Captivating Marketing Statistics

This is very well done infographic that shares truly captivating marketing statistics. It also show the power of infographics are how widely and easily they are shared!

Check out the latest predictions from WebDam and the latest trends driving marketers in 2014:

Your thoughts?

Content Marketing - Periodic Table

Content marketing can greatly improve a company’s digital footprint, increase brand awareness and sales. With such a myriad of tactics available to marketers, it can be very overwhelming. This Periodic Table of Content Marketing infographic published by Econsultancy provides a fun snapshot its complexity. Even the author acknowledged the table is far from being definitive, but it’s a very creative way to embrace content marketing.

There are endless possibilities that can lead to success. A successful “equation” for one business may look completely different for another; it all depends on your company’s goals and objectives.

Key components to consider:

Goals: Your content strategy must be mapped to business objectives, whether that’s to build brand awareness; increase website traffic or engagement; generate leads or sales.

Formats: Content can take many forms, such as images and infographic (like this one), videos, slideshows, webinars, games, apps or a press release. A single piece of content can be repurposed in many different ways.

Sharing Triggers: What’s the creative hook or emotional driver that will inspire engagement? Is the content funny or sexy? Moving or uplifting? Controversial or Unbelievable? (I thought this chart was cool enough to share.)

Platform: There are multiple options for sharing and distributing content, such as a company’s website, microsite or blog; Twitter;
Facebook; LinkedIn; Pinterest; Instagram; YouTube and other third parties.

Metrics: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will measure success, and may include: increased page views; new visitors; organic search metrics; downloads; engagement metrics, etc.

As a marketer, you must first determine the strategy to achieve goals, identify the content formats, platforms and sharing triggers that will engage your target audience, and then quantify a campaign’s success by tracking metrics.

While there’s clearly a ton of work to do, Smarti’s strategy currently looks like this: Em+Nj+We+Bl+Li+Pi+Ad / Pv+Uv+Nv+Nl =Tf+Le+Br+Sa
What does your’s look like?

Need help figuring out a content strategy for your business? Let us find you a Smarti Solution…

Super Social

At this year’s Super Bowl, every brand was looking for its “Oreo moment.” In the past, a brand could "win" the Super Bowl by airing the most talked-about TV spot. Oreo changed all that last year, when they tweeted about the Super Bowl blackout. That simple tweet created more buzz than- any of the advertisements that appeared in the actual Super Bowl broadcast, and best of all, it didn’t cost Oreo a thing. Ever since then, brands have been looking to use clever, well-timed messages to capitalize on the popularity of major events like the Super Bowl to maximize brand exposure.

Unfortunately, with such an uneventful game on the field this year, brands had a hard time finding one seminal moment that would become part of a culturally relevant conversation the way last year’s blackout did. Instead, social media marketers engaged in what is quickly becoming a bizarre theme: brand-on-brand action. There was more competition online than on the field.

Who scored?

JC Penney led the conversation this year and was the clear winner in this year’s social media game. The troubled retailer spent the early part of the game sending a slew of misspelled and illegible texts, including such nonsense as “Who kkmew theis was ghiong tob e a baweball ghamle. #lowsscorinh 5_0,” leading many to believe that the either the person typing the tweets was drunk, or the account had been hacked. They got people’s attention.

Other brands launched an onslaught of snide tweets against JC Penney, including Coors Light (“We know football goes great with Coors Light, but please tweet responsibly”), Snickers (“Eat a #SNICKERS, you’re not you when you're hungry”) and Kia Motors (“ Hey @jcpenney need a designated driver?”)

In the end, the joke was on them: JC Penney had planned the misspelled tweets as part of a clever social stunt to promote Team USA mittens ahead of the Winter Olympics: “We were #TweetingWithMittens.” JC Penney’s smart play was making fun of real-time marketing, while simultaneously benefiting from it. The brand added over 10,000 followers in one night. Although the JC Penney was not even an official Super Bowl advertiser, they became second-most mentioned brand on social media that night, with over 120k mentions.

