Tag Archives: facebook

Thumbs up to digitally enhanced 2013 Eurovision Song Contest

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After the success of the 2012 event in terms of record website figures across the three finals nights which saw 162,000 unique visitors hitting up sbs.com.au/Eurovision and visitors engaged for an average of 38 minutes per session, this year SBS is going all out digitally in the show’s 30th anniversary year.

Focusing on emerging online platforms, in 2013 SBS will give Australian fans the chance to comment and vote for or against performers in real-time. Fans will play judge, jury and executioner on finals night in a way to up the ante by ways of being interactive.

SBS director of online and emerging platforms, Marshall Heald explaining, “This year will be SBS’s most ambitious broadcast yet – across all our platforms. We’re excited to be offering a truly social experience for our audience, allowing them to have their say and be a part of the broadcast.”

Heald admitting that this year is a “chance for Australians to celebrate Eurovision beyond the TV screen, with a multi-platform package to satisfy even the most hardcore fans”.

From live online and mobile voting, SBS is going beyond Twitter feeds onscreen and is instead offering Australian fans a say via enhanced online and mobile voting. Results will be tallied in real-time and displayed onscreen, immediately after each song.

There will also be onscreen comments, uploading of Eurovision party photos, a display of Facebook commentary, and word clouds, while punters will be supplied with QR code-embedded table tennis bat paddles to give a thumbs up or down to contestants.

All eyes will be focused on the neo SBS Eurovision website, redesigned in all its glory. Hosts Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang will once again head up the exclusive SBS coverage starting tonight and concluding on Sunday evening.

Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares turns social media horrorshow

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Lessons in how not to handle social media were played out in excruciating detail across the social landscape this week. It all started with the appearance of Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. The experience did not go well for the restaurant’s owners, Samy and Amy Bouzaglos, who came across as wholly unsuited to running an upscale eatery. They swore at customers, wouldn’t accept a diner’s feedback and revealed how they resold cakes made by other bakeries at a higher price. Gordon Ramsay actually walked out of their restaurant, unwilling to digest any more of their unsavoury business antics.

The restaurateur’s exit sparked a torrent of social media shaming from people on Reddit and a volley of one-star reviews on Amy’s Baking Company‘s Yelp page. There the whole sorry episode should have ended, however the owners took it upon themselves to respond to the commenters on Reddit and Yelp by throwing a volley of torrid abuse back at them. It’s not pretty.

Epic meltdown on Facebook

Their posts started out defensively before degenerating into a barrage of insults and profanities. For instance, some of the owner’s cleaner posts on their Facebook page read:

The owners have since issued a retraction of sorts, claiming that the restaurant’s social media accounts had been hacked. Believe that if you want to.

The real irony in this story is that the whole thing started with the restaurant appearing on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares – the show that is designed to help failing restaurants. The restaurant was already in trouble before the social media disaster. Now, while everyone on the planet has heard of the eatery and its somewhat combative owners, I’m not sure anyone’s going to be queuing up to eat there.

Of course Amy’s Baking Company is certainly not the first business or brand to damage their reputation and credibility on social media.

Last year in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, American clothing retailer Gap, got itself in all sorts of trouble by using the disaster as the springboard for an ill-thought through promotional tweet:

“All impacted by #Sandy, stay safe! We’ll be doing lots of Gap.com shopping today. How about you?”

It beggars belief that a company of Gap’s standing could let this particular tweet slip through their approval net. By way of an apology, the company made a donation of $1 million to the American Red Cross, and posted a written apology on their Facebook timeline.

Likewise, back in 2011, shoe designer Kenneth Cole used the Cairo riots as a platform to sell his new collection.

“Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online.”

Of course Kenneth Cole promptly apologised for making light of the riots in Egypt, but not before the Twitterverse was running rampant with a #boycottKennethCole and a spate of fake insensitive Kenneth Cole tweets.

Hijacked hashtags can also create all sorts of issues for unwary brands. Starbucks created the #spreadthecheer hashtag hoping to encourage Starbucks fans to tweet upbeat holiday messages under the hashtag. Unfortunately users hijacked the hashtag and tweeted out negative sentiments about the chain’s workplace practices.

