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How social media is changing our lives

Social Media is indeed making changes in our lives.  Even Time Magazine, a bastion of old media, hailed user generated content as the single most influential change in 2006.

I caught Katie Paine’s session at Executing Social Media in Atlanta yesterday - here are some indicators that your world is changing forever:.

• >You spend more time on Facebook than on email
• >Deadlines don’t exist anymore - it’s a 24 hour news cycle
• >You don’t need the media to get your messages out
• >It’s possible to create your own podcast or video for just a few hundred dollars and reach more people than you would with mainstream media
• >Companies like P & G are learning to let go control and co create marketing material with customers
• >People believe what’s in Wikipedia and it gets page one position in Google for practically any search term
• >Google has replaced dictionaries, the thesaurus, encylopedias and yellow pages - it’s become much more than a search tool
• >Measurement is easy - in a digital wolrd you can track most anything
• >Size no longer matters - it’s who you reach, not how many
• >Screaming at your audience no longer works.  You have to start listening.

Her take away tip:  the most important thing you can do to succeed with marketing and PR today is listen and build trust. Be transparent, don’t lie and don’t fake it.

The one theme that was heard throughout the day was learn to listen.  It’s no longer a mass media. one way dialogue.  Markets are conversations. The new media landscape is littered with campaigns that used old PR and marketing methods and failed.

But if you get it right the rewards are astounding.

See Also

• Learn how to listen to the online conversation
  Online public relations success depends on tapping into online conversations. Read the November issue of The PRoactive Report. Request a complimentary copy.

What Journalists Want Online

If you’ve been in the dark about how to plan your online news for the media, a new study from Bulldog Reporter and the TEKgroup can guide your content strategy for 2008.

Journalists’ use of online newsrooms, blogs, RSS and social media is much higher than most PR professionals had thought - in fact the greatest change in journalism practices due to new Internet technology is the ability to access corporate news and contact information online 24 hours a day.

• Nearly half of all journalists report visiting a corporate website or online newsroom at least once a week
• 85% visit at least once a month
• More than a quarter report regularly reading five or more blogs to research desired topics
• Nnearly 70% follow at least one blog regularly
•  More than a quarter (28%) of journalists visit a social media or networking site, such as YouTube, Facebook and MySpace, at least once a week
• More than 44% visit at least once a month
• Nearly 16% of journalists receive five or more RSS feeds of news services, blogs, podcasts or videocasts every week
• 37% receive at least one regular RSS feed
• 20% say they look for audio and vidoe material at least once a month
• 64% report that they use Google or Yahoo! online news services

>If you don’t yet have an online newsroom this needs to be top of your list for 2008.

>Learn to optimize your news content for search so that it can be easily found when these journalists are searching Yahoo and Google News.

>Add images, audio and video to your news content.  it’s fairly simple to do and it won’t break the budget.

>Syndicate all your content with RSS feeds. If you don’t have an RSS feed then you have no chance that yours will be that one feed they read regularly.

CPG retailers need search marketing in their mix

44% of traffic to consumer packaged-goods sites comes from search, according to new joint research from comScore, Procter & Gamble, Yahoo and SEMPO. And these buyers spent 20 percent more in the month following their search activity, reveals the study.

Who knew? Even those looking for CPG go online first..Nearly 163 million unique consumers visited baby, food, personal care and household product sites during the three-month span of the study–with 71 million of those visits originating via search. Baby and food products drew the most search traffic, with 60% and 47% of the visitors arriving via search respectively. 

These stats show both the brand-building and purchase intent benefits that CPG brands can derive from adding search marketing to their mix.

Search-driven CPG site visitors’ motivations are important to understnad, says the study.

• 30% were looking specifically for the company Web site
• 73% were researching products
• 64% were seeking help with an actual purchase decision
• Almost 50% were looking for product promotions

Understanding these CPG search motivations is the key to linking brand benefits to search behaviors says the rpeort.

And if you are a CPG retailer bear in mind the impact of natural or organic search results.  "If you think you’re covered by Pay Per Click ads in the search engines, think again" says Marketing Sherpa. 

According to eyetracking studies you get far more views and clicks from organic search.

Of course the trick is to raise your search engine visibility and get your website onto page one in Google for all the brand and generic key words and phrases CPG searchers use to access products like yours.

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Big Brands Increase Percentage of Sopend on Online Components

Intel decided to increase its co-op ad spend in digital media by 35% reports Online Spin.  Intel Corp. spends $300 million on their advetising worldwide.  So this is a hefty chunk of change we’re talking about here.

 ”We’re going where the consumers have gone,” Sean Maloney, executive vice president at Intel, told The New York Times. “For the longest period of time, consumers formed their attitudes through TV, print, radio, and from the middle ’90s onward, there was more influence from the Net,” he was quoted as saying.

Any marketing or PR 101 class will teach you that you have to keep your eye on where the consumers are.  And just when you think you have them pegged, they shift.  This shift in media influence has been happening for quite a while and there is no doubt anymore that online is where the consumers are.

Take note that Maloney is talking about co-op advertising.  It’s ‘Intel Insde’ brands like Dell, HP, Toshiba, sony and Lenovo.  So they will also be shifting their budgets to more digital media.

In the past 6 months online advertising hit the $10 billion mark, up 27% from last year.

What’s in your marketing and PR plan for 2008?

If your head is still in the sand about new media now would be a good time to change position

As many of you know I am also the official blogger for Bulldog Reporter, an industry newsletter that has over 50 000 PR practitioners as subscribers.   Last week I was in San Francisco speaking at the TurnPROn Online PR Summit.  Jim Sinkinson, CEO of Bulldog Reporter, was there too and we had a delightful dinner together in the city after the event.