Other brands were prepared in advance, too. Because many commercials were pre-released before the big game, it created a huge opportunity for brands that did not run a Superbowl commercial to develop “counter-creative.”

Both Tide and Priceline did a great job of riding the coattails of other brands’ commercials and used their resources to create Facebook, Twitter, Vine and Instagram promotions to during the game.

Newcastle Brown Ale used the “#IfWeMadeIt” tag to promote their spoofed commercials. Their efforts resulted in 13,000 new followers during the game.

One reason that so much attention on the social media arena this year was likely because there was so little going on in the actual game to keep the attention of the viewers.

DiGiorno Pizza was able to make a crack at the quality of the competition, while also offering a bit of self promotion with their “YO, THIS GAME IS LIKE DIGIORNO PIZZA BECAUSE IT WAS DONE AFTER TWENTY MINUTES” tweet. That one quick line was able to be retweeted 11,000 times.

Buffalo Wild Wings is known for their hilarious sports themed commercials. An older spot had a man in a command center press a button that tripped a player, causing the game to be extended (so people would spend more time at the restaurant.) They couldn’t resist referencing the poor showing of the game with a tweet, “Sorry fans, we don’t have a button for this.” Over 24 hours, that tweet was shared over 30,000 times.

Hillary Clinton (or her social media team) effectively used Twitter during the game to poke fun at politics, while also hinting at a potential presidential run in 2016. Her tweet, “It’s so much more fun to watch FOX when it’s someone else being blitzed 26%! #SuperBowl” was retweeted 53,000 times.

Although the Oreo didn’t even try to match the success they had last year, they still got plenty of buzz just from announcing that they weren’t going to try. "Hey guys … enjoy the game tonight. We’re going dark. #OreoOut.”

While many were disappointed that nothing “spectacular” happened in real-time marketing this year, keep in mind Oreo didn’t do anything so amazing last year, either. They got lucky: they simply found something exciting and novel to react to. Now witty reactions and comebacks are the norm.

The key to winning the viral-marketing buzz game is finding creative ways to be relevant, get the buzz, and stay above the noise.

While the playful Twitter spats between brands got a lot of attention from journalists and social media insiders, the question remains whether this back-and-forth is actually part of a strategy to capture consumer attention, or if it’s just marketers trying to outdo each other and impress a very small set of social media professionals in the endless pursuit of industry affirmation.

On the other hand, winning industry awards and peer recognition has always been an important part of the marketing industry. Social media is just another channel. There’s no reason that the desire to get both consumer attention and industry recognition can't continue to peacefully coexist.

To learn more and see the tweets and the creative highlighted in this post at Smarti’s new Pinterest page.

The Digital Marketing Landscape

Digital marketing is really confusing as this crazy graphic shows. This illustration was shown at an event by Buddy Media, a company recently acquired by Salesforce.com.

Navigating the digital marketing landscape is very complicated!

P.S. Pinterest isn't even in here.

The Future of Social Networking

Agencies Cite Social Media Somewhat Effective

Social media is on the tip of every agency's tongue. But just how well is working for their clients? A recent report from Marketing Sherpa shows marketing agencies predominantly believe it's “somewhat effective” for client campaigns. What’s working? The most beneficial tactics cited were optimizing social media sites to improve search engine rankings and building relationships with online influencers. What’s not working? Advertising on social media properties is perceived as one of the weakest tactics. Social sharing buttons on emails weren’t doing so well, either. The activity that ranked highest in degree of difficulty and had the greatest level of effectives was blogger relations. Certainly, that's why agency experts are needed, and where PR agencies can shine.

Check it out by reading the MarketingSherpa’s 2011 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report free Executive Summary (PDF)

PR and Social Media: When Agencies Collide

In the business of managing reputations and promoting messages among audiences, most all PR agencies are deep-seated in social media. Will they take completely take over the discipline? Right now, I don’t think so. There are few true full-service social media firms, and they have an advantage.