In the same vein, McDonald’s oversaw its #McDStories hashtag fiasco where people began sharing some unpalatable stories about the fast food chain. One user’s tweet really set the tone:

“I used to like McDonald’s. I stopped eating McDonald’s years ago because every time I ate it I felt like I was dying inside. #McDStories.”

Typically social media meltdowns don’t have a lasting effect on brands. It’s more a matter of weathering the storm, and damage control. Of course we’ve never seen anything quite like the Facebook meltdown for Amy’s Baking Company, and while it did strike me as a media stunt gone wrong, I think this one may have long-lasting impact. That said, the business was already in trouble.

While the Samy and Amy story has made for riveting reading, there are a few takeaways that we should all take on board.

  1. Don’t use social media when you’re upset. Consider waiting an hour or two – or better still, sleep on it. Things always look so much different in the cool light of the next day
  2. Respond only to key comments and try not to be defensive. The best approach is to address the issues raised unemotionally to show that you are listening, and demonstrate that you’re doing your best to make amends. Certainly apologise if you need to
  3. Don’t feed the trolls. While it’s important to respond to major comments – you don’t have to respond to everyone, as many of the commenters may be trolls waiting for you to stoke the flames. Silence typically works wonders
  4. Never use derogatory language or make abusive and personal comments
  5. Never use CAPS LOCK.

 

 

Aussies want brand info while Brazilian’s just want freebies on Twitter

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Australians are far more likely to have a genuine interest in the brands they follow on Twitter than their counterparts in the UK, Germany and Brazil.

A new study by Exact Target has found consumers’ online habits vary across the globe and had revealed that peoples motivation to ‘follow’ on Twitter vary from country to country.

The top reason for following a brand or organisation on Twitter in Australia was ‘to keep up to date with a company’s products’ and 36% of respondants liked to ‘to receive alerts related to developments within the organisation’.

The top reasons from the other countries surveyed were:
·        Brazil: ‘to receive discounts’
·        UK: ‘for more information related to my personal interests, hobbies, etc.’
·        Germany: ‘to receive alerts related to developments within the company’

Lee Hawksley, managing director of ExactTarget Australia explains, “While only 6% of the online Australian consumers follow brands on Twitter, Twitter followers are networkers, leaders and influencers that Australian businesses can’t afford to ignore.”

Twitter were also found to be less motivated by discounts and freebies than fans on Facebook or email subscribers. They were even seen to be more viewed as a place to gather information including: product and service updates, advanced notice of new products, alerts related to developments within the company, exclusive content and information related to hobbies and interests.

“When using Twitter, remember to consider your audience. Consumers want to be heard—especially the influential users on Twitter who follow your brand. Provide them with an intimate view of your brand, so they can share their ‘insider information’ with the rest of the world. Also keep in mind that many online consumers are monitoring Twitter, even if they are not actively participating,” Hawksley added.

Australians also came out as the top consumers for engaging with brands on Facebook, creating a tremendous opportunity to connect with fans on an individual level and drive engagement that builds loyalty and brand advocates. More than 50% of Australian consumers Like a brand on Facebook, compared to 77% in Brazil and 45% in the U.K.

The results are based on surveys from online consumers gathered over the past year in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany and the UK by ExactTarget and published in their 2013 Global Executive Summary.

 

The rise of paid social media

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Social media is an excellent way to build relationships with your target audience and customers as well as amplify your marketing message. Paid options offered through a variety of social media platforms mean businesses now have the opportunity to be even more targeted with their social networking.

A recent survey by Vizu found three out of four advertisers surveyed used paid social media in their marketing strategies, and 64% of respondents planned to increase their paid social media investment during 2013.

Paid social media options include promoted posts and ads on Facebook, LinkedIn ads, promoted tweets on Twitter and sponsored blog posts.

How paid social media works

Facebook ads – can be used to promote a new business page, an event or to direct traffic to your website and boost sales. These can be targeted via location, demographics and even interests so you can ensure you’re reaching the right people. Ads are charged on a cost per click or impression basis.

