The two biggest stories in digital right now are Facebook… and Facebook. On the eve of an IPO that could value Facebook at $100 billion we get word that automotive giant General Motors is pulling its $10 million Facebook ad budget on account of diminished returns. Is GM telling us something, that Facebook is a waste of money as a marketing opportunity? The answer: not so fast.
As we write, the world is playing countdown to the biggest tech IPO in a decade. In a matter of hours, we’ll know how many billions (north of $100 billion) will add up to the value of Facebook. As we ponder all those zeros, here’s an interesting infographic on the 901 million-pound gorilla’s globe-spanning growth. Read the full story »
For some time now we’ve been delivering to SMI readers a “Social Media by the Numbers” roundup, a summary of the big numbers and the big picture that are driving social. Our newsletter subscribers know this well as they get it in their in-box at the start of every week. Here, we’ve put together a longer version that look back over the past few weeks so those of you are not familiar with it can get a glimpse. Enjoy!
Summer’s a comin’, and even torrential rain-stricken Blighty is beginning to feel optimistic about the forthcoming season – probably because many Brits are planning on hot-footing it abroad. In the spirit of the summer vacation, then, we look at the must-have apps for the keen traveler.
Over the past 12 months, social media has gone from an “add-on” to “business critical” for marketers in the UK. Social has opened up a huge opportunity for brands to engage directly with customers, and every marketer understands now that there are clear benefits to using social media for marketing. But, as online engagement platform provider EPiServer noted in a recent study, the vast majority of UK businesses still struggle to effectively measure their return on social media investment. Here then are five keys to increasing your social media ROI.
We’ve seen Nissan launch a comprehensive crowdsourced car-building campaign, American beer brand Sam Adams crowdsource a new draft beer via Facebook, and makeup maestros Bobbi Brown bring back old lipstick shade favorites based on crowdsourced feedback. Now, the universally-recognised McDonald’s is tapping into social crowdsourcing success, with its Germany-centric ‘Mein Burger’ (My Burger) campaign.
We’re on the tools beat again this morning. Last week we looked at a McKinsey survey of business executives who showed their growing fondness for social networking and, in particular, video sharing. Today, we look a bit deeper into the latter phenomenon to show just how companies are deploying video to position themselves.
The report examines social shopper needs, ultimately developing six shopper archetypes. By breaking down traits associated with indulgent needs, impulsive needs, utilitarian needs and informational needs, the researchers identified the following (from light social shoppers to heavy users):
The online press is filled with Pinterest success stories on a seemingly hourly basis. Retailers are using their pinboards to drive traffic, others are using it to drive higher revenues per click, marketers are using it to create buzz for their new launches and lastly publishers are seeing it drive eyeballs.Turns out though that while the Pinterest pioneers have shown us a vital new tool to build engagement, we’ve yet to see the best of what this platform can offer, says Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp.
The social engagement chops of luxury brands has become nothing to sniff at lately. We saw a few weeks ago where Burberry Group swept top honors in the FTSE 100 Social Media Index, landing the No. 1 brand on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. The high-end fashion label may have set the bar high, but that’s only because there’s a lot at stake in this corner of online retail.
There have been a number of studies that look at the social smarts of today’s most tech-savvy companies. For example, last month we took a look at the phenomenon of the great stall happening on the corporate side with blogging and the subsequent surge in Tweeting. This is only one side of the story, of course. A far more telling picture is to look at uptake of social tools. And we have that for you here.
Thousands of Facebook users have registered with organ donation programs after Facebook introduced an option that allows users to add their donor status to their timelines.
