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Research carried out by an automotive digital marketing firm has suggested that businesses aren’t harnessing the full potential offered by social media sites, according to an article published by Car Dealer Magazine.
Razsor’s survey found that while car dealers were active in their use of Facebook and Twitter for social media marketing campaigns, they were overlooking other sites, such as YouTube and LinkedIn.
Group director of digital marketing at Trader Media Group, Craig Stevens, commented on the findings of the survey.
He said: “There’s widespread agreement that in an increasingly competitive market, customer services is a key differentiator that can offer dealers the opportunity to stand out from the crowd.
“The last few years has seen significant growth in online activity, both for dealers and customers, but many dealers are still missing out on the opportunity to further engage with online customers. Social can be much more than just a Facebook page. With the right engagement dealers can receive in-depth reviews, feedback on their website and extend marketing campaigns beyond traditional channels,” he added.
Stevens concluded by adding: “The real value of social media doesn’t necessarily come from employing someone to “do social,” but from wider training, understanding and adoption of social media as a communications channel. With a few simple tools, a dealership can offer its customers a new level of customer service, engaging with them whenever they are online.”
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A recent study has revealed that not only is Facebook the most popular social networking site in general, but it’s also the social network of choice for marketing and advertising executives, according to an article published by BtoB Magazine.
Conducted by California-based firm, the Creative Group, the study asked: “If you had to limit yourself to only one social media platform, which of the following would it be?”
Just over half (56 per cent) of the 500 marketing and advertising professionals interviewed for the study chose Facebook; while LinkedIn came in second with 12 per cent; Google+ rounded out the top three with 4 per cent stating that they would limit themselves to the search engine giant’s first social media offering.
The participants were also asked what they thought was the most common mistake made by creative professionals when using social media sites.
Responses ranged from not updating their profile enough (29 per cent) to providing inappropriate information (24 per cent).
The release of the study results follow Facebook’s – a platform popular amongst social media marketing professionals – decision to file an IPO (initial public offering) application.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing.
There does seem to be a constant erosion of privacy by social networks, and the announcement this week that Google’s latest privacy changes will use data across the entire product set is already subject to criticism. LinkedIn introduced social ads last summer which had a default opt-out setting for your name and photo to be used publicly in advertising on the network. Facebook has caused untold furores with its many privacy changes and this week is ‘forcing’ users to adopt the new Timeline.
The need to monetise social networks and apps and services is of course standard business practice. However, the consumer created content which leads to the growth and potential of services such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube etc should not come as cheaply as it does to the network. The harvesting and use of personal details in order to attract advertisers is the payment that the users have to make in order to generate the profits for the network. This is not on a commission or affiliate level, but is ‘gifted’ freely to the network to do with as they choose. However, the depths to which some social networks seem willing to go in order to maximise this “free” content seems to increase rather than decrease over time. It is this seemingly never ending of the pushing of the limits of privacy decency with little respect for opt-in, permissions, or even the awareness of the users, that is worrying privacy advocates.
Despite protestations to the contrary, there would seem to be a casual yet ruthless attitude towards users’ privacy, mainly due to the cut throat market the networks are in. Facebook has been forced to add the strapline – it’s free and it always will be – after unfounded rumours that users would be charged to use the social site, leaving Facebook with one less route to capitalising on their enormous user base. (Friends Reunited, for instance, made its money by charging a nominal £4-5 per annum to access additional data on friends such as email addresses). However, the continuous drip drip introduction of default settings that require action by the user, rather than opt in, is telling about the attitudes which prevail amongst the internet giants.
LinkedIn require you to opt out from having your name and photo used on advertising across the site. Although this was introduced last summer, it is likely that a vast proportion of the users of LinkedIn remain unaware of the change. For many, the account and privacy settings on Facebook are simply too complex to work out what is being shown to whom. Google+ endeavoured to address these concerns by allowing you to choose precisely the people with whom you shared content, but the inclusion of Google+ posts in top search results, as well as the latest privacy changes across all of Google’s real estate, may have unravelled that feelgood strategy.
There have been users leaving the social networks in protest, but for many the privacy issue, or rather the possible results of such policies, is still unclear – what harm does it do me? Meanwhile, there are a number of start ups looking to create privacy enhanced and open source social networks, but the real benefit of social networks is when *everyone* you know is on them and a start up with limited members will struggle to compete with the phenomenal global user base that is Facebook today. (By the end of 2012, it is estimated that more than a billion people will be using Facebook).
How do you feel about the social networks use of your personal data? Would you leave a social network because of its privacy policy? What changes would be one step too far for you to stay?
New research has revealed that MySpace might not be the best place to go to host a social media marketing campaign.
The research, carried out by Experian Hitwise, and referenced in an article published by Marketing Magazine, has shown that MySpace has fallen out of the top ten most visited social media sites in the UK.
A former giant in social networking, MySpace has been replaced in the top ten by Stumble Upon; other sites in the top ten retained their previous positions, however Twitter, Gumtree and LinkedIn saw their share of the market drop when compared to October’s results.
Meanwhile, Facebook’s popularity continues to grow – with it now accounting for a huge 53 per cent of visits to social media sites in the UK.
Market research analyst for Experian Hitwise, James Murray commented on the results.