Facebook promoted posts – appear higher in the news feed than organic posts, so that means more people will see your post. Use Facebook Insights to see what your followers respond to most. You set a budget for the lifetime of the post and Facebook will estimate how many people that will reach.

Twitter – promoted tweets can be used to gain more followers or direct followers to a sales page. They are charged on a cost per engagement basis, with engagement meaning a retweet, reply or a click on the link.

LinkedIn – ads are positioned on pages throughout LinkedIn, such as profile, home or search pages, with businesses using them to promote services and products. Again, you can target by location and demographics, plus title and industry. You pay for the clicks or impressions received.

Sponsored posts – many bloggers now offer sponsorship in the form of advertising, or product giveaways and reviews. If you know the blogger connects with your target market, these posts can be used to build your brand and direct traffic.

Pros of paying for social media

Paying for social media can get quicker results in the target market you’re looking for. It works well if you’re aiming for these objectives:

  • Starting conversations – paid social media can allow you to specifically target your potential customers and speed up the conversations you have with them online.

  • Lead generation – drive traffic to a specific platform or URL to build followers or entice customers with a special offer.

  • Brand awareness – Facebook and LinkedIn ads can both help with brand awareness because you can pin-point interested potential customers who want exactly what your business offers. This is a great strategy to build an audience initially or increase your market reach with a particular segment of the market.

  • Social media promotions – if you already have an active social media network, a paid promotion for a new marketing campaign or competition can really ramp up your results.

Cons of paying for social media

As the cost of paid social media is usually based on performance through click-throughs and engagement, it is fairly low risk, but there are some things to consider before jumping into a big commitment:

  • Alienating your networks – in the same way that we often find something else to do during ad breaks on television, paid ads on social media can make people switch off your brand. Make sure any social media advertising you do is part of an overall marketing strategy so the ads aren’t the only time your networks hear from you.

  • Hitting the wrong target – do your research before investing in any paid social media because even though the campaigns are measured on performance, if you get the target audience wrong it will be a waste of your time.

How to measure paid social media

Click-throughs, extra followers and engagement are often used to measure ROI of paid social media advertising, however other metrics also include sales and increased brand awareness within the target market.

Social media is here to stay, and more paid options will become available as these platforms find more ways to help you amplify your message.

The lights are on but nobody’s home in the land of Google Plus

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It was supposed to be the next Facebook, but it seems social media users have turned their noses up at Google Plus with new reports stating the average user spent just seven minutes a day on the site for the entire month of March.

A Nielsen survey obtained by Mashable.com has found that Google Plus users were active for six minutes and 47 seconds compared to Facebook, where the average user is being active for an average of six hours and 44 minutes. A Google rep told Mashable.com the Nielsen’s figures are ‘far off’ from what the company’s internal data show. Nielsen’s figures are based on visits directly to plus.google.com in the browser, and do not factor in activity on other domains like YouTube and Gmail, which Google may factor in.

Nielsen is also reporting that 20 million unique visitors in the United States used the Google plus Android and iPhone apps which equals a 238% rise over March 2012. On desktop, Google Plus’s monthly unique views jumped 63% from the previous year to 28 million.

The figures compare to 142.1 million uniques for Facebook’s desktop site during the same time and 99 million uniques who visited Facebook via their mobile devices. Twitter had 34 million unique visitors on desktop and 29 million uniques visitors from their official mobile app.

The report also showed that 20 million unique visitors in the US used Google Plus on Android and iPhone apps; a rise of 238% in March 2012 compared to 99 million unique views for Facebook and 29 million unique views for Twitter.

On desktop, Google Plus’ monthly unique views jumped 63% to 28 million compared to 142.1 million uniques for Facebook and 34 million for Twitter.

Facebook is still sitting way up in front of both platforms with 700 million active users.

Chinese social media giant partners with Hamilton Island to promote Australia

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Tencent, China’s largest online community with more than 780 million active users has partnered with Hamilton Island to broadcast the Great Barrier Reef Island to the flourishing Chinese market.

It’s the first time the social network has shifted outside of China and the third largest internet company in the world after Google and Amazon. Tencent’s QQ.com is the ninth most visited website in the world so traction for Australian is immense.

