Marketing Advisor Blog

CMOs want to invest in social media this year but they want to see the money

According to a survey that was conducted last year by Bazaarvoice and The CMO Club, Chief Marketing Officers want to be able to better measure their social media activities this year.

The survey results, released late last year, show that CMOs are planning to invest more in social media in 2010 but not because ‘others do too’.

As is the case with marketing in general these days, CMOs want to know the return of their spend across various media and channels. And of course social media is just one of them, albeit the main one for 2010.

For us it’s good news to read that CMOs also want to look beyond obvious metrics and look at what counts: sales and the bottom line.

The consequences of the social media revolution for PR (professionals)

Today we found an article from Joel Leyden, CEO of the “Leyden Communications Group”, looking back at the evolutions that occurred over the past ten years in public relations. At the same time, he talks about PR as it is today. It will not come as a surprise that social media, SEO and online channels are central in Leyden’s view.

Now, we have to admit we don’t know Joel Leyden and there seems to be some uncertainties when we try to find some information about him (always check your sources) in Google, Wikipedia and the likes. Nevertheless, his article (which was distributed via PRWeb) is relevant to us and shows how new (and social) media are changing the world of PR.

Twitter means business: discover how

We have a new free download in our download section for you: it's an ebook excerpt that explains what Twitter is and how your company can benefit from using it.

You can download the eBook excerpt here.

For those that want to start using Twitter and are looking for a practical guide on setting up Twitter acounts, gaining followers etc. there is a free "Twitter: Best Practices and Tips" in the download section too.

You can download it here.

Discover more papers and downloads in our library.

More about Twitter? Read these blog posts:

- Twitter rules in social email marketing
- Is Twitter useful for SMBs?
- Shel Israel on his new book 'Twitterville'
- How do UK companies and agencies use Twitter?
- How to grow your list of followers and to manage your reputation on Twitter
- Len Cercone: identifying customer issues and solve them en masse on Twitter
- Michael Kahn explains everything marketers should know about Twitter
- How Twitter and social media can and should be used for marketing purposes
- More branding opportunities with Twitter backgrounds
- Social media meets enterprise collaboration and Twitter joins the party (again)
- Who uses Twitter and why: is micro-blogging the new version of the amateur blog?
- Study: brands should be more ‘human’ on Twitter

International social networking sites on the rise in Portugal

Recently we wrote that, according to comScore a total of 3.8 million people accessed the Internet in Portugal in September 2009, up 4 percent on the previous year and the most popular properties were Google Sites, followed by Microsoft Sites and Portugal Telecom.

But the Portuguese are into social networking too. The fourth most popular property was social networking site, Hi5.com, with 2.3 million visitors.

This made Hi5.com the most visited social networking site in Portugal, followed by Windows Live Profile (1.2 million visitors), Facebook.com (639,000 visitors) and MySpace Sites (289,000 visitors).

Twitter rules in social email marketing

One of the aspects of social email marketing is the integration of links towards social media in email marketing campaigns.

This is of course not the most complex thing to do, and it’s also just one aspect of social email marketing that goes way beyond just this aspect.

Various surveys found that the most linked to social marketing outlet in email marketing campaigns is Twitter now. Most of these surveys come from US-based companies, for Europe, we have few data.
One of the organisations that looked at the number of email marketing campaigns that contain links to social media is Email Data Source.

Social media become more important customer engagement channels but email still rules

Econsultancy released its fourth Customer Engagement Report. The edition 2010 of the Customer Engagement Report, produced in association with sCape, found that the proportion of surveyed businesses who regard customer engagement as “essential” has risen to a record 55%.

According to the report “customer engagement is seen as being about creating relationships,
which result in value both for customers and for companies”.

37% of the surveyed companies describe their interest in customer engagement as increasing long term customer value and 35% as increasing value delivered to the customer.

Facebook more popular than email or SMS and nearly as popular as phone to connect with friends and family

Digital PR, marketing and social media communications agency Prompt Communications, which has offices in the US and the UK, last week released the results of a survey it conducted regarding the use of social media and modern communication trends.

The survey was only organized in the US but delivers some interesting insights in how people these days communicate. It will not come as a surprise that digital communication channels become increasingly important, with social media leading the pack.

However, according to the survey the most common method of communication with family and friends is still the telephone. We guess that includes the mobile phone too. 99% of the respondents regularly the phone to keep in touch with family and friends. 

And then comes a staggering finding. We all know that social media are hot but, still, the number is impressive: with 96% (!) Facebook is the next most popular communication tool, according to the survey.

Social email marketing: what’s all the fuzz about?

We have been talking quite a lot about social email marketing lately. That is not a coincidence. The subject is very ‘hot’ in some countries, such as the US and the UK, while in many other countries, including the one we are from, social email marketing doesn’t seem to ring a bell yet – except with the marketing fanatics of course.

It’s fair to say that, although social email marketing is not really that new, it is rapidly growing into one of the most important evolutions in the email marketing space.

This should not come as a surprise. As numerous surveys and reports show, marketers are planning to invest big time in social media in 2010 on the condition that they can also measure the results. And we’re not talking click-through rates or number of followers or fans here but the bottom line.