He said: “MySpace traffic has been on the decline for at least three years now but this is the first time the social network has fallen out of the top ten.
“As the social media landscape continues to evolve, brands need to be aware of the fast moving trends and which social sites people are visiting.”
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Having grown in popularity as a platform to carry out social media marketing campaigns, LinkedIn has unveiled its first office in Latin America, according to an article published by Siliconrepublic.com.
The office, located in Sao Paulo, Brazil, will act as a headquarters for the region – supporting around 14 million of the site’s users spread across Latin America.
Osvaldo Barbosa de Oliveira has been appointed as manager of the new Brazilian office.
He commented on the opening of the new office, stating: “There is a huge opportunity in Brazil for LinkedIn’s growth, and I’m excited to oversee the opening of our first office and the establishment of a local team.
“This is a great step in the expansion of our presence in Latin America, as I’m looking forward to helping Brazilian professionals become more productive and successful on LinkedIn,” Oliveira added.
LinkedIn first launched a Portuguese version of the site in April 2010 and has since seen the site’s user base reach a figure of just over 6 million people.
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A popular platform for social media marketing initiatives, LinkedIn’s user base has grown to reach 131.2 million, according an article published by New Media Age.
In excess of 15 million people joined the professional networking site in the third quarter alone.
The data for the third quarter also revealed that the social media site gained a revenue of £88m – however the overall figure displayed a loss of £1.1m for the quarter because of investment in acquisitions such as IndexTank and Connected.
Commenting on the results, LinkedIn CEO, Jeff Weiner, stated: “LinkedIn had a strong third quarter, with significant, broad-based growth across all of our revenue streams, member engagement, metrics, geographies, and sales channels.”
He also explained how the company’s investments were now beginning to come to fruition.
Weiner said: “In the past 12 months, the number of students and recent graduates on this site has more than doubled and is growing at more than twice the rate of the overall LinkedIn member base.”
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in Search Engine Marketing & Internet Marketing.
Despite the significant emphasis placed on social media, a recent poll has shown almost half of small-business owners don’t utilise social media marketing.
As reported in the Wall Street Journal, only four per cent of people surveyed specified that social media was an indispensable tool; whilst 50 per cent instead valued the power of word-of-mouth more.
The survey was carried out by the US insurer Hiscox Insurance Company; 304 business owners and managers were interviewed in May this year.
Those business owners that do use social media did so to improve brand awareness and ultimately generate more sales.
28 per cent said they had a company Facebook page; LinkedIn was also a popular choice with 18 per cent of respondents having a page or group on the site.
Twitter, surprisingly, was a less popular choice amongst small businesses, with just two per cent of companies operating a Twitter feed.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing.
Here’s a quick tip for those who collect business cards from events. And a neat idea from a networking event I was at this week.
Firstly, are you on LinkedIn? If not, get an account set up for both yourself and your business. (You will be reminded again at the end of the article!)
LinkedIn is a must for any person serious about doing business, whatever sector you are in, and it is rare these days to not be able to find a business associate on that network.
During conferences and networking events, you will undoubtedly be handed business cards for future contacts. On your return from such events, take 5 minutes to sit down, with those business cards, and look up those contacts on LinkedIn. And connect.
Personalise the message to that person and remind them of your conversation, any action points agreed (eg please send me your price list), and where you met. It is much easier to do this straight after an event than months later. And it will help to begin to build a potentially productive relationship with that person, quickly and easily.
The second idea is courtesy of someone who is trying to save the planet by limiting the number of printed cards and who had had the bright idea of putting a QR code on the back of the card for those of us with QR readers on our Smartphones.
I am using Scan on the iPhone which worked perfectly, simply by pointing the camera at the QR code. The details are saved to my phone; however, I have not discovered (yet) how to easily add these to my address book….but at least I have them accessible.
This is the QR code for this blog 
Simply point a smartphone running a QR scanner at this and you can see what happens!
And try this:
So, check out QR codes for your business cards, which makes them look far more funky than adding URLs for every social network you are on, as well as your three different telephone numbers, email, addresses, websites etc. And, set up your LinkedIn account.
Your Qwerly.com profile looks like this:
That means you should be using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare, Plancast, Quora, Scribd, Slideshare, iLike, Tumblr, YouTube, Delicious, Digg, Google Profiles, Google Reader, FriendFeed, Technorati, AllTop, Blogger, WordPress, each and every one of your own websites, Fwix, Tweettop, Brightkite, Pandora, Reddit, Vimeo, Qik, blip.fm, picasaweb, github, last.fm, audioboo, lanyrd ………
What have we missed that you are using to socialise online? Do you think this is overkill, or is it wise to join and use as many social sites as possible?
How much is it worth to you if someone tweets about your new product or service, whitepaper or webinar? Enough to give them free access, a discount, or time-limited access?
Think about it. Twitter is fast becoming the place for your potential target audience to pick up on news about you, but maybe your potential customers do not even know you exist. But they may be in the network or following someone who does know about you.
By offering a simple payment option i.e. with just a Tweet, Facebook or LinkedIn mention for free access to a white paper, or to your upcoming webinar, or even for a tool or software that you wish to promote, you could raise awareness very simply.
It’s not always about hard cash…