Targeting China’s affluent travellers of the future, Hamilton Island’s first Chinese ambassador Chao Xian Yang will work with Hamilton Island playmakers to build a robust Tencent Weibo community and fan base for the trendy Whitsundays’ island.

Chinese supermodel Li Ya Hong, Hamilton Island ambassador Chao Xian Yang, Tencent Weibo executive Xia Yue and a competition winner will visit Hamilton Island in May to promote Hamilton Island on Tencent Weibo.

Branded the ‘Twitter of the East’, Sophie Baker, Hamilton Island’s senior communications manager, explains the strength of the social media superpower: “China probably has more social media users than Facebook has worldwide. With China’s social media market nearly at one billion users, mostly on mobile, we are honoured to be partnering with Tencent Weibo.”

Capitalising on the high-end travel market, it’s a huge win for Hamilton Island in a monetary sense as Tencent Weibo executive Ai Fang admits. “When it comes to luxury goods, unique and high-end experiences, Tencent Weibo’s hundreds of millions of users are highly engaged consumers with high spending power,” he says.

Using Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and YouTube boomed back to the Tencent Weibo juggernaut, Hamilton Island’s social reach should increase dramatically.

 

 

Android continues to take chunks out of Apple, InMobi finds

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According to the latest InMobi, Australian Mobile Insights Report, Apple’s iOS smartphones continue to lose share to Android.

Between the months of January and March 2013, Apple’s smartphone share of impressions dropped 2% to 59% while Android grew 2% to 36% on the InMobi network.

The figure is impressive for the fact that the 23% margin is the nearest that Android has been to Apple before and displays a changing of the smartphone guards of sorts.

And this trend is not limited to local with other parts of the world, including New Zealand, showing Android is presently only 7.7% behind Apple.

Compounding Apple’s smartphone share loss, the iPhone also lost handset share of impressions for the first time in its history. While handset share decreased 5.4% to 45.7%, but it still held onto top spot.

Francisco Cordero, vice president and general manager of InMobi Australia and New Zealand, explains: “Android has come firing through this quarter, gaining on iOS following a great fourth quarter and Christmas sale period from Samsung which posted a record profit of AU$6.34 billion.”

The rise of the iPad has been good to Apple as it is still dominates the market, a 3% increase for the iPad, moving it to second most preferred tablet is a win despite the share loss to Android.

News isn’t great for Apple in overturning the market share with the launch of Facebook Home, the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the launch of the HTC Facebook phone piling on the heat.

“We believe that Android will maintain its momentum and close the margin between iOS even further next quarter,” says Cordero.

 

Everyone’s on Facebook – so why aren’t the ASX100?

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Half of the ASX100 use social media – but only a third are choosing the social media platform that Australians favour, Facebook.

53% of ASX100 companies are now using Twitter, 27% are using Facebook and less than a quarter of the top 100 Australian companies are using both.

According to a study by Web Profits, 11.5 million Australians are currently active on Facebook but only an estimated 2.2 million are currently active on Twitter.

However, the results suggest that large Australian companies are choosing to use less populated Twitter to ‘hide’ their social output, forgoing the opportunity to connect with customers and stakeholders in fear of having their mistakes seen online.

Source: Web Profits

“The results indicate that companies that feel pressured by their boards to embrace social media are choosing Twitter because it feels safer,” says Paul Sprokkreeff, MD of Web Profits.

“Comments on Twitter fly by so quickly, while a faux pas on Facebook often sticks there for everyone to see. Rather than formulate a strategy to turn this to their advantage, many companies are confining their engagement strategy to tweeting the odd media release or pre-spun factoid to a handful of followers.”

Source: Web Profits

It appears that the big four banks are cottoning on to the higher engagement levels of Facebook.

The Commonwealth Bank leads the pack, coming in at number one of the ASX100 for effective social media deployment, with NAB, Westpac and ANZ coming in at 6th, 7th and 8th place.

“That the big four banks have caught on indicates that even traditionally risk-shy companies know that the blend of information and customer service that social media can achieve is a powerful marketing and loyalty tool,” Sprokkreeff says.