One of the topics of discussion was the role of PR and media relations in a Web 2.0 world. Jim had mentioned in his presentation earlier in the day that a recent Bulldog survey found that PR people rate driving traffic to their corporate website as one of their main concerns today.

In an interview with the Daily ‘Dog today MJ Gilhooley says

Simply put: Audiences are more in control than ever and increasingly savvy about filtering marketing messages. As a result, PR pros have a new hat to wear: listener, learner. With the tables turned per the advent of Web 2.0, sheer Darwinism alone will lay to rest the pros who five years ago considered major market headlines and covers the end game. Bottom line for PR: Control of the message is out. Engagement and dialog is in—especially in social media communities.

McKenzie Worldwide published data recently indicating that 67% of today’s consumers would prefer to get their purchasing facts from other consumers—not "communicators."  This supports the study out early in the year that showed that the most trusted form of advertising is recommendations from other consumers ‘just like me.’  

Consumers are turned off by some kinds of digital advertising, like text messages, pop-ups or banners, that may explain digital marketers’ eagerness to work indirectly, through blogs, social networks and other kinds of online forums. Of all survey respondents, for instance, 61 percent said they trusted consumer opinions posted online, says another report from Nielsen Buzzmetrics..

And the recent IBM study of online behavior revealed that audiences are increasingly savvy about filtering marketing messages. Consumers are seeking consolidated, trustworthy content, recognition and community.

Consumers are increasingly contributing to online video or social networking sites and of those who contributed content, an average of 58 percent worldwide did so for recognition and community, not monetary gain.

The report predicts that marketers and advertising revenues will follow consumers’ habits.  Given the rising power of individuals and communities, media and entertainment industry players will have to become much better at providing permission-based advertising and related consumer-driven ratings services.

U.S. users report more usage of social networking sites and user generated content than almost any other content services category:

• 45 percent use social networking sites
• 29 percent visit user generated content sites
• 24 percent use a music service such as iTunes
• 24 percent subscribe to premium television content

The following key skills or practice areas are becoming increasingly crucial for communicators of all disciplines:

• Better positioning of clients with outreach in the blogosphere
• Mastering skills necessary to optimize web video placement opportunities 
• Engaging in virtual-world interaction and visibility 

If the new media Web 2.0 world is still unfamiliar territory,  find a partner who can deliver social media training and help you to develop social media strategies for your clients.

Blogging is an amazing tactic for engaging in conversation with your customers

Brian Eisenberg of Grok.com took a well placed swipe at the Delta blog today.  Brian ran the text of the post about how Delta gathers customer input through the >customer focus ("We-we") calculator and found these results:

>Your Customer Focus Rate: 17.39%
You have 4 instances of customer-focused words.

>Your Self Focus Rate: 82.61%
You have 15 instances of self-focused words.
You have 4 instances of the Company Name.

>You speak about yourself approximately 0,005 times as often as you speak about your customers.

>

>Delta has an ad running on Yahoo! News that takes you to their blog.  The ad copy says change is about offering your two cents worth so Brian promptly gave his two cents to the author of this blog post:

>

1. The key to great customer insight and analysis is empathy. Don’t live by the surveys or the >data; live with your customers. How often do you go through the process of booking and flying, just like the majority of your customer’s do? Want to improve the experience? Experience it like most people do. You’ll hate it. Really!

(I wholeheartedly agree.  I am also a Delta frequent flyer and the last two calls to Delta have been a severe pain in the rear.  In fact, just a month ago I opted to fly with AirTrans because it was cheaper to buy a new business class ticket with them than change the date on the economy class Delta ticket I already had!!!!).

2. Show us you really care about listening to OUR voices. I believe you have honorable intentions, but your words are all about Delta.

This next comment from Brian really made me chuckle

The Greeks use the symbol delta to represent change because "Διαφορά" means "difference" in Greek. Will you really make a difference in customers’ lives, or will you be content >putting lipstick on a pig?

EmailLabs, Stefan Pollard, will be hosting a free webinar, “Designing Effective HTML Emails” on November 27th at 1 p.m. EST and November 28th at 10 a.m. EST. The webinar will cover:

• HTML design and coding for optimal inbox delivery
• Reducing Spam Signatures
• Combining Text and Images to improve readability
• Stylesheets and Tables
• Layout Tips for Preview Panes

Goodmail Systems and JupiterKagan’s David Daniels are hosting a webinar, “The State of Email Delievrability“. The webinar will be held on November 29th at 2 p.m. EST. The webinar will cover new research on:

• Average delivery rates
• Which delivery improvement techniques are commonly used today
• How does blocked links and images affect email results
• Paying for assured delivery of email
• Case study on how two leading Internet marketers improved email revenue and business results using Goodmail’s CertifedEmail

Looks like ReturnPath has received a patent for their Email Change of Address (ECOA) service. So if you are looking for those lost customers you may want to consider ECOA. At my previous job we tested ECOA on a list of non-delivered email and received about a 10% match rate. S

Straight from the markteting machine:

Thought that you would be interested in the news about Return Path’s receipt of a patent for its Email Change of Address (ECOA) service. Launched in 2000, Return Path’s ECOA service provides a fully permission-based way for businesses to find customers’ new e-mail addresses and allows consumers to search for friends’ and families’ new e-mail addresses for free.

To date, it has been used by more than 400 companies and more than 31 million consumers have registered with the service. On average, 15,000 people register daily with Return Path’s ECOA service. The patent awarded to Return Path from The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, number 7,080,122, applies to both the system and process for updating electronic messaging accounts.

Chad White, RetailEmailReports, has released a new study that takes a look at the effectiveness of Refer A Friend viral marketing among some large online retailers. The study has some interesting information to ponder.

It looks like Chad publishes a new report every month since he started his blog (August 2006). This one blog that you will want to add to your blogroll.