MediaPost: Why Marketers Shouldn't Give Up On Twitter

Feel free to click on the link above or read the article below...either way it will take you to a little piece that i wrote recently around the need for marketers to persist with Twitter as a branded multi directional communications channel.

Its not an easy platform to get your head around as a brand, and Twitter certainly haven't made it easy for brands to drive revenue from their service - but perhaps this is a good thing. It makes us marketers think creatively, come up with solutions that we may not have done if it had been handed to us on a silver platter. I have to say that's one part of my job I love....finding new ways for brands to become part of a useful and profitable value exchange with their customers and prospects.

Would love to know your thoughts/comments on this article. Cheers!

MediaPost: Why Marketers Shouldn't Give Up On Twitter

There has been much debate recently about whether or not Twitter is a meaningful tool for brands.

But there's no doubt that consumers and marketers are having real, two-way conversations through Twitter that are producing measurable results for brands like Dell and Best Buy. Consumers want to communicate with brands -- and with the recent proliferation of participatory digital platforms, access to them and other consumers is easier than ever before.

Beyond a doubt, social media is now mainstream. Facebook, just over six years old, recently hit 500 million users. To appreciate just how fast that is, consider that it took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users and broadcast TV 13 years to reach that same number. Marketers are recognizing social media's value and putting more money toward it: Borrell Associates predicts that worldwide social network ad spending will increase 68% from $4 billion in 2009 to $7.5 billion in 2010, and continue to grow every year to about $38 billion by 2015.

But connecting with consumers using social media means more than just posting an advertisement on YouTube, updating a Facebook status or keeping a corporate Twitter account current. Marketers must utilize these platforms strategically and focus more on relevant content creation and less on interruptive messaging. Dell and Best Buy, for example, have found success on Twitter and other social media by being genuinely interested in and responsive to consumer input.

Dell began using Twitter in 2007 as a cost-efficient way to advertise deals from Dell Outlet, which sells refurbished equipment. But Dell soon noticed that consumers embraced the Twitter account as a direct link to the company, using it to ask questions, register complaints and praise. So Dell broadened its Twitter approach, using it as a forum for listening, not just pushing out messages.

Today, Dell has more than 80 Dell-branded Twitter accounts that offer everything from videos of new technologies to promotions for Asia-Pacific customers. Not only has Dell's presence built brand loyalty, it has helped the company's bottom line: Dell has booked more than $3 million in revenue attributable to its Twitter posts, according to Twitter101 CaseStudies.

Best Buy has leveraged Twitter just as effectively via the Twelpforce page -- a digital take on the blue-shirted members of Best Buy's Geek Squad and technical support service. Members of the Geek Squad and corporate employees staff Best Buy's @twelpforce account, fielding questions from consumers using an @reply to the customer. Best Buy has employees tag their tweets with #twelpforce, sending the answer through the @twelpforce account and allowing anyone searching the feed to find topics of interest.

According to Twitter101 CaseStudies, the Twelpforce has provided over 19,500 answers to customer inquiries, over 2,300 Best Buy employees have signed up to answer questions, and complaints to Best Buy were reduced by 20% in the first year of the Twelpforce program.

These are just a couple of notable examples of strategic use of social platforms to deliver against the objectives of a marketing campaign. As these illustrate, connecting with consumers via new and popular media like Twitter can deliver customer- and investor- pleasing results: Dell attributes more than $3 million in revenue to its Twitter activity and Best Buy reduced consumer complaints by 20% in the @Twelpforce program.

To be sure, some marketers are taking advantage of social media's potential: 22.4% of B2B marketers and 24.6% of B2C marketers globally are using Twitter successfully to drive sales by linking to companies' promotional webpage's as well as helping to boost SEO rankings.

To take that activity to a higher level, as Dell did, requires investment in exploring the medium's potential, creativity, and a commitment to creating and optimizing content that will fulfill your customers' needs and spark a dialogue.

Given the relatively low cost of establishing accounts on Twitter and other social media outlets, sales driven from these platforms can result in low cost per acquisition and high return on investment. Certainly, a worthy investment.

by Jessica Michaels, October 12th, 2010

The 8 Success Criteria for Facebook Page Marketing

Worth a read. Let me know what you think and please share if you think there is a better document out there.

The 8 Success Criteria For Facebook Page Marketing

View more documents from Jeremiah Owyang.

Canadian Marketing Week

Looking forward to speaking at Canadian Marketing Week next month. I am speaking on the Evolving Media Landscape and how we - all those involved marketing today - are being affected by this change. You can read more about the Digital Day and Awards Ceremony at the CMA Website. Let me know if you will be there and feel free to follow me on twitter as I will be tweeting from the event. My handle is @zara78

Content + ( The most important part of a social media marketing campaign )

The most important component to a social media marketing campaign in one word is CONTENT. Thats it. Simple right? Well unfortunatley its not that simple...i really wish it was as my job would be so much easier. In trying to explain why content is so important I found myself always repeating the same mantra. "Its content plus measurement, its content + portablility, its content + strategy its content + analytics. You get the picture. So I have started calling this my Content + strategy for social media. And it seems to resonate with my audience.

It never ceases to amaze me how many meetings I end up in where the discussion is based around "driving users" to a "campaign landing environment" - but the question of if that CLE actually has compelling, relevent content once you have driven your audience there more often than not somehow gets overlooked. Another scenario I often find myself in is when both agency and client folks alike suggest "lets do something viral"! Virals can be wildly successful. They do more often than not put the "content first" model to play. However virals act like hit models...and more often they miss than hit. This is due to a variety of reasons but one of the main ones is the lack of prioritzation around sharing and portability. Make it easy for people to pass a long your content. Share with friends. upload to their blog, comment on it, digg it...you get where I am going here. It is becoming more and more feasible to measure this "pass a long" effect and for me this is where my job gets really exciting. Finally we can start to look at the effect of not just what search and display can have on a campaign but what the "sharing of content" has had on driving awareness or even end actions like a download, a registration and even a purchase. A company that is making great leaps and bounds in this area is Reach Machines....check them out if you can. As always i will leave this post with a question...does anyone know of any other companies - apart from the obvious ad serving tech companies - that are really making progress in the measurement of portable content and the "pass a long" effect on marketing campaigns?

Federated Media...

...Heading to their conversation marketing conference this week in San Francisco...really looking forward to it...