“I think we’ll see social media grow significantly in importance to exceed that of the call centre in the next five years.”

 

YouTube domination: online video challenges TV for share of marketing spend

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After recently hitting more than one billion unique visitors every month, YouTube has upped it to six billion views per month according to the Wall Street Journal. As a result, YouTube generated roughly $4 billion in revenue in 2012, up from $2.5 billion in 2011, and it has made the online medium a major drawcard for businesses looking to reach out.

In fact, countless marketing departments are leveraging YouTube by building custom channels, hiring upcoming talent, and sponsoring YouTube ‘stars’ to assist them in reaching a new audience.

“Follow the audience,” is the message from executive chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt. The chairman informed in a recent pitch to advertisers that, “your company should pay attention to the site if any of the below stats ring true for your organisation.”

  • 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US and the site is localised in 53 countries and across 61 languages, and
  • in 2011, YouTube had more than one trillion views or around 140 views for every person on Earth.

And subscriptions are also key, with millions of subscriptions happening each day. Subscriptions allow you to connect with someone you’re interested in — whether it’s a friend, or the NBA — and keep up with their activity on the site.

Yet it’s the continued rise of mobile and the stats surrounding its dominance that intrigue most. With 25% of global YouTube views coming from mobile devices, that’s one billion views a day on YouTube mobile, is available on hundreds of millions of devices and traffic from mobile devices tripled in 2011, so the evidence is clear.

It has been reported that the majority of the online video traffic is for entertainment, mostly an opportunity for advertising to consumers, but there still “remains a window for businesses to create original content themselves and share it,” says Schmidt.

 

 

Affinity trumps intent: why the ‘database of affinity’ will rule brand marketing

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As the ‘like’ economy rises thanks to social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and internet gate-keepers such as Google, digital marketers are increasingly able to tap into what can only be described as a goldmine of consumer affiliations, what they likes, what they share and how they feel.

The sheer volume of data out there, though, is becoming quite overwhelming, but the maturation of online advertising, and in particular brand advertising, hinges on the effective monitoring of social behaviours, believes research agency Forrester. Such behaviours reveal long-term emotional drivers, as opposed to search behaviour, which reveals shorter-term, rational clues.

Forrester has dubbed this social, emotional data the ‘database of affinity.’ With all of this information comes the incredible power of accurate brand advertising, but actually wading through the dense and what now appears to be endless amounts of data will be the greatest challenge.

A new report by Forrester, ‘How to Exploit the Database of Affinity’, defines affinity as people’s preferences for – or desire to connect with – other people, products or things. The report also defines the difference between the database of affinity and the database of intentions. The database of infinity is usually observed by social sites, the data is usually emotional and can last for years and helps brand advertisers. Whereas the database of intentions is observed by search engines, the data is rational and it only lasts for days or at most, months and best helps direct marketers.

Forrester says vendors hoping to serve up this database to marketers will need to offer a collection of affinity data from across the social world as well as the analysis tools and ad formats that will allow marketers to turn this affinity data into dollars.

Author of the report, Nate Elliot, says big players like Facebook and Google continue to move aggressively to crack the value of this database, but who will actually win the battle is still unclear.

“While it’s Facebook’s birthright to win the race for monetising the database of affinity – after all it practically owns the trademark on ‘liking’ something – ultimately it will be Google that reaches the finish line first,” Elliot writes in the report.

The research also asserts that Google is currently beating  Facebook in building and analysing this database because of the success of Gmail and some of the review sites it owns. As a result, Facebook will continue to wrestle with privacy challenges while Google will use its affinity data to power engaging ads in many media.

Researcher Forrester interviewed 10 vendor companies, including Epsilon, Facebook, Foursquare, Google, I-Behavior, Twitter, and Yelp while compiling the report.

The report details four stages of affinity marketing that will happen over the next five or more years.

The first stage has come and gone, running from 2010 -2012, where we saw isolated data sets, simple data analysis and low-impact online ads. The next stage, which is happening now, is ‘big affinity’, where we are seeing broader data sets, and continuing with simple data analysis and medium-impact online ads.