Many agencies continue to promote social media as “earned” media, but that’s a long-term goal and not really true. Social media has lots of hard costs involved:

Technology: Listening and monitoring technology is expensive, complex and rapidly changing all the time. Not every agency is prepared to continually invest in this area.

Media Buying: Building followers on Facebook is vastly quicker with paid ads; this requires online media buying expertise which is a completely different skill set and may even conflict with a media agency’s domain.

Creative: Creating really good, high-quality creative content such as viral videos demands a different skill set. Good production can get expensive.

Reputation Management & Customer Service: The constant monitoring and response requires dedicated resources. It’s a big time sucker but someone’s got to do it; there’s still a real cost associated with that.

The biggest challenge PR firms face is a limited budget. Typically, PR agencies work on fixed retainers with some out-of-pocket opportunistic budget. If PR is going to take over social media, budgets will need to grow significantly.

How deep a PR firm becomes ingratiated in a company’s social media activities will depend on their capabilities, the organization’s internal resources and other agency relationships.

I believe creative, advertising agencies and social media firms still have a big part to play. It’s the same old story with totally new players; the agencies will have to work together to best serve a company’s interests.

The Social Media Agency Landscape

Today, just about every agency “does social media” in one form or another. But there are so many different aspects, it’s like saying an agency does “creative” or “media buying”. The real question is what kind of social media services exactly?

Most all business use social media, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. But these are just tactical channels. To make it work for your business there’s needs to be an objective and strategy around it.

Are you looking to manage your brand’s online reputation and improve customer service? Gather research and customer insights? Promote key messages among audiences and influencers? Activate a fan base and drive traffic to a website or location? Different social media channels and tactics will vary accordingly, and so will the type of social media services you need from an agency.

Agencies and social media firms have different areas of expertise, ranging strategy through tactical support. Some firms just develop profiles, fans and followers, while others just tweet. PR firms come at it from a buzz monitoring, conversation and message promotion perspective. Creative agencies leverage emotional, engaging and viral creative. Seeding that content and distribution requires an entirely different expertise.

Clarify your objectives and investigate the water before you dive in. When you hear “yes, we do social media!” look carefully at how the agency approaches it and where their strengths lie to make sure their social media services aligns with your goals.

Top 10 Sites & Search Terms in 2010

Social media hit critical mass and dominated search terms and websites visited in 2010. Facebook surpassed Google as the more frequently visited website of the year. Google dropped to second place, and was likely mechanism to get into Facebook accounts.

According to Experian Hitwise, “facebook”, “facebook login”, “facebook,.com and www.facebook.com” comprised 4 of the top 10 most-searched terms; youtube, craigslist, myspace, ebay, yahoo and mapquest rounded out the list.

If Facebook was a country, it would be approximately the 4th largest in the world. Reach and mass scale have been clearly established. As Facebook continues to violate the privacy of its members, it’s makes targeted advertising a marketer’s dream…

PR and Social Media

PR firms are especially jazzed about social media, and leveraging technology; it's where the nexus of internet and business was a few years ago. Social media companies and PR firms are battling for media expertise and ownership.

Anyone can build a Facebook page. Building a strategy around it and developing metrics for success is a whole other ballgame.

There's so much more to social media than Twitter or a Facebook. Content development (webinars, white papers, blogs, videos, microsites, etc) are becoming increasingly strategic.

Monitoring and reacting to what's out there is equally important. Any negativity needs to be managed, and PR firms-the master spinners- are well suited to handle. PR firms are guardians of reputation management; it's a natural fit.

Some PR firms get involved in social media because it’s hot right now. The most successful ones leverage social media to achieve concrete business goals.

Most agencies don't use social media for client leads

Agencies hype up social media for clients, but most don’t use it themselves to generate new business.

Nearly two in three agency leaders "rarely or never" or "never" consult social-media sites for new business leads, while just 6% use the social media sites “often” for identify potential clients, according to a survey by consultancy RSW/US. For agencies that engage social media for prospecting, LinkedIn is considered the "most productive" by 51% of agency executives, followed by newsletters, Facebook, blogs and Twitter. The majority (65%) of agencies surveyed estimated that 10% or less of their new business revenue comes from social media outreach.

