February 23, 2012 in New Media

 

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Facebook or Twitter for Building Brand Equity – Which Should I Use?

20 Feb

Twitter and Facebook logos

Every brand is valued in 2 ways: 1) by the tangible brand value it holds in the form of revenue (Coke Classic revenue vs. Diet Coke revenue vs. Coke Zero revenue etc.) and 2) the intangible brand value it holds in the mind of the consumer, also known as brand equity.  A brands equity depends on 2 things: 1) how aware the consumer is of the brand and 2) how positive the consumer is about what they know about the brand as perceived by its image.  The consumer’s level of awareness of the brand is evident by 1) how well the brand is recognized by the consumer and 2) how well the brand is recalled when the consumer needs what it does.   A consumer’s perception about the brands image is reflected in 1) the attitude they hold toward the brand and 2) how well the consumer perceives the brand to fulfill the purpose it intends to fulfill plus any other perceptions that can be scaled positive or negative.  These metrics indicate a brands equity can be high, low or anywhere in between.  It depends on the consumer.

A brands level of equity is what drives purchase, repurchase, brand loyalty etc.  A brand with high equity will have a high number of purchases, repurchases, loyalty etc.  Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are what help drive much of a brands equity these days in what marketers call “many to many” marketing.  Many people talking about brands to their many friends through social media.  The infographic below shows how Facebook and Twitter stack up against each other, which is helpful in deciphering how each can be used to build brand equity.

Branding and Social Media Statistics – How People Are Interacting With Brands Online
Source: AYTM Market Research

Based on the infographic, Facebook is the better platform for building a brands equity.  Seventy-four percent of Facebook’s 845 million active users use the site daily where only 35% of Twitter’s 100 million active users do.  Fifty-eight percent of Facebook’s users have “liked” a brand where only 29% of Twitter users are “following” a brand (for those who don’t know, “liking” and “following” are synonymous).  And though Facebook and Twitter are close in their number of users who mention brands in their posts (42% of Facebook users and 39% of Twitter users respectively), Facebook users are more likely to share someone else’s post about a brand than Twitter users are (41% vs. 29% respectively).

How does all this relate to building brand equity?  Facebook has more users who use the site more often, are posting more messages about the brands they like and recirculating messages about the brands their friends like more often.  Because of this, Facebook users are exposed more often to a brands messages, logos, positive press, customer success stories, promotions, discounts, events and of course what one’s friends feel about the brand which all influence the consumers knowledge of and perception of the brand.  This frequency and depth of brand engagement compounded with the persuasiveness of one’s social contacts is what creates brand recognition, stimulates brand recall, promotes a positive brand attitude and a positive perception of how the brand is fulfilling on its promises.

As a side note, according to the infographic, the majority of posts about brands on both Facebook and Twitter are positive rather than negative and positive information spread by friends is remembered better than negative information.  The sheer number of users Facebook has and their level of activity on the site mean that those positive posts cover more ground, making Facebook an essential tool for building brand equity.

If your company doesn’t have a Facebook account, consider getting one.

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Posted by on February 20, 2012 in New Media

 

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