Over the next few years we can expect ‘smart affinity’, the stage in which the data will be comprehensive, with high impact online ads and dynamic data analysis. The final stage – where the report predicts that the database of affinity will reach its peak influence – will be from 2018 and has been named the ‘ubiquitous affinity’ stage. This stage will comprise comprehensive data, dynamic data analysis and a linking to offline ads. This stage will also see many advertisers return to television as their main advertising platform, but the ads will be decided by the affinities that have been declared in social media as TVs meld with the internet.

 

Facebook Home: a mobile marketer’s dream?

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According to IDC, mobile publishers such as Facebook, Pandora, and Twitter are fast taking over the mobile display advertising market in the United States. Overall mobile ad spending in the US increased by 88% in 2012 to $4.5 billion, as marketers spend an increasing portion of their digital ad budgets on mobile. The share of overall spending allocated for smartphones and tablets reached 11% last year, up from 7% in 2011.

With increased mobile ad budgets up for grabs the timing of the launch of the new Facebook Home is perfect. Indeed, Robin Grant, the global managing director of We Are Social, thinks that Facebook Home could very be the holy grail of mobile advertising. He told AdWeek, “Aside from mobile operators, no other company is able to keep track of a consumer’s location at all times – which, privacy settings permitting, Facebook could now do with Home.”

At the launch event Mark Zuckerberg commented, “We’re not building a phone, and we’re not building an operating system… A great phone might sell 10 or 20 million units, our user base is at about a billion. Even if we made a great phone, we’d only be serving one or 2% of our base.”

Facebook Home reinvents the start screen on Google Android-based smartphones to display a Facebook Cover Feed that brings you the latest status updates from your closest Facebook friends and provides a messaging app called ‘Chat Heads’ up front.

So while it’s not the Facebook phone per se, it’s just as good as, if not better. This strategy allows Facebook to confidently enter the mobile market by effectively hijacking proven hardware. It’s a smart way for Facebook to instantly build a strong mobile presence without the risk involved in developing its own hardware or operating system. If successful, Facebook Home will draw more users and encourage them to be more active on the social network. Every time you glance at your phone, you’ll be looking at your Facebook page and giving Facebook more opportunities to collect information about you than ever before.

And it’s this data that is really exciting for marketers. It’s the longed awaited nirvana of targeted mobile advertising and a mechanism to deliver location relevant and timely commercial messages to consumers. While it’s true that Mark Zuckerberg has said very little to date about the advertising potential of this new user experience, it is after all the whole point of the exercise. Facebook makes its money on ads, not on tools and features. By displaying ads in the Cover Feed, Facebook can give marketers the ability to push targeted commercial messages at users, any time, any place.

Putting the social network up front and centre on as many mobile devices as possible, and convincing more people to spend more time with Facebook on mobile devices, Facebook can serve ads to mobile users and fast track its ability to generate substantial mobile advertising revenue.

That said, this nirvana for marketers and the ability to deliver targeted ads to people carrying smartphones could very well turn out to be purgatory for Facebook users. Perhaps it’s just me, but I’m not sure everyone on the planet wants the added distractions of a steady stream of their Facebook stuff (good, bad and ugly) up front and centre on their mobile devices.

While Facebook diehards are sure to welcome the novelty of Facebook Home even if it does restrict their overall mobile experience, I can’t see the prospect of ads overtaking their home screens being so warmly welcomed.

Even so, eMarketer is predicting that Facebook will reap $965 million in US mobile ad revenue in 2013, which is about 2.5 times the $391 million it made in 2012.

Clark Fredricksen, vice president at eMarketer says that there are clear reasons why a deeper integration with mobile operating systems and handsets makes sense for Facebook. “At the end of the day, the more deeply Facebook can engage consumers, no matter what device or operating system or handset,” the better.

The Facebook Home super app launched for select Android smartphones (4.0 and up) on 12 April in the US as a download from the Google play store. Looking at the initial reviews, Facebook Home is currently rating at 2.4 stars.

The new HTC First is shipping with the super app pre-installed.