Of course RSW surveyed the largest agencies and holding company-owned shops. I would think the top agencies are very visible, easy for prospects to find and therefore there’s less of a need to rely on social media for prospecting. Smaller agencies that are hungrier and need to expand awareness may use social media more actively in new business pursuits.

Further, the survey didn't address how and why the agencies use social media; I think they would find the agencies use social media differently, more for brand awareness and thought leadership, less for new biz.

The Social Medium

How does your company use the social medium? There are many tools in the arsenal.

There’s the social aspect of staying in touch and sharing information with colleagues and customers. “Friends” are likely people you already know and with whom you have some existing relationship. How likely are you to “friend’ a stranger? What about a shoe or a store? (Maybe; if you were a loyal customer.) A PR agency principal recently told me the majority of B2B Facebook pages have less than 100 friends. Companies that try to find new customers these ways typically fail. I believe this tactic is best suited to maintaining relationships and customer retention.

Social media is not all about a two-way dialogue. I have a client with an anti-Twitter corporate policy. While only a small fraction of their customers are dissatisfied, it’s vocal minority; engaging with them on Twitter seems to just elevate a negative conversation. We developed a social media strategy to cultivate brand awareness and find new customers through targeted content.

Social Media can be used as a powerful broadcast medium for branding and customer acquisition. Videos and applications can have a long shelf-life once underway. It’s about developing highly relevant content and getting it into the hands of your audience and key influencers.

There are different social media channels and tactics which will work better for some business than others. For some companies, lots of business is conducted through Twitter. For others? Well, you can have a successful social media strategy- without a tweet! Success depends on your objectives, resources and priorities. Do you need to manage customer relationships? Or is brand awareness the priority?

Agencies are jumping on the social media bandwagon. I’ve met very interesting ones. There are firms that create Facebook pages, manage Twitter and customer dialogue; agencies that specialize in developing viral branded content (such as videos, games and applications); others focus on distribution. Expertise varies. Be clear on your objectives before engaging in any initiative.

Social Media and PR’s Similar Mentality

The battle for social media is up for grabs between advertising agencies and PR firms. I believe public relations is a more natural fit. Social media is about reputation management, word of mouth, tapping into trends and current conversations that are already happening. This is public relations’ DNA.

Publicists get their clients featured in key publications by understanding stories and trends that journalists and key influencers are covering and tapping into their conversations with readers. Social media stems from a similar mentality.

Social media is an outgrowth of public relations that capitalizes on technology and new audience online communities. Connections and relationships with key influencers—those with 100,000 followers or over 1 million members—are valuable. Equally important: knowing how to cultivate those relationships.



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Social Media Business

What’s hot right in the agency selection world now? Social Media.

You can’t get into social media expecting immediate lead generation. It’s like walking into a party or roomful of people. You start and participate in various conversations. Some will be more relevant than others. It’s another opportunity to build your brand. And when someone responds, it can be a lead.

Can it build business? A wine shop made $50k in sales in one day thru twitter. A building tweets, builds a huge local community and increases traffic. A fashion company follows pop culture, breaks stories and gets featured in traditional media. Companies that are most successful (including P&G) outsource it.

Specialist social media agencies have a lot to offer. It’s still so new and there are lots of specialists in different areas. It’s important to have the right strategy, content and distribution. I’ve had the opportunity to meet some of the best and brightest in the space (the coolest companies!)

Certainly some PR firms, advertising agencies and internet marketing companies are doing a terrific job, too. Of course most all agencies now say they offer social media services. Be aware that posting a FB page is not a social media strategy!

And it’s not necessarily a priority for every brand. To get involved, just for the sake of it, is not a good idea. It’s not “free”; it’s still a considerable investment in time. A strategy has to be very well thought out. If you are handling it internally, you must the have time and resources in place to manage it. It’s all about reaching your target audience, building the right buzz for your brand and positively affecting your business.




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